Crows and Crooked Tiaras

CHAPTER SEVEN

CHAPTER SIX: FAMILY AFFAIRS

LUNA'S POV

The air is too cold for this season, but I let the slight bite motivate me. I'll be somewhere else before anyone can even think to check if I'm missing. I swallow once, adjusting my grip on my bag as I pass a group of strangers on the street.

I should have left on the first night. I should have run away from home ages ago--Carmen left and she seems happy...ish. Whatever--I'll manage better. I can find someone with full pockets and get enough money for a drink. Then maybe I'll visit some old family...family not under my family's thumb.

My mother slipped away from everyone once. Maybe I inherited some of her cunning.

"A young girl, alone on a night like this, here?"

Great. I thought people minded their business better in the Barrel. "I'm not alone." I don't change my pace. "I'm meeting a friend--and I'm late."

"Really--"

"I said to leave girls alone until after business, August."

My stomach knots. I know that voice. I know that voice--but I have to be wrong. Turning on my heels, I let myself hope. It can't be him, I'm never that lucky--oh Saints.

"Cole?!"

He pauses, eyes widening as he takes a minute to realize that I'm me. He moves away from the men crowding him. I'm grinning. "Luna!" The man who originally spoke to me--August presumably--looks between us. Cole jabs his arm. "Next time you're in the mood to frighten a girl, make sure she's not my cousin." He throws me a signature, half-hearted glare, "My cousin that must be in more trouble than even she can handle if she's this deep in the Barrel."

I grin at him, "Shut up, Cole, you know me..."

"Oh, I do--which is why I believe there's trouble." I make an obscene gesture in his direction. "I'm surprised your father let you get this far."

Ah, our one point of animosity. "He's not in control of all my decisions." He nods once. "Where are you going?"

Cole half shrugs. "I have a very particular business deal and then I'm leaving--I'm purchasing fair for me and my partners...you should come with me."

Leaving? Leaving Ketterdam--I've never considered that. I was just going to try to find my way outside of the Barrel and to Korra's house. "I um..." Why shouldn't I? Cole might be one of my more shady relatives, but who am I to judge? I technically owe Kaz Brekker my life and I ran away after one argument. Besides, Cole and I have always gotten along--I've always trusted him. "Nothing's keeping me here."

"Perfect." He smiles just slightly, "Come to my deal with me? It's two days' travel."

I loosen my grip just slightly. "Alright--just keep your friends off of me."

"You've never had trouble scaring people on your own." He tilts his head downwards slightly. "Remember when we were younger? You used to terrify children my age that tried picking on me because I was smaller than them?"

Rolling my eyes, I think back on childhood summers in which I'd chase away older boys after telling them that I was a grisha. "It doesn't take much to scare twelve-year-olds."

"Still. You can hold your own. You always sell yourself so short." I don't look at him as he says this, the land we're treading on is too familiar. Cole is always so good and so full of promises that never pan out. "Why else do you think I was so willing to take you traveling with me even when you were younger?"