Of Spellbooks and Thieves | SAMPLE

5 ~ The Beast Master

"Listen to me, Oliver."

"What thief, Kase?" Oliver snapped, his hand trembling at his side. He inhaled sharply through his nose and narrowed his eyes further. "What do you really need Arayna for?"

Tobias stepped forward, pushing himself between Kase and the knife. Although his heart raced with the blade inches from his nose, he faced Oliver with a solid glare. "There's no need for this. Kase and I can find another way to catch the thief. She stole a book of mine, that's all. If you aren't comfortable with assisting us, we'll leave." He held Oliver's gaze for another second. When Oliver's expression didn't waver, Tobias sighed. True to his word, he turned and grabbed Kase's arm, steering him toward the door.

It was just a book, he told himself firmly. She was lying when she said it was something important. She was teasing. You don't need it, especially not if it's going to cause this much of a problem.

He didn't need it, but his head throbbed at the thought of letting Eira get away with the theft and that emptiness within him deepened. As it always did when his head clouded with anxiety, his mind drifted back to Talia. What would she do? Would she go after the book regardless of the drama it created? Would she have let it go? Would she never have let it get stolen in the first place?

Before Tobias could settle on an answer, Kase planted his foot. He yanked his arm free and spun to face Oliver, who hadn't moved. Oliver tilted his head slightly, eyeing them with suspicion. The knife was still pointed at Kase, glinting in the light.

"Eira," Kase said, barely above a whisper. "The thief is Eira."

Spouting curses, Oliver raked his fingers through his hair. "I told you I wanted nothing to do with her!" he snapped, his voice pitched high and choked with desperation. Again, he drove the knife into the table and leaned against it, pressing his hand to his shoulder. "I will not take anyone to see the Beast Master—especially not so I can get dragged back into Eira's schemes!"

"But, Oliver—"

Oliver visibly tensed when Kase spoke. "But nothing. There are no buts to discuss here." He fixed Tobias with his hardened amber stare. "I don't know what he told you to rope you into this, but maybe you should ask him a bit more about what happened the last time the Beast Master and I had a little disagreement. She's become a monster, and I don't want to be responsible for what she does to you if she learns of why you've come."

Tobias reached up to grip his shoulder, in the same place Oliver kept touching his own. Realization hit him like a slap to the face: the Beast Master must have wounded him. That was why he was so afraid. Slowly, the edge that sharpened Tobias's tongue began to diminish, and he swallowed the last of his unspoken retorts.

"Then... we just won't tell her," he murmured, ignoring Kase's curious glance. "There are other thieves in the world. Surely she could believe it was any of them—Eira might not even come to her mind."

Oliver sank back into his chair, his forehead pressed into his hands. He said nothing for some time. The silence pressed heavily against Tobias's shoulders, like someone had piled a bunch of books on them and expected him to still stand upright under the weight.

Fidgeting with his gloves, Kase spoke up. "Arayna deserves to know it's Eira," he said softly, keeping his head bowed. "She deserves to know what's going on, especially if... if the book is what I think it might be."

Oliver fixed Kase with a firm stare, leaning forward to rest his elbows on his knees. The shadows cast on his face by the flickering candle made him seem so much older than he was, like he had lived a longer life than sixteen or seventeen years. He sighed wearily, and his shoulders drooped. "Even if she does, I don't want anyone else to get hurt. I don't want there to be any more blood on her hands. And if you're so certain the thing Eira stole is what you think you need, maybe ask yourself why you've dragged your new friend along. This isn't about him, is it? It's about you. It always is."