Cheerful chatter drifted through the warm morning air as people strolled along the street a short distance away. All of them were completely oblivious to the fact that three dark mages, a forger, and whatever the hell Henry was, snuck through the deserted alley just a few steps from them.
Paige leaned around the edge and scanned the next road before waving us forward.
“This is absurd,” Levi said as we all followed her and rounded the corner. Raising his arm, he stabbed a hand towards the unwitting citizens strolling in the morning sunlight. “We could slaughter every single person on that street if we wanted to. Without even breaking a sweat. They should be backing up and bowing down as we pass. But instead, we’re… skulking in the shadows like rats.”
I glanced over at the metal mage. Annoyance and indignation swirled in his sharp gray eyes, and his muscular body seemed taut with pent-up frustration. My gaze glided over his broad chest. At least Callan had managed to convince him to leave his metal shoulder plates and bracers back at the house. That sort of thing drew far too much attention in Eldar.
“This ain’t Malgrave,” Callan said in response. “Dark mages can’t just walk the street openly here.”
A villainous smile slid across Levi’s lips. “Yet.”
Callan chuckled and shot him a knowing look. It was so casual. Like it was something that they had done a thousand times.
Then, as if remembering themselves, both of them snapped their gazes away while masks of indifference descended on their features.
We continued sneaking through the deserted alleys in silence. The scent of baking bread drifted out from an open window that we passed. It made my stomach rumble and reminded me that we needed to pick up some food before we went back to our house. I was just about to say as much when Paige suddenly jerked to a halt and gasped.
Panic shot up my spine.
Touching my hands together, I called up a tendril of poison while whipping my head from left to right. On either side of me, Callan, Levi, and Henry had also summoned magic and fallen into a battle stance.
“What is it?” I demanded, my pulse thrumming in my ears.
Paige pointed towards the pale stone wall while a scowl marred her brows. “They’ve made me look ugly.”
Confusion flitted through my chest. Twisting around, I glanced towards where she was pointing.
Our own faces stared back at us.
An exasperated laugh tore from my throat.
There were three large sheets of paper hanging side by side on the wall. The one on the left depicted a scowling Callan. In the middle was a drawing of me, while the one on the right had Paige’s face painted on it. At the top of each paper, one word had been written in massive letters using red ink. WANTED.
“What the hell,” Callan grumbled, letting his force magic fade out. “I thought we were under attack.”
“I am under attack,” Paige protested. With her brows still furrowed, she waved a hand towards the honestly rather bad drawing of her face. “Or my public image is, anyway. Now people are going to start thinking that I actually look like that.”
“This is what you stopped for?” Levi interrupted. Disbelief lined his features as he shook his head at the rest of us. “How you people get anything done is beyond me. Now, let’s get a move on.”
Paige muttered something under her breath that I hoped to hell that Levi hadn’t heard. Since he didn’t throw a sheet of metal at her, it seemed as though he thankfully hadn’t. I suppressed my smile as we started up again.
We had only made it another street down when Paige began chuckling softly.
“What now?” Callan said with a sigh.
A wicked smile shone on her lips as she looked up at Henry. “I just realized that you didn’t have a wanted poster.” There was a sly expression on her features as she flicked her hair over her shoulder. “I guess that means I’m more important, more infamous, than you.”
He huffed out a laugh. “Or it just means that I’m better at being sneaky and remaining unnoticed.” Shooting her a pointed look, he gave her shoulder a soft push. “Despite being eight feet tall.”
Her answering laugh warmed something deep inside my chest.
“I didn’t say…” She trailed off and abruptly swung towards a pale wooden door on the right. “Oh, we’re here.”
As if on some unspoken signal, Callan, Henry, Levi, and I all began checking our weapons and brushing our hands together in anticipation.
“To talk,” Paige stressed. “We’re here to talk. Remember?” Raising an accusing finger, she pointed it at all of us while continuing to walk backwards towards the door. “And I’ll do the talking.”
The four of us exchanged a glance, but we didn’t summon any magic or draw any weapons as we followed her to the door. She rolled her eyes at us. But in the end, she just twirled back around and placed her hand on the handle. Without bothering to knock, she simply shoved it down and flung the door open wide before strolling across the threshold.
“What’s up, Kenny?” she said.
We followed her into the room beyond and closed the door behind us while a man jerked up from the counter he had been leaning against. The four of us moved up so that we were standing side by side behind Paige as she strolled up to the man. I swept my gaze around the room.
Even though it was a bright summer morning, the room was gloomy because the wooden shutters still covered the windows. It made the wooden walls and floor look darker than they probably were. Shelves lined the walls, but I couldn’t make out what exactly was on them all. It was just a jumble of books and papers and scrolls and maps. Due to the presence of the counter that Kenny was leaning against, this looked almost like a shop. But for what, I had no idea.
“Paige,” Kenny blurted out.
I shifted my attention back to him. Surprise washed over his narrow face as he stared at Paige with wide brown eyes. His brown hair fell down to his jaw, and he pushed it back behind his ears as he straightened.
“I didn’t know that you were…” He began but then trailed off, as if he didn’t know how to finish the sentence.
“Out of prison?” Paige supplied. Stopping before the counter, she leaned her elbow on it in a casual move. “Alive? All-around unharmed?”
Kenny flicked a nervous gaze over the rest of us before he returned it to her. He licked his lips. “All of the above, I suppose.”
“Hmm.” Paige poked at a cluster of pens that had been shoved into a glass jar on the tall counter. They clanked faintly, disrupting the tense silence. Dropping her hand again, she looked up to meet his gaze once more. “I’ve got a job for you.”
“I, uhm…”
She straightened suddenly, and a harshness bled into her voice that I had rarely heard before. “You owe me.”
“Well, I—”
“How many documents have I forged for you over the years? Huh? How many?”
“I—”
“And yet, when the constables came for me, you disappeared into your little hole like a rat.”
“I had to protect my own business.” Holding up his hands, he shook his head. “You know what it’s like. I couldn’t risk them finding me too.”
“Uh-huh.” She crossed her arms. “Well, you didn’t help me then, but you can make up for that now. I need a list of names. A rather long list. And very specific names.”
Kenny’s brown eyes flicked across the four of us again, and suspicion shone on his face. Clearing his throat, he glanced back at Paige. “Look, Paige. Last I saw you, you were being hauled away in handcuffs by an entire squad of constables. And now you’re suddenly here, free again. That doesn’t usually happen for people like us.”
“Are you suggesting that I’m a snitch? That I turned and traded my underworld connections to the constables for my own freedom?”
“I’m just saying… How do I know you’re not setting me up right now?”
Without even having to say anything, all four of us touched our palms together. A massive metal blade grew from Levi’s hand while a spinning arc of force magic appeared above our heads and glittering green poison mist swirled around me, showing Kenny that we were dark mages and clearly not on the side of the righteous. On Callan’s other side, Henry had summoned wind magic too.
Fear crackled across Kenny’s features, and he stumbled back from the counter. The sudden move made him trip over something on the floor, and he went sprawling down on top of whatever else was down there. Clangs and thuds echoed through the room.
Paige glanced back over her shoulder to see what had caused his sudden fear. When she noticed our magic, she rolled her eyes at us. But there was a grateful smile on her lips too.
She turned back to Kenny. “You were saying?”
More clanking sounded as he no doubt pushed stuff aside while he climbed back to his feet. Clearing his throat, he dragged a hand through his hair to smoothen it down again. “What do you need?”
We let our magic fade out again.
“I need the names of the people that the parliament members care about the most,” Paige said, once more leaning casually against the counter. “One loved one per parliament member should suffice, but it has to be the one they care about the most. No kids, though.”
Kenny snatched up a pen and jotted down notes on a piece of paper while nodding to himself. Then he looked up again. “Alright. I can have that ready for you in a week.”
Brushing our palms together again, we all filled the room with our lethal magic once more.
Panic flickered in Kenny’s eyes as his gaze darted between the four of us and Paige. He cleared his throat. “I mean, by the end of the day.”
“Excellent,” Paige said. “You can leave it in our usual spot.”
With his eyes still darting between her and us, he nodded distractedly. She just pushed off from the desk and spun around. A grin played over her lips as she started back towards us. We led our magic fade out again.
Well, everyone except Henry. His gray eyes were locked on Kenny, and wind magic swirled around his massive frame as he took a threatening step towards the counter.
“You,” Henry began in a low and dangerous voice. It was the voice that he had used on me when he had threatened to kill me if I hurt Callan. “You left her to hang last time.”
Kenny edged a step back.
Wind magic twisted around Henry’s arms. “If you do anything to endanger her now, I will be back.”
“I… I won’t. I swear it.”
From where she had trailed to a halt on the floor, Paige was staring at Henry with both surprise and a sort of sparkling joy on her face. I glanced over at the mountain of a man too.
I might not have liked Henry very much before. He had threatened to torture and kill me. And I might have planned to kill him too along with Callan when that damn force mage took me captive. Suffice it to say that we’d had a rocky start. But since Paige joined our group, I had started to see different sides of him.
And now, as I watched him threaten to kill a man if he did anything to hurt Paige, I had to admit that I was rather starting to like him.
