Heart of Vengeance (Alice Worth #6) - Lisa Edmonds Page 0,129

to know who’d put the bounty on his head and why. Maybe we could get the story out of him during our return trip—assuming there was one. In the meantime, I was having fun imagining what the answers might be.

The market was packed, but once we left that area, the streets were less crowded. Carts pulled by beasts or by hand rattled along the wide paved roads, which pedestrians shared in lieu of sidewalks. Narrow roads and alleys seemed designated for pedestrians only. Many pushed small handcarts full of everything from paving stones to food as they hurried past.

I had to walk fast to keep up with Ronan’s long strides. He seemed to know exactly where he was going, weaving through slower pedestrians and large carts toward our destination, the Great Hall he’d mentioned. I pictured an oversized courthouse, where the Furies served as ministers of justice. Was that the equivalent of judges in the human world, or something a bit more hands-on, like judge, jury, and executioner?

As we made our way toward what seemed like the center of the city, I had a chance to put together a couple of things: Ronan’s explanation of the origin of the Erinyes, what Charon had said about Ronan ignoring messages from his “brothers and sisters,” Torryn’s description of Ronan as a man with two swords—only one of which we’d seen—and the flash of silver-blue I’d spotted when he intervened to help me rein in my dark magic. That silver-blue magic had nagged at me since the night I first saw it at Hawthorne’s. I’d seen it, or something similar, before, but I hadn’t been able to remember where…

Until now, when the clues clicked into place like a jigsaw puzzle, and I knew.

I stopped so suddenly in the middle of the street that Lucy had to hop to one side to keep from running me over and Esme nearly lost her footing on my shoulder. “Holy shit,” I said.

The front edge of a handcart full of bricks rammed into my shin. I bit back a yelp of pain and stumbled. The thing pushing the cart—a tall creature who looked like a cross between a troll and a stack of firewood—blinked at me in confusion. It hadn’t seen me because of my masking and Look Away spells, and it still couldn’t quite see me, though it knew it had run into something. Finally, the cart continued up the street as the creature grumbled.

Perhaps sensing I’d fallen behind, or having heard the impact of the cart against my leg, Ronan backtracked with Daisy. He bent his head so he could murmur in my ear. “What’s wrong?”

He smelled like the sea. I should have recognized that, even if the silver-blue magic didn’t tip me off, but I’d paid more attention to the smell of leather and tequila. Damn my hormones. Malcolm was going to tease me forever about this.

I decided not to tell Ronan I knew what he was. He’d gone to great pains to hide his true nature; his scars and his wounds from the fight with the werewolf pack were proof of that. He might decide keeping it a secret was worth killing for.

“Sorry to fall behind,” I murmured. “I’ll do better about keeping up with you.”

He held my gaze with his own glacier-blue one. “Are you getting sicker?”

I was, though as a mage I’d worked and fought through pain frequently enough that I’d gotten good at ignoring discomfort. I disliked admitting any kind of weakness, but better he thought I’d stopped because I was queasy than suspect I’d finally put two and two together.

I gave him a wry smile. “It comes and goes. I’m all right.”

Clearly unconvinced, he turned and resumed his purposeful stride. Daisy trotted at his side, her lip curled to show her teeth. She appeared to enjoy her role as Ronan’s menacing sidekick, complete with her spiked leather halter.

“You good?” Lucy asked in an undertone as we walked quickly.

“Yeah, I’m good.” A sharp twinge in my belly almost made me flinch. My arms and legs ached too. Whether it was the dark magic eating at me or my body rebelling against being in the Underworld, or both, I wasn’t sure. I snuck a protein bar out of my pocket, tore off the wrapper, and ate it quickly, and that seemed to help. I pushed the discomfort out of my mind and focused on keeping up with Ronan.

The farther we got from the market, the fewer carts and pedestrians we encountered