Page 70 of This Dark Descent
Then where are they?
“Now, who was it you were looking for?” Vix asked, startling her from the conversation. When had she started speaking back to the voice?
“Two men.” Ari focused on the present. “They’d have been in here just over a month ago.” She described them best she could, which was very well indeed. Their faces were seared into her mind.
Vix nodded slowly. “I know who you mean. They ran up a tab and refused to pay. If Lady Adair hadn’t stepped in, I’d have been out quite a bit.”
Ari nearly dropped her spoon. “Lady Adair?”
As if summoned by her name, there was a rustle of cloth at Ari’s side like the flutter of wings, and Shira Adair folded herself into the seat beside her. Dark curls spiraled about her tired face, but her smile was warm.
“Always happy to help, Vix,” Shira said. “Would you give me and Arielle a moment alone? I’ll be back to fix that coldbox for you in a bit.”
“Sure thing. Let me know if you need anything.” Vix snatched up their rag and ambled back into the pub.
“What do you want?” Ari blurted.
“And here I thought we’d become friends.” Shira leaned over the counter,snatching a roll from a basket. Tearing off a piece, she stuck it in her mouth and turned her stool to face Ari. “What interest have you in Fen and Cardix?”
Ari’s hand went to her throat. “They attacked me.”
“And?”
“And—” Her eyes narrowed. “And it’s none of your business. Unless you want to tell me where they are?”
“They’re dead, of course.”
Ari’s spoon clattered to the counter. A complex web of emotions spun through her. She knew she ought to care, if only for the loss of life. She ought not to feel so relieved. Damien had promised they wouldn’t harm her again, but she’d still thought about them constantly. Or rather, about the fear they’d left behind in her like the seeds of some vicious flower.
“I don’t understand,” she said at last, aware of the way Shira watched her like a specimen beneath a microscope. “Who killed them?”
“My brother, or someone who works for him, more likely.” Shira tore off another piece of bread. “Did you expect otherwise?”
“He said he’d let them go…” She trailed off.
“For all his faults, my brother doesn’t lie, Miss Kadar. Though he may occasionally omit the truth.” She tossed the bread into her mouth.
She was right. Damien had said he’d let them go; he’d never said he wouldn’t do anything to them after.
Shira finished the last of the roll and wiped her hands. “Most likely, he thought to spare you the burden of knowing. But he wouldn’t allow someone to live who was so obviously a threat to you and, by connection, him.” She reached for another roll, though her eyes never left Ari. “Does it bother you? Those men had done terrible things, after all. I’d count you among the luckier of their victims.”
Ari didn’t know how to answer that. Those men had known dangerous information about her. Information she’d just threatened to let a wolf tear off a man’s hand for knowing. Still, she hadn’t wanted them dead.
Didn’t you, though?asked the voice.Doesn’t it make you feel powerful, knowing he had them killed for you? Knowing that if you found them, you could have done it yourself?
I wouldn’t have.She clung to the thought.
“Are you all right?”
Ari looked up, realizing she had a hand pressed to her temple as if to shove the voice out. But she couldn’t. She might as well tear away a piece of her own soul. That voice, that darkness, they were a part of her. Theywereher.
She lowered her hand. “I’m fine. I don’t know what your motivation is for interfering, but stop following me.”
She expected Shira to refute her, not to look at her with a quiet sadness in her dark eyes. “I love my brother, but he has a way of losing himself to his scheming. He doesn’t know when he’s in over his head. I know he’s up to something. Be careful that you don’t get caught in the undertow.”
She placed a gold mark on the counter and stood, something shifting about her neck. A necklace with a lion’s fang, just like her own. Shira’s fingers closed around it.
“If you decide you want out, ask for me at my family’s pub, the Dark Horse,” she said. “I’ll find you.”
