She’d passed out promptly after showering the night prior, barely leaving enough time to shove down a handful of jerky to help replenish her magic before doing so. It clearly hadn’t been enough. Exhaustion still blurred the edges of her vision.
After wetting her hair in a useless attempt to control it, Vesper made eggs and toast, hoping the heavy breakfast would help. She’d need whatever Energy magic she could get before this next assignment. There were a few hours before she had to be at the trolley station. That should give her enough time.
Forcing herself through stretches helped to get her blood flowing again. Magic licked through her veins and lit up her being. By the time she got to the station, she felt much better. Then her mood soured immediately when Bellamy shuffled up beside her less than a minute later.
Vesper glared. Bellamy responded with an innocent smile and shy, “Still upset, then?”
“Gonna find a way to fuck this one up too?” Vesper snapped, because of fucking course she was still upset.
“Come on, we didn’t even get in trouble this time,” Bellamy pouted. “Let me make it up to you.” She leaned her head on Vesper’s shoulder, her untamed blue curls tickling Vesper’s cheek. “We’ve got an hour, I can make you forget I even did anything wrong,” she whispered. Her voice was temptation, sweet like honey despite how rotten she really was.
Vesper gritted her teeth, ignoring the offer and stepping away. She didn’t even try hiding her laugh when Bellamy stumbled at the sudden loss of support and cursed her before sticking her full bottom lip out even further.
“You smell like a cards house,” Vesper said accusatorially. “You better be fucking alert during the assignment.”
Bellamy huffed, rolling her eyes. “I only played a few rounds—not that it’s any of your concern.”
“It is if you didn’t get any sleep last night,” Vesper shot back. “You need to be able to do your job. Staying out all night gambling isn’t going to help that. Fuck’s sake, Bel. I don’t give a shit what you do when we’re not on assignment, but stop fucking everything up while weareworking!”
Bellamy frowned, brows furrowing. She opened and closed her mouth, glaring at the ground. Vesper knew she didn’t have an argument. Still, she was surprised Bel didn’t even try. That wasn’t like her, and it made Vesper all the more wary. Fortunately, she didn’t have long to stew on it as their trolley rolled to a stop in front of them.
Bellamy was surprisingly demure on the ride. Shuffling her cards, she asked Vesper to play a game—as if she’d ever take her up on that—but was otherwise not much of a bother. Which was also suspicious as fuck. Bellamy had something up her sleeve, some plan to weasel into Vesper’s head, she just fucking knew it. Vesper had to be ready.
Unease wormed into her brain the longer nothing happened. Vesper had spent the last half of the trolley ridedarting her gaze to Bellamy to make sure she wasn’t trying… whatever she was planning. By the time they finally arrived at their station, Vesper was out of her seat and at the door as soon as the trolley stopped. She had to get outbeforeBellamy decided to start some shit.
Vesper didn’t allow herself to relax until she was standing with their contact in the Voreshi business hub station. The small trolley station—owned by their employers, the Embunuh Organization—gave them more privacy to discuss the details of their assignment.
The assignment should be easy enough. According to their contact, it was just one guy, and they were assigned an illusionist to help with discretion since they had to collect and dispose of the target in the main business centre.
Bellamy grumbled the entire way there after hearing who their illusionist would be. Vesper grinned. Bellamy’s jealousy was usually entertaining. Despite knowing Bel would be worse on the trolley back home after, Vesper also knew a little harmless flirting with Riya would lighten her mood. Not like the illusionist would ever say yes.
Vesper chose to scope out the area while standing near one of the empty benches in the plaza, right beside a food cart—whose roasted chicken smelled painfully good—so it would look like they were waiting on an order. A pristine red brick building towered into the sky behind them. Sitting directly opposite was the building from which their target would exit in exactly ten minutes.
The large glass structure stood unencumbered by its surroundings. Bright sun glinted off its surfaces at every angle, but whatever magic had been imbued into its design prevented the light from burning their eyes. Crowds bustled around the centre, not one person even glancing at the impressive building as they rushed off to their day jobs.
It was busier than she would prefer for an assignment but knew that was why they had the illusionist. In theory, at least… Vesper scanned the crowds near the building searching for Riya’s familiar figure.
“See the Rahina Desain wall hanging?” she asked, her voice low as she scanned the crowds. There wasn’t much she trusted Bellamy to do on their assignments—including pay attention to pertinent information—but Vesper, at the very least, needed to know Bellamy had some idea of what was happening.
“Yep,” Bellamy inclined her head and Vesper’s gaze drifted over to the side of the glass building.
Huge maroon drapes with bright yellow lettering announced the celebration for the town's upcoming Rahina Desain festivities—a day largely celebrated in heavy Design magic areas like this one. Food, drinks, musical performances, Design shows—it looked like a blast, but they wouldn’t be sticking around for it. Not that Vesper wouldwantto experience that with Bellamy. The important part of that information was the drapery itself.
“Riya should be around there,” Vesper scanned the area again. “Somewhere…” In the heavy lunchtime crowds, she couldn’t make out the illusionist. Vesper only knew she’d blend in somewhere in that area, possibly already under illusion. She could trust Riya to be on time and have her setup ready to go, though, so finding her first wasn’t important. Vesper wanted to see her for other reasons—reasons that Bellamy quickly picked up on.
“Keep your focus on the assignment and not on fucking,” Bellamy snapped, moving closer to Vesper, distracting her from looking for Riya. Their legs touched. The contact grated on Vesper’s nerves.
She swallowed, side stepping and trying to ignore Bellamy’s attempted power play. It was always a fucking game to her, and Vesper would do well to remember that.
“Anyway,” Vesper said, voice successfully neutral, “she’ll secure that alley. No one will be able to see us. The target will be there in”—she checked her watch—“seven minutes. Gives us enough time to set up without suspicion. I’ll take care of gettinghim down,” Vesper smirked, finally turning to Bellamy who was already glaring at her. “Got any ideas for clean up?”
“How about I kill the guy this time andyoudo clean up?” Bellamy hissed, standing to meet Vesper and keeping her voice quiet enough that no one else would overhear.
“Because you can’t be trusted to actually follow through! No fires,” Vesper ordered, turning on her heel and stomping toward the building, Bellamy seething close behind.
CHAPTER THREE
Vesper
