Marlow shared a look with Aine before asking, “What kind?”
Ciaran’s jobs ranged from running products to threatening people who owed him money. She preferred not to be involved with either, but when he was shorthanded, the pay was too good to turn down.
“Just a quick run,” he answered. “Nothing more.”
Aine turned back to the mirror, leaning in to study her reflection. Most likely confirming her rings were still absent.
Ciaran didn’t know she was a wielder. He assumed she was just another orphaned girl who needed a roof over her head. Marlow had lived with her for months under the same assumption. Until she showed up at the pub, looking for Raesharinn, hoping to join the resistance.
“Where’s Liam?” Aine asked, sparing Ciaran a quick glance. The scrawny boy was usually the one tasked with making pickups and deliveries, and Marlow only stepped in when necessary.
“Already out on another. Now, there’s somewhere I gotta be, and I’m already late. I don’t have time to wait around, Mar. You need some extra caernor not?”
With a sigh, Marlow agreed, and after jotting down the address on a torn piece of newspaper, she gave Aine a smile and headed back out.
Marlow took a long sip of her ale, impatiently eyeing the door and cursing Felix for making her wait.
How was he even later than she was?
The elixir creatures had forced her to take the long way around, through Bedwyck’s East Docks, and by the time she’d finally pushed through the front door of the Blackened Anchor, she was half an hour late. And still, Felix was nowhere to be found.
They’d split up hours earlier. She had items to fence, and the only place not run by the man who wanted them dead was across the river. They were supposed to meet here before heading home because a new group of creatures had overrun parts of the Blackreach District.
The elixir bred desperation, and desperate people were dangerous. And that was before it rotted their minds. With enough use, something in them twisted, then snapped. They were still human, sort of, but everything that truly made them human—their empathy, their decency, their restraint—withered away.
With so many suddenly showing up in their neighborhood, Felix wouldn’t have left her to walk home on her own. So why wasn’t he here?
What had he gotten himself into?
Felix had always been unpredictable, and Marlow was plenty used to his outbursts.
When she first met him, they were eleven years old. He was a tiny, stringy thing squaring off against three boys twice his size. And losing. He clearly had no idea how to fight and was unsteady on his prosthetic leg, but he was utterly fearless.
She’d stepped in, and within seconds, the other boys fled.
Marlow knew how to fight. She also wasn’t against fighting dirty. With knowledge of the nervous system and pressure points, healing magic wasn’t just for treating cuts and bruises. It became a useful self-defense method.
She and Felix stuck together after that. She taught him how to use his small size to his advantage in a fight, though he doubled in height over the next summer. It wasn’t until a year later that she discovered the extent of his magic. That the helpless boy wasn’t helpless at all.
Shortly after, he set his new path. He refined his smile and polished his newfound etiquette, wearing it like a mask. Though the brash arrogance remained, and the fiery temper would still surface without warning.
Lately, however, he’d become a different kind of unpredictable, swinging from calm to vicious and back again in an instant. Marlow couldn’t keep up.
And now, he’d just vanished, leaving her alone in a shady pub in this shithole of a city.
Just as she was about to give up and take her chances on her own, Felix burst through the door. She didn’t have to look to know he was fuming.
Marlow kept her attention fixed on her empty drink and braced herself for what was coming. Hotheadedness and power like his didn’t mix well. He’d always managed to keep it mostly under control when they were younger, driven by self-preservation, but these days, most of the Watch avoided hotspots like Bedwyck. And Felix unleashed was a dangerous thing.
Not for her, of course. He was family. But for anyone else unlucky enough to be in his proximity.
Felix drew in a sharp, pained breath as he dropped heavily into the chair beside her.
Only then did Marlow notice the blood.
“What happened?”
“What do you think?”
