Pax raised an eyebrow. “Oh, I’m sorry. I had no idea.” Quick as lightning, he grabbed the chair of a woman in the table next to them, twisting her so she faced him. Her companions gave a gasp of shock at the movement.
“Am I making you uncomfortable?” Pax leered at her. Eyes wide and frightened, she shook her head.
“And what about you?” The guard clapped his hand down on the shoulder of someone at a nearby booth. They cringed and stuttered a half-hearted “No, sir,” eyeing Pax’s hand as if it were a venomous snake.
“You see?” He turned his attention back to the man still standing. “I thinkyou’rethe one making people uncomfortable. Now, we can’t have that, can we?” He nodded to Kipper, who gave him a vile smile. In a single breath, shadows billowed from Kipper’s hands, wrapping around the man and pulling his hands behind his back. He let out a yelp before more shadows stuffed themselves down his throat. His pleas turned into strangled muffles. Two of the guards grabbed him by the elbow and dragged him out the front door, the other pair following close behind. Their victim eyed his friends at his table as he thrashed against his magical bindings, but everyone stayed silent, eyes pinned to the ground.
That was how it was here. You lowered your eyes to escape your shame, praying you never caught the attention of those in power who reveled in the weakness of others.
But not all of us.
Before Rissa could stop me, I slid from my seat and prowledtoward the front door, pulling my hood low over my head. My henbane rings seemed to buzz with pent-up energy, as if they knew a fight was brewing.
Slipping out the front door, I followed the sounds of boots and the man’s dull cries until I saw their shadows sneak into an alley down the street from the tavern. A moment later, I heard flesh pound against flesh, and a crack rang through the night.
A growl ripped from me as I swiftly turned down the alleyway. Pax and Kipper were chuckling as one of the other guards lunged, aiming another punch to the man’s sagging face. His mouth and hands were still gagged and bound by shadows, tears and blood falling down his bruised cheek.
Taking a pinch of hellebore root and placing it on my tongue, I quickly brought the henbane and amaranth rings on my middle fingers together and whispered, “Vellus.”
The invisibility charm worked immediately. The spell pressed on my chest as my body disappeared from sight.
A whimper left the man’s shadowed lips, snapping the last of my restraint. Before the guard could slam his fist into the man’s face again, I darted forward and grabbed his wrist, yanking it back until his shoulder was wrenched out of its socket with a sickening pop.
He staggered backward. The other three guards unsheathed their swords as their eyes scanned the darkness for their invisible foe. Shadows retreated from the man at the wall as Kipper, the Shadow Wielder, redirected his focus.
“Get out of here,” I whispered in the man’s ear. He jumped and let out a cry of surprise, but had the sense not to question his rescue. Pushing off the wall, he stumbled out of the alley, eager to get away from the bloodshed.
“Show yourself, little trickster,” Pax crooned. “Your games are fun, but you’re no match for four of us.”
“Want to bet?” a sweet voice said from behind me. Two small daggers whizzed from the darkness and embedded themselves in Kipper’s thigh and the shoulder of another.
I whirled to find a figure cloaked in burgundy flashing me a crooked smile from beneath her hood.
Shouts rang from Kipper and his companions as the three injured guards struggled to stand, swords abandoned on the ground in an attempt to stem the flow of blood from their wounds. One cradled his dislocated arm against his chest. Pax, the only one left unharmed, snarled in Rissa’s direction.
Fates, my sister was dramatic. Rolling my eyes, I released my invisibility spell and materialized before them. Pax’s gaze flitted back and forth between our hidden features as his fellow guards moaned at his back.
Rissa slowly pulled a third dagger from her cloak and whirled it between her fingers. Lowering her voice into an icy semblance of the woman I knew, she said, “I will give you five seconds to leave this alley before I bury this blade in your skull.”
His jaw twitched, arm flexing as if ready to attack. “The emperor will hear about this,” he said through gritted teeth.
Rissa cocked her head. “Will he also hear how you terrorized a tavern full of people? How you tortured a defenseless man?” She flicked her wrist and Pax flinched as her dagger soared past him, skimming his cheek and leaving a thin scratch. A warning.
“Better get your story straight,” she said. “Our great emperor will never believe you were bested by some low-life, province-loving scum.”
Hatred dripped from Pax’s red features as he stared her down, nostrils flaring. A beat later, he glanced at the other three and stiffly nodded, hauling the guard with the knife in his leg to his feet.
The four of them limped toward us. We backed further into the shadows as they neared the entrance to the alleyway, careful to stay concealed. Pax turned to face us before they disappeared from sight and muttered, “You better watch your back.”
Rissa’s white teeth shone from beneath her hood. “Shouldn’t be a problem. It’s a rather nice back, from what I’m told.”
As they ambled off into the darkened street, I mumbled, “I had that covered.”
She laughed. “Sure, you did.”
“Always such a show-off.”
We waited several minutes before making our way back to the tavern, which had returned to its normal liveliness.
