“We all have a past, Vask,” Val said, her voice low.
He gave a gruff nod. “I thought I’d left my past far behind me. It had been so long—decades—since I’d heard from Marina. I thought, no, I hoped, that she’d forgotten me.”
“So, she’s here because of you?” Sass asked, handing Val back her ale.
Vaskel set his nearly empty tankard on the floor and held out his arm with a mournful shake of his head. “No, she’s here because of this.” He shoved up his sleeve to reveal the black marks coiling up his arm. “She’s here because I was young and foolish and agreed to a soul bind in exchange for powers.”
Sass almost fell off the arm of the chair as she tipped forward, but Val caught her around the waist.
“What is that?” The dwarf’s voice held no edge.
Vaskel flopped back in the chair. “A soul bind, and Marina is here to collect.”
“Collect how?” Val asked in a hush.
“I have to leave with her, join her new crew, do her bidding. I have three days, well, now only two, to say my farewells.”
Sass snatched her gaze from the marks. “Then why is she interested in Thrain?”
“She isn’t. She’s only interested in the leverage he might have over me.”
“She knows you don’t want to leave Wayside,” Val said, her expression pained as she looked at Vaskel. “She knows you’re happy here, so she has to let you know she can get to your friends if you don’t leave.”
Vaskel’s throat was too tight for him to reply, but he managed a brusque nod.
He chanced a glance at Sass. As expected, her expression was thunderous. Not that he blamed her for being mad at him. It was his fault Thrain was out there with Marina.
Sass stood and squared her shoulders. “If that hellkin thinks she can come in here and threaten one of us, she’s sorely mistaken.”
He blinked at her. “You’re not angry at me?”
“For being young and making a dumb mistake?” Sass snorted.
“Join the club,” Val said, bobbing her head in agreement.
“You aren’t upset that I didn’t tell you sooner?”
Sass unleashed a long sigh. “I know what it’s like to have a past you want to hide, which is why I would never judge you for also having one.”
“Even if my past is darker?”
“Aye, even so.” Sass gave him a fierce grin. “You’re not your past, Vaskel. None of us are. Now tell us everything about this curse and the moldy ogre’s sack of a hellkin who gave it to you.”
Twenty-Five
Vaskel’s neckprotested violently as he shifted, and he awoke suddenly when he realized he was still in the overstuffed armchair.
The fire that had bristled with flames when he’d been talking with Sass and Val was now a cold pile of dusky ash, and the chair where they’d been sitting was empty. The last thing he remembered was telling the dwarf and the guardswoman everything he knew about the soul bind, Marina, and everyone else in Wayside who knew.
He glanced at the back staircase, his heart pounding. How had he allowed himself to fall asleep before Thrain returned? Had Thrain returned?
The hellkin did his best to hurry across the great room and up the stairs, even though his legs were too stiff for him to take them two at a time. He paused at Sass’s door, peeking inside to assure himself that she was still safe.
Sure enough, Val was curled around the smaller form of Sass, although both of them were on top of the floral coverlet andwearing the same clothes they’d had on the night before. They must have dragged themselves upstairs and been too tired to do anything but collapse.
Pulling the door shut as quietly as he could, Vaskel stepped quickly to Thrain’s room, pausing for a moment and holding his breath before opening the door. His breath escaped him in a desperate rush when he spied the dwarf sprawled on top of his bed, his arms splayed wide and his whiskers fluttering as he snored loud enough to wake the undead. After hours of worry, he couldn’t stop the half laugh, half sob that burst from his lips.
“Wh-what?” Thrain jerked awake, spluttering on a snore and jerking to sitting. He blinked hard as he focused on Vaskel, finally shaking his head. “Vask?”
