by Kaylin Lee
A name. Give me a name, and you will go to your grave a victor, rather than a pawn.
—Ruby
Chapter 28
Three nights later, I woke in the middle of the night to the sound of shallow breathing, right by my bed. “Time to go, pretty girl.” The male voice was low and mocking.
A shadow bent over me. Without conscious thought, I started screaming.
“Quiet!” He walloped me so hard, I saw stars, even in the pitch-black bedroom.
“Opal!” I screamed again. “Auntie! Please!” I rolled out of bed and away from the man, diving for the door, but he caught the back of my nightgown and held on tight.
I strained forward anyway, my feet slipping uselessly on the ground. “Help!”
Another force hit the back of my head. Somewhere downstairs, voices and footsteps echoed, but my head hurt too much to be sure.
Someone held my arms to my torso and covered my mouth with his hand. A second man bound my feet with a rope, pulling the knot so tight, my bare skin burned. He moved with brusque, practiced movements. He wrapped a second rope around my wrists, tied a thick piece of fabric around my head, and stuffed it in my mouth. My screams became nothing more than muffled, terrified moans.
“Come on,” whispered the man holding my torso. “Are we good? Someone might have woken up.”
“We’re good.” They picked me up with ease, one taking my shoulders, the other my feet. I bucked wildly, trying to get them to drop me, but they gripped me tighter and hauled me through the open door of my bedroom.
The stairwell was vacant. “Mmph! MMM!” I screamed as loudly as I could over the fabric gag, but no one stirred as the two men quietly hauled me downstairs.
They were halfway down when there was a clear, loud click that echoed in the stairwell. The men froze.
“Put her down.” A man’s low, menacing voice came from below. I couldn’t see anyone. Where was he? And who was he?
The prowler holding my feet shifted his grip. “Two of us,” he said casually, keeping his voice soft. “Only one of you. You really want to try us? I don’t mean to brag, but we aren’t exactly new to this sort of job.”
Nausea rocked my stomach. If they didn’t put me down soon, I was going to be sick.
“Two of us, actually.” Opal’s voice was loud and clear as a bell. “And you’ll take her out of this villa over my dead body.” There was another click—she had a crossbow, too. “You really want to try us?” She threw their own words back at them.
There was a long, painful pause, and I felt my captors grip me tighter. “Mmmmph!” They’re going to try to run, I wanted to say, but the gag was too strong.
The man in front turned back. In the darkness, I could just make out the furious expression on his face. He jerked his head toward my defenders without speaking, and I felt the other man shift in response. A moment later, moving as one, they hefted me down the stairs.
I landed hard on my shoulder, rolled down to the landing, and stopped against two, strong legs. The intruders rushed down the stairs, clearly using me as a distraction, but the man on the landing shot the first trespasser. He cried out and fell forward just as an arrow from the top of the stairs took his partner down.
I rolled away from the two groaning men, my ribs throbbing. I was dimly aware of Opal and the man arguing about something.
“—supposed to take them to the Wolves,” Opal argued. “We’ll tie them up and drive them in the fomewagon. It still has another trip or two left in it.”
“Two more arrows in the chest would be a mercy to this city,” the man growled. “Worthless rats don’t need to—”
“Mmmph,” I managed weakly. “Mm! Mm!”
Opal stopped arguing long enough to notice me. “Don’t worry, Kata,” she murmured, her eyes still on the two criminals lying next to me. The tattooed Badlander who’d argued with her the night the looters came stood over them with his crossbow ready. She bent and removed my gag, then untied the ropes on my hands and feet. “Kalem and I will take care of this. Auntie will fix you up in the kitchen. You’ll feel just fine after a hot drink or two.”
“Come along, Kata,” Auntie called up from the next landing below us. “You’ll be right as rain in no time.”
From the way my ribs throbbed and jabbed me, I had a feeling that would not be the case. “Coming,” I said blearily, crawling off the landing like a toddler.
“I’ll help her,” Opal said. “You’ve got these two idiots under control, right?”
“I— C’mon, Opal—” Kalem sputtered indignantly. “Yes. I think I can guard two prone men with arrows sticking out of their bodies. Have a little faith.”
Opal didn’t answer, but as she gripped my elbow and supported me down the stairs, I heard her chuckle.
How could she possibly laugh about teasing the Badlander when I’d nearly been kidnapped a moment earlier?
As though she could feel my annoyance, she nudged me. “We knew they were coming. Been keeping an eye out ever since the looters took your things two weeks ago. We never would have let them take you, Kata.” She squeezed my arm and helped me down the last few steps to the first-floor hallway. “Anyone who stays at my villa is under my protection. I promise you that. And Auntie and I are not in the business of letting girls get snatched.”
My annoyance fled, replaced by a strange warmth that started in my chest and made my eyes start to water again. “Thanks.” My voice was hoarse. I didn’t think I could say anything else.
“We do what we can,” she said under her breath, so quietly I barely heard it. “Not that it’s ever enough.”
At that moment, the front door crashed open, and a member of the Wolf clan rushed in. Opal shoved me behind her and raised her crossbow. “Private property,” she growled. “Get out.”
The man lowered his own crossbow. “That you, Miss Kata? I heard screams. Just wanted to check.”
What in Theros? “Um … yes. It’s me.” I peeked out from behind Opal at one of Lucien’s guards from the library. His chest was heaving as if he’d been in a sprinting contest. “Some men tried to … um … kidnap me, I guess. I don’t know why. Opal stopped them. Who are you? What are you doing here?”
He shouldered his crossbow and rubbed a hand on the back of his neck, looking sheepish. “Lucien wanted us to keep an eye on you while he was gone. We’ve been taking shifts in the villa across the street.”
Opal spun to stare at me, her eyes wide. “Lucien … head of the Wolf clan’s entire guard? That Lucien?”
“Maybe.” I shook my head. “I don’t know what he—”
“Yes, Mistress,” the guard said. “That one.”
Opal was silent for a moment before she released a breath. “Well, if you’re here to help, there’s a Badlander watching two dirty rats on the landing, three floors up. He could probably use a hand getting them to the Wolf compound without killing them along the way.”
The guard nodded resolutely. “Of course, Mistress.” He nodded to me as I gaped at him. “Glad you’re well, Miss Kata.”
Opal supported me into the villa’s large, bare kitchen, where Auntie was feeding kindling into the stove. Even in the dim candlelight, the tile floor shone. It may have been cracked in several places, but it was still polished. “I take it you didn’t know you were being guarded.”
I swallowed. “He told me to be careful. I didn’t know he’d decided to take the matter into his own hands.”
Opal helped me into a chair at the kitchen table, set her crossbow down, and sat beside me. “I don’t know if trusting the Wolves is the best idea, but it’s not like you can go back now. Once they get their hooks in you, you’re stuck.”
“Claws.” Auntie wiggled her eyebrows at me from over Opal’s head. “Get their claws in you.” She chortled.
Opal rolled her eyes. “What I’m saying is, you’d be better off on your own. Like us. But if you really want protection, you could do worse. The Snake clan, for example.” She wrinkled her nose. “Backstabbing lo
wlifes, every one of them.”
I rested my elbow on the table and leaned my head on my arm. Exhaustion had hit me like heavy, smothering blanket. “I …” I didn’t know how to defend my choice to work for the Wolves without revealing that I had a purpose besides protection, so I decided to change the subject. “You really like being clanless?”
Opal snorted. “Like? We love it. Right, Auntie?”
Auntie finished pouring hot milk into three mugs, then drizzled a bit of honey into each. “Sure do.” Her expression darkened for a moment. “Better than being in the Wasp clan, that’s for sure.”
Opal shivered. “Hush. We don’t need to talk about that.”
I took the mug Auntie handed to me and huddled around it, letting the warmth chase the lingering tremors from my body. My ribs hurt—they hurt a lot. I didn’t think I’d ever been in this much pain, not even when my feet blistered in the Badlands. I could still feel the men’s rough hands on my shoulders and feet when they hauled me down the stairs. I didn’t know how I’d ever be able to sleep again. “I want to hear it,” I mumbled, rubbing my side gingerly. “I need a distraction right now.”
Opal exchanged a glance with Auntie. She was silent for a moment, staring into her warm milk like it held a tunnel into the past. “You want a story?” she finally asked. “I’ll give you a story.”
Chapter 29
The kitchen fire heated the room, but I couldn’t get warm enough. I gripped my mug tighter and watched Opal, my eyes gritty from exhaustion but too terrified to close.
Opal sipped her milk, and then she set it aside. “Thirteen years ago, my whole family worked for the Wasp clan. Neither of my parents were members, but my father helped run one of the largest, most-profitable businesses they owned. The Wasp clan was small, but they always got the best deals, and the money was very, very good.” She pressed her lips together. “Now we know why. They had a monster, a killer, controlled by her True Name, making sure they always got their way.”
I shivered at her ugly tone. Now was probably not the time to argue that Zel had been a victim of the Wasp clan, just like everyone else.
Opal gestured around the big, empty kitchen. “Our villa was one of the finest in the territory. We wanted for nothing. I was a bit … spoiled.” Her lips twitched, and Auntie winked at her as she took a seat with her own mug of milk. “Auntie here had the unenviable job of watching after me. I was always running off, sneaking into places I didn’t belong. There used to be a beautiful garden on the Wasp compound, and I always wanted to play in it. I didn’t know that the garden’s tower held the Wasp clan’s killer at the top. I never saw her. Just played by myself in the forest, stealing berries and climbing trees.”
“She was impossible, little Opal. I couldn’t keep up with her quick little legs.” Auntie flicked Opal’s cheek and laughed when she tried to dodge away. “And so pretty, she got away with every last antic, no matter how terrible. We had fun, though. The two of us, running wild a bit, no one paying us any mind. And then the clan battles started. Took me a while to realize the Wasps were trying to take over the city. Lady Drusilla wanted to be the Praetor—the one clan leader who ruled the rest of them. Of course, that didn’t go down well with the other clans. Things got bloody. I tried to keep my little Opal out of the way, but …”
“I was a runner.” Opal’s voice was hollow. “I never did like to listen.”
“She ran off early in the morning.” Auntie played with the handle of her mug. “I never worried too much. Knew I’d find her eventually. But that day, there was a battle at the compound gates. Two clans decided to take on the Wasps together. Arrows were flying, and mages on all sides were blasting guards halfway down the street. There was blood everywhere. It took me nearly an hour just to get through the streets and onto the compound. When I finally found Opal in the garden, she was shell-shocked. Couldn’t talk. Covered in rubble and spatters of blood, crouching on the far side of the tower, like she thought it would protect her from the battle. I checked her for wounds. The blood wasn’t hers. I realized she must’ve just stumbled into the battle, then backtracked right out, but her young mind had no way to process what she’d just seen. I planned to haul her out the back way and leave the territory until the fighting died down, just in case the Wasp defenses were overrun completely. But then …”
“The storm.” I didn’t realize I’d spoken until Opal nodded.
“The white cloud rolled over us before we could flee,” she said quietly. “We just hunkered down next to the tower and let it come. Knocked us out quickly. It was the tower that protected us from the brunt of the storm. That and the fact that it seemed to be focused more toward the other part of the compound, like it wanted to spare the monster in her tower. When we woke, nearly everyone in Wasp territory was gone.”
“Everyone but Drusilla and a few of her servants,” Auntie said sourly. “And her pet killer.”
“Auntie got me out. We took refuge in the Tiger clan slums for the better part of a year.” Opal shot Auntie a grateful glance. “They were hard times, but I wouldn’t have survived without her.”
“How could I have left you?” Auntie’s eyes crinkled. “It was only because of your ornery, disobedient spirit that we were both alive in the first place.”
Opal laughed dryly. “Anyway, when Drusilla fled and the Wolves took over, the city calmed down a bit. Then the plague came not long after. Auntie thought we’d be safer further from people, so we came back here. No one dared live here, with what had happened. So it was safe enough then, just like it is now.” She lifted one shoulder. “Been here ever since, and I have no plans to leave anytime soon.”
Auntie pursed her lips. “Because you won’t listen to me.”
I raised my eyebrows and looked between the two of them. “I thought you liked being clanless.”
“There’s more to life than just surviving,” Auntie grumbled. “She thinks having her own villa and a pocket full of marks is the pinnacle of existence.”
Opal’s nostrils flared. “In this city, it sure is.”
“And what about a certain Badlander who thinks you hung the moon and stars, who keeps coming back to board here when he’s got no good reason to?”
Opal shot Auntie a glare. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“Sure you don’t.” Auntie squeezed my hand. “If Kata here has eyes in her head, she’s noticed just like I have.”
Even with the pain in my ribs and the shaking of my hands, I felt my lips drift into a smile. “Oh, I’ve definitely noticed. Kalem, right?”
Opal’s sculpted, golden cheeks flushed dark red. “He’s never said a word about anything like that,” she mumbled. “Certainly, he’s never asked me to go with him to the Badlands.”
“Perhaps if you smiled every once in a while, he’d work up the courage.” Auntie tapped on the side of her mug. “The man’s not made of steel, Opal. Give him some encouragement.”
Impossibly, Opal’s cheeks turned a darker red. “Enough! I smile plenty. It’s not like there’s all that much to smile about in this forsaken city, is there?”
A man’s footsteps sounded outside the kitchen. Opal stood and hefted her crossbow in one, seamless motion. “Who’s there?” she called out, her voice like ice.
“Don’t shoot me, woman,” a man’s voice rumbled through the door. “It’s Kalem.”
She lowered the crossbow and glared at Auntie, who was giving her a wide, toothless grin and gesturing to her cheeks like she was giving her a tutorial.
Kalem opened the door and took a few cautious steps into the kitchen. “No arrows coming my way?” In the low light of the luminous, I could see the way his eyes fixed on Opal immediately, like Auntie and I barely existed.
Opal set her crossbow on the table. “You took care of those men, right?”
He frowned. “I said I would, and I did.”
Opal stared at him for a moment, studying him like she was taking his measure and hadn’t quite decided what she thought.
He ran a hand through his hair, looking bemused. “I’ll just—”
“Thank you.” Opal twisted her fingers in the ends of her long, dark braid and smiled warmly, her pretty face lighting up with a sudden brightness. “I’m glad I didn’t have to take care of them on my own.”
Kalem’s mouth dropped open. “I … uh …” He ran a hand through his hair again. “That’s— It’s—” He turned on his heel and walked toward the door, then spun around, looking disoriented. “You’re welcome.” He nodded once, as though reassuring himself, then turned and walked straight into the closed door.
Auntie shook with silent laughter as he stumbled back, pulled the door open, and managed to step through it without any additional mishaps.
It wasn’t until we heard his footsteps on the stairs that Opal finally settled back into her seat with a sigh.
“Guess there are some things worth smiling for, after all, huh?” Auntie winked at me.
Opal pulled her braid over her shoulder and began to play with the end again, her cheeks still flushed. “Guess so.”
When I finally went back upstairs alone, it was that little phrase that gave me the courage to get in my bed and pull the covers up to the chin.
Lucien’s guard was across the street. Opal and Kalem were well armed and knew what they were doing.
And apparently, even a hard, difficult woman who’d lost everything could find a reason to smile.
Guess so.
I slept straight through until dawn.
~
“—will have our first exam tomorrow,” Professor Kristof was saying.
I pulled myself out of a tired daze and tried to pay attention. Normally, his lectures were riveting, but I couldn’t stop staring out the library windows at the snowy square. It had been three days since my would-be kidnappers had thrown me down the stairs and taken arrows to the chest for their trouble. My ribs didn’t feel any better, and after three nights of painstaking work, I’d only crossed two more companies off the list in my journal. The pretty, sparkly blanket of fresh snow outside was about the only bright spot I could find, and I didn’t want to look away.