The Last Coffee Shop

Chapter 22: Trading Mistakes

Mads closed her eyes against the pounding and the light. "Oh." Talking hurt. But so did breathing. She wished she would pass out again. The hands hovered over her right shoulder, she could feel them in the air above her. Her skin prickled a warning, and she realized that her right side was strangely numb.

"This is going to hurt, very, very badly," said the voice. "But it will be fast." The hands were cool and dry, and she felt their light pressure near her collarbone, just before she was jolted by a bolt of pain that sent her reeling back into the darkness.

The third time Mads was forced back into consciousness because of the pain. She groaned, and like a slap to the face, she remembered everything.

"Welcome back," said Luc, from somewhere beside her.

Luc, now she knew him. But why was Luc here?

Mads glared at a spot on the wall in front of her, waiting for her vision to clear and her head to stop spinning. She seemed to be sitting on a chair in a plain, unfamiliar room. She was afraid to move more than her eyes, lest the pain overwhelm her again. Regardless, the aches and burning sensations were more numerous than she could have ever imagined. It felt like someone had tried to shred her and then jumped on top of her for a while.

"I lost," she muttered. "He cheated."

"But you didn't die, so that's a win in itself. And from what I heard, you actually won a round – and gave Caddeus a scar to remember you by." Luc was doing something suspicious at her side, but she didn't want to try moving to find out what it was. "I'm glad my little token helped out."

Token? Mads frowned. What was he talking about? Oh, the hairpin, she remembered. I cheated too.

"You'll be fine." He moved into her peripheral vision. "Your arm was wrenched pretty badly. Not out of the socket, but it was definitely strained, so you'll want to leave it in the sling for a few days. You don't seem to have any broken bones, or even cracked ribs, just some heavy bruising. 'Stel said that you were hopping around like a rabbit in there, so I guess it paid off. You're going to hurt like hell for weeks, though."

Luc was sitting on a rolling stool, making their height difference less apparent as he rolled round to the front. "This is going to leave a scar." He reached out and lightly tapped a spot below her collarbone. She could feel the pressure through what seemed to be wads of gauze and some sort of numbing agent.

"We stitched it up as best we could. Same with the cut on your face. You're lucky that Caddeus is pretty honorable, and that he didn't take you seriously. He only smuggled in a finger-blade."

Mads stared at Luc's arm, trying to process what he was talking about. "No knives," she managed. "No knives allowed. That was honorable?"

Luc's mouth twisted up, and his eyes glinted. "Rules don't really matter inside the cage. Lucky for you, or you'd be dead."

Mads just stared at his mouth in fascination. His canines really were long and pointed. "You have fangs," she mumbled.

Luc just blinked at her. His eyelashes were very long, soot dark. And seriously, his eyes had to have been enhanced. There was no way they could be natural, that shade of green, with those amber rings around the pupils. And his snake pupils.

He smirked, this time with no teeth. "I gave you something for the pain. It's probably making you a bit loopy. You might hallucinate, see things that aren't there, or feel sort of, giddy."

Mads scoffed, which made her chest hurt. She'd never been "giddy" in her life, and she wasn't about to start.

Luc stood up. "Point is, anything you see, say, or do, can't really be trusted till it's all out of your system."