AllFreeNovel
Share Us
I started heading for the door to check the other rooms properly, but a soft sound from below made me pause.
A rustling, then a soft swish and metallic ting that was familiar. I frowned, trying to place it, picturing the small shop floor in my mind. My muscles tensed when I realised what it was—the clink of two curtain rod eyelets hitting as they were drawn back.
The dressing room curtain.
It had been drawn when I walked past it. The gancanagh had been hiding behind it.
I raced for the stairs. There was the sound of feet stumbling, the rasp of metal dragging over wood, then heavier, frantic footsteps pounding across the room. I burst into the shop just in time to see Caom fleeing outside, the key sitting in the lock of the opened door.
My nostrils flared in irritation. So much for keeping this discreet.
At least the village was still empty and quiet when I made it outside. Caom was running down the road, away from the palace and towards the wide dirt path that led to the sidhes and farming fields of the Folk who chose to live further away from the village. Perhaps he thought he’d be able to run all the way to the forest and vanish within it.
I sprinted after him. I could hear his hectic, hitching breaths as he ran, but he was nowhere near as fast as me. Within a few seconds, I reached him and curled my fingers into the collar of his shirt, yanking him to an abrupt halt as he choked. Then I carried on striding down the dirt path, dragging him with me as he lost his footing, squirming wildly, his heels leaving furrows in the ground.
“No,” he gasped in terror, fingers clawing at my wrist. “I w-wasn’t—I didn’t—”
“So Ash was a bet to you, was he?” I said quietly, ignoring his panicked choking as his taut collar constricted around his throat. “Did you think he’d be an easy target? Isolated and grieving and in need of guidance here?”
“I d-didn’t know you… cared for him,” he choked out hoarsely. “If I’d kn-known, I—”
“Still no remorse for actually doing it, then,” I seethed. “Just regret that it put you in my sights. Regret that it will cost you your life, but none for how it would have made him feel if he’d found out he was nothing more than a bet to you when he thought you were his friend.”
Sharp pain sliced through my arm. I looked down to see that Caom had stabbed a dagger into it. Ignoring the throb of pain and the blood soaking rapidly into my shirt sleeve, I snatched it from his shaking hand as he yanked it free to stab me again.
Saying nothing, I tossed it and kept dragging him down the path, away from the village and any prying eyes. Caom squirmed harder, panicked breaths sawing out of him. His fingers scrabbled frantically over my arm, briefly digging into the fresh wound. I suppressed a hiss, tightening my grip on the back of his collar until he choked and began to lose strength.
“And then you thought it would be wise to try and cash in on the favours he supposedly owes you. The thanks he gave you, because you made sure not to tell him he shouldn’t.” I clenched my jaw. “I told you I would kill you, gancanagh, purely because I wanted to. But now you have given me a reason.”
“N-no,” he gasped. “I w-won’t—I won’t go near him again—I won’t—”
“I know you won’t.”
“P-please—”
“Please what?”
He let out a hoarse sob, weakly clawing at my shirt sleeve. “Pl-please don’t kill me.”
“But that’s what I’m good at. We all have our strengths, gancanagh.”
Deciding we were far enough from any Folk who might see, only farm fields around us, I drew my sword and dropped Caom on the ground. Before he could move, I had the blade pointed over his chest.
“I will give you one last chance,” I told him. “Tell me that you had no intention of hurting or manipulating Ash, that you were there for him as a friend and not just because of the bet, and perhaps I won’t kill you.”
I already knew he wouldn’t be able to, so I wasn’t surprised when he remained silent, reddened eyes wide and darting in panic as he tried to think of a way around it.
“I-I enjoyed sp-spending time with him—”
“That wasn’t what I asked for.”
“I—I—” His chest heaved against the tip of my sword. He desperately blurted, “I gave him things! Clothes and food—”
“To win the bet, to gain favours from him, or to simply be kind?”
“I—I never used the favours he owed me to fulfil the bet!”
“Because you couldn’t, I assume? Because it had to be his choice.”
