Kings and Thieves

Chapter 18

**hi so just FYI i got tired of posting at midnight so imma just update on Wednesday mornings instead if that's good with y'all. Peace**

Ari had been examining a gold pocketwatch when he heard Lyla's scream.

Jamie was on the other side of the room, trying her best to ignore him as they rummaged around the basement.

"Wait, stop." She straightened, dropping her hands. "Do you hear that?"

Ari ran his thumb over the bronze lettering, squinting at the inscription. "No."

She reluctantly sat back. "I thought I heard footsteps."

Ari felt something pulling at the ends of his mouth. "Are you scared?"

"No!" Jamie shot back, fixing her attention on the floor. Ari softly put the pocketwatch down and padded around to her other side. Sometimes Jamie seemed to be so deep in thought. Ari wondered what she could be mulling about in that strange mind of hers.

He had no idea what possessed him to do it- perhaps there was a tiny devil on his shoulder that whispered things to him. Or, perhaps he was just a wicked boy- like the old woman on his street always used to say when he was ten, while waving her broom at him and chasing him out of the yard.

Either way, Ari perhaps should have left the poor girl alone, but he couldn't seem to stop himself as he gave Jamie's shoulders a tiny push, jolting her from her reverie.

"Boo!"

"Ah!" Jamie shrieked, jumping up. She shoved him, hard, with both arms, and Ari snickered as he caught himself against a dusty China cabinet.

"I knew you were scared."

"You will be, by the time I'm done with you."

Ari's eyes danced. "Ooh, was that a threat?"

A piercing scream had interrupted them, then, and now Ari had to admit that Jamie's fears weren't entirely unfounded.

"Oops" was an understatement, but, frankly, it seemed the most fitting word that he could think of.

He'd seen his fair share of corpses in his own time, but Ari couldn't imagine how strange it would be for Lyla to find one; pale and limpid, its iced strings of hair reaching towards the surface like seaweed.

Ari reached out a toe of his boot to push over the body. It was a man, judging from his features and fitted black suit. His lips were ashen and shut, and his bulging eyes stared straight ahead like a fish. A dead fish.

"Is that...?" Jamie began, blankly.

"Tybalt Sybell, I believe," Ari guessed. "Lyla?"

She gulped, visibly. "That's him."

Aveline bent down, squinting thoughtfully at the corpse. "I don't think he drowned," she decided, glancing up at Ari. "His skin is definitely discolored, but I would say it's been a few weeks, give or take."

"You think they killed him beforehand?"
"Who killed him?" Eli blurted. His head swung between the two of them like a clock.

Ari huffed, how was he supposed to know? He opened his mouth to snap at him before Aveline stood back up, looking Lyla over with obvious concern.

"Lyla, are you alright?"

"I'm fine," Lyla protested, but her shoulders shook slightly though she wore one of Aveline's heavy coats.

"Let's get her inside." Ari stomped back towards the door to the house, bracing his hand on the frame against the howling wind. He was freezing, and it seemed like the snow was only going to fall harder. "Sybell's obviously not going to be back for a while."