Whispered Vows (Mistborn x Reader)

Chapter 1

Ash fell from the sky.

I watched the downy flakes drift through the air. Leisurely. Careless. Free. The puffs of soot fell like black snowflakes, descending upon the dark city of Luthadel. They drifted in corners, blowing in the breeze and curling in tiny whirlwinds over the cobblestones.

I sat quietly in one of the crew's watch-holes—a hidden alcove built into the bricks on the side of the safe house. From within it, a crewmember could watch the street for signs of danger. I wasn't on duty, but Vin was. She usually didn't mind when I sat with her, as long as I didn't make a sound. I supposed that, when I was quiet, Vin could sometimes feel truly alone with her thoughts.

And Vin liked solitude. When you're alone, no one can betray you. Words that Vin had repeated to me before. First, though, they were spoken to us by our older brother, Reen. He'd taught Vin so many things, then had reinforced them by doing what he'd always promised he would—by betraying us himself.

Two years my senior, twenty-two-year-old Vin was a protective older sister. Reen's betrayal had struck her like a knife to the chest, even though he'd constantly promised us that he would leave some day. Vin wouldn't let Reen talk to me much. All of his lessons she made sure to teach me as well, though she gave me a much watered-down...much less cruel version.

The ash continued to fall. It was quite beautiful, in a way. Like a delicate, dark rain.

I heard shuffling a short distance away, then the trapdoor at the back of the small chamber snapped open.

"Vin, Y/n!" Ulef said, sticking his head into the room. "There you are! Camon's been searching for you for a half hour."

Vin scowled. "That's kind of why I hid in the first place," she muttered under her breath, low enough that only I could hear. I giggled.

"You should get going," Ulef said. "The job's almost ready to begin."

Vin nodded, stepping out of the cramped confines of the watch-hole. I followed her past Ulef and out of the trapdoor, into a hallway, then a run-down pantry. The room was one of many at the back of the store that served as a front for the safe house. The crew's lair itself was hidden in a tunneled stone cavern beneath the building. We left the building through a back door, Ulef trailing behind us.

The job would happen a few blocks away, in a richer section of town. Assuming Camon wasn't caught, the payoff would be great indeed. That's about all I knew regarding the job. That's how it always was. Vin never allowed me to be informed of any details when she could help it. I was never involved.

Well. I had no involvement that she knew of.

But besides the little bit of Luck I granted Camon now and then, I was excluded from most jobs the crew pulled. Sometimes I was allowed to sit in, however. Tonight was one of those sometimes.

We exited the alleyway, moving out onto a dark, tenement-lined street in one of the city's many skaa slums. I avoided looking at the skaa too sick to work that lay huddled in corners and gutters, ash drifting around them.

***

"There you are!" Camon lifted a squat, fat finger and jabbed it toward Vin's face. "Where were you?"

Vin simply looked down.

Camon growled slightly, then raised his hand and backhanded her across the face.

I covered my mouth to hold in a gasp.

The force of the blow threw Vin back against the wall. She slumped against the wood, but bore the punishment silently.