Page 4 of Her Dark Reflection

Thumping my hairbrush down, I realised just which bottle had spilled all over my table, and groaned as I picked it up and peered into it. Completely empty. I grabbed my favourite cloak from a pile at the foot of my bed and swung it over my shoulders. The apothecary would likely be shut, but the owner himself lived only a few doors down. It wouldn’t be the first time I had banged on his door late at night because I’d run out of birth control.

‘Where do you think you’re going?’ Cotus’s gruff voice chased after me as I tripped down the stairs towards the back door.

I turned to him with narrowed eyes. ‘Just because I’m a maisera doesn’t mean I’m blood bound. I can go wherever I wish.’

His forehead creased as his brows drew together. ‘I didn’t mean… I mean, I just want…’ He rubbed the back of his neck as he ducked his head, hiding his eyes behind his floppy red hair. ‘It’s late to be out alone. Madam Luzel won’t like it. There’s all sorts in town for the holiday.’

‘Which you’d know best, since you’ve been out hocking swoon to them all afternoon.’

He frowned at the sharp reminder that I knew his secret. ‘I’ve got no swoon.’

‘After spending a whole week in the Yawn? What happened, did Baba Yaga catch you and strip you of your snatchings?’

‘Rhi, please,’ he urged, glancing around as he did. ‘Keep your voice down.’

I rolled my eyes. ‘You know I wouldn’t have said anything if anyone was nearby. Now, stop being such a lick spittle and let me out.’

He scuffed at the ground with his boot. ‘She’ll have my balls if she finds out.’

‘She won’t. I’m just going to the apothecary. I won’t be long.’ I paused before continuing through the door, taking in his embarrassment, and feeling a little guilty for being terse with him. ‘Thank you for helping me earlier. I feel safe in there knowing that you’re looking out for us.’

His ears turned red as he smiled at the ground. ‘I can come with you.’

‘No, you’re needed here. I promise I’ll be back in twenty minutes. If I’m not, you can come looking for me.’

He nodded, though his face was still tense. ‘I’ll hold you to that.’

On a whim, I stood on tiptoes and planted a kiss on his stubbly cheek. ‘Thank you,’ I said, and was satisfied to see the red flush his entire face before I walked out the door.

The stagnant smell of the sluggish river behind the Winking Nymph squirmed its way up my nose. The cold night air played host to the croon of a sea shanty, the shouts of revellers and the grunts of someone enjoying the wares of one of the girls who could be bought off the street for three peythas a knock. Those who couldn’t spare the coins for a bed often bunked down in the slimy undergrowth beneath the trees behind the suvoir, though I had no idea how they could sleep with that smell hanging over them.

I mused about how sweetly awkward Cotus was for such a big man as I walked the alley between the Winking Nymphand the tavern next door. I knew he liked me more than he should, which I found charming, so charming that I was too absorbed in preening my ego to notice the footsteps behind me as I rounded the building and stepped out into the street. The hand that clapped around my mouth made me jump, but the fear didn’t hit until I heard the voice that hissed in my ear.

‘Come quietly and we won’t kill you where you stand.’

I didn’t obey, beginning to struggle and squirm with everything I had in me, managing a piercing scream that was cut short when a rag was shoved into my mouth. One of my assailants cursed.

‘Someone will have heard that. Move her. Quick.’

I was carried, dragged, towards the woodland by two sets of hands, one on either arm. They forced me into the trees as I fought them, pulling and kicking and trying to expel the rag from my mouth. A glow leered out of the darkness as I was hauled towards a makeshift camp, a few scraggly tents pitched around a smouldering campfire.

I was thrown to the dirt and I hit it hard, my palms cutting against the rocky ground. Scrambling to my feet, I pulled the filthy rag from my mouth and faced my assailants. Shock stole away my breath as I realised it was the three men I’d had thrown out of the suvoir.

The scarred one sneered at the sight of my expression. ‘I bet you’d have been a bit friendlier if you’d realised we were your neighbours.’

Fear crawled over my skin. ‘You want to teach me a lesson. Fine, consider it learned. Let me go home,’ I said, my eyes flitting about my surroundings, trying to determine whether I could dart around them and make it back to the Winking Nymph.

‘Not so lippy out here away from your keepers, are you, pretty?’

My heart was a thunderstorm in my ribcage as they drew closer, throwing sinister grins at one another as though checking to make sure they were all in this together.

‘You don’t need me as an excuse to get close to each other,’ I blurted, regretting the words almost immediately. The sneers turned to scowls. The blond man shot towards me and managed to land his beefy hand on my dress, his fingers closing on the fabric, yanking me back as I tried to scurry out of his reach. The scarred man moved in, grabbing me by the shoulder as he pulled his arm back. I closed my eyes just as his hand connected with my cheek, making lights burst behind my eyelids, and sparking a sharp, hot pain in my face. The metallic taste of blood coated my tongue and I spat into the dirt at their feet, my expression an ugly contortion of hatred and wrath as I glared back at them.

‘Big men, aren’t you? Three against one,’ I hissed, my anger taking precedence over self-preservation. The blond man caught my wrist, then tugged hard and caged me against him with an arm around my waist. I lashed out with my feet as I tried to claw at his face, but my hands and feet were quickly captured by the other two and they strung me out between them as I squirmed and screamed.

‘Put her on the ground,’ the blond ordered, and they lowered me down as I shrieked until my throat was burning. Surely someone would hear, would come, would help? No, what a stupid thought. No one had ever stopped to help me. As the blond straddled my waist, the fury searing through my veins was so hot it should have burned away my skin. The hands on my ankles melded to me like molten lead and no matter how hard I kicked out, I couldn’t shake them. My wrists were pinned to the dirt, pressed hard beneath unrelenting knees until they throbbed. The blond pressed his face to my neck, his foul breath against my skin, his hand gripping hard at my hair. I turned my head and found flesh, sunk my teeth in until I heard a cry, then kept biting down as he struggled to pull away from me, the metallic taste of blood spilling across my tongue.

His fingers clamped down around my neck, squeezing until I let go, and he pulled away, his hand against his cheek, red trickling down his chin. When he looked at the blood on his fingers, the rage that gripped his features rivalled my own.

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