AllFreeNovel
Share Us
I pull a hundred-dollar bill from my pocket and pass it over.
He takes it without offering change and slides the leg bone into a baguette bag. As he passes it over, he whispers, “There’s a guy on the corner of Black and Squelch who has what you’re looking for.”
I lift the bag. “Looks delicious. Have a rotten day.”
“You, too.” He raises his voice as I head toward Darius. “Come back on Fiery Friday, when I serve redheads all day!”
I reach Darius. “Any luck?”
“Not yet.” Darius peers down at the bag I carry. “I’m not sure Ga’Vine will let that into the house.”
“Don’t worry, it’s cow. The guy is making coin over fist, though, hocking it as human.” I glance around. “Which way to Black and Squelch? There’s a shop owner who might give us a better lead.”
Darius shifts to place me on the side close to the building and leads me deeper into the Bone Yard. We’d been on the street vendor block for over an hour, and I can’t say I’m sorry to leave it behind.
The combination of smells and noises grates against my nerves, and everyone triggers my internal danger alarms. Darius already had to set one demon on fire for coming too close, which earned us a little breathing room, but it didn’t last long.
If we linger here another minute, I’ll start bashing people with my batons, and then we’ll have bodies on our hands. Which isn’t necessarily a bad thing in the Bone Yard, but doesn’t back up the wholeWe Come In Peaceschtick we need to sell Nickodemus on.
There’s a fine line between showing we’re not easy targets and willful slaughter, and the king of boogeymen is canny enough to know the difference.
As we leave the market, I take a deeper breath of the humid air. Like breathing in a rainforest just after a downpour. Thick and earthy, but not in an unpleasant way.
I’m still not used to the way the mid-class district has morphed to fit the needs of its new inhabitants. Treehouses sit next to fantasy-like towers, and rock outcroppings make homes next to slimy ponds.
Ahead of us, a square slab of sidewalk juts higher than the ones on either side.
I take a large step forward to slam the trap door back down on the earth dweller waiting to attack.
A screech rises from beneath my feet, and the cement jumps as the creature bangs its fists against the underside.
I pound the bottom of the bone I carry on the ground next to my feet. “Be a better hunter! You’re too obvious!”
Darius’s hand finds the small of my back. “Come, my lady, stop terrorizing the trapdoor demon.”
I give the slab another thump. “You’re going to starve to death with skills like that!”
Darius sighs and pulls me off the block of cement. It creaks upward as soon as my weight leaves it, and brown tentacles slither out to investigate the surroundings.
I drop the bone on top of a pair that creeps toward us, and they snatch it up, the bone vanishing into the sidewalk before the cement thuds back down.
“Such a softy,” Darius murmurs.
I ignore the happy crunching rising from beneath the sidewalk. “We probably would have gotten arrested if we walked out of here with it.”
“Are you going to let Marc put tiny ignis demons in the bathroom fireplace, too?” he teases.
I cut him a sharp glance from the corner of my eye. “Sure it’s only Marc who wants that?”
He looks away. “It would be nice to have something of home.”
A lump forms in my throat at the yearning in his voice. Long before we met, Darius was kicked out of the Black Mountain for choosing a station as a court guard.
Before I can say anything more, he nods to a shop across the street. “That must be it.”
I follow his line of sight to what looks to be an old coffee shop, the windows stuffed full of racks with an assortment of jars. The owner had spray-painted a cauldron onto the window in neon green with the universal symbol for magical items.
Darius steps ahead of me to burn a path through the pedestrians clogging the street, forcing them to leap out of the way or be scorched.
