Quill of Thieves

Chapter 47

Astrid's blood raced through her veins.

She saw a different woman at Matthias's side.

Not Abel, though the girl's changed appearance was drastic enough. No, Astrid saw the poorly dressed farmer's wife from the Saviour's Toast. The Elven Elder whom she had slaughtered. Sword-torn flesh. Silver blood seeping across the shattered floor—

Astrid blinked, and it was Abel once more who stood before her. An Abel who now had an oddly ethereal face. It was her: the same old husky street face that bothered Astrid if only for the ridiculous fact that Sebastian seemed to like it so much. So, yes, it was her, but it also wasn't. Abel's pale skin glowed like she had swallowed an insect with a luminescent arse, skin pulled tight over her arched cheekbones, auburn hair falling around her alluring face, which she tucked behind slightly pointed ears.

Pointed ears.

Curse the Skies!

"What the bleeding Hel happened to you, Husky?"

Abel swore right back at her, but it was Sebastian she sought with her weary, tawny stare.

Her voice wavered like a broken melody. "Bash?"

"Oh." Sebastian sounded only a little dumb, right before Abel collided with him.

In the next instant, their arms wrapped around each other.

Again, Astrid shook her head, felt one of her braids unravel—had Sebastian's hand been in it? Oh, holy Scribal Hel, I kissed the fisherboy!—and fought the threat of a blush when she felt Matthias's eyes on her.

Their cautious gazes met and held across the narrow cavern.

"An elf? You knew?" The thoughts came to her so rapidly that Astrid could barely form the words correctly before they tumbled from her lips in accusation. "How long? Oh, gods! That Elven Elder—did I murder Husky Street Girl's mother?"

"Such dramatics," Matthias mumbled. He took a slow step closer, fingers hovering above his hip where his lovely blood-sword swung, sheathed. "Tonight. I found out tonight. So did she. The girl grew up in Eilibir. I doubt the intruder was her mother. Abel wouldn't have even known if it were. Take a breath."

Abel. He had called her by her name. And the tone of it, the way his tongue seemed to cradle it—When had the two of them gotten so cozy and close? You should know I did not live in Rainier during the Purge, he had told her.

Astrid narrowed her eyes. "You are both from Soleita, aren't you? What does that make you, then? A seductive wench of a dragon?"

His jaw twitched. "You and I both know female dragons are the only ones who can shift forms. Besides, the dragon species lives in Demue."

"You failed to answer my question."

Matthias scowled. "I am who I've always been, Astrid. Why must you be so stubborn?"

"Because you have given me no reason to trust you!"

He took another step towards her, his boots eerily quiet against the ground. "Is that why you were going to Lambert? Right after I warned you not to?"

There was an honest burn behind his expression of which Astrid did not wish to take note. It would make it all too hard. All of this. She glanced to the side only to land on Sebastian and Abel whose heads were lowered together, speaking to each other with an ease that made her heart squeeze.

She was, quite literally, stuck between a rock and a hard place.

With a frown and a sigh, she turned back to Matthias. "What makes you believe I was on my way to Lambert?"