My stomach spasmed in fear and I grabbed his arm in a death grip. “Lochlan! Who? Who did you tell?”
“My mother, okay? I wanted to tell her about you. She’s always asking.”
I stared into his eyes, willing them to appear truthful. “She must’ve told Elvin, and Elvin must’ve told the Nightsworn.”
Lochlan looked back down at the poster. “It looks like they think you’re worth quite a bit.”
I hadn’t even looked at the price on my head, and when I did, all the air vanished from my lungs. The bounty was listed at five thousand gold shillings, more than any bounty I’d ever seen besides the one for the pixie blood. And there at the bottom was an order that I was to be delivered immediatelyto the Nightsworn. I looked up and down the street. Posters were already up everywhere. It wouldn’t just be bounty hunters coming for me. It would be anyone and everyone who wanted extra money.
Why would the Nightsworn be so keen on arresting me? It didn’t make sense. I hadn’t done anything to the Nightsworn—not that they would know about, anyway. I must’ve made a mistake somewhere along the way, or they’d seen me at the warehouse and knew I was somehow connected. Had Elvin told them to put up the posters and told them I was a bounty hunter?
Chills ran through my body. “Lochlan, people will start coming after me. Everyone will want to turn me in.”
“They won’t know where to look.”
“You really think people like Elvin or Peter will turn down an offer like this? And even if they didn’t, hundreds of people have seen me at the market with you. They know my face. I have to leave Berkway. I can’t stay here.”
“No,” Lochlan said immediately. “What about your family?”
“It won’t matter. There aren’t any more leads, and I’ll never find them anyway if I’m locked up in a cell.” I stared down at the poster again. “I’d bet anything that Elvin drew this.”
“Figures,” Lochlan grumbled.
“He draws all the faces for the bounties,” I continued. “He doesn’t care who it is and my face would’ve been easy. He knows me well. Usually if the person asking for a bounty can describe the person, Elvin will sketch it out, but for this…”
Lochlan was chewing on the inside of his cheek, thinking hard then straightened decisively. “Put up your hood,” he said. “We can’t have anyone seeing you. Walk with me.” He nudged me to the right.
“Where are we going?”
“To Mable’s house,” Lochlan said promptly. “She lives fairly close. Once we aren’t out in the open, we can figure things out.”
I followed him, mind still racing. I couldn’t prevent myself from staring at the poster in Lochlan’s hand, my face staring right back at me, then at the paper I’d taken from the Syndicate. Both the Employer and the Nightsworn must be hunting me down. Who would find me first, and would I survive once they did?
“Don’t look up,” he instructed me. We passed through the market, where afternoon shoppers were cheerfully going about their business.
Lochlan’s hold around my shoulders stiffened. “There are more posters,” he whispered in my ear. “Keep your head down.”
I obeyed, terrified that once I looked up, everyone would recognize me. There would be a mob all eager to collect my reward. Too many people knew Gil.
“Do you think your mother told Elvin?” I asked, keeping my eyes fixed on the ground.
“Yes, I’m sure she did. I’ll need to explain a few things to you.”
I jerked away and looked at him in horror. “You knew? You knew she would tell?”
“I have to explain—” Lochlan began, but there was a shout from behind him.
“It’s the one from the wanted poster! That’s Gil!”
So many of the people I’d smiled at and talked to during my time being Lochlan’s supposed apprentice now turned on me. “Call the Nightsworn!” a woman shouted.
“Run!” Lochlan said, snatching my hand and pulling me down a street. More shouts came from the market behind us, followed by the sound of boots thundering after us.
“Halt right there!”
I ignored them and kept running. A stitch burned in my side each time my foot struck the ground or I drew in another gasp of air, but I kept pushing on with Lochlan right beside me.
The unfamiliar alley twisted sharply ahead, narrower than the last, its walls leaning inward like they were determined to match the confined, trapped feeling that was becoming more prominent with each passing moment.
