Chapter Nine

Chapter Nine

The marketplace was a combination of temporary stalls and permanent storefronts. The latter usually sold things that were difficult to move—glassware, furniture, and restaurants especially—while the former could be anything from a blanket laid out on the ground to a cart fully loaded with a grill.

My favorite clothing shop had a permanent location on the first floor of a building in the fourth row of the east quarter. We passed several others on our way there that might have been cheaper, but I was friends with the owner.

Halfway there, a cheerful voice called out, “Ricky! Ricky!”

I froze in horror. Though a lot of people still called me Fred, only one person called me fucking Ricky. Too late, I realized freezing was the wrong response. I grabbed Kit’s arm, which was the only thing that stopped me from being bowled over as someone slammed into me from behind.

“I’ve missed you!” they exclaimed, nuzzling my back. “You never come to the shop anymore!”

“Kit,” I said, my voice strangled, “there is a very good bookstore just down that street. Why don’t you go get Franny a present?”

They cocked their head to the side, their eyes narrowed as they looked between me and the man clinging onto me. Between my frantic panic and the mask, I couldn’t even begin to read their expression. “Sure. Come get me once you’re done.”

I blindly reached around and grabbed Griffin by the collar of his shirt, yanking him between stalls in a desperate attempt to find something resembling privacy. We were halfway out of the market before I found an empty storefront and shoved him into the shadows of the awning. “What do you think you’re doing?”

He looked up at me with big, blue, innocent eyes. “I was saying hello!” His bottom lip jutted out in a practiced pout, and he demanded, “Who was that with you? Have you replaced me so soon?”

“Stop the act, would you? I’m not a paying customer anymore.”

The lip wobbled tremulously for five solid seconds. Then Griffin sighed and straightened, crossing his arms. “I like you a lot better when you play along.” His face changed with the new demeanor, maturing, and souring at the same time. He liked to play cute and innocent, claiming the gap in his personality and his profession earned him more money than if he acted like the typical sadist. I’d be lying if I claimed it hadn’t worked on me in the beginning.

I sighed and ran a hand through my hair. I’d cut things off with Griffin a few months ago for an excellent reason that I had no intention of discussing out in the open. “I’ve asked you before not to draw attention to us in public, especially when I’m with someone.”

Griffin smirked. “So, that really is your new lover? Does he treat you as well as I did?”

“You were paid to treat me well,” I reminded him.

His expression clouded over. “You know it wasn’t only about the money.” He reached out and stroked my cheek, down to my chin, lifting it with just the tips of his fingers. “We worked well together, didn’t we?” he murmured, closing the distance between us. “Everything would have been even better if you had let me—”

I slapped his hand away. “Not in public. And no, he isn’t my lover, he’s my sister’s fiancé.” Technically, they were impersonating my sister’s fiancé, but Griffin was not a person to confide secrets in. They’d be sold before you had time to blink.

Griffin arched a brow and looked around my shoulder, even though Kit was far out of our view. “That’s the Prince of Bane? The weirdo in a fox mask and clunky armor?”

“Don’t ask, it’s a custom.”

“I thought it was some new type of play, which is why I was surprised you weren’t the one being led around on a leash.”

“I did not have him on a leash,” I said through gritted teeth.

“Shame.”

“If that’s all you have to say,” I started, pulling away from him.

“Wait.” Griffin grabbed my hand. “Give me one more chance. I promise I won’t push you beyond your limits.”

The sincerity in his eyes made me waver for a moment. Ever since yesterday’s fiasco, my skin had itched under my clothes, like phantom ropes still wrapped around me “You’re just sad you lost a customer.”

“You’re more than a customer to me, Rick. I—”

A munching sound interrupted his impassioned plea. We stared at each other for a few moments, then both slowly turned our heads to the side.

A small purple creature sat cross-legged, suspended in midair, eating popcorn. Its tail floated below it, swaying lazily, the barbed tip drawing little circles in the dirt. “Don’t mind me,” it said, tossing a handful of popcorn into its mouth, “I’m just on a lunch break.”

“This is a private matter,” Griffin snapped, trying to put himself between me and the creature, which would have worked better if he wasn’t a head shorter than me.

The creature shrugged and continued munching. “This is a public marketplace. It’s your fault for causing a scene.”

Panicked, I looked to see if anyone else had witnessed our interaction, but only the creature seemed interested in us. “What are you?” I asked, shaking Griffin’s hand off of me.

“Imp,” it replied. “Fourth level, but I’m working on that.” He did a little jump and landed on his feet, stuffing the popcorn bag into a small pocket on his brown trousers. “Confirm one thing for me.”

I’d heard of imps before, but never seen one. They were low-level minions of an evil mage—the exact kind of creature that should have been repelled by the Kingdom Defense Spell. I stared at it, unable to speak, as my mind grappled with the new development.

Since I didn’t say anything, Griffin took the lead. “What do you want, creature?”

“This kingdom is?”

“Woe.”

“In the?”

“Desolated Lands.”

“And we’re how far from the castle?”

Griffin finally stopped answering, snapping his mouth shut and narrowing his eyes. “What foul deeds are you plotting, fiend?”

The imp shrugged. “Two out of three isn’t bad. Thanks for the info.” It saluted briskly and started walking away.

Fuck, no, I had to find out why—how—the imp bypassed the spell. “Wait!” I ran after it and grabbed its tail, yanking back. “How did you—”

“How dare you, foolish mortal!” it snarled. The calm, professional demeanor disappeared as the imp transformed into a writhing, wriggling mass of rage. Trying to hold onto it was like squeezing a waterskin too tightly—its whole body swished and swelled as it tried to escape my grip.

I raised it higher and shook it once, trying to startle it into behaving. “Who do you serve?”

“Ricky, I don’t think that’s a good—”

Teeth sunk into my hand, and I yelped in pain as I dropped the creature back to the ground. It disappeared in a puff of ominous purple smoke.

Griffin took my hand and examined the puncture wounds. “Why don’t you come back to the shop with me? I’ve got a first-aid kit there, we need to treat it so it doesn’t get infected.”

“I’m fine,” I snapped, yanking my hand from his grip and shoving it in my pocket. “I have to go.”

“Ricky, wait!” he called after me as I rushed back into the main marketplace. “Rick!”

I didn’t have time for this stupid relationship bullshit. If an imp could bypass the defense spell, what else might slip through the cracks?