Despair lapped at the edges of Ravi’s anger, eroding it. “I had one shot,” he gritted out, shooting daggers at the man with his eyes from the shadowed confines of his hood. “I had one chance to get out, and you ruined it. Now I’m even worse off than I was before.”
“Then let me help you,” the stranger said far too calmly.
“How?”
“Believe it or not, it’s what I do,” the man replied with a quirk of his lips that made Ravi want to throw another punch. “I wasn’t in the area by chance. I’ve been to many of those markets. That’s how I know you would have regretted going that route. I promise you.”
Ravi took a couple of wary steps away from the man’s very solid and imposing presence so he could think. He wasn’t a fool. He knew the kind of men he’d have been dealing with if he’d stepped through that door last night. If this guy was either a buyer or a slaver himself, Ravi would have to be careful. Maybe this had all been some kind of trick or a trap to make him even more desperate to leave than he’d already been—desperate enough to sign his life away without a second thought.
He sucked in a breath and blew it out, trying to calm the warring voices in his head. He was getting paranoid. How could this guy have known Ravi’s curse would flare up so spectacularly, right in front of a brother? No one knew his secret beyond the ragged little family he and Vic had cobbled together out of desperation. Unless he’d been using his magic to follow Ravi, but that seemed highly unlikely. Besides, any real slaver would have gladly abandoned him to the Brotherhood and fled for his life in that situation, but somehow Ravi was here and the Brotherhood wasn’t.
“What happened last night, after I passed out?” he asked.
“You lit up like a bonfire, spoke a prophecy, and collapsed,” the man replied with another shrug that seemed incredibly at odds with the blasphemy of his words.
Ravi groaned. “Then what?”
The guy shifted from foot to foot and grimaced. “I may have punched a fully-fledged member of the Brotherhood in the face and run away with you over my shoulders like a sack of potatoes.”
Ravi could only blink with his mouth hanging open for a few seconds as that sank in. “Are you insane or just stupid?”
Surprisingly, the guy didn’t seem to take offense. His dark blue eyes actually crinkled at the corners with amusement. “Maybe a little of both. Felt real good, though, the punching part at least. The other part, not so much. You’re heavier than you look. And what’s in that damned bag? I swear I have bruises all over my ass from it banging into me.”
Ravi groaned and dragged a hand down his face even as he reflexively clutched his bag protectively to his chest.
This guy? This was the guy he might have to depend on to save his life?
If he’d had any faith left in the benevolence of the gods, he would have lost it then.
“How are you going to help me? And what’s it going to cost?” Ravi asked as calmly and bravely as he could manage.
“I have contacts.” The man folded his arms across his broad chest and glanced out the grimy window. “I need to get word to my partner, and she and I will decide the best way out of the city first. They’re probably watching the docks already, and the gates, but we can’t stay here, especially if you think you might have another Vision in the near future.”
He turned back to Ravi as he said that last, a question in his eyes, and the small bubble of hope forming in Ravi’s belly burst. He glared at the man before dropping his gaze to the floor. “I have no idea. I can’t control it,” he admitted bitterly.
The stranger grunted, but when Ravi reluctantly lifted his head again, the man didn’t appear repulsed or fearful, only pensive.
“Then we need to move fast. I may have thrown the Finder off a little by giving him the wrong name.” He smirked before his expression sobered again. “That will buy us a little time. But now that they know what to look for, the second you light up, they’ll find us.” He paused for a moment before he let out a long sigh. “If I leave you here to go get my partner, will you stay until I get back or will you do a runner?”
Ravi’s heart skipped, and he shook his head vehemently. “You’re not leaving me. It’s your fault I’m in this mess. I’m not letting you off that easy. How do I know you won’t just leave and not come back?”
Thick eyebrows lowered over angry midnight blue eyes as the man’s expression hardened. “I carried your heavy ass for at least an hour last night. Do you seriously think I’d go through all that trouble just to walk away now?”
“I don’t know you,” Ravi shot back, moving to put himself between the stranger and the door. “How the hells should I know what you will or won’t do? All I know is that you ruined the one shot I managed to get for myself, so now you’re stuck with me until I’m safely out of Rassa.”
Ravi was proud his voice didn’t shake. He had no idea if this was a good idea or not, but he’d run out of options. He couldn’t go home to their squat in Arcadia without putting Vic and the others in danger. He couldn’t stay in the city at all anymore. His curse and the idiot across from him had made sure of that.
The guy’s nostrils flared as he seemed to struggle
