Page 23 of Born for Lace

I clear my throat as I approach. “Hello,” I say, and they stop talking.

“You!” She turns toward me while a smirk builds on the rugged man’s face, his abundance of cheek lifting. “I didn’t know it wasyouLagos carried in here yesterday.” Her brow rises on Spero. “That baby best not keep me up.”

You’re up anyway.

Smart-mouthed retorts build along my tongue, but I simply smile. “He won’t.”

I walk through the grey door and out into the empty streets. First-light dew clings to the walls and drips down white spikes that lance from the cave ceiling.

The Bite is a ghost town at this hour. As I cross the stony path, I find myself walking toward the Exchange Hub with sick curiosity spurring me onward.

Pieces of wood are nailed from frame to frame, making entering or opening the Hub impossible. I try to shake the pit of guilt my mind wants to drag me into. It wasn’t my fault. I didn’t murder anyone. I press my hand to the wooden slat and test the structure for possible weakness.

“Miss him?” Lagos’ amused voice drifts down my spine.

I clench my teeth and force my legs away from the building, embarrassed. Guilty, also, that I was considering what might be inside.

Then something comes over me, annoyance too consuming to fight, and I spin around to face him. “Are you following me?” I want to say that I felt him the other day at the cove, watching me. That I know he must have followed me to the Hub.

“I have fond memories at this Hub.” He looks at me, bored. “Just yesterday, I butchered an Endigo here. You’re welcome.” Looped over his arm is a heavy wire, similar to the zipline. He is dressed in blue denim jeans with rips at the thighs and an open black shirt that showcases rows and rows of tattooed abdominal muscles.

I swallow and snap my gaze up to his eyes. “You have no respect for life.” Shaky legs lock me still while my neck cranes to hold his near-black gaze. “Why? What happened to you?”

The corner of his mouth twitches. “Your baby will kill hundreds of men and women when he is a man. Far more than me if The Trade gets a hold of him.”

“Why did you interfere then? Why help us?” I ask, feeling my brows furrow. I hardly recognise the strength in my soft voice. “Did you think I was Maple? What do I owe you for this?

“Nothing.”

I shift nervously as he approaches. He doesn’t merely walk, displaying a gait more predatory, powerful and smooth.

“Then, why?”

He gets too close for comfort. “I went there for the Shadow baby,” he whispers, deathly quiet like his lips are right in my ear. “Not you.”

“But—" I stammer, and step backward. Need space. Air. “You told Tomar to kill Spero. You want to kill him. Why not let the Endigo do it?”

“I draw the line at cannibalism.” He smirks. “No matter how annoying the food on the menu is.”

I swallow. “He was not going to eat u?—"

“Are you so sure?”

Cupping the back of Spero’s head, I seek comfort. “He said he wouldn't harm me.”

“Oh, I didn’t know he said that.”

“Are you being sarcastic?” I ask, genuinely shocked that he would be. “I didn't consider you to be someone who uses sarcasm.”

“So you consider me?”

“What?” Embarrassment stabs at my temples. “No. I don't. He didn’t deserve to be ripped apart, that is all. He was born that way. Just like Spero and you. Just because he is hard to look at?—"

“No, little girl.” Lagos crosses his thick arms over his chest, biceps bulging beneath his hands. “You were born this way. He’s an abomination, and so is the Shadow baby.”

There is no emotion in his voice.

“And you?” My lower lip wobbles. Never in my life have I been this argumentative, but this Xin De male gets under my skin. “Some kind of supreme being? I don't care what you have seen in the desert or what you do willingly to survive. There is no excuse for kill?—"

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