I could tell that she loved him. Her eyes would shine when she was proud of him, or when they shared an inside joke about something from their past, but that was it. There were no secret glances of lust or passion, there were no lingering hands touching or breathless moments. Not like she has with the three of us, so I decided to not let it bother me. She was going to have enough to deal with Zayden and Ajax being so annoying, so I was sure it would be nice for her to have a level-headed one in the mix.
Then I can swoop in and steal her for myself.
Once I couldn’t see the raven anymore, I turned around and made my way over to my parents’ room. I never lie to my parents. It’s one rule that I have lived by most of my life. Being a part of a family of thieves, one that made it their profession to lie to everyone outside of this house, I personally made it a statement that inside this house I would always be truthful, until today. Today, I was going to lie my ass off so that I could go on this trip with as a little push back as possible.
I kept working it over in my head, trying to figure out how I could be honest about what I was doing, but it wouldn’t work. Not only would it get them involved, because my parents hated the king with a passion, but it would also put them and the guild in the crosshairs of the crown. Eventually, they would need to be involved, no matter what I did, but if I could just wait it out until the last second, I would consider it a win.
So, I tried to come up with a lie that I could tell my parents. It had to be crafty and a lot of truth in it to make it believable. It was my parents after all, the masters in their fields of secrets and thievery, but I was their son. I learned from the best so I could beat the best… right?
I knocked on their door and my father’s cool voice called out, “Come in.” I took a deep breath before I put on my most winning smile and pushed through the door.
My mother was at the bookshelf putting away some jewels she liked to hide in the bookcase. Father was scribbling away at his desk. My mother turned towards me as I came in and reached out for me. “My son! How are you doing today?”
I walked over and gave her the hug she wanted. She curled her arms around me and squeezed me tightly before she whispered she loved me and then let me go. It was the thing about my mom I both loved and found annoying. She always told me she loved me whenever we were together. Sometimes it was loud and in front of people, sometimes it was a whisper and a squeeze, but she regularly made sure I knew.
It caused my heart to squeeze as I closed my eyes and took a breath, repeating it back out to her as a slight pain went through my chest. Her love was so full and encompassing, it made lying to her physically hurt me, but I needed to do it.
We both studied my father as we embraced, waiting for him to look up from his desk like always. My mother forced a noise from the back of her throat and my father’s head rose. He smiled as he peered at us. “Did you guys need something?” When we didn’t speak right away, he went back to writing.
My mother and I turned towards each other and rolled our eyes. That was my father, always working and always on a mission. My mother was the emotional free spirited one that was the heart of the guild, while my father was the strong and steadfast bones. They both are what made the guild the stronghold that it was.
My mother took her hand and ruffled my hair. “Did you have something you wanted to talk about or was this just to get a daily dose of your mother who loves you?”
When I was younger, I would’ve rolled my eyes or made noises of disgust by her constant use of the L word, but I was used to it by now. I smiled and squeezed her hand. “I do have something I would like to discuss with the both of you.”
My father finally popped his head up, demanding, “What did you need, son?” Always the practical one.
My mother gracefully made her way over to the second chair at the overly large desk they both sat at when they worked, and faced me.
I warned myself that I needed to keep it light, but also as truthful as I could be. I cleared my throat. “Some solid sources have notified me that there is a special magical book that just crossed over into our country, and I want to retrieve it.”
My father put the pen in his hand down as my mother eyed me intently like she was trying to read my soul. I kept my face steady and loose, making it look like I thought it was no big deal. My father barked his barrage of questions. “And are these sources reliable? What is the mark? Is it guarded? How many guards? Are you going to need help?”
I opened my mouth to answer all of those questions until my mother put her hand up, halting both of us as she kept looking at me, “But first we need to know why, my son.”
That was the one question I really didn’t want to answer, but as soon as she asked I blurted out, “I have ideas that what’s within this book will help us with the trying times to come. I want to protect our guild, our family, as much as possible.” It surprised me that all of that was true, and my mother’s skeptical gaze grew soft as she acknowledged my desire to do what was best for my family and guild. Understanding that since I could not get The Hood that I would look for other ways to shield us from their worries.
My father nodded, stoic as ever as he looked back at me, “Now all of my questions.”
I turned to him and answered as best I could. “Yes, my sources are very reliable. I would say the best of the best. There is no mark other than obtaining the book. I think only one man is guarding it, or so my sources say, and I have already obtained a few people to help me.” My father opened his mouth to ask me who and this time it was my turn to lift my hand to stop him. “I have it covered, father. You’ve taught me well. At most, I think with the proper preparation and to do this right, I will be gone for about a week, maybe two, if things don’t go my way.”
My mother nodded easily, but this was where my father’s eyes narrowed at me. “If that is the case, why wouldn’t you take more than a few? This would ensure a smoother operation against one man.”
He was right, but I also needed to convince him he was wrong, “Normally, I would agree with you but the one man that is guarding this item is magical, which is why I hired some outside help,” my father opened his mouth to argue that but I kept going, “outside help that I have leverage on. They will help me because they owe me, and they are experts in the magical arena. That’s why I went to them in the first place.”
My father eyed me, never a fan of using help outside the guild, outside our family, but we can’t be experts at everything and if it was anything magical, we usually had to call in experts anyway. I knew he would have a hard time with it, but would ultimately understand the logic and have to go with it.
My father leaned back in his chair and folded his hands and he looked at me, his eyes searching my mind for answers, but all I did was mimic his stance in my chair, waiting for what he wanted to ask or say. That was always the best move with my father. Wait him out and see if he had anything to add. If you let him be the silent one, then you end up digging your own grave because his mind was like a steel trap.
He looked over at my mother. With her one, and most important, question answered, she shrugged her shoulders and threw her chin out to him, signaling him to decide. I knew my mother trusted me and that she wouldn’t have any issues with me handling a job on my own. It was the one thing she kept fighting my father on, while he was surprisingly the one who didn’t want to let go. My father’s gaze came back to mine, and he sighed. “Fine, have your secret mission to get some magical item that I know nothing about.”
My mother smiled, got up, cupped his cheek and gave him a firm kiss. He beamed at her before he swung his hard gaze back at me. “I want you to promise me you will come back to us in tiptop shape. That if the job goes sour, you will just leave it. That if anything feels off about the job, you will cut and run. Do you understand?”
“Yes.” I replied immediately, looking him dead in his eyes and lying to him through my teeth, because I knew if Emerald was in trouble I would most definitely be staying to help or save her. Plus, I was almost sure that if either of the guys were in trouble, she wouldn’t let us just leave.
As much as she wants us to believe her words that she could easily kill us or get rid of us, her actions have spoken differently. I was slowly learning that what she says and what she does are sometimes at odds. It makes me wonder what was going on in that beautiful head of hers, and this trip was just the excuse to learn more about her.
My father just watched me, watching every twitch of my skin, every tick of my muscles, but I kept my straight face and steadfast eyes. He eventually sagged in his chair and looked up at me like he took a beating. “Fine. But please understand this Rykon, we can’t afford to have the heir to the thieves’ guild going missing and we,” he grabbed my mother’s hand and kissed it lovingly, “can’t handle you being gone.”
