by D. N. Hoxa
“Did you by any chance offer her a job?” I asked, only looking at Sennan for a second.
He laughed heartily. “Gods, no. Why would I do such a thing?”
“So what the hell is she doing here?” Even the streets were safer than Sennan’s bar full of drunks.
“I’m betting you’re not going to like it,” the Arc said with another laugh.
“What the hell does that m—” Oh, I didn’t need to ask the question and he didn’t need to answer it, because I could see the imp who was walking toward Millie with a smile on his face all too clearly.
I watched him sit down across from her, and I watched Millie smile, too, like she was pleased he was there. The blood in my veins turned to stone for a second. Of course Millie would smile. She probably had no idea who the person sitting with her was.
Ale forgotten, I ignored Sennan’s calls to stop, and I made my way to them as fast as I could through the drunks, for once not caring if somebody wanted trouble.
With one hand close to my back pocket where I kept a knife just in case, I put the other on Millie’s shoulder, and I pulled her back on her chair. A gasp escaped her, but the imp didn’t look surprised. He’d probably seen me coming the second I turned their way. They said imps could see in all directions at all times without needing to move their devil eyes. Not sure if that was true, but at that time, I didn’t give a shit.
“Morgan, hi,” said Millie breathlessly, looking up at me in surprise.
“Hi, there, Simmy boy,” I said to the imp with a forced smile. Looking into his dark eyes was not easy. The urge to either fight him or get away was really great. He was taller than me, thinner, and dressed a thousand times better. He wore a light blue coat made of velvety fabric with silver buttons that he kept open as if to show off his white shirt and black trousers, which probably cost more than I made in two cage fights. His skin was very pale and his brown hair was perfectly combed, not too short but not too long, either.
“The name is Sim, but you already knew that, beast,” the imp said, only his smile felt a thousand times more real than mine because he knew how much I hated to be called that. It was the name the creatures of Vanah had given me. They called me beast because they refused to look at themselves in the mirror.
“If I didn’t know any better, I’d say you were willingly trying to ruin your rep by hanging out with humans.”
“But you do know better,” he said without missing a beat. He didn’t bat an eye. The asshole was good. He was also scared of me—that much I knew. He’d tried to kill me when I received my first pay from Sennan. He’d followed me after the fight, probably hoping I’d be too weak to fight back, but I hadn’t been. He ended up with bruised balls and a broken arm, and that’s just because I hadn’t known who he was until later; otherwise I’d have done a lot worse. He was weak in a fight, couldn’t move to save his life, but he didn’t need to, to do the thing he did best: he was a thief and everybody knew it. People kept away from him and the only reason he was still alive was because he belonged to the most dangerous drug lord in Vanah—Ulius the Arc.
“Yes, of course,” I said, as lightly as I could make my voice sound. “What I can’t figure out is what you think she has that you want.” I pointed at Millie. “It wasn’t love at first sight, was it?” I asked, feigning surprise.
“Why so curious?” He leaned back on his seat and crossed his legs. “Do I sense interest in your words?”
I grinned. “Drop dead, dirtbag.”
“You scare too easily for a beast,” he said with a rich laugh.
I pressed my lips in one last attempt to keep it together. “So tell me, what is it that you do exactly? You can’t be a worthless asshole all day, every day, can you?”
“Worthless?” He brought his hand to his chest. “At least give me some credit. Out of all the men in this room, this beautiful woman chose to sit down with me.” He looked at Millie and greed shone brightly in his dark eyes.
Playtime was over.
“Get up, real slow, and back the hell off,” I said to Sim. His fake smile made me wish I had him in Sennan’s cage downstairs, just for a few minutes. I’d love to beat the shit out of him real good one more time.
Raising his hands, he leaned back a bit. “Easy there, beast.”
“Morgan, what the hell?” said Millie in a hushed voice, and she stood up from her seat. She grabbed me by the arm to get closer to my ear. “Stop it. Sim is just trying to help me.”
“Exactly,” said the imp, smiling like he’d already tasted victory. “I’m only here to help.”
“What did I tell you about talking to anyone?” I said to Millie, my eyes never leaving Sim. “You’re in the company of someone who’s worse than everybody here combined.”
“Now you hurt my feelings,” said Sim, but I ignored him.
“Jesus, Morgan, you’re embarrassing me. You’re not my mother,” said Millie, stepping away from me, now angry. “If you don’t like Sim, just leave, okay?” She liked Sim? Come on! She had to see through his bullshit.
“Oh, I’m leaving—and you’re coming with me.” I made an attempt to grab her by the arm, but she jerked away.
“No, I’m not,” she spit.
“Look, whatever he said he was going to do, he lied, okay? He’s nothing but a thief and a manipulator. You’re safer if you come with me, right now.” I looked at Sim’s face, his smile, his pitch black eyes. How could she not see the monster that he was? The rumors about him went for miles, and I wasn’t one to believe in everything I heard, but if only ten percent of it was true, then Sim was nobody you wanted near you, ever. He’d killed more people with his lies and thievery than Sennan’s cage killers.
“I’m not going anywhere,” Millie said through gritted teeth. “Please leave me alone. I told you I was going to find a way back home, and I did. You’re not helping.”
Narrowing my brows, I shook my head. “He’s lying to you.”
“I’m not, I promise,” said Sim, and if I could kill him with my eyes, he’d have already bled out.
“Is he now?” said Millie, feigning surprise. “So there’s not a tenth master you just forgot to mention, who lives right here in Alfheimr, and who’s under the obligation to take me home upon my request?”
What the…
I turned to Sim. “You sonovabitch,” I spit. I knew very well what he’d done.
“Don’t blame the messenger,” he said with a shrug. He was enjoying all of this, the bastard.
“Millie, you don’t know what you’re talking about,” I whispered, hoping she’d listen to me for once.
“No, no, tell me, is he telling the truth, or is he lying, Morgan? Because it seems to me, you’re the only liar here.”
God, she was so naive, I wanted to shake her until some sense slipped into her head.
“Look, there is a tenth master, but he’s very, very far away, and the man has gone insane a long time ago, okay? He kills everyone who goes near him. He lives alone in a fucking mountain, and nobody has seen him for decades. There’s a reason why not even the other masters speak to him. He’s out of his mind, more dangerous than you could imagine.”
The master she was talking about, one Sim so conveniently told her about, was Kassian—the dragon god. They said he used to turn into a big ass dragon and that he grew so greedy after Ragnarok that he stole all the gold of the nine worlds and hid it in a mountain he protected with his life. He never came out, and nobody who ever went there made it back. Kassian had lost his mind when the gods died, and people didn’t even say his name out loud in the streets. The man was worse than the devil.
“Not according to Sim,” said Millie before sitting down on her chair again. “And you know what, even if he is whatever you say he is, I’d rather take my chances than sit here and wait to die.”
“I’m sorry to tell you this, Morgan, but she’s right. He’s the only chance you have,” Sim said, a knowing smile on his face.
“You bastard. You know it’s impossibl
e to get there. You know he’ll kill her if he ever lays eyes on her.” I slammed my hands on the table. Nothing made me angrier than people trying to take advantage of the innocents. “What the hell are you trying to gain from this?”
“Nothing at all!” said Sim. I could see right through him, but Millie was in awe of his every word. “I just want to help a lost soul. I’m going there myself—I’m merely taking her along with me. There’s no need for a thank you even.”
Oh, this was rich. Lost soul? He had to be high on something.
“If you were smart, you’d come with,” said Millie, her wide eyes hopeful for once. “Three years is a long time to spend in this place. If there’s a chance, just one chance—”
I couldn’t take it any longer.
“There is no chance!” I shouted, not caring that everyone could hear us. Screw everyone—screw them all. For three years I was alone, the only freak in the city. Now, another human comes along, and this dirty imp wants to get her killed?
Suddenly, Sennan appeared by the table, his brows narrowed, anger sparking in his blue eyes. “I believe you’re going to take this outside—now,” he said, his voice low, emotionless, before he turned around and left. It wasn’t a request—it was an order. He was throwing us out.
I wasn’t sure whether to thank him or flip him off for interrupting, but Millie sure seemed pissed. Without waiting for either of us, she stormed toward the door, ignoring the stares of the maniacs who could picture their hands on her and refused to even hide it. To pick a fight with Sim now would potentially harm my relationship with Sennan. He’d given us an order in front of everyone, and no matter how I talked to him when we were alone, he’d made it clear on several occasions that he wanted nothing but respect in front of others.
Maybe that was a good thing. Outside, I could beat Sim to a pulp if he continued to try to manipulate Millie.
The cold May air filled my lungs and cleared my head of some of the anger. All I needed to do was get Millie out of there and talk some sense into her until she saw for herself.
But she had other ideas.
“This is ridiculous!” she shouted, even though there were others walking by who could hear us. Sim, on the other hand, was delighted to witness such a scene. “I don’t know you and you don’t know me. Whatever you think you’re doing, you need to stop it. I’m a grown woman, and I can do whatever the hell I want!”
“I’m trying to help you here.” I slowly moved closer to her but she kept stepping away. “You don’t know who you’re dealing with. I promise you’re not going to find what you’re looking for if you listen to him.”
“Whereas I promise you that you will,” said Sim with a grin on his face. Perfect timing. I spun around and hit him right in the face before he had the chance to move away. The satisfying noise that his nose made when his bone broke almost made all of this worth it. Seeing his blood again was heaven—only for a second. Then Millie grabbed me by my arm and pushed me away while she took Sim’s face in her hands and inspected his bleeding nose.
“I can’t believe you did that! What the hell, Morgan?”
“I don’t know what your intentions are, but you’re going to leave her out of this,” I said to Sim. “She’s innocent. She doesn’t know shit about this place. You have millions of others to play your games with.”
“I’m not playing games,” he said, angry for a change. I loved to see that pretty face without the sneaky smile. “I told her the truth. I’m going to Arkanda, and all I did was offer to bring her with, but you? You’re just a coward, and that’s not my problem.” Then, he turned to Millie. “If you want to come with me, you have to decide right now.”
“Of course I do!” she said the next heartbeat.
“Millie, no.”
“Stop it!” she snapped at me. “Just leave!”
“It’s not going to be easy. It will take us almost two weeks to get there, but once we do, it will have been worth it,” Sim continued.
“I don’t care as long as we find the master and he takes me home. That’s all I want,” Millie said, her eyes full of tears. It broke my heart to see her like that—so hopeful.
“If you need to think about it, that’s fine. I’m telling you, it’s dangerous. The path to Mount Arkanda is a deathtrap,” he continued.
“So why the hell do you want to go there?” I hissed. The people were watching us—I could feel their eyes on the back of my head, but how could I stop?
“Because I have business with Kassian,” Sim answered without hesitation. “I know how to get there, and I know how to get through…everything.”
“I believe you,” Millie said with a smile.
She was crazy to.
But…was she?
Sim worked for Ulius, who wasn’t the dragon god, but an Arc people were terrified of. What if he was the one to send Sim to Mount Arkanda? What if he’d given Sim the means and the knowledge to get to Kassian?
“But he’ll kill us,” I whispered, unable to believe that I was actually thinking about this. After all the stories I’d heard, some of them from Sennan himself, I couldn’t be this dumb, could I?
“That, I cannot guarantee,” said Sim, feigning sadness. God, he was so good at it, too. “It’s a chance you’ll have to take, I guess.”
“Then I’ll take it,” said Millie.
Shaking my head, I laughed. He was delusional if he thought I was going to fall for this bullshit.
“He said it himself, Millie—it’s a deathtrap. Trust me, this will not end well. Just come with me—please.” I hadn’t used that word in so long, it felt foreign on my tongue, but I was desperate. I cared about Millie because she was like me—the only one like me in that godforsaken place, and if that made me a bad person, so be it. I couldn’t just let her go like this.
“No. I’m going. If there’s a chance, I’m taking it,” she said, shaking her head. “I’m not going to give up.” The judgment in her eyes was like a slap to my face.
I turned to Sim again. “You don’t have the faintest idea how to even fight. What are you going to do when thieves worse than you, stronger than you, step in your way? What the hell are you going to do when they catch you?” I spit. He had to have thought about that. “Neither of you know how to defend yourselves, for God’s sake!”
“So come with us,” said Sim, his eyes shining under the faint moonlight. “You can fight. You can keep Millie safe.”
The asshole. “You’re going to get her killed.” And he couldn’t have cared less about it.
“I’m leaving at dawn through the bridge,” he said, taking a step back. “You’re more than welcome to join me—both of you. That’s all I’m going to say.”
Millie grabbed him by the arm. “No, no, no, I’m coming with. I’m definitely coming with.”
He smiled at her like she was a child and he the Big Bad Wolf. “Smart choice.”
She held his hand tightly while he led her away. And I? I just stood there watching them disappear into the darkness, trying to calm myself down enough so that I could hear my own thoughts.
In the end, I admitted to myself that that wasn’t going to happen, so with half a heart, I turned around and rushed back to my apartment. Breaking things wasn’t my style, but that night, I wanted to break the entire world with my bare hands.
Was I the fool in this story? Was Sim really telling the truth? Did he know the way to Mount Arkanda?
Masters were obligated to take humans back at their request. That was the truth—everybody knew it. Getting to a master to make that request was impossible as I’d found out month after month of failed attempts, but what if it was actually possible to stand in front of one? Kassian might be insane, but he was still a master and the rules applied to him as well.
And…what if the people who’d never made it back from the mountain had actually crossed through the screens with him?
The hope made a bloody mess of my insides until I remembered where I was, what I’d seen, everything I’d experienced.
There wasn’t much that scared the creatures of Alfheimr, and if something did, chances were it was real. Kassian was a murderer. He was mentally unstable—master or not.
But how could I stop Millie from walking herself right into her death alongside Sim? The question of what he had to gain from this drove me crazy. Why target Millie? She literally had nothing to give him—the clothes on her back were mine. People like Sim didn’t do things just because they were Good Samaritans. That much I was sure about.
Knocking my boots off, I lay on my bed and stared at the cracks in the ceiling. For three years I’d wondered when I’d get a break, when I’d find a way out. I’d yearned for a sign, an opening, an opportunity. What if this was it?
As soon as I closed my eyes, Millie’s face appeared behind my lids. She had no idea…but maybe she did. Maybe she knew more than me. Her grandmother was sick. She needed to get back. She had someone to go back to, and I didn’t. Was that why I had given up? Nobody had mourned me when I disappeared. Nobody had searched for me, except maybe the police. But her grandmother was probably searching every inch of the City for her niece. How could she not take a chance, no matter how slim, to go back to her?
And how could I let Millie go knowing what was out there and knowing she couldn’t protect herself?
A loud sigh escaped my lips. “God help me.”
Four
The grey sky was a bad sign—we were not going to see the sun today. The clouds were just there to make my mood worse because it rarely ever rained in Vanah. In total, it had rained twelve times in the three years I’d been here, and the rain had smelled of acid, as if the clouds were infected with something. But who was I kidding? Nothing in this place was safe.
With my old backpack strapped to my back, I hid behind the corner of a building and looked at the bridge. There was only one of those in our neighborhood—a nameless one everybody referred to as “the bridge.” It had to be the one Sim was talking about the night before. The river that passed under it was green and dirty, but oddly, it didn’t smell. Nothing lived in it as far as I knew, and the people here swore that once upon a time, that river had had the bluest water in the nine worlds, and Odin himself had blessed it with the most beautiful fish in existence. Hard to believe that such a time even existed. Funny—I’d been there for three years, had seen all kinds of things that still made no sense to me, but to believe in gods who could do things my imagination was too limited to come up with? Yeah, that wasn’t going to happen.
