Strike at Midnight(81)

Different colors blurred in front of me as the blobs moved from side to side, telling me my focus was way off. But the more I concentrated against the ache in my brain, the more that came into view.

“Well, well, well,” a voice said as my eyes flickered open fully. My head snapped towards the direction of the voice, but that just resulted in another sharp pain from my head. Damn it.

“You’re awake at last,” the voice said from beside me, but screw him for a second. I needed to get my bearings.

There was a table to the left of me and a fire burning in a fireplace in the center of the cottage. The kitchen was ill-used, and I came to realize that I was tied to a chair that matched the wood of the table. I was still in the cottage, so that was good news, at least. But I was tied up pretty tightly, so that wasn’t.

The voice belonged to a man, and I could see him now sitting on another chair just to the right of me. It came to me that this must be the famous Piper who his buyers had described.

He wasn’t wearing a hat, but he was grinning at me, so I could see the gold tooth. His hair was cut quite short to his head, and his thin beard wrapped around his mouth looked like someone had drawn it on.

“Hello,” he said with a wink, and I would have given him the finger if I didn’t have the rope tied around the top of my arms.

“Hello, Piper,” I sneered back, and the smug smile dropped from his face.

“Looks like someone has been loose-lipped with you,” he said as his smile returned. “But not to worry. At least we got to you in time before you could spill about our whereabouts.” He leaned back in his seat. “Not that it’s a problem, of course. While you were dozing, we realized we could use you to formulate a new plan.”

“You’re not going to get away with this,” I said, trying to test my strength against the ropes. Shit. They were tight.

“Don’t wear yourself out, my pet,” he said, taking a dagger from a sheath hanging from his belt so he could play with it. “No harm will come to you. We just need to make sure that you don’t make any further trouble for us.”

“How did you know I was out there?” I asked, wondering if I really needed to give up my day job if I couldn’t even sneak up on these idiots without being seen.

“Witches are useful for a lot of things,” he said, “including magical alarms. You triggered one of them when you stepped into the perimeter around the cottage.” He swayed his finger from left to right. “Silly, silly, Rella.”

“How the hell do you know my name?” I asked, and the panic in me started to build. Had he been spying on me?

“I don’t suppose it matters now.” He let out an exaggerated sigh as if it was going to cause him so much trouble to tell me. “The law-enforcement assholes like to gossip more than the women do. So when we heard that you had discovered that the duke was an imposter, I decided it would be best that we have someone keeping tabs on you—someone who could get close to you and let me know when you got close.”

“Who?” I practically growled out, and yet part of me already knew the answer. I just didn’t want to admit it to myself.

“I believe you know him as Jeremiah.”

My eyes closed against my will as the pain came from his confirmation of Rem’s betrayal. I knew it.

“What has he told you?” I asked, trying to remember the conversations I’d had with Rem since he had turned up at the inn. I couldn’t recall directly telling him anything that included the prince or the hiring of a witch, but he could have overheard things. We hadn’t exactly been quiet or secretive with our conversations. We had just stupidly trusted the kid.

Piper flashed his gold tooth at me again through a stupid grin and said, “Let’s just say the information he gave me was precious.”

My heart started to race from the anger I felt at the little bastard’s deceit, and I struggled against the tight restraints.

“What information did he give you, you son of a bitch?” I stood up and brought the chair with me, slamming it back down on the hard floor to try and break the wood. Piper realized what I was doing and stood up to press the dagger against my throat.

“Sit the fuck still,” he snapped. “Or I will slit you.”

The blade was practically touching my skin, so I did what he said and lowered myself so the chair was back on the floor. My breathing was heavy as I tried to suppress the rage I was feeling, and I was more than a little ready to bash his head against the wall a few times to release the tension.

“I can’t wait to see Amana take over your pathetic life,” he said, backing off. He sat back down while keeping the dagger in view. “Then you will be out of here for good.”

“What do you mean? Take over my life?” I asked, having a strong suspicion that I knew exactly what the hell he meant. My brain had chosen a great time to become all clever and observant and shit in putting all of this together.

“Seeing as you’ll be out of here soon, I may as well tell you. You’ll soon forget all of it anyway. Jeremiah was the one who told us that the prince seems smitten with you, for whatever reason, and we’re going to use that to our advantage. We will need to move things along now you’re so close to exposing our little operation, of course. We need a new venture.”

“Say what now?” I asked, tilting my head as if it would make me understand what the hell he was going on about.