Page 189 of Lady of Ashes

Sloan stepped in front of both of them, and Callan was pulling Tava into him, his hand going to the short sword at his waist.

“Hey there, angel,” one man near the front of the group said. Callan recognized him as the same man who had tried to get her to follow him the last time they were here. “We was hoping you’d show up tonight. They said you would.”

“Who is ‘they’?” Callan asked.

“Ain’t no business of yours, is it?” the man sneered. “In fact, I’ll make you two a deal. You give us her, and we let you walk outta here.”

“I am afraid that is not an option tonight,” Callan answered, his arm tightening around Tava.

“What is going to happen,” Sloan cut in, his tone dark and commanding, “is you lot are going to let us walk out of here. No one is going to do anything stupid, and we will all go on about our business.”

A few of the men in the group chuckled, and the entire mob seemed to lurch forward.

“Nah,” the man, apparently the leader, said. “That ain’t what’s going to happen at all. See, we will be getting quite a bit o’ coin if we bring the angel to them.”

“We will give you more coin to let us leave without a problem,” Callan countered, taking a step back when the crowd moved closer again.

The man scoffed. “Angel,” he chided, shaking his head, “you bringing more high society shit in here? Ain’t enough to be better than us by marrying a prince?”

“I am not better than any of you,” Tava replied, and Callan was rather impressed by the con?dence in her voice. There was no quavering, no note of fear. “And neither are they. We only want to help.”

“You want to help us,angel?” the man sneered.

“I do,” Tava insisted, undeterred by the man’s tone.

“Then let us turn you over to be used for whatever purposes they want,” he sneered again. “That’s the only way a noble whore like yourself could be of any use to us lowlifes in the slums.”

“Watch your mouth,” Callan snapped, and the entire crowd broke out into laughter.

“You know she’s gonna marry the prince, right?” the man asked. “Don’t get in the way of this over a piece you won’t be able to touch any more soon anyway.”

Sloan had drawn his sword as the crowd had moved closer. “Who wants her?” he asked.

“Don’t care,” the man shrugged. “Alls I know is I’m gonna get enough coin to feed my family for a year when I drag her outta here,” he continued, pointing the knife he held at Tava.

“You are not going to touch her,” Callan snarled.

“That’s where you’re wrong,” the man sneered. “She’s coming with us, and maybe we’ll even break her in a lil’ more before her prince gets her.”

“Maybe her prince won’t even want her any more after we’re done,” another man chimed.

“Wouldn’t that be poetic, angel?” the ?rst man said, moving closer again. “You thinkin’ you’re better than us, only to be tossed out by your prince?”

Tava was beginning to tremble beside him, but her voice was steady when she said, “I have never thought I was better than any of you.”

“See, I used to think that, angel,” the man said, tapping the hilt of his knife against his chin. “Then you went and got engaged to the godsdamn Crown Prince. You ain’t any better than them, and you’ll forget about us, just like they did. You jus’ come here to make yerself feel better. You ain’t ever cared.”

“That is not true,” Tava insisted.

The man shrugged again. “I don’t really care if it is or not, and we’re done talking. Come down here like a good bitch, and we’ll go easy on ya.”

“I have already stated you are not going to touch her,” Callan said, pulling his short sword from its scabbard.

“Unless you got the royal guard here with ya, you ain’t gonna stop us,” the man sneered.

“How convenient,” Sloan said, his tone low and deadly as he pulled back his hood. “That is exactly who is with them.”

The crowd all stumbled back a step. The man’s eyes ?ew back to Tava, wrath and fury blazing in them. “You brought the motherfuckin’ royal guard here?”

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