Page 4 of The Iron Hex

Evasiveness often meant that the client was going to come back and ask for a love potion, one of the few alchemical workings that Eira simply refused to create. Love potions could be powerful, life-altering creations, and Eira shuddered to think of the implications of something so potent. This man, Hugo, was behaving strangely, and clearly trying to make his unspoken request seem nonchalant. Eira would certainly be surprised if a man with his looks was looking for a love potion—but she also wouldn’t rule it out. Perhaps his personality was even worse than he was showcasing right now.

“I’m not asking for anything nefarious here,” Hugo said, leaning slightly toward Eira as if he had read her mind. “I genuinely have an appointment to get to, so I don’t have time to give you all of the information that you’re looking for right now. I’ll come back to you when I have some more time.”

She exhaled.

“I’ll be here during my normal opening hours then,” she said, trying to play it cool while also deciding if she was going to create some sort of potion that would ensure that he couldn’t cross the threshold of her store ever again.

Something about Hugo’s proximity had her feeling warmer than usual, yet a shiver ran through her body when she watched him look her up and down quickly once more before smiling,his lips curling higher on one side and his eyes crinkling at the edges. He was handsome, but something about him had her feeling uneasy, like she was prey being circled.

“It’s a date,” he said with a wink and turned, his cloak moving with him as he headed out the door.

Eira stood still, shocked.

Pennyroyal crept out of her hiding spot and tutted at Eira as she stood staring at the door, lost in thought. When Eira didn’t snap out of her thoughts, Penny stomped her paws on the desk, which startled Eira just enough to take a breath and shake her head slightly as she reoriented herself. She looked down into the rabbit’s eyes. Penny’s nose was twitching as she tried to figure out what was wrong with the person who fed her.

“I’m fine,” Eira said, trying to convince herself more than the rabbit.

Penny stomped her paws again on the desk in response, and Eira knew the rabbit was trying in her own way to say that she wasn’t sure about this mysterious man.

Thankfully, within minutes, more customers came into the store and Eira’s day was washed away with the business of quickly eating her sandwich, restocking spells, and creating quick potions for customers who came in looking for bespoke workings.

She blissfully puttered around her store, doing what she did best: magic.

By the end of the day, she had nearly forgotten about the brazen, handsome man that had so wildly shaken up the start of her afternoon.

She brushed a wayward strand of hair out of her face as she leaned on the countertop after locking the door and closing the shop for the night.

“All right, Penny,” Eira said as she tapped her bag. “Let’s go home and get ready for the evening.”

4

Rhona

Guard duty had gotten progressively more boring as Rhona stood at the edge of the cliffs for hours. The sounds of the crashing waves far below could have lulled her to sleep on a bad day—but she was still riding the high of her future with the Iron Retinue. Rhona was antsy to learn what Lord General Kerrigan had planned for her. Maybe stationed somewhere to the east where she could see the mountains again, or the south... she’d never gotten to swim in the sea before. Part of her dreamed that she’d be put on a mission in another country. Three years of guarding would be worth it—hadtobe worth it.

Out of the corner of her eye Rhona spotted Lord Wilmer stumbling along the path toward her. It wasn’t even noon yet, and the man already seemed drunk. She thought about Lady Heathecote’s words to her just a few hours ago:Keep a close watch on Lord Wilmer today.

Unfortunately, Lord Wilmer’s drunkenness was no surprise to anyone walking through the garden. She’d keep an eye on him as he walked out of the gardens and onto an area of the road where he couldn’t fall off of three-hundred-foot cliffs.While Lord Wilmer’s drunkenness was a pain in her backside, she knew that he managed a lot of the smaller iron mines in the south; his well-oiled machine of a business had been imperative to equipping the Iron Retinue, which meant he was invaluable.

Rhona stepped forward to escort him out of the space, and as she did, he stumbled directly to the edge of the cliffside they were standing on. Rhona moved without thinking, jumping and grabbing the man’s leg as he tumbled over the side of the steep, jagged cliff face.

“Please! Help me!” he screamed, wiggling to try to get himself back up, loosening Rhona’s grip.

“You need to stop moving so I can pull you up,” Rhona shouted, grasping his leg with both hands.

She could hear the gasps behind her, then the white noise of the nobility mingling halted as they all watched her gripping the ankle of the drunkest man they knew. Rhona fleetingly wondered if some of them already had their plans made if something happened to him.

Everything was a game to these people.

If she let him die, there would be no chance that she’d ever rise in rank. Unable to save even a single tiny nobleman? And an important one at that? She hated how much that thought meant she was playing the game too.

He wriggled again, and Rhona responded by grabbing his ankle tighter than she needed to. She heard him grunt in pain below her as she started to pull herself up from the cliffside, and the man along with her.

“Help me!” he shouted again as he was slowly lifted from certain death, the roiling black waves below crashing against the cliffs.

Moments later, Rhona painstakingly dragged him over the lip of the cliffside and he was left gasping on the ground, panicked and shaken.

“You hurt my ankle!” he said, sitting up and touching theankle Rhona had just let go of, wincing as his fingers brushed his skin.