“Some say a relationship isn’t necessarily required forcertain aspects.” Vi folded and unfolded her hands over her stomach.
“You think I’m a loose woman?” All exhaustion and sleep fell from her friend’s voice, replaced by hurt and tension. Vi turned quickly.
“No, no. I just meant that I heard—”
“Commoners spread their legs whenever they please because they have no land or titles to uphold?” Jayme rolled her eyes at Vi’s silence. “Of course you have. Let me be the one to break it to you, Vi: even some nobles will do that. Just as there are many who won’t. It’s all the same—low or high born. We all struggle through the same shite, have the same needs, and all do our best to live with what life hands us as best we can.”
“Right…” Vi looked back to the ceiling. “Sorry if I offended you,” she said softly.
“You didn’t.” Jayme rolled back over and Vi hoped she was telling the truth.
“I really am.”
“You really didn’t.”
Another long silence stretched between them, which Vi’s mind used to wander down the path of clandestine meetings. It struck a different memory, tangentially related to Jayme. Something Andru had said during a dinner that now felt like forever ago.
“Did you manage to see your friend in the Crossroads?”
“What now?” Jayme glanced over her shoulder, barely pulling her head off the pillow.
“Andru said you met with a friend in the Crossroads… a blonde woman.”
Jayme stared at her and yawned. “I have no idea what he’s talking about. Must have the wrong person. Now, go to sleep, Vi.”
Vi sunk her head back onto the pillow and Jayme did the same. Her eyes drifted closed, then open again, and closed once more. No matter how hard she tried to quiet her mind, it refused. But her body was stubborn, demanding some form of rest, and Vi fell into a twilight-like sleep…
Time had passed.
She wasn’t sure how much, but Vi could feel that it had. The moonlight in the room had shifted, dimmed somewhat. That meant the moon had dipped on the other side of the inn; dawn wasn’t far. Vi shifted in bed, sinking further into the warm blankets. The ropes beneath her creaked.
The floorboards across the room mirrored the action.
Vi opened her eyes slowly. Her heart pounded, waking her with a rush of panic.There was someone in the room with them. Vi was certain she’d locked the door after coming in from the bath. Had they climbed through the window?
She shifted again, pushing Jayme with her foot. The woman groaned softly as a shadow took over Vi’s side of the bed. Vi took a deep breath. She wasn’t about to go quietly to some assassin in the night.
Throwing the covers off the bed, Vi brought her legs under her.
“What the—” Jayme was now awake, but Vi’s attention was on the man wrenching off the blanket she’d thrown at him.
Vi held out her hand. “Mysst soto—” She froze, the chant stalled, magic dissipating with nowhere to go, as she locked eyes with Fallor.
Chapter Twenty
Fallor waslike a mountain in the small room. His clothes were sun-bleached and windswept. A thick, ruddy beard clung to his cheeks and accentuated the white of his teeth, exposed by a mad grin.
He looked like he was about to rip her to pieces with those giant hands of his.
Vi held out her hand, readying her magic again. But before she could even start the chant, Jayme lunged.
She plunged her hand into his gut. Vi didn’t expect the man to even feel it, but Fallor let out a large exhale of air. If he was stunned, it was only briefly. He lifted his hands, balled them together, and brought them down over Jayme’s head.
But Jayme was too fast; she spun behind him and grabbed her sword from the table. Vi heard the blade ring against the sheathe, startling her back into motion as Fallor’s attention was split between them.
“Mysst soto larrk.” Vi held out her hand, closing her fingers around the sword that formed there. Her practice with Jayme had made the magic faster, more confident, and the blade feel even firmer in her hand.
“It really is true, then.” Fallor laughed.
