The overcast sky blocked out most of the light from the moon and cast the whole street in darkness. In this part of the city, the street lamps were few and far between. But the shop owners here preferred it that way. The items that were sold here were not ones that were meant for the bright light of day and the curious glances that came with it.
I walked up to a nondescript door and placed my hand on the handle before turning to jerk my chin at Audrey. “In here.”
She scrunched up her dark brows as she assessed the building. “Seriously?”
There was no sign above the door, and the windows were hidden behind wooden shutters. It looked like a simple residential house. But it was not.
“They don’t need to advertise. The people who know about this place already know about it.”
“As always, words of wisdom just drip from your mouth like honey,” she said, her own mouth dripping with sweet poison.
I considered throwing a force wall at her, but managed to suppress the urge. Instead, I just pushed down the handle and swung the door open.
Not bothering to hold it open for Audrey, I simply stepped across the threshold and moved inside. A small huff from behind informed me that the door had hit Audrey on the way back, and I could feel her glare burning holes in my neck. At least she had followed.
Light from several oil lamps illuminated the small room and made the products on display gleam. I ran my eyes over the shelves and racks while I approached the counter at the back. They were covered with metal items. Handcuffs and manacles and chains and steel rods and contraptions that even I didn’t know the name of. This small shop basically carried everything a person might need to restrain someone.
“Welcome,” said a tall but very skinny man with brown hair as he appeared from the back room. “Looking for something specific or just browsing?”
“I need a pair of stiff handcuffs,” I replied.
“Just regular ones?”
“Yeah.”
“I think we might be sold out.” He scratched his jaw. “But give me a few minutes and I’ll have a look in the back.”
I gave him a nod in acknowledgement before he disappeared through the doorway again. If he was sold out, we would be in trouble.
Knocking Lance out with Audrey’s magic was one thing, but we couldn’t just leave him unrestrained. He was a Binder, after all. If he woke up and we didn’t notice, he could seal away our magic and then it would be all over. Just tying him up was out of the question, because as long as he could touch his palms together, he could still do magic. So we needed a real pair of handcuffs. Ones that had a stiff metal rod that kept a prisoner from being able to put his hands together. I had several pairs back in my mansion, but we’d only had limited space in our packs and I had assumed that there would be tons to buy here. If they were out, I would be seriously pissed off.
“So, how do you know about this place?” Audrey asked from somewhere behind me.
Turning around, I found her drifting up and down the aisles, inspecting the items with those sharp green eyes of hers.
“This is where I get all of my own supplies from,” I answered.
“Is that so?”
“Yeah. It’s been years since I was here in person, though.”
She stopped in front of a narrow bucket that contained long metal rods with a cuff at each end. Picking one up, she ran her eyes down its length before frowning. “What do you even need stuff like this for? I’ve been a dark mage for six years and I’ve never had to use things like this to incapacitate people. If they have something I want, I just torture them with my magic until they give it up. And if they’re of no use to me, I just kill them and move on.”
A hint of amusement swirled inside me at how casually she said things like that. I cast a glance over my shoulder to see if the shopkeeper was returning anytime soon, but metallic clanking came from the back room as if he was still searching through his storage spaces. Returning my attention to the poison mage, I closed the distance between us and grabbed the spreader bar she was still holding.
She released it as I twisted it in my hand until it was positioned horizontally in the air. Shifting it slightly downwards, I held it out before me as if I was measuring the distance between her ankles. I looked up again and met her gaze.
“Keeping prisoners isn’t the only thing I use it for.”
For a second, she only scowled back at me. Then understanding flickered in her eyes. Clicking her tongue, she snatched the rod back and rammed it into the stand. “Do you ever think about anything other than sex?”
I took a step forward, forcing her to back up against the shelves behind her, before I lifted my hand and brushed my fingers over her cheek in an almost loving gesture. “I’m also thinking about excruciatingly painful and humiliating ways to kill you.”
Rolling her eyes, she tried to slap my hand away.
It did nothing to actually push it off, so I rubbed that in by taking her chin in a firm grip. Leaning down, I whispered my next words against her lips so that the shopkeeper wouldn’t overhear. “But luckily for you, I still need you for this mission. Otherwise, keeping Lance knocked out while transporting him out of the city is going to be a real pain in the ass. So until this mission is done, you are safe in my hands.”
A shiver coursed through her body. Given everything I knew about her, it hadn’t been from fear but rather from… something else. Something darker. Something unthinkable. And it made a sharp smile drift across my lips.
The clanking that had been coming from the back room had stopped.
Releasing Audrey’s jaw, I straightened just as the tall shopkeeper reappeared behind the counter.
He pushed one hand through his shoulder-length brown hair and then raised his head to smile at me. “I found a whole stack of them in my latest shipment. You sure you just want one pair? Nothing else?”
I glanced over at Audrey. Challenge glittered in her eyes as she stared back at me.
Turning back to the shopkeeper, I flashed him a wolfish smile.
“Actually, I think I might pick up a few other things too.”
