The Thief King

49 | Shadowed Voices

By the time Sera stumbled through the threshold of the tiny apartment and separated herself from the veiled knives of winter she wasn't only cold, but burdened with fatigue. Her limbs sunk to the earth with heavy sorrow and her face sore from its puppeteering. Tears had feathered in and out throughout the night, soft and discreet like water paint over parchment.

She still wore the stranger's coat. He had left without reclaiming it and she only remembered she still wore it once his footsteps had long since faded. Leaving it behind had seemed a waste of a good coat, and despite it being far warmer than her own, it still was no victor against the vicious storm outside. Where a figure far larger than her might have filled its sleeves and prevented the bite of ice and lick of the wind from slipping between fabric and skin, her dainty figure provided shelter for the cold air.

Cupping her hands together she breathed into the hole between them before rubbing her palms against her cheeks. She could barely feel her own skin. All she wanted was to curl into bed and...

Bed...sheets.

She dashed into the room and found it just as she had seen it last. The bed was unmade but the room itself was empty. She felt her throat constrict and the sobs threaten.

"Sera?"

She turned, her braid whipped around and smacked her on her other cheek. She felt it—a good sign. "Hannah...what...wha...?" she closed her door on her room, feeling safer with a barrier between her and the memories that lurked behind it. "What happened? You were supposed to stay at the Carvers?"

Hannah shrugged, she was in her sleepers and had perhaps even been sleeping before Sera came in.

"Did something happen, Han?"

Before she could stop herself, Hannah dashed the back of her hand under her eyes, dropping her gaze and turning from Sera.

"Hannah?"

"Bay's....dead."

Sera froze, her eyes flew wide and her skin prickled from scalp to toes. Her breathing hitched and she felt something inside her plummet to the ground forcing her to lean against the wall for support. "Dead?"

Hannah nodded, her hands trembling at her side.

"How...how did you...when?"

Hannah opened her mouth but nothing came out, instead she choked on a sob. Her small body started to quiver and then shake and finally, her knees buckled and Sera caught them both before they landed on the ground, Hannah's head pressed to Sera's chest, her thin arms wrapped around Sera's waist and her legs tucked under one of Sera's armpits.

"Shhhh," Sera assured, her own tears falling freely once more. "It's okay." The words felt hollow and false. Lies. Who was she to know that everything would be okay? Who was she to assume anything would work out and that heartache and death had any meaning?

Cold water.

Kole jerked awake. Pain stunting his movements. He reached to press a hand to his bruised ribs and found they were bound. Looking down, he lay on a stone floor wearing nothing but shirt and trousers, all traces of his hidden weapons gone. There was little light in the room but if he squinted he could make out the bars of a cage, a single lantern burned somewhere behind him but he found twisting a far too painful task. Remnants of straw lay strewn on the ground, their usual sweet smell unable to mask the scent of waste and sweat.

He could hear them now, the other men groaning and muttering to themselves. While a steady beat of raindrops fell somewhere nearby, deeper in the building someone wailed, another screeched and beyond that the the wind whistled its way through every nook and cranny.