7. Serak

SERAK

O nly a knife. She thought the dagger she’d carried was only a knife.

I stared through the darkness, my heart pounding, the wound in my shoulder where Ratter had stabbed me earlier that day aching slightly. It wasn’t really a deep cut, merely annoying. I knew I’d earned it, asking for a kiss. If she hadn’t stabbed me, I might have been forced to do it myself for being such a numbskull.

I waited for the kitchen door to shut behind Ratter and her mother, then flexed my toes and fingers, pins and needles flaring. Frostbite? I didn’t think so, though I’d been crouched on the rooftop of the building across from Ratter’s home ever since her own sister had gone to the castle to watch the king’s children. The cold had seeped into my bones.

I was still confused and amazed at the level of care Haven’s ten adopted children took to guard the royal brats. There was always one of them at the castle, spying from somewhere. I’d asked one of the palace guards if they were doing this officially, why former street urchins were protecting the royal family, and he’d stiffened. “They’re all royalty now, sir, and don’t forget it. The king elevated them to lords and ladies, even made one of ‘em a princess, and not because he was making fun. They’ve saved the lives of our queen and her babies more times than anyone’d believe. And they do it for nothin’ but love.”

Between them and Vilkurn, it had made it a fair challenge of my own abilities to take care of the four males I’d killed in the past month. Unfortunately, I’d had to make their deaths quick to avoid getting caught. After what they’d dared in public, and what I’d overheard them planning to do in private—not only to Ratter but to her sisters—they’d deserved an even more ignominious death than I’d given them.

It would be my own long, painful death, though, if I didn’t go to the jeweler Ratter had mentioned, right now, and retrieve the dagger. I’d sneak out of the city as soon as I had it, and be on my way home before Solstice Eve. If I was lucky, my masters would be pleased with its return. And would believe me when I told them Ratter was not the one we sought.

Only, when I was a block away from the jeweler’s, I heard a familiar voice cry out. A child. “Let go of me, you cretin!”

It was the crown prince. I unsheathed my own knives and ran.

The boy had a sack of something on his back, but a hulking Alpha was trying to take it from him. “Gimme it, ya little shit! Gimme them jewels!” I could smell the man all the way down the street, the reek of stale urine and tobacco clinging to his ragged clothing and grubby skin. He yanked at the sack, which bowled the prince over, causing the opening to gape and a shower of hard candies to spill out over the cobblestones.

“Get off him, you son of a bitch!” I yelled. Lanterns were being lit in the windows near us, and the man whirled around to face me. When he saw me with my twin daggers, though, he spat out a curse word and ran off. I stopped at the prince’s side to help him up, though he shook off my hand. “What are you doing out here, Prince Dashiell?” I asked, when I’d made certain he wasn’t bleeding. “It’s late, you have no guard and… Do your parents have any idea where you are?”

The boy speared me with a look he must have learned from King Rigol. “What I’m doing is none of your concern, Lord Zellum. Thank you for your assistance.” He muttered, “Though it wasn’t needed,” and began scooping the candies up.

Some of them were unwrapped, and most of them had broken, but I moved across the street, trying to help him rescue any that were still salvageable.

He didn’t thank me. Or even look at me. “Damn that fellow. Now I have to sneak out again.”

“Sneak out? Why?”

His narrow shoulders slumped. “There’s a surprise party happening on the Solstice. A goodbye party as well.” When I held out a handful of sweets, he held the pack closer to his torso, as if I were planning to take it. “That’s all you need to know.”

He wouldn’t share any more than that, and I escorted him back to the castle, him dragging his feet, while my impatience grew. We were only a few streets away from the main gate, when one of Ratter’s sisters came rappelling down the side of the castle wall, her eyes snapping fire as she reached us. She glared at Dash, nodded her thanks to me, and had him by the ear and halfway through the gate before I could wish her luck.

I ran back to the jeweler’s, forced to take a few detours when I spotted some more of Ratter’s crew on rooftops. I didn’t want them asking what I was doing in the neighborhood.

The night was fully dark when I reached the shop, hoping the proprietor would still be at work, though I would break in and liberate the dagger if needed. But the door was open when I reached it, and the silver-haired Beta jeweler was inside, trussed up like a Solstice bird, with a rag in his mouth.

I didn’t untie him, but did take the rag out. Although I drew my daggers, he started talking before they’d even cleared the sheaths. “Listen, I’ve told every one of them little shits. I don’t have the dagger. I sold it.”

“The obsidian dagger?” I held my knife at his throat, but he rolled his eyes.

“Listen, the knife at my throat business was scary the first time. It was scary the second time. But it’s gotten old. I need my sleep, and at this point, I’d settle for sleeping in a graveyard if it would get you lot to leave me alone.”

I put the knife away, wondering what exactly had happened here. I wanted to kill someone, but I needed information. “My apologies.” I untied him, helping him to a chair. “I’m afraid we’re all after the same thing.”

“Yes, I know. The perfect Solstice gift. Goddess only knows why everyone wants a knife for their sweetheart.”

Sweetheart? I fought for calm. “The dagger that Ratter sold you. I wanted to purchase it.”

“You and everyone else. I told that girl she ought not to sell it. It’s cursed.” He had no idea how right he was.

“Do you know what she needed the money for?”

“Leaving, ain’t she? At least that’s what her little boyfriend said. Why he wanted to buy it back, so she could take it with her on her trip out of Rimholt.” Caution flashed in his eyes. “Don’t be tellin’ she’s on her way out, though. She works for General Vilkurn, young Ratter does. And if I get on his bad side, I’d wish for a quick death, and not receive one, I know that for sure.”

“Boyfriend?” I blinked, rage clouding my vision. “Who? I need a name.”

“What for?”

I should have paid more attention to my tone, but a red cloud had descended over my thoughts. I paced back and forth across the shop, broken glass and bits of wood crunching underfoot. I wanted to rage, to kill, to run after Ratter and make sure she knew she was… I breathed through my nose slowly, fighting to suppress my Alpha nature, though the shop had begun to smell like the bloody maw of Alldyns Vug.

Fuck. I’d been an Alpha for less than a year, my rut spent suspended over a pool of lava, as was tradition… but the fire of jealousy that ignited inside me anytime I thought of anyone else touching her made me feel on the edge of rut, of murder, with each beat of my heart.

She was not mine. She could never be mine, or any man’s. She had been born for a far greater purpose. I knew this as surely as I knew that I could not drag her back to the island.

But if I left her here, she would turn to some other man, someday. Some other Alpha, even, who might press his teeth into her slim neck, ease his cock inside her willing heat…

The world turned red again. I fought for a grip on reality, but it slid away like water in a sieve. Was this Alpha madness? I’d never experienced it before, but I felt as if I’d slipped into a fog.

“Give me his name, so I can kill him.”

The shopkeeper had risen, his eyes wide, alarm etched on his features. “No.”

My daggers were at his throat instantly, and the scent of his blood filled the room. “His. Name.”

“I will not,” he said, though the scent of his urine reached my nostrils. “Go on and kill me, but I’ll not give you his name.” He closed his eyes, fully expecting to die.

What in the Lord of Pain’s deep hell?

The rage began to abate, giving way to surprise and a touch of reason. Who would this man be willing to die for, to protect? If Ratter had a boyfriend—the thought made me want to vomit—she’d kept it very quiet.

Could it be one of the crew she ran with? That older boy, Robert, or Rubs, whatever she called him? Or Trevor, who’d inexplicably been known as Tracks. Even their names made me want to kill someone. Such ridiculous names.

Almost as ridiculous as the one she’d taken.

The jeweler whimpered in my grip again. Somehow, I managed not to kill him. I dropped him, then stalked away, slow at first, then speeding up until I reached the river at a dead run.I didn’t pause. I simply threw myself in, clothing and all, and swam as hard as I could toward the north, against the current, only stopping once the rage had dissipated. Then I floated back downstream, staring at the stars.

At the southernmost edge of the city, I pulled myself out of the water and rolled onto the stone pier in a part of Turino I’d never visited, exhausted, freezing, and angry at myself for losing control.The long, cold walk back to the castle would give me time to make a plan for recovering the dagger.

Or so I thought.

I was less than a hundred paces from the pier when I heard her, though her voice was muffled. “Right, I’ve given you a fair offer to clear out of the street, and you’ve refused it. So I find myself with a quandary.”

I blinked. Ratter stood, in her unmistakable gray cloak, at the corner of the next street up, beside what looked like an abandoned factory of some kind. A man stood before her, peering down at her. She had a cloth mask over her lower face, whether for warmth or as a disguise, I wasn’t sure.

“Ye’ll find yourself with my cock in your mouth if ya don’ shut up and leave me the fuck alone, girl,” the man slurred. I slid against the stone wall closest to me, hiding in the deep shadow. The man was an Alpha, from the sheer size of him, and a fisherman, from the stink that wafted my way on the cold breeze. He smelled slightly feral, and more than slightly drunk. “Maybe you’d like a taste anyway, hm? Get over here; I’ll show you what a girl like you’s good fer.” He stumbled toward her, reaching out with one open hand. She danced away, tsking.

“What I’m good for? See, that’s the thing. I’m really only good for one thing. But my boss has forbidden me to kill any more men, even Alpha arserags like you, until after the Solstice. Normally, I would cut your tongue out for that sort of comment, as a start, and move on to other parts of your anatomy until you learned your lesson. I’m trying to keep my promise to him, though.” She scratched her chin through the mask, like she was mulling possibilities. “No time for school. I’m meeting someone.” Her cloak swirled around her, up and out, and hid whatever she did.

When she stepped back, the Alpha was on his side in the street, and she was racing toward a door. I held my breath, listening, as she knocked, waited a moment, then said, “They always want us in cages.”

Was she meeting the boyfriend here? I sucked in a breath, then realized my error as Ratter’s head tilted, and her hand moved to her waist. She waited, and I thought she would come toward me, but the door opened a crack, and someone whispered, “That’s why we learned to pick locks. Thank the Goddess you’re here.”

A woman. Not a man.

Ratter slid past the woman, squeezing her narrow shoulder in friendship. The woman kept her head outside, sniffing the air like a bloodhound. “I smell… Ah.” She spied the fallen Alpha, then went back inside.

I stayed put. Within minutes, a group of seven women and girls wearing cloaks and masks like Ratter’s slid silently into the dark street, carrying something that looked like a rolled-up fishing net. No one spoke. They only moved to the fallen Alpha, laid the net on the street, then rolled him up in it. When Ratter gave a short series of clicks with her tongue, the women vanished back into the factory, leaving the Alpha.

From nowhere, two men appeared, each one picking up an end of the rolled-up net. Ratter handed one of them something. “At least to the border of Rimholt, hear me? I don’t want him finding his way back.”

They nodded. “He ain’t dead?” one of them asked as they passed by, neither one noticing me there. “That ain’t like her. Least not as I’ve heard.”

His friend tsked. “Don’t listen to gossip. That girl’s got a heart as big as this city. If she’s killed somebody, it was somebody who needed it. That lass may be a murderer a thousand times over, but she’s on the side of the Goddess.” They paused, putting their burden down and tying the ends of the net tighter as they spoke.

“The story’s true then?”

“I was there, lad, in the Swill and Spill, the night King Rigol was targeted. Our girl Ratter was naught more’n a babe herself, but she took on a Guild assassin who was after the king. He was stabbed, ya know. But the wound healed in a flash of gold fire, and our lass… I can’t remember the words, but I still remember her voice. It was like hearin’ a lullaby from yer mam, and the song of a nightingale, and the summer wind over the wheatfields back home.” He sniffled. “I fall asleep thinking about it some nights, even now. It was the Goddess, and our Ratter’s Her hands.”

“Bloody little hands the Goddess has,” the other agreed before they turned the corner.

I waited a moment, then moved closer. Broken glass had been plastered into the tops of the walls that flanked the entrance, marked with a faded wooden sign that read Riverside Glassworks . She’d made it almost impossible to enter the factory, but one of the windows was open, and I heard movement inside as I approached. Voices.

Hers. “Is this place all right, Winna? I mean, now that I’ve got rid of that arserag Alpha. The Betas who took him will be back. They look rough, but I’ve known ‘em since I was practically Gertie’s age. You can trust those two.”

“You mean you’ve paid them a fortune to guard us, and they know you’ll kill them if they betray you.”

“Well, yeah. That’s what I said.” Laughter spilled out into the night.

Curiosity ate at me. What was Ratter doing, and what were these women hiding? I leaned closer until I could see into the blacked-out window. In the center of the room stood the seven women I’d seen before, as well as another one, and just as many children, mostly girls. They were arranging furniture, and hanging sheets and tablecloths to make part of the factory into rooms. On the far side of the vast space, I noted an enormous pile of pillows and blankets, which only one of the women was touching.

She was moving them into a large closet, arranging them carefully on her own, before a red-haired, statuesque woman came to help. “Can you believe we’ll finally get a nest of our own?” The first woman embraced the redhead, the pillows and blankets forgotten as they kissed passionately.

“Zara? May I enter your nest, Omega?” the redhead asked quietly. In answer, the smaller woman led her into the closet, closing the door behind them both.The sounds that emerged from the room were unmistakable.

The laughter from the women outside the door quieted when Ratter said, loud enough to carry, “No teasing them. It’s a good sign that they feel safe here.”

Another woman agreed. “Zara’s put off having her cycle for a long while, but the herbs were starting to make her feel ill. I think it’s sweet.”

“Some of you may need your own nesting rooms as well before long. And you’ll have them in a place this size. I may not be able to make them as fancy as Queen Vali’s, but you’ll be safe.”

“We won’t let Alphas in. We can’t.”

“Cross that bridge when we come to it, eh? I’ve been working on finding solutions to that problem, too. And not just the herbs that keep you from smelling like the stinky little miracles you are.” Rueful chuckles filled the air.

Nests. There was only one kind of human female who built a nest. Who had a distinctive scent.

I was frozen in place, my mind reeling as I realized what I was seeing. This was why she’d sold the dagger. To buy this place, to protect a treasure far greater than the diamond she’d thrown at me. This group of women were hiding from Alphas, and at least some of them were Omegas.

The people on this continent believed that Omegas had all died out in the plagues three hundred years before. On Pict, we knew better, but the emergence of Rimholt’s Queen Vali had drawn the attention of the Lord of Fire to this small, landlocked country. When she’d brought another Omega—Ratter’s adoptive mother, Haven—out of captivity to live here, in this city, every kingdom had begun to send emissaries, hoping to secure Omegas for their own royal lines. But as far as I knew, the only ones here were Vali, and her sisters Haven and Cilla, who had married into the Mirrenese nobility.

Even one of these women was worth ten horses’ weight in gold to an Alpha. Not only could she take his knot and bear his young, she could draw him back from the edge of madness, as Vali had done for Rigol.

Did they know of these women and girls? Did anyone?

Ratter was heading for the door, and I listened closely. “...miss you so much. Can you come tomorrow night for an early Solstice celebration?”

“Are you cooking cabbage?”

“No.”

“Then yes. I wouldn’t miss it for the world.”

“Bring your crew. All of them.”

“Even…?”

“He’s special to you. And we need to learn to be around Alphas. You made room for him in your heart. We can do the same.”

She did have a boyfriend, then. Of course she did. A young woman as beautiful and strong as her, who spoke a dozen languages, from what I’d gathered, and had the ear of a king?

The ear of a king, and the voice of a Goddess. I thought for a long moment about what I’d heard tonight. About her vicious, deeply protective nature. Her insistence on honor and keeping promises, combined with her questionable morals.

Was she touched by the Goddess? Could she be… Her avatar? The one in the prophecy, the reason my masters had bred a line of females for a thousand years?

I shivered in a gust of harsh wind. It was possible. The rumors might be true, and if they were, my masters would stop at nothing to bring her back to Pict, and force her to fulfill her destiny.

I had to let her go. I’d find the dagger, and not speak to her again. Then, after the Solstice, I’d do my best to ignore the feeling that I was allowing a part of my soul to leave me. Carving a wound that would never heal.

I rubbed my wounded shoulder, waiting for her to get far enough away to move, only now feeling the bitter cold of the night through my wet clothing. When I was certain she was gone, my heart heavy, I slipped away, in search of the dagger.