Page 17 of The Cost of Blood and Bonds

I don’t wait for a response, just cut through the crowd. Bodies blur past me, merchants laughing too loud, guards already drunk, someone spilling ale on my sleeve. I don’t care.

The cold air bites sharp the moment I’m outside. The streets are alive, people drifting between taverns while vendors hawk nonsense to anyone willing to listen. But no fox.

The disappointment lands heavier than it has any right to. I don’t know her name. I haven’t even seen her face.

What the fuck is wrong with me?

Then a sound catches me, low and sharp, a grunt from the alley, and I’m already moving. The alley swallows me whole, and I stop.

She has him pinned.

The guard from the bar is plastered flat against the wall, breath coming fast and shallow, with his hands scrabbling uselessly at her arm. She’s smaller, noticeably so, but it doesn’t matter. Her forearm is locked against his throat, elbow angled just right, with practiced precision. One knee is pressed between his legs, the pressure exact and merciless.

He’s struggling, but she’s completely in control.

My first thought hits hard and hot. He touched her, grabbed her, tried something stupid in the dark because he thought he could.

My second thought is calmer. He’s totally fucked.

Then I see her other hand, a coin purse, dangling loose between her fingers. It’s light, embarrassingly so.

The tension snaps into something else entirely. She’s not defending herself. She’s robbing him.

A sound pulls out of my chest before I can stop it, half-laugh, half-relief.

For a heartbeat, she freezes, eyes flicking to me, wide and calculating. Then she moves.

Her knee comes up with brutal efficiency, slamming into his groin. He makes a broken sound and collapses, sliding down the wall into a miserable heap at her feet.

She turns toward me fully, calm and controlled, her weight balanced and ready for whatever I decide to do next.

I’m smiling before I realize it.

“Well,” I say, voice easy, like I didn’t just watch her dismantle a man twice her size. “You’re not innocent at all, are you, little fox?”

Her eyes catch the low light through the mask and stop me cold. Rings of color, amber and violet bleeding into teal and green. I’ve never seen eyes like that in my life.

Her gaze flicks down to my leathers, King’s Guard, or at least that’s what they look like, then back up to my face, or what passes for it tonight with the dumbass wolf mask still tied on. Probably for the best.

I can see it happening, her weighing the risk, the distance, the exit, whether she can take me too. She doesn’t answer me; she just moves, trying to slip past me toward the mouth of the alley.

I don’t touch her, just step sideways, just…existing in the space she needs.

She stops short.

I lift my hands slowly. “It’s okay.” I pause. “I just want to meet you.”

Her eyes narrow, clearly not believing me. I wouldn’t either. Her hand shifts, subtle but unmistakable, and silver flashes in the dim light. A blade.

The grin breaks wider across my face before I can stop it, as something reckless like admiration blooms in my chest. She’s dangerous, clever, and armed. Stars help me, I’m already in trouble.

She closes the distance in one sharp step, so close the air shifts between us, and silver flashes again. I jerk back on instinct, hand flying to my cheek, but there’s nothing. A moment too late, the wolf mask drops to the stone ground between us. She wasn’t aiming for me; she was aiming for my disguise.

Her eyes widen behind the fox mask. I can see her reassessing me.

Does she recognize me?

“Bit far from home, aren’t you?” Her voice pulls everything about her together. It’s smooth and self-assured, and I need to hear it again.