Page 11 of The Demon Prince

“Me either.”

“You did good work today, though. Those stitches were neat and tidy.”

Katherine lifted her mug and tried to smile, but the expression felt rather hollow on her face. “Thanks. And to think, I used to spend my days mending dresses and ripped hems.”

“Who would want that job?” Grace clinked their mugs together, and both of them shook their heads.

No one else would spend hours on end at their job. They were useful to the town, that much was certain. But spending the entire day covered in blood and everyone else’s problems? Not something that people really wanted to do.

Only the desperate ended up in her situation and Katherine was well aware of that.

“How many people did we see today?” she asked, her face halfway in the mug as she tried very hard to stay awake.

“Oh, I don’t know. At least thirty.”

“Felt like more.”

“That’s because no one came in with just one wound.” Grace rolled onto her side and then laid down on the bench, disappearing from view. “What did they say it was?”

“Kelpies.”

“Again?”

Katherine shrugged, then remembered her friend couldn’t see her. “Something like that. They didn’t see the creature, so they thought it must be a kelpie considering all the injuries.”

A quiet silence stretched between them before Grace quietly asked, “How much longer are we going to stay here?”

The question hovered in the air. It was the same question almost everyone in the boarding house asked every day. This kingdom wasn’t just hard to live in, it was dangerous. Every day they risked life and limb, and for what?

For the moors, Katherine thought. For the mornings she woke up and saw the mist blanketing the ground like a magic spell. Wisps would dance through it, blinking with the fireflies as the willows wept a sad song in the breeze.

She stayed because she loved it. Because a few hard days at work would never take away from the magic that living here provided. Every day she was greeted with beauty, even if some people didn’t see it in the gray and rainy days that would soon follow.

Swallowing another gulp of wine, she finally said, “No money means no travel, Grace. Or did you forget that?”

Her friend sat up, her hair a dandelion puff around her head. “I know of a way to get money.”

Katherine frowned. “No you don’t.”

“I do.” Grace nodded, her eyes slightly unfocused. Was she drunk? “Look, I know you won’t like the idea of it. Gluttony isn’t anyone’s favorite person, but it’s such a small price to pay if we can get enough money to get out of here.”

What?

What was her friend even talking about? They couldn’t... No one should go up to that castle. Hadn’t she seen what happened to the last girl?

Katherine hooked her finger over her shoulder, pointing as though the castle was right behind her. “You want him to rip out your throat? And did that girl we just treated on this table...” She thumped her finger down, missing the table but then trying again and getting the satisfying thud. “Did she look like she had any money? She’s still here. Still working in the... the...”

Grace was already nodding with every word. “At the mill. She’s one of the seamstresses.”

“A seamstress,” Katherine repeated, drawing out the word as though it was a dream job. “That’s what I wanted to be.”

“No, you didn’t. They don’t get paid half as much as we do and you’re right, she didn’t have any money. But the girl probably dropped it after she realized she was bleeding out at the neck.”

Grace stood, weaving slightly before she grabbed onto the table for balance. She meandered out of the room like she was going to go to Gluttony’s castle right now, and Katherine couldn’t have that.

Lurching up after her friend, the two very drunk women made their way down the hall to Grace’s bedroom. Katherine set her up on the bed, tucking her in maybe a little tight with chops of her hand on every side of her body before attempting to point at Grace’s face. “You’re going to stay right here all night. And we’re going to talk about this in the morning. You got it?”

But Grace was already asleep. So she really didn’t have to worry about her friend sneaking off in the middle of the night.

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