And yet I still felt sick over it.
It was one thing to collect pixie dust as it blew off a pixie’s wings, but forcing the life blood from another living creature…Tinkerbell had seemed just as real as any human. Was this shipment her blood? Or from her fellows?
If only I were naïve enough to believe it had been given voluntarily. While I had no qualms about turning in bounties for people, this secret collecting and delivering of blood to be used as a drug gave me serious pause, and I began questioning my own ethics. How long could I turn a blind eye to what others were doing? How long could I justify what I had to do, as long as it meant my family could be recovered?
In a daze, I turned and left the building without another word to anyone. I’d barely gone a block when I heard footsteps running after me. For a moment, I thought it might be one of the Nightsworn and almost kicked myself for not being stealthier, but it was only Elvin.
“Hey,” he said, slowing down to fall into step beside me. “What were you saying about pixie dust?”
“Just something I overheard. I must’ve gotten the names mixed up,” I told him casually. “My mistake.”
Elvin’s hand shot out to grab my arm and I yanked it away. A slight gasp of pain escaped my lips as my torso twisted, but Elvin released me.
“I just want to talk,” he said. “I know we don’t always get along, but I think we could help each other.”
I kept walking and kept my voice low. “How’s that?”
“I know someone looking to purchase pixie dust. If you had any information…”
“I don’t.”
Elvin continued to walk beside me. I didn’t have the strength to outrun him or fight him off, so I tolerated his presence.
“I’d pay you if you had pixie dust,” Elvin said suddenly. “I pay well.”
“Why all the interest? And I told you, I don’t know anything about pixie dust.”
“If you didn’t know anything, you wouldn’t have mentioned it. Just tell me.”
“Shove off or I’ll call the Nightsworn.”
“No, you won’t.”
I ground my teeth. Shoals, he was annoying. Maybe if it was obvious I was a woman, I’d be able to call for guards and say a man was harassing me. But instead, I was forced to endure Elvin’s presence.
“Don’t you have to sneak back to your musical hotel?” I asked him.
“The Serenade Inn,” he corrected me. “It’s nice. Maybe if you earned more or weren’t so cheap, you could live somewhere nice, too.”
“And you wonder why I never want to tell you anything.”
Elvin hurried to get ahead of me, then walked backwards so he and I were face to face. “Brent said he saw you helping a merchant at the market.”
“So?”
“Why were you there? Why aren’t you working on any bounties? Ambrose said you don’t have one assigned.”
“I’m on the pixie blood one. Everyone is. Now get lost, Elvin.”
To my surprise, he stepped to the side.
“You know where to find me if you want to talk,” he said as I passed.
I ignored him and turned my feet back to the forest. There were a lot of things I was willing to compromise on, but working with Elvin wasn’t one of them.
CHAPTER 14
“You look awful,” Peter told me the next morning when I came tramping in the front door.
