"Thrain has always been a soft-hearted fool," Sass grumbled, taking the tray from Lira with more force than necessary.
"Which is why he came all the way from the Ice Lands looking for you, right?" Lira teased.
Sass harrumphed, her cheeks darkening slightly. "That's different. We’ve been friends since we were no taller than a battle axe.” She flicked a hand in Marina’s direction. “She’s a stranger.”
Lira shook her head at Sass's grumbling and headed back to the kitchen. Sass stomped off with the meat pies, deliberately taking the long way around the room to avoid passing near Marina and Thrain.
Iris gave Vaskel a reassuring smile before she left through the crowd, carefully avoiding Marina's line of sight. Vaskel watched her go, then turned his attention back to Marina, who was playfully tugging Rog’s blue beard while the gnome blushed furiously. His wife would have Marina's head if she saw this, but Rosie must still be tucked away in their wooden wagon.
The marks on Vaskel's skin pulsed with heat as Marina flicked her gaze away from Rog to catch his eyes. She was showing him exactly how easily she could get to him through those he cared about.
He snatched his gaze away, suppressing a growl. He knew what he needed to do.
“You mind covering for me for a bit?” Vaskel asked Sass when she returned to the bar, her gaze still tracking Marina and Thrain like a hawk watching a snake slither closer to its nest.
She nodded without glancing at him. “You go. I’ll keep an eye on those two."
The disgust in her voice when she said 'those two' would have made him smile under different circumstances. Now, he just needed to slip out before Marina noticed his absence.
Keeping to the walls, he edged toward the tavern door, sneaking out when Marina was pretending to laugh at one of Thrain’s bad dwarf jokes. He took a beat to scan the empty road and woods. Vaskel knew Marina well enough to know that she could have her new crew posted as lookouts. Every shadow could hide a potential ambush.
He hadn’t even reached the corner of the tavern when goose flesh tickled the back of his neck. He felt the distinctive prickle of being watched, of footsteps matching his own pace so they wouldn’t be heard.
Marina. She'd noticed him leave. She was toying with him, letting him know she could follow him anywhere, that there was nowhere in Wayside he could hide from her. Fury and fear warred in his chest as he whirled around, ready to confront her, to tell her to leave his friends alone, to?—
"Hells, Vask!" Lira jumped back as he almost slammed into her. "I thought I was jumpy. You want to tell me what's going on?"
Lira. Of course it was Lira. The half-elf had always been able to move like a shadow, and she’d always seemed to know when her friends were hiding something.
He exhaled slowly, his heart still hammering against his ribs. He'd come to Wayside looking for her because he’d known, bone-deep, that he could trust her with his life. They'd saved each other more times than he could count, and she'd never judged him for being a hellkin. She’d never treated him as anything other than her friend.
And now he needed to trust her again.
He took her hand in his. “I need to tell you something.”
Twenty-One
Lira gaped at him,her mouth opening and closing. Of all the reactions Vaskel had expected once he’d told her the entire story, stunned silence hadn't been one of them. After all, they’d encountered plenty of shocking situations when they ran together, and a soul bind hardly felt more startling than a horde of wraiths.
Finally, Lia grabbed his wrist and yanked his sleeve up to reveal the marks.
"I always knew you wanted to get me out of my clothes," he tried to tease, but his voice cracked.
She rolled her eyes at him, and his attempt at levity died on his lips as they both stared at the marks that were black as char and curling up his arm like infernal script. They pulsed faintly with each heartbeat, as if they were alive.
”Why didn't you ever tell me about this?" Hurt threaded through her soft words. "About a soul bind?"
The guilt that had been gnawing at him for days intensified. She deserved better from him. Every member of their crew who'dtrusted him, fought beside him, and risked their lives for him deserved better.
"By the time we formed our crew, I'd forgotten all about it. I convinced myself it was a silly promise made late one night after too much ale. I convinced myself it wasn't real, or maybe I just didn't want to think it was." He paused, trying to find the right words. "I changed so much from those early days. When I was young and impulsive and believed what others told me a hellkin should be. By the time I met you all, that person felt like a stranger and that past didn’t feel like mine anymore.”
Lira nodded slowly, and he saw the understanding in her eyes. Of course, she understood. She'd left Wayside as one person and returned as another. They all carried past versions of themselves.
“But you could have told me about these marks sooner.”
“I’m not proud of parts of my past, but I’m proud of our quests, and I’m especially proud of who I’ve become in Wayside. I don’t want anyone who knows me as Vaskel the friendly barkeep to see me differently. That’s why I didn’t tell you right away, and that why I want to keep this from the rest of the village.”
“They won’t see you differently,” Lira said.
