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“I forgot how humid the air of this city was,” Lila said with a sigh. She walked at a slow pace alongside Kell and they searched for a place to eat before going back to the other London. “We made this journey for nothing.”
“We couldn’t know that Ned wouldn’t be at the tavern,” he replied with a shrug. “We haven’t seen him in years. I wish we could’ve sent a missive to let him know we were coming.”
“Well, didn’t we? Now he knows we will be coming,” she replied with an amused tone.
Kell rolled his eyes. “You could have simply slipped the piece of paper under the door.”
“He would have stomped on it and paid no mind,” she argued. “He won’t be able to ignore it like this.”
“I doubt anybody would ignore a knife stuck in their door.”
“You’re just angry it had to be one of yours,” Lila claimed with a smirk.
He frowned, but she could see the hint of a smile. “Maybe somebody here has a penchant for knives just like you and will steal it. Have you thought about that?”
“Possible,” she conceded. “It was a pretty damn knife after all.”
“I thought you said it was disposable because it was average,” he raised an eyebrow. “And I hope it won’t leave a dent in the wood. I can’t compensate him for damages in this world.”
“You know I could be so subtle, he wouldn’t even notice.”
Kell shook his head, looking exasperated. “Apologies, Ned.”
She wondered whether he was apologizing for eating elsewhere or because she was thinking about breaking into his place just to be done with a task. Maybe both.
They entered a tavern with a nondescript sign, and she surveyed the area out of habit. The place was cramped because of the late evening hour, but they found two seats by the counter and ordered some food.
They were hungry, and she was sure she would get sentimental if she stayed too long in that city that held past memories, but it came with the territory. Thanks to Tuttle, their business there was far from over.
She rubbed at the nape of her neck. Perhaps she was just frustrated that the day didn’t go as planned, but there was something else she couldn’t place. Her eyes glanced around the room, but she didn’t notice anything to worry about. People were loud and some of them were having fun. Nothing out of the ordinary for a tavern.
She returned to her food, but she just picked at it as if it had lost its allure. Ugh, she thought, cracking her fingers as if she was about to fight an opponent. She needed to get to the bottom of this or she wouldn’t be able to stay put. She let her sight roam over the room for the third time in the last hour. Maybe it would put her impatience to rest.
Easily said than done, since her guts rarely failed her. At last, she caught the source of her uneasiness. There he was, the culprit. He stood at the counter with a glass in his hand. Surveying.
She hadn’t forgotten that face. How could she, when she looked so much like him?
Her heart sank.
She was positive that he had recognized her too, and watched her while she minded her business. Whereas she hadn’t noticed. Amateurish mistake. She wanted to kick herself for it, but she figured it would draw too much attention.
There was one thing she could do. She needed to leave.
Her gaze landed on Kell sitting by her side, and he instantly turned. He put his spoon on the plate and his expression softened. “Want a bite?”
“I’m full,” she replied firmly, trying not to give any hints about her restlessness.
He looked at her half-eaten food, and he nodded. “Okay,” he said. “I’ll finish this and we go?”
Lila managed a tight smile. “Suit yourself,” she told him, and he fixed his gaze back on his food.
She could have told Kell that she would wait for him outside. But the onlooker could have followed her, and she didn’t want that.
Admittedly, part of her wanted to linger instead of fleeing. Dare the man come to talk to her.
She was either curious or foolish or both.
In the end, she stayed. She grabbed a fistful of her coat and clenched her fingers around it to release her energy, imagining it was the man’s throat.
They were about to leave but the bartender put two glasses with an amber liquid in front of them after they paid. “On the house,” he said with a grin, and went to serve another client.
Lila saw the man in the corner raise a glass in her direction and she just knew they came from him. Piece of shit. Always thought he could buy her.
“Don’t,” her hand clenched around Kell’s wrist before he could touch the glass. He gave her a questioning look. “We should go.” Please, she added in her thoughts. She was so close to saying it, but she didn’t. Let him believe that she was in a hurry and bored.
He glanced at her hand. She held him too tightly, and softened her grip. His eyes roamed over her, and her deep frown probably convinced him that it was a good idea to leave.
They were out before the bartender could return.
Lila sneaked in the first alley and stopped in front of a wall. She had already taken a knife out of her pocket to use her magic, but Kell grabbed her wrist before she could cut her finger.
“Wait,” he demanded.
“Let me go,” she hissed. She tried to free herself from his grasp, but he didn’t budge. Yet, his grip was gentle.
“Not until you tell me what happened back there,” he said. “And why are we running.”
What happened, really?
“Nothing,” she offered meekly, gripping the hilt of her knife in her other hand. “I misread.”
“You were about to draw blood,” he observed. “You dragged me to the first alley.”
“What if I wanted to make out?” She tilted her head to the side enticingly, but it came out weak. He narrowed his eyes. “I just want to go back,” she replied. It was the truth. Sort of.
He sighed and shook his head, and let her go. “Lila –” he began, but she didn’t let him finish.
She turned to the mouth of the alley and pressed the uninvited guest’s body to the wall, pointing her knife at his throat and pinning his arm above his head. At least her reflexes hadn’t betrayed her this time. She bit her lip when she came face to face with him.
“It is really you,” the man barked. “Delilah.”
The way he uttered her name made her blood boil. She wanted to spit in his face. She wanted to graze his neck with her knife. She wanted to press her hands around his neck and see his face turn purple.
Many times she thought about what she would tell him should they ever cross paths again. But right now, she didn’t have a quick retort to offer him. Her throat was suddenly dry, and she hated it. It reminded her so much of the past.
“You are just as I remember you,” he continued. “Your eye –”
She edged her knife closer to his jugular and pressed her elbow in his stomach. “Do not fucking say it or I’ll end you right here, right now.”
He dared to chuckle, and she smelled the alcohol on him from where she stood. “You used to say it back then too, but without the swearing. I know it’s an empty threat. I know you. You would never dare, Delilah.”
“I know you ,” she didn’t correct him. You don’t know me. She wasn’t that little girl anymore, the girl he left behind to pay for his debts. The girl who used to cower before she learned to defend herself. Let him believe what he wanted about her. Let him say her name even though it looked like a curse word out of his mouth. Dirty. “I know you are full of shit.”
“Shit breeds shit, it seems.”
“No,” she objected. “Flowers can bloom from shit.”
“You’re the furthest thing from a flower, Delilah,” he seethed with a venomous grin. “I should’ve taught you that a long time ago the hard way. I was too soft.”
She suppressed a shudder, the knife skimmed his skin. If she only pressed closer – “Perhaps I can teach you the hard way. As payback.”
He giggled as if she had just said something funny. “You never learned your place.”
The corner of Lila’s eye registered the movement of his free hand, and the thing glinting in it. He held a knife, and he pointed it at her ribs.
It was enough to tick her off. He wanted to fucking hurt her again, but she would hurt him first.
She kicked him in the groin and the knife fell on the cobblestones without a fight. He was all talk, and she wasn’t done. “So haven’t you,” she provoked him.
He grunted in pain. “Bitch.”
She shook with fury, and punched him in the face. She would have fun with him, just like he used to do with her after he came home and he had too much to drink. She wanted to puke. He disgusted her.
She grabbed him by the hair and thought about the different ways she could hurt him. “I could take your eye out, what about that? So we’d be even.”
Fire shot from her hand as a warning. She could light his whole face on fire. She could –
“Lila,” Kell called. “Lila, stop.”
“Right, listen to him.”
She pushed him into the wall. “No one asked your opinion. You wanted to stab me!”
“You were the first who held me at knife point, Delilah.”
“You followed us.”
“I just wanted to talk to you,” he said. “We haven’t seen each other for years.”
She pushed him back into the wall again. Ever since you sold me, she wanted to add, but she kept silent.
“Where have you been?”
She did not answer.
We aren’t related anymore. We are nothing. I wished you’d forgotten about me. I wish I’d forgotten about you.
“I see you’ve found yourself a partner,” he tried again, pointing at Kell. She gritted her teeth.
“You don’t know how to take a hint, do you?”
He ignored her. “He is just like you when you were a child.”
Lila frowned. “Like what?”
“The black eye. You had one just like him. Appeared out of nowhere when you were four, I think. We thought someone had put a curse on you. Needed to be dealt with quickly before people would notice.”
“So it wasn’t an accident after all.”
He huffed and shrugged. “I was there when they got it out. Your mother didn’t know. She didn’t talk to me for a week after that.”
She forced down a sick feeling. Hearing about it made her stomach turn. For so long, she had wondered about the truth, and now she had her answers.
He had ordered her distinctive feature to be taken away from her. But he hadn’t known that you couldn’t pry magic out of a body that way. Magic didn’t just disappear.
She had accepted years ago that her sight would always be flawed because of her missing eye, and that she couldn’t do anything to bring it back. Not even magic could repair something broken like that. Though, she felt whole. She had learned how to live with loss, and she had been able to navigate the world like a captain who can keep her ship afloat in rough waters.
“You should go before I change my mind,” she said with finality, removing her hands off him as if he had burned her or she was just getting rid of trash. “And I pin you to this wall with a knife and you have to beg for help.”
“I should,” he agreed. “Will I ever see you again, Delilah?”
“You never saw me,” she said sternly. You never did. If he was smart, he would get her subtle message.
He nodded and retrieved the knife that had fallen at his feet. The gesture made her shiver.
He offered Kell one last curious glance. He was watchful beside her, as if he was ready to strike any moment if needed. His eyes lingered on Lila. She looked at him until he disappeared from sight, away from the alley, away from her.
Her head was pounding, as well as her heart. She took a deep sigh and clenched her fist around the knife she held in one of her hands.
Kell took her hand gently in his, and her bloody knife clattered on the cobblestones. There was a deep red gash in the center of her palm, but it was nothing compared to the waves of emotions rolling through her.
He took a knife from his coat and she knew he intended to use his magic to heal her. He hated to see her hurt, but she didn’t want him to take that physical pain away from her just yet. She needed the distraction.
“It’s nothing,” she put her hand above his. “It’s going to stop soon.”
Kell grumbled, and she knew he disagreed. Sure enough, he took a handkerchief from his pocket to bandage her hand. This time, she let him. She knew his stubborn ass wouldn’t listen to her, but at the same time she was grateful that he didn’t. He took care of her in ways people from her past never did.
She felt something prick at her eyes, and she blinked. London always made her sentimental.
Kell wrapped his arms around her and she drowned in his embrace, letting her head fall on his chest and her arms circle his waist as if she would collapse without his support. He stroked her hair delicately and she let her tears run free as she left part of herself in that alleyway.