Page 24 of Lady of Starfire
Cyrus took a deep breath, the smell of the sea filling his senses as the sun shone in through the window. Merrik would be back soon, and they’d be going out to pick pockets and steal some breakfast. At the thought, his stomach grumbled. They’d been too busy plotting a big job last night and had forgotten to nick dinner.
He heard footfalls on the stone steps a few moments before the wood slab they had crafted into a door creaked open, and Merrick came through it. A dimple appeared when he smiled, a mischievous thing that matched the glint in his green eyes. A hand dipped into his pocket, and he pulled out a handful of coin, tossing them onto the table.
“Good haul,” Cyrus said, swiping up a coin and rolling it between his knuckles.
“It’s all right,” Merrik replied, pulling his tunic over his head and tossing it to the side before collapsing onto the blankets.
“Get up,” Cyrus said, nudging him with his foot. “We got food to steal.”
Merrik waved him off. “Bring me back some bread.”
“You need more than bread,” Cyrus deadpanned, nudging him harder. “Get up, Merrik.”
“You don’t need me to steal bread, Cy,” Merrik grumbled, pulling the one flat pillow they had over his face.
“True. Maybe I just want you.”
Merrik huffed a laugh into the pillow.
“To come with me, you perv,” Cyrus said, nudging him again. “Get up. I’m hungry.”
“I knew saving you that day was a mistake,” Merrik muttered.
Cyrus rolled his eyes. “Stop bitching, and get moving.”
Merrik moved the pillow off his face to look up at Cyrus. “You think I’m joking? You’re a pain in my ass.”
“Yeah, yeah.”
“My life was better without you in it.”
“Stop being a dick.”
“You’re always around. Always here. Always in my space.”
“You wanted me to stay.”
Merrik scoffed at him. “No one wants you, Cyrus. Your own mother didn’t even want you.”
Cyrus flinched. “Then why did you help me that day?”
“Good question. I ask myself that every time I drag myself back here, knowing you’re waiting here. Momentary lapse in judgment that I’m paying for daily.”
“Merrik—”
“Go get your fucking food, Cyrus,” Merrik sighed, rolling away from him. “In fact, stay gone all day. I can at least pretend I found a way to go back in time and let those market guards have you.”
A string of curse words left this mouth when the Sorceress let him out of his mind this time. That wasn’t how that memory had happened. They’d spent the entire day together. They’d stolen so much food they hadn’t needed to leave their flat for three days. They’d ate and slept and fucked and somehow still managed to finalize plans for that job.
The job that would get Merrik killed just two weeks later.
“I thought we were becoming friends, Gehenna,” Cyrus rasped, reaching for a waterskin. They brought him one when they brought them food, but it was sporadic. He didn’t know if it was day or night. He didn’t know if he’d been down here for one day or three. He lost track of all time while the Sorceress had her fun.
“Do not call me that,” she chided. “You know not to do that.”
“You’re already torturing me, Gehenna. Not sure what else you’re going to do from in there,” he replied after taking a drink in an effort to clear his mind.
“Funny, funny Fire Fae,” the Sorceress sang, moving up to the bars. Her fingers curled around them, and she pressed her face to the shirastone, a slight wince pinching her features.