The man snarled.
Not money then.
I thrust my hand into the worn canvas of my satchel, passing over bits of fabric, the dress form, a spool of thread.But I knew the slips of paper I was looking for were hidden too deep.I had no way of finding them in time.I cursed.The wickedest part of my magic was just out of reach when I needed it most.
As I was scrambling, the man dove to retrieve his dagger.He reared up to his knees, his jagged knife gleaming dully in the lamplight.Subconsciously, I wondered if this rough stranger was going to be the last person I saw in this life.His knife swung down in an arc.I squeezed my eyes shut.
“Get away from her!”shouted a familiar voice.
The man hardly had time to look up before he was slammed sideways by a blur of purple and blond.
Maddox wrestled the man away from me to the ground.I watched in shock as the two scuffled on the street.The man was far larger than him, but Maddox put up a good fight, managing to lock the man’s arms behind his back and press him, immobile, against the cobblestones.
Without hesitation, I grabbed my satchel and slammed it hard over his bald head.The man collapsed in a rainstorm of thread spools, notebooks, pattern pieces, and a pair of fabric shears.He laid unmoving.
Maddox’s gaze met mine, his chest heaving.I had never been so happy to see him.“Good...teamwork,” he said between breaths.
I collapsed to the hard ground, my hands shaking.“You came back,” I said with a choked laugh.Being almost killed was no laughing matter, but I couldn’t help the somewhat deranged giggle that escaped my throat.
“Seemingly just in time,” Maddox said, stepping over the mess to join me.
“I don’t even know who that is,” I said.“He r-really wanted me dead.”
Maddox knelt beside me.“He may be a comrade of Prilla Lewis.”
“R-really?”My teeth were chattering, not from the cold, but from strange tremors racking my body.“The Crown p-people seem to prefer less violent approaches.”
Maddox seemed to hesitate before he wrapped his arm around me.I turned and buried my face into his shoulder as he rubbed circles into my back.
“You’re alright.You’re alive,” he said reassuringly.
I sucked in a shuddering breath as I gathered myself.Maddox’s arm fell away as I sat up and swallowed the sob threatening to escape my throat.This was no time for crying.Certainly not in front of Maddox and some random murderous man, even if the latter was knocked out.
“How did you find me?”I finally asked when I calmed.
“I asked around.Have you and Edmund checked in with the crown prince yet?”
The whinny of horses drew my attention.The carriage I’d thought was empty was clip-clopping away.There was the flash of golden wheel spokes before it disappeared around a corner.Someone had been inside.Someone who had just seen all this without bothering to help.
“I was just on my way to the palace,” I said faintly.I patted my pockets, my hand closing over the crumpled newspaper I had taken from the inn.“I was going to alert His Highness about this.”
Maddox took the newspaper and brought it toward the flickering street lamp.His eyes widened as he read the article through.“This is serious.”His brows furrowed.“Where’s Edmund?”
I pinched my lips.“Don’t know.”
He gave me an incredulous look.“Didn’t you insist on leaving with him?Did he turn in his report yet?”
“I don’t know.”
Maddox frowned.“Something happened between you two.”
I bent and shoveled my things back into my satchel, avoiding touching the unconscious man.“We should hurry to the palace before this man wakes up.”
“Right.Do you have any rope?”
Maddox and I left the man tied up against a lamp post with strips of muslin.I hated to waste precious fabric, but I didn’t have rope, and Maddox said he couldn’t risk the man running away before he alerted the city guards to detain him.As we continued down the street, Maddox caught me up on the past day in Witch Village.The sky had been successfully relit by a weather witch apprentice, but he hadn’t been able to find Prilla Lewis.
“It was like she disappeared into the sky!”Maddox exclaimed.
