2. Thea

Chapter 2

Thea

T hea gripped the solid marble tight enough it dug into her palm. The phallic statue was slightly longer than her forearm and was just as ugly as any penis she'd had the dishonour of witnessing. It even had veins, as well as a well-endowed woman the size of a pixie licking up the shaft. Honestly, she had no idea why Mr Finnick wanted it. No way could it be called a piece of art.

"We agreed thirteen thousand," she said, her smile fake enough her cheeks ached.

What was with arseholes always trying to shortchange her recently?

"I'll give you two," Mr Finnick said with a sickening grin. His teeth were slightly yellowed, and he had a vague stench of burnt toast and cigarettes. "No one will pay you more for it."

"Yeah, no shit."

His smile fell, and Thea took a step back. Her internal alarm was screaming at her to run, but she really needed the money. Stealing statues, penis shaped or not, wasn't something she usually agreed to. But watches and jewellery just weren't cutting it recently, not compared to the private jobs .

"Do you know who I had to get this from?" If she'd known she'd have to steal the bloody thing from one of the Irish, she'd have turned the job down. "I'll agree to eight thousand. It took me a week to find, and I was almost bitten by the dog."

Mr Finnick looked down at the marble dick in her hand before meeting her eyes. "You'll agree to two hundred, or I'll just take it from you and you'll receive nothing."

"Hundred?!"

Fucking arsehole!

Thea took another step back, her ribs aching with how fast her heart raced. Mr Finnick mirrored her movement, closing the distance. No way would she hand over the marble penis now. It was the principle of it.

With a smile as sweet as pie, she winked at him, and then concentrated her chi and pictured home. Except nothing happened. She should have gone poof, her molecules forced through space until she appeared where she'd pictured by magic. Instead, she still faced Mr Finnick, with his creepy smile and strange odour.

Shit.

"So, what will it be?" he asked, his hand disappearing beneath his long trench coat, only to come out holding a knife.

Double shit.

"I'll accept the two hundred." She tried to calm her pulse, knowing if she couldn't concentrate and settle her chi's vibrations then she couldn't drift. But in her defence, it was pretty hard to concentrate while being threatened.

"Nah, I think we'll go with option three. I'll just take it, and you'll thank me for not cutting up your pretty face." He lifted the knife, the edge visibly sharp.

"Aw, you think I'm pretty?" Thea steadied her stance, completely prepared to bash his head in with the penis .

Why did she agree to meet a shady guy in a dark alley in the middle of the night?

Oh, that's right.

She was a desperate idiot.

"Stupid fucking faerie," he sneered, crowding close enough she was forced against the harsh brick wall or risk touching him. "Give me the fertility statue. Now."

"Take it." She shoved it between them. "It's yours, arsehole."

His eyes dipped, a strange hunger passing across his features, and in that same second, she raised a knee. His breath exhaled in a single pained puff, eyes bulging.

Thea shoved herself to the side and out of Finnick's way, but she was a second too slow. The knife sliced her along her arm, the sting piercing before quickly changing into a dull ache.

"Come back, you bitch," he hissed, one hand brandishing the now red blade and the other holding his balls.

Thea got out of there, not daring to look back as his curses disappeared the further she ran. She didn't stop until she'd entered the underground, quickly tapping her phone and jumping onto the first train available. She got off on the next station, changing trains three times before she finally felt comfortable enough to head home.

Groaning, she began climbing the three floors to her flat. She seriously needed to write another strongly worded letter to her landlord. It should be illegal forcing tenants to take the stairs – inhumane.

Pausing by her front door, she noticed the single sunflower placed on her welcome mat. It was the second one that week, not counting all the others that had been left over the past few months. There was never any note, always just a single flower. Picking it up on the way past, she took it inside .

Reaper, her cat, looked up groggily from his position on the sofa. He gave her a slow blink before settling his head back onto his fluffy white paws.

"Sorry, am I disrupting you?" she asked, closing the door behind her.

Reaper simply swished his tail, his eyes remaining closed.

"What? No show of concern?" Thea lifted her arm. "You can be so rude sometimes, Reap."

She didn't even care about the cut. It was the fact one of her favourite jumpers was ruined that pissed her off. Scrunching her face, she carefully pulled it off and tossed it into the kitchen. It had soaked up most of the blood, so thankfully she hadn't left some gory blood spatters along the tube trains.

With a shake of her head, Thea walked over to her shelf, placing the statue and flower along with all the other random stuff she'd collected over the years. Some bits she'd kept because they were shiny, like crystals, while others were kept because the buyers fell through.

She was careful what she picked to display, keeping anything exceedingly valuable, or high risk hidden until she could move them on. She didn't think there would be too much of a market for a phallic shaped fertility statue. But then again, it did look amusing next to her romance books.

There was a knock, quiet but expected.

Thea opened the door to find her sister glaring. "Do you know what time it is?" she asked, pushing her glasses back up her nose. "I have school tomorrow."

"Missed you too, kid." Thea grinned, pulling Molly into a quick hug. "What excuse did you give mum?"

"That I was staying over Bianca's." Molly shoved her back with a scowl. "Which wasn't a lie. I'm heading there after this. "

"Mum lets you stay over at your girlfriend's house?" Thea couldn't believe it. "I was never able to stay over my boyfriends at your age." In fact, she was pretty sure even at twenty-five she still wouldn't be allowed to have a boy stay over her parents' house.

"I have a much less chance of becoming pregnant." Molly smirked, tucking a piece of loose hair behind her ear. "Now, sit down while I get some water. You're dripping on the floor."

Thea frowned, looking down to the small blood spatter currently staining her carpet. "Fuck."

Reaching for a tissue, she dabbed up as much as she could before she followed her little sister's command. Reaper grumbled in his sleep as she sat beside him on the sofa, the protest turning into a soft purr when Thea stroked through his soft grey fur.

"Can you believe this, Reap?" she asked the cat. "Favouritism. If I as much as looked at a boy, mum threatened me with a chastity belt."

Reaper squinted at her, yellow eyes unamused.

"So, are you going to get a real job anytime soon?" Molly asked as she gently turned Thea's arm over, grimacing at the cut. Molly may only be seventeen, but she'd wanted to be a doctor for as long as Thea could remember.

"This is a real job." Thea hissed when Molly began to clean up the blood. "I'm an entrepreneur."

"Is that what we're calling it now?" Her sister looked up for the briefest second before returning her attention to the arm. "This is what, the second time this month a job's gone sour?"

Thea didn't answer, because in reality it was closer to five. She just hadn't needed to call her kid sister.

Molly's light brown eyes darkened with worry. "You used to only do small jobs, but recently you've taken some pretty big risks."

"Yeah, well, tell that to the arseholes who keep increasing dad's medical expenses." Thea licked along her bottom lip, looking down at her sister's black, tight curls as she hunched over her arm. "I either find the money, or dad comes off the trial."

"Dad needs that trial, but I don't want you stabbed to death, either." Molly reached into her bag, pulling a large bandage. "He wouldn't want you in danger to pay for it."

Thea looked away. "What he doesn't know doesn't hurt him." Her skin pinched as Molly finished up. "And I promise you, I'm not taking any more risks than I can handle."

Her dad was currently on his second dose of experimental drugs designed to treat his aggressive Glioblastoma. It was privately funded, which meant someone had to pay for it. That someone was Thea, because her mum received nothing but carer benefits, and her two younger sisters were still in school.

"What happened to only stealing from those that deserve it?"

"I'm trying, but the system's already designed so the poor stay poor, and the rich only get richer. I live by making everything more fair, but not at the expense of dad's treatment. If I can make some quick money stealing a penis statue for a weirdo, I will." She'd do any job if it meant her dad lived.

"Wait, a statue of a what?"

"Never mind." Thea barely stifled her laughter.

Molly's face scrunched with annoyance. "I swear if you get killed, I'll hire a necromancer to bring you back just so mum can kill you herself. "

Thea pulled back her arm, the bandage wrapped neatly. "You're scary when you're mean."

Rolling her eyes, Molly shoved the rest of the equipment in her bag. "It's barely a scratch, probably be gone in a week or so. You're lucky it wasn't worse."

Thea nodded. "I owe you one."

She may be a faerie, but she was relatively weak when it came to the Fae. Witches, mages and even druids had the ability to control their magic, even train it. And while wild magic pulsed through her, there was no controlling it. The power ebbed and flowed, fluid in its recalcitrant form, and just as it was aptly named, it truly was wild.

She generally was able to recall and send small items without much effort, but only to and from a drawer beneath her bed that she'd memorised every inch of. It was called spatial jumping, and as far as magic tricks went, it was one of her favourites.

Drifting her entire body was much more difficult, because not only did she need to concentrate, but she also needed the wild magic to be agreeable, too.

"At least your bracelet came out unscathed."

Thea touched the thin, silvery rope wrapped around her wrist. She didn't bother telling her sister nothing could get the bloody thing off. She'd already tried a pair of scissors and a sharp knife, and even her friend Harper, who had the other part of the matching set, couldn't figure it out. Her one didn't have the same clingy issues.

Molly snapped her bag closed. "Oh, and don't forget dinner on Sunday. Don't be late."

"Like mum would let me forget."

Thea walked Molly down the stairs to the road, making sure she waited with her until a black cab pulled up. "Love you. "

Molly smiled. "Love you too. Please don't get yourself killed!"

"Of course not." Thea smirked. "I'm a professional."