Page 55 of Kill the Beast
He looked unhappy with that explanation, as if he couldn’t think of a worse way to spend his time. She reminded herself that this was what she wanted, what was best for both of them, but for some reason it still stung.
“Why don’t I just give you the remainder now?” he said. “I trust you to get the job done—no need to withhold payment. I’ll have it transferred into your account first thing in the morning. That way, if there are any more expenses, you can handle them without my involvement.”
“I don’t have a bank account,” she told him.
He looked exasperated. “Would you accept gold bars?”
Lyssa snorted. “I’m not going to carry around a small fortune in gold bars just because foroncein your life you don’t feel like going shopping.” She slid out of the booth and pulled on her coat. “Come with me tomorrow. It’ll be easier. You can give the rest of the money to Rags once this is all over. I’m sure she would be more than happy to accept your gold.”
“Is she your accountant, then, as well as your witch?” he said primly.
“She’s notmyanything,” Lyssa said. “But since I probably won’t be around to collect the remainder of my payment once the Beast is dead, it’d be better if you arrange to give it to her directly.”
Alderic frowned up at her. “Why wouldn’t you be around to collect? Are you going somewhere, once the job is done?” He arched an eyebrow. “A lavish vacation, perhaps, paid for by yours truly?”
“You can’t seriously think that’s what I mean,” she said. When he still seemed confused, she threw up her hands and made a sound of frustration. “Look, in all likelihood, I’m going to die in a few weeks, and—”
“You’re not going to die,” he said, looking horrified. “You’re going to kill the Beast.”
“Of course I’m going to kill it,” she snapped. “But that doesn’t mean it won’t take me down with it.” Maybe it was because she had first seen it as a child, but the monster loomed large in her memory, bigger than any other Hound she had faced. In her nightmares its teeth were as long as her knives, and it was faster than she was, stronger and more agile. She had never planned to make it out of her next encounter with it alive. But as long as she killed it before it killed her, she would die satisfied, her oath to Eddie fulfilled. “You’ve seen what happens when I’m focused on killing something.”
“This is nothing like the mermaids,” he insisted. “You were upset, then. You lost control. But you’ve fought Hounds before and lived. Why would this be any different?”
Because I care more about killing the Beast than I do about surviving.
“Like I told you before, the Beast is like Death itself,” she said instead. “No one fights Death and comes out unscathed.”
“And you’re going to fight it anyway,” Alderic said, his voice flat. “Because you want to become a legend.”
“That’s right,” she said lightly.
“Is that really worth yourlife?”
“Why doyoucare?” she asked, rankled. “You’re the one paying me to kill the damned thing. You should be thrilled to have hired such a dedicated employee.” She clapped him roughly on the back and grabbed his pint, gulping down the rest of it before slammingthe glass back down on the table in front of him. “Don’t look so glum, Al. Victory is so close I can taste it. Though I imagine it would taste even better with a side of hot cocoa from Charlie’s Chocolate Emporium, paid for by my rather generous employer.”
Lyssa tipped back the dregs of her third hot cocoa and wiped her mouth on her sleeve. Alderic was staring into his untouched first cup, the marshmallows long since dissolved. He had been quiet since they’d left the chophouse, so lost in thought that he hadn’t even reacted when she’d asked him if he wanted to go buy a new outfit.
Now she studied his face, trying to squash her concern. “We should find somewhere to stay for the next few nights,” she said, crumpling her paper cup and tossing it into the nearest trash bin.
Alderic blinked at her and shook himself, as if he was finally climbing out of his own brain and rejoining her here in the present. “Do you have somewhere in mind?”
She shrugged. “There are plenty of cheap beds in the city, if you know where to look. Places where no one will give us a second glance.” Anonymity was like armor, when she was on the trail of a Hound. The bulk of the Hound-wardens were no doubt in Bleakhaven, but it paid to be careful, regardless.
Alderic gave a dramatic shudder. “And wake up covered in fleas, or worse? I don’t think so.” Despite the lightness of his tone, something in his gaze was anguished. “Where would you stay if money was no object?”
Lyssa stiffened, the past crashing into her unexpectedly.When I’m richwas a game she and Eddie had played often. It was popular amongst all of the orphans and urchins in the city, because their collective disdain for the upper class didn’t stop them from dreaming about what they would do with untold riches, given the chance.
What would you eat if you had all the money in the world?
What would you wear if you had all the money in the world?
Where would you sleep if you had all the money in the world?
The answer to that last one was easy. “The Plaza Alstroemeria,” she told Alderic, averting her eyes. It was the nicest hotel in the entire city, and whenever she and Eddie had jobs in the area, they would watch the expensively dressed patrons coming in and out of the gilded doors and wonder what it would be like to spend a single night there, every luxury at their beck and call.
“Consider it done,” Alderic said, as if it was the easiest thing in all the world to arrange.
But as the pang of memory faded and Lyssa came back to her senses, she shook her head. “You know what? Forget it. They’d never let the likes of me in there. We should pick somewhere else.”
