by Ellie Margot
“Cassian was just telling me about some of your adventures,” she said, smiling at him briefly before turning back toward Riette.
“He did?”
“Yeah, you’re a brave girl,” she said.
“Her words,” said Cassian, lifting the glass to his lips again, even though it was empty.
He shook the ice at the discovery, and Trinity jumped up.
She took the glass from his hand and leaned in to him before speaking softly close to his ear. “Let me take care of that.”
Riette watched her move quickly to the other side of the bar. “What was that supposed to mean?”
“My drink is empty.”
“Cassian.”
He turned at the tone of her voice. “Yes, Riette?”
“Don’t be a dick.”
He sat up straighter. “A dick, huh?”
“I just saw some shit—”
“What did you see?” asked Trinity. She stood on other side of the bar from her.
Riette sat back. She hadn’t realized how close she had gotten to Cassian or how much her hands wanted to find his neck.
But then she thought of Frank and how easy it was for him to manipulate that girl. A shiver went up her spine, and the flames found her fingers again.
They were lower than the vision line that Trinity had behind the bar, but Cassian saw what was happening. He stood up quickly, knocking the bar stool down as he did it.
Cassian stood in a place to block her from Trinity’s eyes and grabbed her hands, extinguishing the flames.
“Not here,” he whispered, and he looked suddenly sober.
“I’m trying to tell you—”
“Is there a problem?” Trinity asked. She leaned over the bar, and even Riette could see her bra.
She turned back toward Cassian, but he released her hands and turned toward Trinity.
“It’s nothing.”
Riette’s face burned. She stood next to Cassian’s seat after he righted it and sat back down.
“Cassian, your sister—” Riette started.
“Corin seems like a doll,” said Trinity.
Riette looked at her. She fought the urge to growl. “Yeah, she’s looking for him.”
“You all know where I’m at,” said Cassian. He picked up the new glass that Trinity set in front of him. It had more liquid than Riette was comfortable with, but she knew if she said anything, he’d drink it down faster.
“I’m not asking—”
“You don’t do a lot of that,” said Cassian.
“Really? We’re doing this here?”
“You all are too much,” said Trinity, but she didn’t look as happy as her voice sounded. Her eyes volleyed from Riette to Cassian.
“You’re not heading up,” said Riette.
Cassian turned away from her, giving her his back and lifting the glass to his lips.
“Cassian.”
He shook his head, and she heard him mutter something.
Trinity walked around from the other side of the bar, and she didn’t stop at her seat. She touched Riette’s arm and guided her a few steps away. “Men, right?” she said.
“What do you mean?”
“Maybe they grow them differently in Vitan, but most of them are... problematic.”
“Not Cassian,” said Riette. “Usually. Though he has a propensity for inserting his head all the way up his anus lately.” She watched his form, and she knew he couldn’t hear her from where she stood, but she almost wished that he could.
Trinity squeezed her arm, and the tattoo on Riette’s shoulder cooled a little.
“Don’t worry about him. We’re a relatively quiet place.”
Riette made a noise in her throat. Trinity lifted an eyebrow but didn’t comment.
She continued. “I’ve got him now. He’s okay. We’ll see you at dinner.”
And with that, she turned and walked back toward a man Riette could have sworn she knew better than anybody.
Chapter 9
The door shut behind her with a click when Riette left the bar. She gritted her teeth at the image of Cassian’s back turned toward her as he brought the glass back to his lips with another sip.
When she took a step into the hallway, she could feel the hum of energy in the air. It was a crackling, invisible thing.
Now she knew its origin. Her stomach churned at the idea, and she flicked the flames of her hands to light again.
Riette contemplated the idea of burning the place to the ground, but then she’d have to worry about getting everyone out, finding the book first, and figuring out the moral complications of deciding who was a scumbag and who deserved to jump ship.
She closed her eyes and willed the flames away once more. When she passed by Frank’s room, though, her palms itched.
When Riette got to the room upstairs, she knocked once on the door, and Corin opened it.
“Where is he?”
“He’s about four drinks in downstairs,” Riette said. She set her bag down on the bed and grabbed a hunk of Vitan from off of the shelf in front of her. She took off a large chunk and crunched it in her teeth.
Now that she had had enough of it, it was almost like jerky to her. It was woody, earthy, and smelled of tobacco and wood stoves.
“What’s wrong?” asked Corin.
Guy was on his bed, tossing a piece of bark into the air.
“Yeah, you looke lightly more pissed off than normal,” said Mekhi. “I mean, your baseline is other people’s full rager, but still.”
Riette took another bite. It scratched her mouth trying to get down, but she relished feeling something. Anything.
“I saw some shit I didn’t like, so we need to do this dinner, get the book, and get the fuck out of here. One of those is optional.”
“What happened?” asked Guy. He sat up on the bed and stopped playing with the bark.
“Where do you think Ella would keep it?”
“There’s roughly a clusterfuck of rooms here. It could be anywhere.” Mekhi moved closer to Corin, and they moved to sit on the edge of Riette’s bed.
“No shit,” said Riette quietly.
Messed up things aside, she needed to be focused on getting the book. Letting anything else distract her wouldn’t help.
That didn’t stop her from feeling like there was a fight in the air, one with her name on it. It was like the ground they were standing on was charged.
The tattoo burned brighter. It was like a beacon on her back. Her shirt burned, her skin tingled, and her eyes felt warped and stretched.
“Riette?” Corin asked.
“What?”
“So, he wouldn’t come with you?” asked Corin. There was a slight catch in her voice.
Riette suspected that she was just starting to figure out something about her brother, something that Riette couldn’t put into words yet.
“Yeah, yeah, yeah,” Guy said. “That’s a shame. Was Trinity still with him?”
Riette stared him down until he sat farther back on the seat.
“What? I’m supposed to be upset that the dude’s finally shook something loose?”
Riette’s tattoo burned, and her left eye twitched.
“Woah, your eyes are tweaking out right now, Ri,” said Mekhi.
Riette swallowed. She closed her eyes and tried to steady herself and her stomach. She put the bag down and laid it toward the backside of the bed.
“Is he okay?” asked Corin. She settled closer into Mekhi’s side.
“He’s fine,” said Riette. “It’s all of the other shit that’s fucked up.” She bit off another hunk and closed her eyes again. Her tattoo still burned, and her eyes still felt different.
She had almost pinpointed what it felt like when they flared up. She didn’t need to show all of her cards through her eyes every time she was upset.
“What did you see?” asked Guy.
When Riette opened her eyes, she saw that Guy had moved to sit on the end of his bed next to Corin with his hands
on his lap. Frown lines showed on his face.
She watched Guy’s face wrinkle. There was a question unspoken. She shook her head. The last thing she wanted to do was get pissed off again before they went to dinner.
“Just watch your back and travel together.”
“We can’t go into this dinner without him,” said Corin.
“He’s going to be there,” said Riette. “What he’ll act like after that much alcohol is what we don’t know.”
Riette took a breath. She had tried to rest a little before dinner, but in a room with all of the others, it was a hard task.
She kept running what she had seen over and over again in her head, and she didn’t like any of it.
“It’s time to go,” said Guy. He stood by the door and turned back toward the rest. “I know this probably goes without saying, but we shouldn’t go out of our way to piss Ella off.”
Riette sat up on the bed. “We have a mission.”
“And I get that, but making her mad or having her kick us out doesn’t get us closer to that mission. It makes things infinitely worse.”
“I’m not kissing the old lady’s ass,” Mekhi said. “There’s something up with her.”
“There’s something up with everything here, which gives us all the more reason to leave,” said Riette.
She stood up, grabbed her bag, and crossed the room to where Guy was waiting. The rest followed behind.
They followed each other to the landing, and Riette counted the doors as she went. They were seemingly in the area meant for sleeping and not for anything else if the air was any indication.
She didn’t feel the same charge up here, at least not to the same extent. It didn’t make Riette feel any more comfortable. She shifted the bag on her shoulder and rubbed her tattoo again.
When they got to the landing, she could see Trinity and Cassian at the bottom of the steps. They were huddled close together. Trinity was touching Cassian on his shoulder, but at the sight of him, Corin walked quickly down the steps.
“Cassian, we were waiting for you,” she said.
Cassian looked to Riette, and she saw his jaw twitch before he looked back to where his sister stood next to him.
“I just needed a moment alone,” he said.
“Well, you weren’t quite alone,” said Trinity.
He looked down at the floor and didn’t say anything.
Riette frowned before she realized she was doing it. The last thing Cassian needed to do was get attached to someone in the last place they should be.
“My grandmother should be waiting on us,” said Trinity. She ran a hand down her hair.
Guy stepped closer to her and placed a hand on her elbow. “You okay?”
She looked at him and then took a step back, toward where Cassian still stood. “I’m fine.” She forced a laugh. “It’s rare I get people here around my age to talk to.”
“It looks like you all get a lot of people,” said Riette, and she tried to keep any tones out of her voice. She didn’t need to let them know how disgusted she was before getting the book. Guy’s words rang in her ears, and she tried to heed them.
“Business people don’t really hang around to chat.”
“Does anyone?” asked Guy. “I mean, do you have any lifers here?”
“Frank is here a lot,” she started.
Riette took a step forward, within an arm’s reach of Cassian, and he stopped her from taking another step.
There was a slight stumble in his movement for moving quickly, but he closed his eyes, stood up taller, and opened them again.
“Are you okay?” asked Riette.
He watched her with something in his eyes that Riette couldn’t pinpoint.
“Let’s get to dinner,” he said.
They followed Trinity into a room at the back end of the inn.
Inside, there was a table to fit twenty. Each chair was black and high backed. The stitching on every chair was white and meticulously done.
Three of the chairs were occupied. Ella sat at the head of the table with Billy to one side and Frank to the other.
“The guests of honor have arrived,” she said. She opened her arms wide as if trumpets were about to play.
The room, in contrast to almost every other place that Riette had seen, made it seem like that wasn’t out of the realm of possibility.
“Have a seat anywhere,” she started. “There’s good for you,” she told Mekhi and Corin as they got closer to the side where Frank sat.
“I thought Trinity was giving you a tour of the world instead of just our little place,” Ella started. “With how long you were taking.”
“I’m sorry, grandmother,” Trinity said quickly. She looked under her lashes at Cassian. “I must have been distracted.”
Ella frowned slightly, and the action dug deep lines into her face. “You’re prone to that, aren’t you, girl?”
Trinity bit her lip and took her seat close to Frank. Riette didn’t move from her post. Cassian sat next to Trinity, but he pulled the seat out for her to join him.
Riette couldn’t take her eyes off of Frank though and neither did the object of her attention.
He raised an eyebrow, but when Riette didn’t react, he laughed to himself and placed the napkin on his lap.
“Is he staying?” Riette asked, nodding her head in Frank’s direction.
Ella smiled. She laughed softly before adjusting her own napkin. She looked back up at Riette before speaking. “Frank is family.”
“I’d be more comfortable here if he wasn’t.”
“Have I not been hospitable thus far? I pride myself on my guests having a wonderful time.” Ella considered Riette. “And that is what you are. A guest.”
“She’s always cagey around new people,” said Guy. “Your place is beautiful. Thank you for allowing us to stay.”
Cassian rested his hand on the top of Riette’s waiting chair. He didn’t say the request, but it was written in the expression on his face.
She crossed the room, sat next to him, and placed her bag in the chair next to that.
“I’m glad you like it,” Ella said. “I’m sure my granddaughter has been a gracious host as well?”
“She’s been great. Thank you.” Guy’s voice dripped with a honey salve Riette had never acquired.
“Yes, everything has been wonderful,” said Cassian. “We’re just happy to be under a roof.”
“Oh, the road can be dreadful,” said Ella. “Without the right friends, it can be downright dangerous.”
Riette bit the inside of her cheek. She tried not to look down at Frank. She did. But poking a lion was her weakness, especially when she was the larger lion. When her eyes found his seat at the table, she found Frank’s attention already squarely at her.
“Exquisite,” he said.
“Fucking pervert,” Riette said.
“Have I mentioned how much I like you?” asked Frank.
“You all have met?” Ella asked.
Billy shifted in his seat. He picked up the silverware and watched every person at the table as if he would be forced to use it.
Frank looked at Riette again. “I was with one of the girls—”
“I’m sure she has a name,” said Riette.
“And I’m sure if she mattered fuck all, I’d know it,” said Frank.
Riette moved in her seat, but Cassian placed a hand on her leg. She shoved it off.
“Maybe you’re confused about what we do here,” Ella said. “I may not have been clear.”
“You sell magic,” Riette said, and the accusation hung in the air like a bird hovering over the table.
“I sell companionship where magic is exchanged.”
Guy spoke up. “You don’t have to explain.”
“No, your friend seems morally outraged by the possibility,” said Ella. Her face didn’t show the anger that her tone implied. “It’s not a secret, I assure you,”
Ella settled back into her seat and considered Riette. “I’
m a Madam, girl. It’s not a lifestyle for everyone, but it works for me and for every girl or guy in here.”
Riette frowned. “They’re not all girls then? The one Frank was with—”
“How cavalier,” Ella said. “They’re old enough to say what they want, and despite your rash and inappropriate judgement, they want a place to stay. They want food. They want a life without having to worry about getting killed—”
“Just raped.”
“Riette,” Cassian said, cutting her off.
Ella looked down again. “I don’t know what gave you the impression that I care about what you think.”
A hush fell on the room. The tattoo burned to a fiery point on Riette’s shoulder. The words she could say tingled at her lips, but she tried to stop herself, calm herself.
It was a war she wouldn’t win. She knew that from inception. “I’m here for the book,” said Riette.
“I’m sorry,” Cassian said, trying to excuse her. “She’s upset. We fought earlier.” He turned toward Riette. “Not now. Not yet.”
“I’m not going to sit around here and play nice with these people,” she said at a level that only Cassian could hear. “They don’t want us here. I don’t want to be here.”
“I was wondering when you’d ask about it,” said Ella. “I’m sorry. I can’t part with it. It’s too valuable.”
And the flames appeared on Riette’s hands.
Chapter 10
Ella watched Riette’s reaction before Cassian could still her hands. Her reaction to what she had seen was written all over the expression on her face.
Her eyes widened, and her lips were pinched. Her hands, palm down on the table, gripped the tablecloth. But she said nothing.
“I’m sorry,” said Guy. “We’re all tired. We want to be here. I promise you.”
“You want the book?” Ella asked Riette, ignoring Guy’s words.
“That is why we’re here,” said Riette. Cassian still held her hands, and she didn’t fight him off because she didn’t want to take her eyes off of Ella or the monster sitting next to her.
“Then you’ll work for it.”
Riette sat forward, past Cassian’s shoulder. “I’m not a whore,” she said, her voice half growl.
