Bellamy watched in horror as the recording started playing and the image of her grabbing the witness and shoving her down the alley was in full view. Bellamy’s magic sparked, searing the cold metal until the image distorted and vanished. She snapped it clean in half and threw it on the ground.
“Whoops, wrong one,” Cedar smiled innocently before she dug out another bracelet and placed it in Bellamy’s hand, unperturbed. Bellamy checked this time, exposing the images she’d been expecting on the other one—her cheating at the cards table. She destroyed this bracelet in the same way, burning through the magic holding the images together.
“The other copy?” Bellamy demanded once she’d finished.
Cedar shrugged. “I’ll be in contact.”
Bellamy lunged. Her magic, already at the tip of fingers, crackled to life, twisting into a warped dagger, which she held at Cedar’s throat. “Give me the rest of the fucking bracelets, Cedar,” she growled angrily.
Cedar laughed. She fucking laughed.
“You can’t do anything to me unless you want the other ones to fall into the wrong hands. Besides,” Cedar purred sweetly, “if you kill me, they’ll kill everyone you care about. Don’t be reckless, Bellamy.”
Bellamy’s eyes widened. Her magic sparked, flaring until she released it, hands shaking. “What did you do?”
“I’ll be in contact,” Cedar repeated with a wink. Then, she sauntered away, laughing.
“Why are you doing this?” Bellamy yelled after her. It was no use, though. The stairwell was empty. She could have sworn she’d heard Cedar’s smug fucking laughter still bouncing off the walls, mocking. Finding Vesper was suddenly much more urgent. Bellamy flew the rest of the way down the stairs.
In the lobby, Bellamy spied the whore who had warned her about Cedar. Bellamy stormed up and was greeted with a hesitant smile.
“How did you know?” Bellamy demanded. The whore stepped back, wide eyed with her hands up.
“Who is she?” Bellamy spat.
“What…”
“That red-haired bitch. How’d you know she was following me? Who the fuck is she?” Bellamy seethed, taking care to keep her voice low. The whore relaxed only slightly, but the wariness stayed in her eyes.
“I don’t know.”
“How’d you know she was following me?”
The whore sighed. “I already told you. Look, some of us watch the lobby when we don’t have clients. We noticed she was following you, and I decided to intervene.”
“Why?” Bellamy spat. She’d never talked to this woman before. There was no reason for her to do anything remotely helpful for her.
“Your girl’s a friend. We look out for our friends. That extends to you.”
“Afriend,” Bellamy narrowed her eyes.
The whore took another step back. “We never touched her, she never touched us. You’re it for her, trust that.”
Bellamy opened her mouth to snap back, but was interrupted—a welcome interruption this time—by the very person she was about to look for.
“Hey Mazz,” Vesper’s voice startled Bellamy. She was so close, she had to have heard them talking. Vesper slung her arm around Bellamy’s shoulder, and Bellamy instantly relaxed into the touch, melding herself to Vesper’s side but not taking her eyes off the whore.
“I need to talk to Bel. We’ll see you later.” Her voice was strained. Her grip tightened around Bellamy as she pulled her away, not waiting for a response.
Fuck.Vesper was still upset, she just wasn’t going to show it in front of herfriends. Maybe that was a good sign… Vesper dropped her hold as soon as they were in the stairwell.
“How was your walk?” Bellamy asked tentatively, daring a quick side-eyed glance at Vesper.
Vesper’s jaw tightened before she answered. “Enlightening.”
“What does that mean?” Bellamy squeaked out, her voice cracked. What did that bitch do? Did Cedar get to her? What’d she say? What’d she see?
Bellamy wiped her sweaty palms on her pants. “Ves?”
