Chapter 24

ChapterTwenty-Four

Varya settled into a kind of routine in the castle. She didn’t want to overstay her welcome by any means, but it was easier to be here. And for the first time in her life, she let herself indulge a bit.

One afternoon she’d wandered back to the gardens with Ivo and sat at the edge of the stream with him. She squished her feet in the water, watching as tiny fish surrounded her toes. They plucked at her, golden gems of their scales flashing in the bright sunlight.

“Is anyone worried about you?” Ivo asked, his voice a little deep with concern.

“No.”

“Really?” He seemed surprised.

She didn’t know how to tell him that she’d never made those connections before. So she leaned back on her hands and stared up at the clouds. “I’m not sure that I’ve ever spent enough time around anyone for them to miss me.”

“How is that possible?”

“I’ve traveled my whole life. Adventure is in my blood, I suppose, and I’ve always been the person to travel across the entire kingdom and take the risky jobs to make sure the rest of my town is safe.” And the town before that. The city before that, too.

His brows wrinkled even more before he asked, “Is there no one that you call friend?”

“A few.” Altan certainly. He’d been around since they were children on the streets. Maybe a couple of other people, but they’d fallen out of touch in the past few years as her jobs grew increasingly more dangerous and she realized the likelihood of her coming back was getting smaller and smaller. “Not as many as most people might have.”

Ivo huffed out a breath and then shook his head. “Well, I would be honored to be called your friend.”

“Will you really miss me when I’m gone?” She smiled at him, ready for the punchline of his joke.

But he only solemnly nodded his head. “I will, Varya. You have been a welcome addition to our home.”

And those words stuck with her. A little too hard, really. She hated that she’d left a lasting impression on these people. Varya had never and would never be long for this world. Her wandering heart would send her into yet another dangerous job and maybe she wouldn’t make it out of that one. Maybe she’d get caught underneath a boulder, or the Horde would catch her again. There were too many variables in her life and making connections like this...

It made her sweaty.

At the time, she’d wiped her slick palms on the fancy fabric that covered her body and laughed at him. She’d nudged his shoulder with hers and muttered something about him being too funny to get his own jokes.

She swore she heard Ivo whisper underneath his breath, “I’m kind and I’m funny.”

As if her words had given him permission to be something more than he’d already known. And she didn’t know what to do with that.

The days blurred together, but Greed rarely came back to see her. In fact, after that night in the ballroom, he’d made himself rather scarce. She told herself that was a good thing. Neither of them could continue down this rabbit hole of attraction. That’s when actual feelings came into play.

Feelings were dangerous for people like them.

He was a demon who had a very dark persona to keep up, and she had to keep thieving from all the people that wanted to kill her. Was there a lasting ability to their relationship? Absolutely not.

What she didn’t understand was why he had avoided her. Was he catching feelings? Impossible. People like him weren’t capable of falling in love with anyone, so she’d thrown that out the window almost immediately.

But she’d overheard something Ivo and Morag had said while eavesdropping through the door. Something about a brother arriving and that meant there were two demon kings hidden in this oasis. Perhaps therein lay the issue.

Greed didn’t want to share her with anyone. Would his brother insist? Would she start a war between kingdoms because two demon kings wanted to fight over her?

She snorted at the thought and shoved a monstera leaf out of her way. That wasn’t possible at all. She wasn’t some stunning beauty who had fallen into their lives and would tempt even the greatest of kings.

Her inability to understand what was happening was the reason she was out in the middle of the oasis, slapping leaves out of her way as she tried to snoop. Thieves were good at finding themselves in secret places, but Greed made that difficult.

Where was the man?

“Why are we out here?” Ivo asked as he reached above her head to hold the massive leaf out of her way. “I thought you understood that Greed was busy, and that was the only reason he hadn’t come to see you.”

“Because I don’t believe you, liar, and there’s something going on here that I want to understand.”

“You could just ask me.”

She flashed a glare at him over her shoulder. “Really? And I’m supposed to believe you’ll tell me the answer to anything I ask?”

“We are friends.” He grunted as she let a leaf slap him in the face. “Hey! I said we are friends!”

“I understand that, but you are still very loyal to Greed, a phenomenon I will never understand, which means there are questions you will not answer.”

“Try me.”

Varya whirled on him, her hands planted firmly on her hips. “Which of Greed’s brothers has come to visit?”

“Uh...” Ivo opened and closed his mouth before staring at her helplessly.

“That’s exactly what I thought. Now, can we keep moving? I want to see if Greed’s put his brother somewhere in here to hide him from me.”

“I think Greed understands no one could hide anything from you.”

“If he did, then he wouldn’t have tried hiding his brother in the first place.” She turned around and squared her shoulders. Blowing a hair out of her face, she continued onward through the jungle.

Why he was trying to hide the other man, she’d never understand. Was it because he was dangerous? Obviously he was. She knew that. All demon kings were dangerous. Was it because he wanted to keep her for himself?

That was more likely. The bastard.

Slapping at another leaf, she muttered underneath her breath about men who thought they could control her. “He does realize I have opinions of my own, right? I’m stuck here for the time being, and he wants me to stay here willingly. I’m not immortal, by all the gods! I could die any minute and he’s over there acting like I won’t do exactly that, just wasting away in that stupid room.”

“Varya...”

“You know, I don’t know how long I’ve even been here! Part of it, I was passed out. Injuries make me lose track of time, and for all I know, I’ve been here for weeks!”

Ivo launched a leaf at her back, nearly toppling her off her feet. “You haven’t been here that long. And you said there wasn’t anyone wondering where you were.”

Ouch. It wasn’t all that fair for him to bring that up. “That’s not nice.”

“What’s not nice?”

“Pointing out that there’s no one waiting for me if I die doesn’t make me feel great,” she grumbled. “It’s not an easy thing to swallow that I could disappear for a year and it would take that long for people to wonder if I was dead.”

“You haven’t been here a year. You’ve only been here sixteen days.”

Sixteen days? She had healed so much faster than she’d expected. Her ribs didn’t even hurt anymore, and she was certain that had to be because she’d been here at least a month. Sixteen days?

Wait, a minute...

“Oh.” She turned around, heading back the way they’d come. “If I’ve only been here sixteen days...”

She wasn’t too late. Varya had anticipated that she’d already missed the Festival of Lights. But because she’d been so quick to heal this time, likely thanks to whatever magic Greed’s healers knew, but that meant that she could get back to her people and still partake in the festival.

It was her favorite time of year. Hundreds of people gathered in the middle of the desert. Everyone brought food and water, nothing else because it wasn’t about trading or making money. And it was the only time of year that everyone called a truce on the stealing. They gathered together, made paper lanterns they lit, and then let the desert wind take them up into the sky.

It was an honorable night, full of the old ways that had been passed down for generations. Leaping over bonfires. Eating good food and reminding your friends and family that you loved them, even if you didn’t all that much anymore. It was beautiful. Everyone was so happy and she could be there this year.

Varya hadn’t gone to the festival in six years. Such a long time. But she’d been busy trying to find all those artifacts, and then the Horde had been an issue and she’d been tracking them for ages.

She found the stairs fairly quickly and started up them. Greed had dresses delivered to her room, but those wouldn’t suffice. She’d be laughed out of the festival if she showed up in silk and gossamer fabric. She could just imagine Altan’s face now.

Rummaging through the pile of clothes, she couldn’t find anything that would work. Sighing, she leaned back on her haunches, hands planted on her knees in frustration.

Maybe Ivo could...

Glancing up, she saw him hovering in the doorway. “What is going on?” he asked.

“Do you know where I can find better clothes?”

“Better?”

“I can’t wear any of these around my people. They’ll know exactly what happened. They’ll think that I’ve taken up with Greed, and that’s just not true.”

His eyebrows crept up. “Is it not?”

“No, I’m just here until I’m healed.” Which... she supposed was now. “They cut my clothes off me when I was injured, didn’t they?”

“They did.”

Damn. It had taken her months to get those leathers made for her body. It would take her months to get the same person to make her armor again. The woman had probably gone up in her prices, too.

“Fuck.” Varya shook her head. “What’s the least flashy garment in here?”

Ivo pointed at her nightgown. It was as thin as moonlight and glided over her body like the cool touch of the wind. She absolutely couldn’t wear that out of here, but he was right. The pale nightgown was the only thing that didn’t look like she’d pulled it out of a genie’s bottle.

Clapping her hands to her thighs, she sighed. “It can’t be helped them. To the servants.”

“The servants?”

“Yes.”

Varya swiftly ran through the halls, racing down the corridors to the rooms where the servants slept. There was no one in the room at this time of day. Why would they be? They had jobs to do and people to take care of. Which meant she could walk right in and pluck the first clothes that would fit her.

The plain dark pants would be a little baggy, but they’d do. The white linen shirt would swallow her form, but she’d roll up the arms and it would be just fine. If she left the top a little untied as well, that would give it a bit more flare. At least no one would think she had been staying in Greed’s castle for the past few weeks.

“What are you doing?” Ivo hissed as she started out of the room.

“Stealing.”

“Yes, why?”

“Because I don’t have access to normal clothes?” Varya arched a brow. He knew where he lived, didn’t he?

“That’s... But that’s...”

“Wrong?” she interjected. “Stealing is a way of life here. If you want to fit in with the rest of us miscreants, then you’re probably going to have to learn how to do it.”

“Steal?” he spluttered, as though that was the most terrible thing he’d heard in ages.

“Yes.” Varya laughed as she started stripping right in front of him. The man had proven he wasn’t all that interested in her, and besides, she still had her underthings on.

A choked sound echoed out of his mouth before he spun around like she’d flashed a tit at him. “Now what are you doing?” he groaned. “You can’t just take your clothes off in the middle of the city, Varya!”

“I can, actually.” He couldn’t see her grin, but she was anyway. This was the first time she’d felt like herself since she’d gotten here. Shimmying the pants up her legs, she buttoned them at the waist and figured out the last bit of her plan.

Honestly, this was the best part of her job. She had to figure out every detail on the fly when she suddenly decided she wanted to do something. Like right now. She knew Greed would not let her go to the Festival of Lights, not unless she snuck out.

Ivo had already heard her talk about the festival, so he knew where she was intending to go. And he’d been around while she stole all her clothes, so he definitely had a clue where she was headed and what her intent was.

What they didn’t know was where the festival was, and that was good enough for her.

Greed loved the chase, after all.

“Ivo, why don’t you give me a good argument about why I cannot just strip in public?” That ought to get him started. Then she pulled the shirt over her head, leaving it loose and messy, and then slipped down the stairs.

She ran, a wild grin on her face and her heart thundering in her chest. Varya had already found the stables on one of her previous rounds. There were plenty of horses to take, and a few of those leathery beasts with fangs. She eyed one of them that looked paler than the others. That was Greed’s mount, wasn’t it?

The thought passed through her mind that maybe she could steal that one. But the beast snapped at her, sharp fangs flashing as it tried to bite her and she had second thoughts about that plan.

Instead, she grabbed a big black beast in the back that was already pawing at the door. Bareback, she put a bridle in its mouth and called it good.

She led the horse out of the stables, peered around to see if anyone was looking, and then ran for the front doors. Good enough. No one was here to stop her, and no one was likely to try after she threw open the doors.

Varya swung up onto the horse, her legs spread so wide around its back that it almost hurt. But she wasn’t going too far, just a couple hours ride, really. If she couldn’t walk when she got to the festival... Well. It wouldn’t be the first time, if she couldn’t.

“Varya!” A shout rang out in the castle and she turned to see Greed standing on one of the highest platforms. He looked enraged, far more angry than she’d ever seen him before. How had he known?

It didn’t matter. Let him be angry for her stealing away. He should be a little.

In leaving, she was taking his most prized possession away from him. Herself.

Giving him a little mock salute, she kicked her heels against the horse’s sides. The wind raked her hair back from her face, the sand blasted from the horse’s hooves, and the sound of her laugh trailed behind her as she fled.