I leaned against the wall. Yep, that was exactly what I was doing.
He was right. I was a job for him. And maybe if he could actually get me to these parents I evidently had somewhere, I could learn how to do the real thing.
“Layne?” A voice called my name, and I turned toward the sound, recognizing the voice, although it had been a very long time since I’d heard it. I stepped away from the wall.
There in front of me was my first real friend. I’d never thought to see her again. Roota, the mud witch who had been in the cell next to mine for three years, stared at me with her mouth open.
“You’re out?”
I threw my arms around her. I’d never been so excited to see someone in my life. For three years, I’d had someone to laugh with, to talk to, to hear about this world out here from. She was my age, even if she looked fifty years older. Trolls always did. And they had a bad reputation for betrayal, but I’d never had anything but the best of times with Roota. Besides, in the prison everyone was bad.
“I’m out.” I let her go. “Long story. How are you? I never thought I’d see you again.”
“That makes two of us.” Her smile was wide. “I can’t believe that warlock you’re running around with left you alone. He’s an assassin, right, one of those?”
I looked over my shoulder in the direction where he’d left. Had she seen me with him? Why hadn’t she said something earlier? “Yes, he is. Also a long story. Tell me, how have you been? What have you been up to?”
She sighed, her blue hair moving over her ancient looking shoulders that were more hunched than the last time I’d seen her. “That’s the thing. I’ve not been doing well. Things are hard. I owe debts to the assassins, for one.”
Maybe that’s why she hadn’t said anything when Cypress had been here. “Why? What happened?”
“I want you to know I don’t like this. We can do this the hard way or the easy way. Up to you.”
I scrunched up my face in confusion. She stepped closer to me, and the invasion felt wrong. Roota and I used to play all sorts of games. We’d talk for hours. About the forest. Her mother, Gem, and her magic painted rock collection. “I don’t understand what you mean. Do you need help? Maybe I can talk to Cypress.”
I turned to look over my shoulder and around the street corner. I couldn’t guarantee that Cypress would help, but maybe…
A sharp pain sliced across my skull. Tremors of agony rocked through me for three seconds of pure torture. I cried out, but a hand that smelled like grass and dirt and rotten eggs clamped over my mouth. Another sharp pain fell on my skull, and my eyes fluttered closed.
My old friend was now an enemy.
Chapter Six
Cypress
If that damn Druid ran away from me, I was going to spank her perky little ass.
I’d spent the last hour scouring the Fae village, asking people if they’d seen her. Of course, no one had. It was infuriating, and I didn’t have enough ingredients for a tracking spell, nor the coin to get it.
If it weren’t for the prize money I’d get for turning her in, I’d call this a wash. Maybe.
I rubbed at my chest where an unfamiliar ball of anxiety grew tighter and tighter. The first rule of the Assassins Guild was to feel nothing for anyone. Emotions could be easily manipulated, and you never wanted anyone to have power over you. Maybe it was why I found a hot fairy to sit on my lap and shove her tits in my face. It was a good distraction, but she felt too fake. Her eyes were not quite the shade of blue I craved.
Last night had been a little too real for me. I’d wanted to comfort Layne. I wanted to stroke her hair and help the strong-willed woman with legs for days.
And when I woke up in a tangle of her limbs, with her intoxicating rosewater scent on me, I got the fuck out of there and found the first piece of ass I could. She was a Druid Princess. When all this was done, she would marry someone worthy of her, and I’d be on to the next job—killing my old mentor, Bhaltair.
That was if I could find her, which currently I couldn’t manage to do. I stopped, looking left and right. So help me, if she was pulling this shit because she was in some kind of snit and wanting to punish me for our fight earlier, I’d…well, I didn’t know exactly what I’d do. I’d never been in this predicament before. Spanking her without consent was probably a bad idea because she was royalty.
Of course, you’d never know she was royalty, because she’d spent her whole life in that fucking prison, and she acted like everything, down to dew on the trees, was some sort of magical discovery that she had to stop and examine. It made getting her to hustle a little bit tricky.
Fuck. Me.
“Psst.” A voice called out to me. Sitting on the edge of one of the less traveled streets was a Puck. They were a huge pain in my ass, despite one of them becoming sort of famous in other realms. Dealing with the young Fae who fell into this category was always more of a nuisance than a joy. I didn’t care for riddles. Just tell me what you wanted.
I lifted an eyebrow. “Something to say?”
“You had something, and you’ve lost it.” He smiled at me. “I perhaps have nothing to say unless you are willing to pay.”
Oh, he could rhyme. How completely uncharming. “You’ve heard me looking, asking for help. I’m not going
