sofa from her brother.
After a few minutes, we all gave up the pretense of eating, except for Finn, who never let awkwardness get in the way of something as important as his appetite. He was finishing another pie when I wiped my hands on a napkin, turned off the television, and stared at Eva.
“Why don’t you tell me how you know Kincaid, and why he said that Salina tried to kill him?”
Instead of answering me, Eva glared at her brother, her blue eyes cold and accusing. “Ask Owen. He’s the one who brought Salina into our lives, and he’s the one who always took her side over everyone else’s—no matter how wrong it was.”
I knew that Owen and Salina had been involved, but Eva made it sound like there was more to the story than just an old relationship—a whole hell of a lot more. I turned to Owen, letting him see the questions in my face.
My lover sighed, and his shoulders slumped, as if a heavy weight had just been yoked across them. He slowly lowered the ice pack from his bruised features and put it on the tray. After a moment, he drew in a breath and raised his eyes to mine.
“Salina was my fiancee,” Owen said.
13
Fiancee?
Salina had been Owen’s
That sick feeling in my stomach spread through the rest of my body, like acid eating away at my insides. I’d known that Owen had had other lovers before me, just like I had before him. But a fiancee was something else entirely, something far more serious—and something I would have expected him to mention before now. Still, I kept my features calm and remote, as if we were talking about a disappointing football game, instead of the fact that Owen had never told me about this part of his past, a part that looked like it was going to be serious trouble —especially for the two of us.
“Fiancee?” Finn said in an incredulous voice. “You were actually engaged to her? Well, knock me over with a feather.”
“My thoughts exactly,” Eva muttered.
Owen opened his mouth to let loose some retort, but I held my hand up, cutting him off.
“Enough,” I said. “Enough. You and Eva sniping at each other isn’t getting us anywhere. Start at the beginning, Owen. I want to hear all of it. About you, Salina, and Kincaid.”
Owen got to his feet and started pacing back and forth across the den. He did that for the better part of a minute before he raked his hand through his hair and started his story.
“It was right after Mab had murdered our parents,” Owen said in a low voice. “Eva and I were living on the Southtown streets, and I had no idea what I was doing. How I was going to take care of us, how I was going to find us enough to eat and a safe place to sleep every night. You know what I’m talking about, Gin.”
I nodded. I’d faced the same challenges myself, back before Fletcher had taken me in. But I knew it had been even harder on Owen, since he’d had Eva to take care of and she’d been so young at the time. Still, that didn’t excuse the fact that he hadn’t told me about Salina before now, and it didn’t ease the hurt that I felt—or the sudden wariness.
“Anyway, the days went by, and I got more and more desperate. Eventually, I started stealing food from convenience stores, grocery stores, restaurants, anyplace I thought I could and not get caught. Only one day, I did get caught. I grabbed two apples from a bin at a convenience store. Two measly apples, and the owner was going to beat me to death over them. He would have too—if this thin blond kid hadn’t gotten in his way. The kid bumped into the owner, and I managed to break away and run like hell. I went back to the alley where I’d hidden Eva, and to my surprise, that same kid was there—and he had a whole bag of apples with him. Turned out he’d grabbed them while the owner was using my face for a punching bag.”
“So that’s how you met Kincaid,” I murmured.
Owen nodded. “That’s how I met Phillip. He’d seen me and Eva around at some of the shelters where I took her to beg for food. He said we could do a lot better if we started working together. So we did.”
“So the two of you hooked up and then what?” Finn asked. “It was mayhem on the mean streets of Ashland?”
Owen smiled, his violet eyes soft with old memories. “Something like that. We started small, stealing food and clothes, mostly. Some blankets and toys for Eva, things like that. Just enough to keep us from starving and freezing to death.”
I could see them in my mind. Owen already tall and turning into the man he would soon become. Kincaid still a scrawny kid, but one who knew the score better than Owen did. The two of them with seemingly nothing in common but joining forces to survive. Desperation made for strange bedfellows, no matter how old or young you were.
“Eventually, we got bolder, and we moved on to bigger and better things. We started stealing from pawnshops. My elemental talent for metal let me get through most doors, locks, and windows, no matter how many bars they had on them. Phillip would be the lookout and watch Eva while I went inside and took whatever caught my eye. Guns, jewelry, knives, clothes, shoes, whatever. We’d take the stuff we stole to a different shop and pawn it for cash, using that as an excuse to case the place, then go back and hit that shop a week later.”
Finn let out a whistle. “Nice scheme for a couple of teenagers.”
Owen gave him a faint grin. “We thought so too, but it wasn’t just us. There were other kids on the streets or in foster care, boys and girls Phillip knew, and sometimes they helped.”
A thought occurred to me. “Folks like Katarina Arkadi?”
Owen nodded. “And Antonio too, although they were both more Phillip’s friends than mine.”
I wondered if that was why Salina had murdered them—if she’d wanted to hurt the casino boss by taking away the people he cared about before she killed him. That would explain why she’d gone after Antonio first tonight, instead of Kincaid. Cold. Very, very cold.
“Anyway, despite the stealing, it was still tough,” Owen said. “Half the time, the three of us were on the verge of starving. Eventually, though, I got a job with a dwarven blacksmith, thanks to Fletcher.”
Owen looked at Finn, who nodded. I’d told Finn that his father had taken pity on and helped Owen back in the day. Fletcher always had a soft spot in his heart for folks who were down on their luck. You couldn’t get much lower or more desperate than living on the streets with a toddler to take care of.
“Things got better after that,” Owen said. “The blacksmith’s name was Cooper Stills. He was tough on me, but he was a decent, fair man. An Air elemental too. He took all three of us in—me, Phillip, and Eva—even though I was the only one who could work in the forge as long and hard as he did. He gave us food to eat and clothes to wear and put a roof over our heads, but it wasn’t enough for me and Phillip. Not after what we’d been through, so we kept right on stealing and stockpiling our loot and money, just in case Cooper changed his mind and decided he didn’t want us around anymore.”
“I’m sensing a
Owen drew in a breath. “But Cooper was and still is a renowned blacksmith. The dwarf can forge anything he puts his mind to, and all his pieces are works of art, whether they’re weapons or fountains or sculptures. Back then, Cooper did a lot of work for a lot of rich people in Northtown, and he would take Phillip and me with him when he went out to meet with clients, take space measurements, or deliver commissioned pieces.”
“Naturally, you saw that as an opportunity,” Finn drawled. “I certainly would have.”
Owen shrugged. “You might say that. So Phillip and I moved up to a higher clientele, as far as the stealing went. Jewelry, artwork, silverware. We took anything we could get our hands on—small things mostly, things we didn’t think anyone would miss, at least for a few days. Then, when it was safe, we’d sell the items to someone who wouldn’t ask too many questions about where they’d come from. For two years, everything was great.”
“And then what happened?” I asked.
“And then he met Salina,” Eva muttered in a dark tone.
Owen stared at his sister, but he didn’t contradict her words. “And then I met Salina. By that point, Cooper
