Ashes to Ashes | ✓

4 || Questions and Answers

Cinere left Felix alone on that note. She didn't even leave time for him to respond; she simply turned with a smile and walked away with Mae glaring at him over her shoulder.

As soon as she was gone, Felix drew in a deep, shaky breath. Her presence was constantly suffocating, leaving his body stiff and his mind painfully alert. He was not foolish enough to say he trusted her, and yet she promised something he couldn't refuse.

Information. Insider knowledge. Access to the castle and the inner gates. Whether she knew it or not, Cinere was his tool. His key. And he intended to make good use of her.

He made his way back toward the inns that he had been wandering past before. In a city as big as Crocea, there were several scattered about, and finding one with room wasn't as difficult as he had originally expected. He stepped inside an inn near the inner wall of the city, immediately greeted by the warmth from the hearth and the smokey scent of a wood fire. Soft light illuminated the room, casting dancing shadows across the walls. Only a few patrons sat scattered around the room, chatting with the other members of their table or eating their meals in silence.

The woman behind the counter looked up as the door creaked shut behind him. A warm smile rose to her face. "How can I help you?"

"A single room," Felix said curtly, reaching for his coin pouch at his waist. He untied the pouch's clasp and pulled it free. The coins inside clinked together as he fished out a handful of them. "For roughly two weeks."

"Ah." The woman fished out a thin, crudely bound book, pressing it flat against the counter. "You must be here for the coronation then?"

"Like everyone else," he muttered as he set the coins on the counter.

She cast a sideways glance at the pile of silver coins on her counter before sliding her eyes back to her book. "Oh, that's a bit much. It's really—" Realization lightened her gray eyes and her head jerked back to his coins again. Tucking a stray black curl back from her eyes, she reached out to take one of the coins. She frowned as she turned it over in her fingers. "These have the emblem of the raven. Are you from Furvus?"

"I am." He pauses for a moment, thinking as she scrutinizes his coins. "Do you... take Furvian silvers?"

"Of course." She placed the coin back into the pile and turned to her book again. "It's just been a while since I've seen one. Beautiful, and very different from Nivean golds." After a moment, she reached below the counter and fished out a key. Gathering up the coins into her pouch, she stepped around the counter. "This way, then."

Felix followed her toward the back of the tavern. The wooden stairs creaked as they climbed up to the second floor, and the general noise of the tavern below gradually faded into a muffled sound—much easier to ignore. Candlelight graced the hall in warm light. Their footsteps were absorbed by the carpet laid across the floor. The quiet only heightened his senses, bringing a contrasting feeling of both fear and peace.

He never went anywhere without worrying that he would be targeted as well. Though he enjoyed the stillness and the calm it brought, he couldn't help but turn to the darker thoughts in his mind. If someone were to come to his room, would he hear them and have time to react? Or would he be found dead the next morning?

The woman finally stopped at a door at the very end of the hall, farthest from the tavern noise. She inserted the key into the lock and twisted. It opened with a satisfying click. Straightening up, she turned the knob to push the door open, letting the warm light from the hall spill into the dark, empty room.

"There you are." She held out the key to him, bringing another smile to her face. There was sincerity behind it, though her eyes carried a look of boredom. This was something she had done a hundred times before, with a hundred different people. In her stormy gray eyes, Felix was nothing special. He was just another man staying at her tavern.