Finally, Vesper turned down a wide, cobbled road. The storefronts on either side were pristine and welcoming—a far cry from the back roads she’d been skulking through to get here, where everything looked like it was falling apart. Now she was onthe street, which was every healer's wet dream. Each shop held something for a person's health or healing.
This avenue was specifically designed to look like somewhere you’d want to go for healing, whereas the streets she’d just come from held the… less savory gambling houses and underground fight pits. Those buildings had looked like the trouble they provided.
She’d recently finished a book on integration of Illusion magic within Design magic’s architecture. A fascinating read. And now she knew that every structure in the city was designed to look exactly how it did to invite the clientele the owners wanted. Hence the clean white bricks with glossy windows and well-maintained flowers of the shop she was about to enter.
When she pushed open the door, a soft ding sounded overhead. She didn’t need to talk to anyone, though. She bought exactly four items from this store and knew where each of them was stocked. Vesper walked between aisles until she reached the off corner display.
The price for sutures had increased since she’d last bought them a month ago. Vesper snatched the pack off the wall. Bellamy was definitely paying for this.
The old man behind the counter was gruff and unimpressed with her purchase as he rang her up, grunted out the number, and accepted her handful of notes. She stuffed the sutures in her back pocket, mentally mapping out the way to her next destination.
She strode by the herbalist’s shops with their quaint, red-brick exterior and vines crawling over the walls. The distinct smell of jasmine was suffocating, lingering in her senses until she passed the pubs. Chipped brown paint and broken windows, which the owners had stopped fixing a long time ago, was a stark contrast to the other tidy row. Here, a sour aroma—just as distinct—wafted through. No doubt from too many mugs of spilt booze. The stale alcohol overpowered the lingering jasmine.
When she finally found the tiny back-alley street lined with shabby buildings that oozed bad intentions—and not the funkind—she knew she’d made it to the right place. The road was barely wide enough for two people to walk comfortably side by side. The entire area had the unwelcoming feeling of being back in the Magickless district.
Vesper suppressed a shiver as she entered the first black-brick shop. It had chipped paint, and several skulls were clustered together, sitting askew over the door. And, was that raven real or fake? Its six cold, unblinking eyes seemed to follow her.
Vesper didn’t scare easily—it took a lot to spook a professional assassin—and she wasn’t scared now. She was just wary. The whole area was off-putting, and she hadn’t visited in… well, since whenever the fuck she bought the last antidote.
She loathed the idea of being seen entering a poison shop. Vesper was an assassin, a damn good one too. She never had to stoop to such petty levels. Unfortunately, the only place to replenish her antidote was this shop, so she had to suffer through it.
The smells hit her first, her eyes adjusting slowly to the abysmal lighting of the interior. She tried not to gag as rotting flesh mingled with lavender and lilac in the air. The combination formed a particularly nauseating aroma. She would never understand the herbalists who chose to work on poisons. Always smelled horrendous.
Wasting absolutely no time with the shelves, Vesper strode up to the counter instead, telling the young herbalist that she needed a nettlethorn antidote.
It wasn’t a cure-all, but nettlethorn tended to counter the vast majority of non-magic laced poisons, so it was a good investment to keep around, just in case she might need it. Like today, apparently. Now, as she stood there awkwardly waiting at the counter, trying not to vomit, she remembered just how much she fucking hated Bellamy.
CHAPTER SEVEN
Vesper
It was still too early to go back to her building. She had the sutures and antidote safely tucked away in a cloth bag in her pocket, and nothing to do but wander the city. In theory, she could go back to Cedar, but then they’d have a lot of time—more time than Vesper had ever spent with the woman. And they’d probably get food, and talk.
She was really not in the mood for something like that. She and Cedar didn’t talk, they didn’t know each other aside from their professions—and the fact that Cedar and Bellamy absolutely hated each other. Vesper had never felt the need to change anything about her relationship with Cedar. As far as Cedar and Bellamy went, she didn’t care what they thought about each other.
It wasn’t like Vesper was looking for someone to make a life with, anyway. If her job didn’t make that near impossible, then Bellamy certainly would have. For that reason, Vesper wandered the cobbled streets of the city instead of going back.
She’d pass time in the gardens. She’d always loved them. The wide river that cut through the city centre flowed lazily beside her, and buildings fell away as she slowed her walk, turning to face the river and enjoy the view before exchanging water for forest,venturing into the gardens behind her. To her left, way off in the distance, was the city’s largest trolley station. People from all over would be inside rushing too and from, unwilling to slow down from their day to day. To her right were the shops she’d just left, with their squat buildings and false facades. She leaned against the railing that protected her from tumbling into the river below, closing her eyes and briefly lingering in the heat of the sun. The salt water smell on the cool breeze flowed around her. People called to one another from the fishing boats along the channel. She opened her eyes again to watch the ships launching into the sky from across the way.
She used to dream of getting the fuck off this planet—there was a whole system out there, full of worlds with massive plant life and nectar creatures. She’d wanted to travel and explore, but that was just a dream, and dreams were pointless if they couldn’t be accomplished.
Those dreams had been within reach before Bellamy ruined everything.
Vesper grumbled, turning away from the ships that, apparently, now also served as a reminder for how much she hated Bellamy. She headed under the archway, which was locked in place by vines tying it to the fence. The effect was of an impenetrable green barrier leading into the garden. Trees were few and far between at the entrance. Instead, it opened up to the perfectly green grass always kept at a predetermined height in between rows upon rows of flowers.
The air was crisp and fresh, and she kept walking until the path darkened. Here, trees towered over the pathways and provided enough shade to allow the purple and green ferns below to flourish. She didn’t stop until she reached the centre restaurant. Wanting to beat the dinner rush, she ordered a vegetable crepe and claimed an outside table.
Since she’d had to flee her room so quickly, and didn’t think to grab her book, there was nothing to do but watch the passersby and stew in frustration at her current situation. Especially whenone of the people passing by looked so much like Bellamy. Vesper had to do a double take when she saw the flash of dark blue curls and cropped top, only to see the woman was missing the black lines of tattoos flowing over her arm like spilt oil.
It wasn’t until the woman vanished from sight that Vesper realized she was scowling. Fucking Bellamy, invading her thoughts when she was trying to forget her whole existence.
Why did Bellamy insist on making her life miserable? Why couldn’t she have left her alone? Left everyone alone, so she didn’t also risk Vesper’s life with her shit decisions. Killing Bellamy had definitely crossed her mind at one point, way back when everything went to shit she might have even fantasized about it.
It wasn’t worth it. Vesper sighed and picked at the last bits of her crepe. The delicious scent of sautéed onions swirled in the air as more people started to filter in, adding their orders to the queue. Her thoughts, unsurprisingly, drifted back to her room. She’d done a brief survey of her things before leaving, but Bellamy was still going to do something petty to piss her off. And Vesper had just given her unfettered access to her entire apartment.
She wondered how quickly Bel would figure out the plant was from Cedar. Would she come home to a smashed up plant or a smoldering pile of ashes? She chuckled to herself before realizing that she definitely should not find that thought anything other than frustrating.
She looked around, forcing her mind back to the present. The light had dimmed. The sun had started to set, and she could finally get on with her night.
