Aelin
The other four males that made up my family were waiting in the living room when Cassian and I emerged from the warehouse below. It was evident from their sharp glares that they had heard every word that was uttered down there. Based on the censure in their eyes, it was clear that not only did they agree with everything Cassian had said, but that they themselves were far from pleased that I had doubted their devotion at all.
I was still reeling from the conversation with my hard-headed mate, so the realization that I hadn't scared any of them away, that I wouldn't have to learn to live without my mates by my side - well, it nearly knocked the air clean from my lungs. It felt far too miraculous for me to wrap my head around, but the truth of it was slowly sinking in, cementing itself in my very bones.
They weren't leaving. They weren't frightened by me. No matter what I did, who I had to become, they would never leave, would never desert me.
I felt tears prick in my eyes, even as they turned murderous eyes my way, no doubt prepared to rip me a new one.
Mercifully, and much to my mate's dismay, they didn't have much time to lay into me before Lysandra came barging into the apartment, chirping with far too much enthusiasm for someone who had been supposedly sobbing only hours before.
Now, they were hovering behind us like wraiths while Lysandra and I strolled towards a quaint, packed little bakery positioned alongside a nicer stretch of the docks. Dressed in our finest, frilliest dresses, we appeared like nothing more than two wealthy women on an afternoon stroll through the city, trailed by two bodyguards each.
Bodyguards who tensed when two gentlemen passed us, boxes of baked goods in hand, and gave us appreciative nods. Refraining from rolling my eyes at their theatrics, I shot the strangers a simpering smile and slipped past them towards the mouth-watering scent of bread and sweets.
Rowan, Cassian, Azriel and Rhysand stayed outside as we entered the crowded shop, leaning against the wooden dock as they watched us through the large glass window of the bakery. They were clothed and hooded in black, wearing two separate coats of arms - both fake, provided by Lysandra's seemingly unending supply of disguises. Somewhere nearby, Nesryn lurked, careful to not be associated with our group.
"That one," I said under my breath as we pushed through the lunch-time crowd, my attention fixed on the most harried-looking woman behind the counter.
I caught her eye, not missing the way she barely spent any time taking me in. She was flustered, hair frizzy and brow damp with sweat.
"What can I get you, miss?" She asked quickly.
Polite, but already sizing up the customers clustered behind Lysandra. Too busy to really note the clientele, wholly focused on getting us out of the way as quickly as possible.
"I want to talk to Nelly," I said with saccharine sweetness. "She was to make me a bramble berry pie."
The woman narrowed her eyes, and I flashed a winning smile, unblinking beneath her suspicion. Sighing, she turned and hustled through the wooden door to her right, momentarily revealing a glimpse at the chaos of the bakery behind it. She returned a moment later, giving me a She'll be out in a minute look before going right to another customer.
Fine by me. I had no desire to provide her with more of an opportunity to study us.
Lysandra and I stepped to the side, content to await the arrival of this Nelly.
"So Clarisse had no idea?" I asked under my breath, watching the other patrons closely.
"None," Lysandra hummed. "And any tears she shed were for her own losses. You should have seen her raging when we got into the carriage, with my debts cleared and only a few more coins to her name."
I nearly snorted. That was something I would have paid dearly to witness. I'd always hated that manipulative bitch, and it was about damn time she got what was coming to her. The will was only the beginning.
Lysandra cleared her throat delicately, and I shot her a glance out of the corner of my eye.
"You - You didn't need to do that, you know, I would have paid my own debts eventually," She said softly, but not weakly. "Obviously you know how much money - and well, all you've done is painted yet another target on your back."
I arched an eyebrow at her. I'd wondered when this was going to come up.
"I've had a target on my back since the day I was born." I said nonchalantly, "Besides, you couldn't really think I'd leave you enslaved to that witch?"
Alarmingly, her emerald eyes began to glisten with unshed tears. She sniffed quietly.
"I don't ... I don't know what to say to you. What you've done for me, for Evangeline ..." She trailed off, shaking her head in disbelief.
"Well, I'm sorry if you wanted to do the noble thing and stick it out for another decade, but you have to understand there wasn't a chance in hell I was leaving either of you in her vile clutches. Besides, this way I could lay the blame squarely at Arobynn's feet - it was too good of an opportunity to pass up." I shrugged. "At least I didn't have to orchestrate your rescue as well."
Her brows furrowed, "What -"
I cut her off, my word sharp with a fury not aimed towards her or anyone else present.
"Apparently my secret wasn't the only one Arobynn knew," I ground out, anger rising at what else I had found in the original will. "The bastard's last act in death would have been to send a letter to the King's guard, revealing your ... unique heritage. He really was a fucking snake."
My friend blinked, the meaning of my words washing over her a second later. That Arobynn had a plan to ruin her, that would result in, at the very least, her being tossed into the castle dungeons, if not killed on sight. All because she was a shapeshifter, albeit one that couldn't access her powers. A plan that I foiled.
For a moment, all Lysandra could do was gape at me. Her mouth opened and closed several times, as though she couldn't find the words.
Elbowing her sharply in the ribs, I hissed, "Shut your mouth, would you? We're supposed to be refined ladies, and you're ruining our cover."
She clamped her jaw shut, a single tear cascading down her cheek from glimmering, jewel-tone eyes. Of course the annoying courtesan would still look beautiful when she cried.
"Aelin, I - I don't know how I'll ever repay you," she breathed out on a croak.
Fixing her with a stern look, I said firmly, "You have nothing to repay. You have already gone above and beyond what I could have ever asked of you. Now wipe your tears before some galant gentlemen tries to aid the poor damsel in distress. I have no desire to see yet another man panting at your feet. Pray tell, were you taught to look stunning when you cried, or is that just another thing to hate about you?"
Lysandra huffed a laugh, but wiped away her tears and mastered herself while I cast my gaze back towards the bakery crowd. Of course, this vein of conversation brought something else to mind, a thought that wouldn't be ignored.
"How are you feeling?" I asked quietly. "After the other night."
Lysandra joined me in observing the shop, watching three young women giggle to one another as they passed a handsome young man. "Fine. I can't quite believe we got away with it, but ... we pulled it off, somehow."
I nodded, understanding completely. But still, I had to be sure ..
"Do you regret doing it?" I whispered, my heart seizing in my chest as I awaited her response.
Almost imperceptibly, the courtesan squared her shoulders.
"No. I regret ... I regret not doing it sooner, if I'm being honest. I regret that I didn't do it the day after he had Wesley killed. I could have. Every night I spent in his bed I had the opportunity, but ..." Her green eyes were hard as flint. "What about you, do you wish you had been the one to do it?"
For so long, I had dreamed about it. For so long, it was one of the only things that kept me going, but after everything that happened, everything I learned he had inflicted on not only me ...
"No."
We locked eyes for a split second, a million words passing between us unsaid, and that was that.
There was nothing else that needed to be said.
Glancing down at my friend's saffron gown, I smirked, deciding to lighten the mood.
"I'm surprised I haven't seen you in that gown before. It suits you, not to mention what it does for them," I said, jerking my chin toward's her burgeoning bosom. "The poor fools in here can't tear their eyes away."
Lysandra snorted, but arched her back in a stretch. I think one of the young men in the shop actually drooled at the sight.
"Trust me, they're not always a blessing. My back hurts all the time," she groaned. "These will be the first to go once I get my powers back."
I chuckled under my breath, though I didn't miss the certainty of her words. She had no doubt I would succeed in returning magic to these lands. My chest warmed at her faith in me, even as I swore to myself that she wouldn't regret it.
That clocktower would come down, one way or another. I only hoped that this little visit resulted in what I thought it would.
"Honestly," Lysandra continued, "if it weren't for Evangeline, I think I'd just turn into some kind of feral beast and live in the wilderness forever."
My brow rose at that. For as long as I'd known her, Lysandra enjoyed living in the lap of luxury as much as I did, maybe more. Though perhaps we'd both reveled in it in an attempt to ignore the darker aspects of our lives.
"You'd leave all the luxury behind?" I asked.
Lysandra hummed in contemplation, pulling a bit of lint off my sleeve.
"Don't get me wrong, I love the gowns, the jewels, the general opulence of it all. But in the end ... it's all replaceable." She shrugged, something rare gleaming in those emerald eyes of hers that I'd never seen before. "I've come to value the people in my life more."
A lesson I'm sure was hard taught, after losing Wesley the way she had. For the first time, I wondered if a certain, spirited eleven-year-old had saved Lysandra as much as the seasoned courtesan had spared her from a life of horror.
"Evangeline is lucky to have you," I murmured, meaning every word.
Lysandra turned to face me fully, face uncharacteristically solemn.
"I wasn't only talking about her. I'm grateful for you. Grateful we had this second chance. Grateful for the future we now have the chance to seize." She winked at me. "Because you'd better think twice if you think you're getting rid of me now. I'm with you to the end - especially since it would appear that those mates of yours finally knocked some sense into you and pulled you out of that ridiculous self-pitying spiral."
My mouth fell open, and I might have said something, found some way to adequately express the wave of overwhelming gratitude I felt in that moment - for her, for her friendship, for her loyalty and unwavering support - had a slim, brown-haired woman not emerged from the kitchen door. Nelly.
It was showtime.
Adopting an appropriately vacant expression, I flounced towards the counter, Lysandra in tow.
Cautiously, the frail woman asked, "You wanted to see me about a pie?"
Her hands shook faintly, but not from nerves. Yes, this was exactly who we needed to speak with.
Lysandra smiled prettily, leaning across the counter and speaking so softly I could barely hear her. "Our supplier of pies seems to have vanished along with the Shadow Market. Rumor has it you know where he is."
Nelly's blue eyes widened a hair, and then shuttered.
"Don't know nothing about that," she said stiffly.
Delicately, I placed my purse strategically on the counter, leaning in so that the other customers and workers couldn't see as I slid a small silk pouch towards Nelly. I made sure the coins clinked as I did, heavily.
"Please, we are very, very hungry for ... pie," I pleaded, letting some desperation show. "We just want to know where he went."
Despite how hungrily she eyed the pouch, she still said, "No one escaped the Shadow Market alive."
Good, she didn't talk easily. Lysandra set another coin pouch on the counter, the metal clanking loudly. Nelly's eyes grew wide.
One of the other workers glanced their way at the sound, and the courtesan said smoothly, "We'd like to place an order."
The worker turned to focus on their customer again, unfazed.
Lysandra's smile turned feline as she stared down the woman in front of us. "So tell us where to pick it up, Nelly."
Someone barked Nelly's name from the back, and she glanced between us quickly.
Sighing, she leaned forward and whispered, "They got out through the sewers."
I crinkled my brow. "I heard the guards were down there, too."
Nelly shook her head rapidly.
"Not down far enough. A few went into the catacombs beneath. Still hiding out down there, last I heard." Looking at us again, she added, "Not a place for rich folk. Bring your guards, but don't let 'em wear sigils."
Catacombs. I hadn't known about any catacombs beneath the sewers. Only the ones below the castle. That was what I had been missing.
Before we could get another word out, Nelly withdrew, striding to the back of the bakery. When I glanced down, both bags of coins were gone from the counter, no doubt tucked away somewhere on her person.
Exchanging a glance with Lysandra, we quietly left the shop, my mates falling into step behind us as we strode into a nearby alleyway, unnoticed. Nesryn and Aedion slipped out of the shadows, the former dipping her chin in greeting.
Aedion was far too distracted to bother, it seemed. I had no idea saffron was his favorite color.
"Well?" Nesryn asked. "Was I right?"
She was, not that I was surprised. It was her family's bakery, after all.
"Your father should really fire Nelly," I mused. "Opium addicts make piss-poor employees."
Nesryn shrugged. "She makes good bread."
Well, alright then.
"What did you learn?" Aedion demanded, having finally torn his eyes away from the exposed skin of Lysandra's chest. "And do you care to explain why you needed to know about the Shadow Market?"
"Patience," I chided.
The other males joined Aedion in rumbled sounds of protest, and I nearly rolled my eyes. Insufferable, the lot of them.
A wicked thought surfaced, and I turned to Lysandra. "You know, I bet the males would think twice about snarling their complaints if you turned into a ghost leopard and snarled back at them."
A matching mischievous gleam lit in her eyes, her lips twisting into a half smirk.
"Ghost leopard?" She questioned.
Aedion swore.
"Gods dammit, Aelin." He huffed, turning towards Lysandra, this time doing an admirable job of keeping his eyes on her face. "Do me a favor and never turn into one of those."
Lysandra's lips twitched. "What, pray tell, are they?"
Rowan chuckled under his breath and stepped a bit closer to me, though my other three mates looked completely lost. I breathed in the familiar scent of pine and snow, even as I tried to ignore the immediate flare of heat that his proximity summoned. Cassian may have knocked some sense into me, as Lysandra put it, but I knew I still owed the rest of them a conversation before we could truly return to normal.
Still, I leaned a little closer to the heat of his large body. And I could have sworn I heard him huff a short breath of relief when I did.
Meanwhile, Aedion shuddered. "Devils cloaked in fur, that's what they are. They're native to Terrasen's Staghorn Mountains, and during the winter they creep down to prey on livestock. As big as bears, but meaner. And when the livestock runs out, they prey on us."
Knocking Lysandra's shoulder with my own, I quipped, "Sounds like your kind of creature."
She shot a smirk my way, green eyes glittering at the possibilities. Oblivious to the growing interest in the courtesan, Aedion continued to regale us with tales of the monstrous creatures.
"They're white and gray, so you can barely make them out against the snow and rock. You can't even tell they're on you until you're staring right into their bright green eyes ..." My cousin's smile faltered as Lysandra fixed her green eyes on him and cocked her head.
Aedion swallowed roughly, the blood draining from his face, and I couldn't help the laugh that tumbled from my lips at the sight.
Damn, was I glad to have her with us. Gods help Aedion when she got her powers back, if he thought she was a handful now, I couldn't wait to see the terror she would inflict on him then.
An hour later, I was climbing over a fallen beam in the ruins of the Shadow Market, trying not to breathe in the scent of charred flesh too deeply. I'd swiftly changed into my suit in the alley, handing it to Lysandra before Nesryn escorted her back to the brothel to finish collecting her and Evangeline's things.
The city guard had quickly been replaced by Chaol, which had set off a fresh round of grumbling from my males, the big babies. Unfortunately for them, his assistance would go a long way in facilitating the next stage of my plan, so they would just have to suck it up.
"Will you tell us why we're here already?" The man in question muttered grumpily, clearly no happier to be here than my mates were at having him here.
Strike that, they'd all have to suck it up.
"Just be quiet a moment," I shushed him.
Glancing around, I traced the tunnels by memory, searching for the one I needed. Azriel shot a glance my way from where he held a torch light high beside me, illuminating the wreckage around us. I raised an eyebrow in question.
"You've come here before." He growled softly. "You came to search the ruins. That's why you smelled of ash that night."
There was no confusion around what night he meant, but I refused to let my cheeks redden at the memory. My other mates turned narrowed eyes my way, obviously displeased with the reminder of my little adventure.
Even Chaol was looking at me now, brows furrowed. "You never did say what you were doing here the night you interrupted my meeting with Brullo and Ress, did you?"
Cassian bit off a curse as Chaol inadvertently revealed another detail of what I'd gotten up to without my mates here. I had to swallow down my annoyance at his blundering.
"Really, Aelin?" Rhysand sighed wearily, "Don't you ever rest?"
Intent on ignoring them all, I focused on the remains of the Shadow Market, studying the cinders of the oldest stalls, the soot stains, the smells. I paused before one shop whose wares were now nothing but ash and twisted bits of metal.
"Here we are," I proclaimed, striding into the depths of the hewn-rock stall without looking back.
Muttered swearing and the scuffing of hurried footsteps followed me. I paid them no mind, brushing my foot over the ashy ground, kicking away cinders and debris as I studied the blackened stones.
At my back, Rowan sniffed. "It still smells like opium."
Finally, I found what I was looking for. The ash quickly stained my boots and soot as I swept away more and more rubble, until a large, misshapen stone appeared, a worn hole barely visible near its edge.
"Did you know," I said casually, "That in addition to opium, this dealer was rumored to sell hellfire?"
Rowan, Aedion and Chaol whipped their gazes towards me.
Hellfire - a substance that was almost impossible to attain or make, mostly due to the pure lethality of it. A vat alone could take out half of a castle's retainer wall.
"He'd never admit it to me, of course, but I always found it curious that he always had some of the ingredients to make it on hand." I crouched down, hauling open the stone trapdoor to reveal a ladder descending into inky blackness.
No one spoke as the reek of the sewers unfurled into the air. Aedion tensed as I slid onto the first rung of the ladder, but wisely said nothing about me going first. Smoke-scented darkness enveloped me as I climbed down, down, down until finally, my feet hit smooth rock. The air was surprisingly dry, unlike the rest of the damp, dank sewers.
Rowan came next, his torchlight revealing a cavernous tunnel around us, my other mates quickly following behind. I waited until all four of their feet hit the ground before I began walking down the tunnel, not waiting for Aedion or Chaol to climb down.
Staying close to me, my mates were silent as shadows at my back - looking, listening, planning. After I heard the stone door groan closed above, I only spared a glance behind us to ensure the other two were following.
For those not familiar with hellfire, I said, "Hellfire is an explosive, the most destructive one known to this world. When the king's men set fire to the Shadow Market, if it had hit a supply of it, even only a handful of vats ... Rifthold probably wouldn't be here anymore. Definitely not the slums, probably more."
"By the cauldron," Cassian breathed. "A weapon like that ..."
I could feel Rhysand's sharp gaze on my back as I paused at what almost looked like an ordinary sewer gate, if you ignored the fact there was no water running beneath it - only dusty air rising up to meet us.
"That's how you're planning to blow up the clock tower - with hellfire," Rhysand murmured softly, crouching at my side.
Before I could speak, Rowan was at my other side, grabbing my elbow to stop me from reaching for the grate. Even in the dim lighting, I saw the concern in his vibrant eyes.
"Aelin," he protested softly. "I've seen it used, seen it wreck cities. It can melt people, literally."
Both Azriel and Cassian sputtered at that.
My voice was steady as I said, "Good. We know it works then."
Aedion snorted from behind us, and I reached down to yank open the grate. Rowan's scent caressed me as he leaned forward to peer into the opening.
"It smells ancient down there, like bones and dust," he said. His mouth quirked to the side as he shot a glance my way. "But you already suspected that."
I lit a bit of wood from Rowan's torch, carefully poising it just beneath the lip of the hole before dropping it. The flame lit a drop of about ten feet, landing on the cobblestones beneath.
Chaol blew out a frustrated breath. "So, what - you wanted to find where this merchant was hiding his stash, to prove he had it so he can sell it to you?"
Not looking at him, I sat on the lip of the hole, my legs swinging in the dimness barely lit by the bit of flame still burning below.
"The opium monger was actually caught two days ago." I shrugged. "Killed on sight by the King's men, in fact."
Something Arobynn had casually mentioned to Lysandra only days ago, which meant -
"So his supply is now unguarded," Azriel murmured, instantly catching on.
Peering into the gloom below me, I shot my mates one more smirk. "And there's no one here to stop us from taking it."
And then - I jumped.