One. Two. Three.
Three hits to leave his head lying in a puddle of his own blood.
If my magic had been at full strength, I would’ve turned him to ash.
Orla flung her hand toward the door. “Get outside and wait. I’ll see what I can do.”
“Thank you. Thank you so much.” The woman gave Orla a coin and pivoted on the heel of her expensive boot only to find a bloodied body on the floor blocking her path. I held my breath, waiting for her reaction to tell me something about who she could be. Faint, scream, or—my personal favorite—fan herself with her impossibly pale hands.
The woman didn’t do any of those things.
Those pale hands fisted at her sides. She lifted her boot.
And kicked him.
Twice.
I couldn’t be imagining this. Couldn’t be making this up.
Feck it all. I think I just fell in love.
The mercenaries’ voices lifted in riotous cheers, none of them bothering to help the man dying on the floor. The woman sauntered toward the exit, threw open the door, and stepped into the night.
Oran jabbed me with his elbow. “That girl was lookin’ fer ye.”
My grip on the book tightened, but I didn’t look up. “Was she?”
His bushy eyebrows came together. “Didn’t ye hear her say it?”
Why was I destined to be surrounded by eejits?
Orla scowled at me from behind the bar. She obviously thought whatever the woman wanted was my fault. But I’d never seen her before. Still, it would help no one if I didn’t at least speak to her. If she wanted the same thing every other woman before her had wanted, I’d have no choice but to oblige.
That was a problem of my own making, and I wouldn’t drag Orla into it. A matter of life and death, though? That seemed rather dramatic if all she wanted was a ride.
There was a second pub that catered to my people at the rear of the building, where it’d be safer to speak. According to the clock, it was a quarter past eleven. From the glassy-eyed stares being shot my way, I figured I’d worn out my welcome.
“Go and get her for me,” I told Oran. “Bring her around back.”
Oran’s eyes widened, but he didn’t budge. “Ye can’t expect me to go fer free. Not all of us can pull coins out of our arse.”
I should have made him shit a few coppers for his insolence. Instead, I collected a coin from my pocket and shoved it into his grubby palm. He clattered to his feet, then pushed past the mercenaries and out the door.
“What do you say, old man?” I kicked the drunkard beside me. His eyes didn’t open. “How’d you like to be my puppet?”
The bloodied man on the floor let out a low groan, reminding me there was one last piece of business to attend to. I set my book aside and shifted the mercenary’s axe into my hand. When I stood, my stool scraped against the floorboards. I could feel every eye on me as I stalked forward and stooped next to the man with pain-dulled eyes.
“It’s time you learned to keep your hands to yourself,” I whispered, adjusting my grip on the heavy axe. I wrapped a tendril of magic around his crooked arm, stretching it toward me. Fighting was useless, but he tried anyway. Stools clattered to the ground when the mercenaries shot to their feet. I aimed the blade at the man’s wrist.
And let it fall.
2
The awful lightingin this room left me squinting at the words in my book. At least our side smelled better than the human side of the bar. Orla needed to put more candles out or something because the ones on the wall weren’t doing shit. Despite the shite lighting, I could see the unmistakable black shadow of a curse living on the woman’s lips. I’d have bet my castle that she’d been bargaining with a witch.
Was that why she wanted to see me? To bring charges against one of the witches? There was nothing I could do. Once a bargain was struck, it was illegal to interfere. If she was dumb enough to bargain, she deserved to suffer the consequences.
It took far too much magic to lift the drunkard’s head and force my words through his dry, cracked lips. “I hear yer lookin’ fer the Gancanagh.”
