Saints above. Who have I become?
But no, that wasn’t quite right. Her hands overturned on her thighs so that she stared at her palms, the lines she found there. Her gaze narrowed. Perhaps it was more like:When did I return?
“Ghadra’s own vigilante.” Shaw’s eyes creased above the rim of his mug.
She scoffed. “I thought you had already claimed that title?”
Smile fading, he rubbed his thumb over the handle of his drink. “It’s getting worse. It’s as if they’re feeding upon the fear already blanketing this town.” He touched a bandage as it peeked from beneath his sleeve.
“We have to put a stop to this.”
He nodded. “I want to go to the prison.”
“What?And you tell me venturing into the forest is mad…”
“Thatismad. If the mayor is harvesting lifeblood, if he’s behind this sickness sweeping through Ghadra, I think we’ll find the evidence of it there.”
“In the prison?”
“In the prison.”
Lux observed a drunk woman stumble through the doors, pulling her mask into place. A mask that served no purpose. “I’ll come with you.”
Shaw returned his mug to the bar top. “You don’t have to.”
“As if I don’t know that.”
His eyes darkened, and she narrowed her own. There was something there. Something that hadn’t been before. “I thought we were finished. Happily never speaking to one another?”
That bothered you?
She could hardly believe it. An airy giddiness suffused her chest: a remarkable sensation she refused to analyze.
“Perhaps we could work together a little longer.” Frowning then, she added, “Only don’t kiss me again.”
He twitched, taken aback. “I won’t.”
“Oh, and one more thing.” Tawny eyes flicked to her as she rose from the stool. “You’re coming into the forest with me.”
Lux walked along thestreet for a time before slinking into an alley, an alley that would bring her to the invisible crossover to the Light. She skirted wide of another large rat pilfering the trash left along leaning walls. She sneered at it, disgusted, when a shadow fell across her.
“We meet again, Necromancer.” Scorn dripped from the word, and Lux spun from the rat, cursing the Shield’s sudden appearance. One man quickly turned into three.
The sack of flour.He certainly didn’t appear as pleased to see her as the previous encounter.
“Sorry, are you sure we’ve met?”
Heavy-lidded eyes sharpened on her. “I’ve been looking for you. You really believe your title ofmayor’s petallows you to assault the Shield? You must be thick as marsh mud.”
She bristled at the familiar assumption. “I think you have much more experience pettingthe mayor’s ego than I do.” A lovely shade of purple entered his skin. “But semantics aside, I never assaulted you. Please move. I’ve a mountain of things to accomplish today.”
“You dumped my own sleeping potion down my throat! You’re about to be arrested!”
Spittle flew from his mouth. Lux tracked its descent, happy to be out of range. “Now doesn’tthatseem far-fetched. I doubt the mayor will be pleased when Ghadra’s only necromancer dies inside his prison only because a man’s ego was bruised.”
The two uniformed men behind him shifted their feet.
“The mayor doesn’t know half of what happens down there, girl. You won’t die. But you will wish you had.” A manic gleam had entered his eyes now, and he stepped toward her. “I have a few techniques in particular that I enjoy, and maybe, upon your release, you’ll understand the price of disrespecting someone of my station.”
