He doesn’t release my wrist, but he loosens his grip slightly. His thumb runs small circles over my pulse point as his wild eyes meet mine for a second. I can feel him trembling, and I nod, hoping to convey that he can trust us.
Frannie then starts hammering away at the chains while I keep a lookout for anyone passing by. The longer we stand here, the twitchier I get that someone’s going to come down the alley. It’s unlikely, since it’s still painfully early in the morning but we are making an absolute racket.
A few minutes later, and he’s free.
The man’s wrists are bleeding where the chain has clearly bitten into his flesh. His clothing is soaked through and dirty, but doesn’t give me any hint of who he might be.
“You think he’s going to eat you? He’s looking at you like he wants to,” Frannie says.
The stranger still doesn’t say a word, instead continuing to stare at me.
Frannie picks up the chain and shackles, spinning them around on her fingers. “Might as well see what I can do with these.” She eyes the stranger before pocketing the metal. “I’m guessing you want to get him up to Kit’s place?”
I nod, and she lets out a long-suffering sigh.
“Excuse the manhandling,” she says to him. “But you look like you might keel over any minute.”
With no further warning, she hefts him over her shoulder like he’s a sack of potatoes.
I follow along behind her, feeling like a spare part, as she strides up the alley toward the connecting side street. Frannie moves fast as lightning when she wants to, and neither of us wants to get caught right now.
That would lead to questions. Attention. Neither of which are things we want anywhere in our direction. Not while we’re escorting a possible convict and I’ve got my skin shoved down my front and likely stolen goods in my pocket.
I’m not sure we could be more suspicious if we tried.
“Here we are.”
Frannie drops the stranger to his feet, and he immediately wobbles, his legs unsteady under him. I lurch forward to grab his shoulders right at the same time he flails forward. Somehow, that means that his hand connects with the slither of a gap in my coat. Meaning his hand connects directly to my sealskin.
Another jolt of pure energy charges between us, like a blast of pure magic. For a moment, I can barely breathe. A cord twines around my lungs and squeezes tight, cutting off my airway. Then my skin starts to tingle, and I squeeze my eyes shut as a wave of dizziness rolls through me.
The sensations cut off just as quickly as they started. And when I reopen my eyes, the stranger is staring at me with wide eyes.
My heart is pounding in my throat as Frannie peers between the two of us, her expression filled with concern.
Somehow I know that the man in front of me isn’t silent by choice.
Hecan’tspeak.
“Did you feel that?” I ask him in Valmorian, which I somehow know is one of the languages he understands.
We’re a long way from the border with the North, where Valmorian is commonly spoken, so this guy must be far from home. Just like I am.
He nods, and as my heart rate starts to slow, I realise it’s not only my heart I can feel pounding in my chest.
There’s a second heartbeat, fainter than my own but hammering away just as fast.
The door in front of us swings open, and an unfairly handsome man wearing a multicoloured robe and not much else peers out at us.
“Reva? Sweetheart, what are you doing here?” Kit asks, tiredly rubbing his eyes.
“Kit.” My voice comes out more breathless than I’d like, so I take a long, shaky breath before shooting the gorgeous cursebreaker a smile. “I need your help.”
Immediately, Kit springs into action, stepping back and ushering the three of us inside. His brow furrows as he takes in the state of the third member of our party. “And who’s this?”
This time, my voice comes out as a dehydrated croak. “I think he’s my mate.”
Chapter 4
