“No other nyxin will do.” I directed my attention to the vendor. “I’ll pay twice what she did.”
“We made a bargain, Marlin,” the woman said. “I already gave you coins.” She shoved me aside to get closer to the cage, and my shoulder impacted with the wall of a stone building. I let out a wince.
A growl ripped out behind me, but when I peered in that direction, no one was looking this way except the cloaked man who’d stopped like me. Persistent, wasn’t he?
“Sorry,” Marlin told me with a shrug. “She purchased the nyxin. I plan to trap more in the next week or so. Come back then.” He turned away.
She bristled and huffed and lifted the cage, propping it on her shoulder, a feat that surprised me given her slight, almost emaciated form. “You’ll feed me for a week,” she told the nyxin, releasing a high-pitched cackle.
The nyxin shrieked, making us jolt, and flung its body into the side of the cage. His little paws flailed as he tried to dig his way through, but he wouldn’t escape before this woman killed him.
“I want that nyxin,” I barked while the poor creature howled.
“Fuck you.” The elderly woman slammed into me, trying to get past.
The cloaked guy growled again, but I was beyond caring about him. I pulled my sword and brandished it in the woman’s face. “Hand over the nyxin.”
“Don’t threaten me, girl.” She tipped her head back and lifted her voice to a shriek. “Help. Guards. Help. This wench is stealing from me. Help!”
Shit. My brother could handle this, but he’d chastise me for the rest of my life. And by the time he could intervene, it would be too late for the nyxin.
“Make way,” a deep voice called from nearby, and I caught a flash of dark blue uniforms shouldering this way. Lydel guards. Tempest was their high lady, and they’d drop to their knees if they saw her, but she wasn’t with me now.
Maybe Ishould’veaccepted an escort to the harbor after all.
My gaze met the nyxin’s, and it was the fragile hope I saw there that made me act.
I slashed my sword in the woman’s face. She yelped andscurried backward. The cage fell from her shoulder and clattered when it hit the cobblestones. The door snapped open and the nyxin burst out. His claws scraped the stone as he fled, spiraling into the crowd.
“What did you do?” the woman bellowed, her face . . . shimmering.
A wizard? If so, this was bad news for me. My guts twisted.
She pulled a knife from beneath her tattered gown and slashed it out at me. “You owe me, wench, and you’ll pay with your blood.” Her gaze lashed down my front. “Tasty, aren’t you?”
Someone else had once called me tasty, while he was draining my power, eager to turn me into an empty corpse who’d wander the ether forever. I swore no one else would ever try to control me in that way again.
I tugged a sack of coins from my pocket and flung it at her, hitting her in the chest. “This’ll pay you back.”
Spinning, I slammed into a guard who tried to wrench my sword from me, but I wasn’t having that. I struck out with my fist, impacting his belly. A grunt shot from his mouth, and he doubled over, groaning. Tightening my grip on my bag and my sword, I darted around him, following the nyxin weaving through villagers gasping and reeling away from the wild creature.
The guards and woman roared behind me and gave chase.
The night’s looming darkness helped hide me, as did the dimly lit road stretching between here and the pier. I hit the head of the street and didn’t slow, my arms spiraling, following the nyxin down the cobblestone road lined with two-storystone buildings. A few villagers scurried away from me, shouting for me to slow down, while others jumped in front of me with feral grins, determined to grab me for the reward.
I flung myself to the right and left to get around them. My feet stomped on the stone, and my lungs clawed for air, but I kept going.
The nyxin paused at the far end of the road, peering out at the open dock between here and the water. People strolled along the huge boardwalk while other vendors had set up tables to hawk their wares. Long wooden piers stretched out over the water, and with the tide high, boats had slid in close to dock.
The nyxin scrambled across the boardwalk and fled down one of the piers. If it was smart, it would jump into the water and swim until it was free of the village. And watch out for traps after that.
I reached the end of the street and smacked into something clear and solid. A magical wall.
“Got her,” a guard shouted from behind. “Grab her!”
A groan ripped up my throat. I gathered power and tried to flit, the magical way the fae used to travel that had so far eluded me. Even when I was desperate, I couldn’t move my body more than a few feet.
My heart thundered like a drum, each beat a scream for escape. My lungs burned and panic twisted my belly into knots.
