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"You said that it would be a deal until one of the parties would want to back out! I am one of the parties that want to back out!" said Nia, pointing her finger at his face.
"Where is your proof?" he asked, stalking closer.
"What?" she asked, stepping back.
"You are the one who holds the contract." Even as she said it, Nia realized how blindly stupid it had been of her to not ask for a copy. What if he had altered the original?
"The contract I hold says no such thing. What it does say is that you are compelled to serve me as long as it takes for me to feel you have fulfilled your debt."
"I owe you nothing." Anger roiled inside her. "There is no debt."
"Really?" he drawled. "Might I remind you of the past I helped you escape? Of saving your life when half of Ayrith wanted to end it? For saving that thing you were?" Despite herself Nia flinched at that. "That sounds like a debt to me, Nia."
"So what? This debt is eternal?" she asked, because she couldn't deny what he had said.
She was now backed against the brick wall and he stood close enough to punch. He stalked closer until she was absolutely cornered.
"Until I feel you've paid it off," he snarled as his fingers rose to tighten around her neck, pressing slightly harder with each word.
"Eternity it is," she said, with absolutely no concern for her life.
He pressed harder and it got harder for Nia to breathe.
"Things like you should burn in hell."
Nia exploded.
Combat lessons had been necessary for all students in Ayrinth, even Auctors. Nia had rebelled against every aspect of exercise but she was grateful for it now as she twisted her arm around the one that held her neck and pulled. He groaned in pain. She squatted to swing her foot in a neat arc as he toppled to the floor. With a few quick and possibly unnecessary kicks, she had the Joker sprawled on the street. Her knee firmly planted on his chest with her foot poised above his groin in warning. She had one hand cupped on his mouth and the other held both his hands. Sure he was a cunning spider. But even spiders could be splattered with a well-aimed roll of newspaper.
"You will end the deal. You will let me and the boy go. And you will not come after us. You will not do with us what you did to Saphie," she said trying to make her voice sound as dangerous as possible. A voice that couldn't be said no to.
"No," he mumbled under her hand. She felt slightly disappointed. Very well. She dug her knee deeper. Power and euphoria rushed back in through her as his eyes slightly widened. He bit her palm and she removed it to let him talk but her grip on him everywhere else tightened.
"Saphie deserved what she got," he said.
"No. No one deserved that," she breathed, reliving the horrors.
With Noelle's dying eyesight and withering hands, Saphie had been appointed as a help to the costume maker. Saphie was a runaway princess, born in a house of health and fame with evil parents. She ran away from home in search of an adventure. But adventures for people like Saphie were picking up lost pennies, staying up past midnight and kissing rabid school boys. True adventures were too costly for them, they damaged them in ways Nia had become immune to. She'd lasted for about a week with them when one night she had run away without a word. This life she had found wasn't sparkly enough. A fews days later two men had dragged her back. The spider's web was well knit, one tug by the Joker and everyone else scuttled for the marked bug. That night had been Saphie's last. Her screams still echoed in her brain. It was as much an incentive to run as it was to stay.
"And what does a nobody like you know who deserves what?" he asked with an evil glint in his eyes. He was waiting for his blow to hit, the words to fit into the holes of her soul. Nia refused it, turning her back to receive the blow, away from her heart.
"This nobody has your defiled life under her hands. Blink wrong and you lose that eye. Breathe wrong and you get a broken nose. Defy me once more and you lose your life."
She dug her knee harder, maneuvering all her weight over his chest. He winced. Her hair hung like sharp blades of black around her vision but she could see the inching fear on his face well enough.
"You will leave and I won't chase you..." Hope bloomed in her chest. "Not if you leave after we're finished with Esterham." Hope shriveled.
It meant staying for Lelitkin and any else that they might get. It would mean money and then finally, freedom. But if only her life could be that simple. Because if that Royal letter was an invitation ... then it would mean staying for her death. Leaving before would mean leaving for her death. The only way she would survive would be if by some improbable happenstance that the letter wasn't an invitation. If somehow she wasn't executed for treason on the highest order. Caraca was just as it was young. But the thing about improbable happenstances was that they never happened.
Nia swallowed. Unwelcome words rose in her mouth. "Deal." The space around them seemed to contract. Invisible witnesses around them gasped.
The Joker grinned as Nia climbed slow steps to the gallows.
"Very well then," he said as he tried to get up.
Anger rose up in her. This is all because of him, a voice in her head said trying to comfort her, but other voices answered, louder and righter. This is all because of me.
She pulled out a small knife she kept in her boot and opened his buttons. The fabric slipped away as untainted fear lined his face.
"What are you doing?" he stammered.
"I need a mark to make sure you remember this happened. The blood and pain are just gifts for me, you see it's my birthday soon. You wouldn't want me to not celebrate now would you?" She hated herself.
His pale skin gleamed before her as she made quick work. Blood trickled down his chest as he took laboured breaths. She took in a deep breath and smiled, examining her work. Slapping his chest like an older brother, she got up and walked away.
The circle and its five lines over his heart gleamed like rubies in the moonlight.
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Author's Note: Hope you enjoyed!! COME BACK SOON FOR THE NEXT PART AND VOTE AND COMMENT!! thank you for reading <3
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unraveled
Fantasy"I've seen rats with better attention spans than you," she said onto his face. And then the boy was there pulling her onto her feet and off of him. "But have you seen them with such beautiful faces?" he asked, standing up, brushing off th...
