The Cursed Deal ✓

Chapter 30

"At least we made out with this," Faine said. She removed the claw rings from her pocket, two sets, and handed one over to Ginevra.

They both stared at her, dumbfounded, and blinked down at the set she extended towards them. Made of slick gold and possessing a simple design—like a dragon's scales and the ridges along their backs; grooving with each knuckle and extending past the tip of the finger to a point. Faine slipped hers onto her right hand and waggled her five fingers to get the feel of it.

"How did you..." Ilian began. To fully ensure he was seeing what was in front of him, he looked from Faine's hand to what was in Ginevra's grasp. "You can't steal something from Echo Market, they'll slaughter you. You have to return those."

Faine snorted. "Return them? If you truly want me to get slaughtered, I'll go back down there. But these are ours now. It's the foolish merchant's fault for not paying enough attention." She turned on her heel, waggling her fingers at them one last time, and walked down the street whether or not they were coming.

Either to ask her more questions or to get away from the market, they jogged to catch up with her. Smoke rose from a blacksmith's shop and wafted into the mud street and Faine moved to the side to allow a horse-drawn carriage to come through. Olhathas was still busy despite rain pattering onto the tiled or straw roofs.

"I didn't see you steal these," Ginevra said. "Ilian didn't either. When did you steal them?" Despite the question, she was already sporting the accessory. The five fingers on her left hand were covered in golden scales.

"I stole them when I revealed the hidden blade inside my bracer. That distracted him and he didn't see me snatch them. They were practically falling off the end of the table; all I had to do was scoop them into my pocket." She offered them nothing more than a half shrug.

Ilian and Ginevra spoke through their expressions. As Faine walked between them, they couldn't speak without her hearing every word, but nothing was said when they looked around her, had a meeting of the minds, and stared straight ahead.

"Are you certain he won't notice?" Ilian was looking back as he asked the question. They'd rounded the corner and left the entrance to Echo Market behind, but minotaur could sniff others out as well as fladlines or sinwolves. In fact, their smell was better sometimes.

Faine pulled her cloak over her head as the rain began to sprinkle down onto her shoulders. "He will at some point, but not soon enough. We'll be long gone before he figures it out."

"It shocks me you're not worried about this. As if you've done it before."

Her best efforts weren't enough to keep the corner of her mouth from forcing itself upward. She gave a bitter laugh. "You can't steal from the Echo Market only once. To be truthful, it's quite exhilarating to do it the tenth time."

Ilian gaped. "You've stolen from Echo Market ten times?" he shouted.

Most of the street was empty but enough windows were open for anyone within to hear what he had just revealed to the entire city. Faine drew her brows inward and placed one of the clawed rings over her lips to shush him. "There won't be an eleventh if you keep shouting," she hissed.

Most of her thefts were on purpose, only one of them had been at the hands of Kaspar slipping something into her pocket when his own were full. Echo Market was full of security, but that didn't mean they did their jobs well. Every shopper had an eye on their backs at all times, but all Faine's thefts took place at the front, and in direct line with the merchants monitoring her every move.

Distractions were key, precisely why she stole when she revealed the bracer. It wasn't meant to be an attack against the minotaur, but he took any weapon in his face as a possible threat. Her other hand seemed to move along with the effort required to release the hidden blade, but really, it was Faine dropping the two sets of clawed rings into her pocket.