Gideon grabbed onto his tome with both hands. “Don’t you dare.”

“Don’t I dare? Who just stole the Count’s jewelry?” Jet snarled, grappling Gideon for the tome.

“I was going to give it back! I only needed it for a moment,” Gideon argued, annoyed.

“Only needed it for a moment, to disable your collar, huh? Am I supposed to be more okay with that?”

Gideon paused. He shrugged. “I mean, yeah.”

“And I’m supposed to believe that you would just… hand it back?” Jet said. He grabbed Gideon by the robes and slammed him up against the wall.

“Yeah. Also, ow,” Gideon replied, rubbing the back of his head.

Jet stared at him. His teeth ground. “You’re out of control. You need to be put down.”

“I stole one thing! Come on. That’s a crime that loses me a hand, at worst, not the death penalty,” Gideon complained.

Figaro’s twisted body flashed before his eyes. The carnage. Waves of fire. Piles of bodies. This man. This man—is it worth it? Is it worth it?

Kat stared, eyes big, huddled behind the corner. Her eyes bored a hole through him, watching, wide.

“You’re scaring Kat! Calm down, Jet,” Elly said, wrapping an arm around the girl.

Jet threw Gideon to the side. Gideon staggered, failed to catch himself, and plopped to the ground. He pointed behind him without looking. “You aren’t going anywhere, either.”

“Huh? Oh, me? I’m just a passerby, don’t worry about me,” Angel said, laughing. She turned to run.

Putting one hand on his sword, Jet threw his hand out at Angel. A block of ice appeared at her feet, and she tripped over it and sprawled to the ground. “If you move, the next one’s around your head. Do you think you can melt ice with your breath before you suffocate in it?”

Angel put her hands up and laid on the ground.

Gideon perked up. “He can’t actually do that. Enchantments aren’t that fine-grained, and even if they were, you can’t cast magic inside a pers—ow!”

Jet kicked Gideon in the gut. He glared threateningly at Angel.

“Got it, boss. I understand. You’ve got other ways to hurt me. Don’t worry your little head. This girl isn’t going anywhere. I need to worry about my skin,” Angel said.

“At least one of them gets it,” Jet muttered under his breath.

“I get it. I’m not scared of you, that’s all,” Gideon clarified unnecessarily.

Jet looked at the stone in his hand, then the vent. At the bottom, colors flashed as guards rushed around, looking all around. He bit his lip, then slid the stone into the vent.

“Jet, hey!” Gideon shouted, leaping for the gem.

Jet stepped in front of him, blocking his leap. Down below, one of the guards shouted, holding up the gem. The other guards bustled around him, checking the gem. One peered up the vent, at the ones standing above, then jabbed a finger their way.

Gideon fell to the floor. He glared up at Jet. “Four of my gold! Four of it!”

“You only paid me three,” Angel pointed out.

“Four gold!” Gideon insisted, incensed.

“I don’t care if it cost you forty gold or even four hundred gold. You were trying to commit a criminal act. Hand over the tome. I see now that you’re a child who can’t be trusted,” Jet said flatly, holding his hand out.

If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. Please report it.

“No.”

Jet crossed his arms. “Then we can stand here until the guards get here, and you can explain to them—”

The ground trembled. Jet staggered, steadying himself on the wall. He looked around. All around them, signs jangled, horses cried out, and buildings swayed. He frowned. “An earthquake?”

A low, haunting call echoed down the streets, emanating from the earth itself. It rattled in Jet’s chest, almost physical. He put a hand to his heart and glanced down, frowning.

“Wrong. A wyrmquake,” Gideon replied, climbing back to his feet.

“A wyrmquake?” Jet replied.

Gideon nodded. “When too many wyrms mass up in one place, too many for the area’s resources to maintain, the nasty things realize they’re in trouble. They go insane and start devouring everything, even things they wouldn’t usually devour. Fences. Livestock. Houses.” He paused for dramatic effect, looking down. “Giant blocks of limestone.”

“They… wouldn’t,” Jet started, but trailed off. Would they?

“Like locusts,” Elly murmured, clutching her staff.

“Exactly like locusts, but worse, because they’re dragons. They eat everything in their path. Don’t you remember the collapse of Indesborg? The wyrm nest near it went critical, and the beasts literally carved out the earth under the town,” Gideon said.

“Indesborg?” Jet said, frowning.

Elly furrowed her brows, then nodded. “I remember. The church mentioned it in its history lessons. About two hundred years ago, a wyrm nest went out of control near the city of Indesborg. It’s said that the High God sent a bolt of lightning to stop the wyrms before they devoured the entire city, but they devoured half the town and countless innocents before she stopped them. The Kor Magus Cathedral, a work of art from the twelfth century, was completely destroyed in the fall of Indesborg.”

Gideon sighed, shaking his head at Jet. “If only we’d gone to cull the wyrm nest. To think, Jet, it was your decision that caused the wyrms to go berserk like this. How can you sleep with yourself at night?”

Jet scowled at him. “As if we would have run straight there from the Count’s manor! Even you weren’t that gung-ho about it.”

Gideon clicked his tongue. “Jet, Jet, Jet, I can see it’s eating you alive. You might regret this for the rest of your life, but there’s no need to take it out on me.”

“If you hadn’t stolen the Count’s jewelry, maybe we would’ve been out there culling the wyrms by now,” Jet replied, rolling his eyes.

“You can’t put this on me! I was ready to put my life on the line for the good people of this city. It’s you who refused to let me help. Jet, how can you look yourself in the mirror at night, knowing that you brought this upon the city?” Gideon asked, looking up at him with innocent eyes.

Jet opened his mouth, then shut it. No matter what you say, he’ll twist it to be all your fault. Just walk away. “Come on. Let’s go stop those wyrms before they cause too much damage.”

Gideon gasped. “But Jet, I thought we weren’t going to do any side jobs for small-town nobility. What changed your mind? What made you give in to corruption?”

Jet ignored him, stomping away.

Elly sighed and shook her head. “Come on. Let’s go.”

“Well, since no one needs me, I’ll just…” Angel started, walking away. Her clothes were fixed up now, everything properly buttoned and hidden away.

Gideon caught her arm before she could leave. “You’re staying with me! After all this time, I’ve finally found a dancer. You aren’t getting away so easily.”

Angel hesitated, then shrugged. “Fifteen percent.”

Gideon grit his teeth. “Twelve!”

At the entrance to the alley, Jet turned back. “If you two don’t get your asses out here this instant, I’m taking you straight to the guards, and wyrms be damned.”

Gideon jolted into action, chasing after him.

Angel followed him, still frowning. “Fourteen. No lower.”

“Alright, thirteen,” Gideon allowed.

While the two of them haggled back and forth, Elly knelt down to Kat’s level. “You should head to the church. They’ll take care of you there.”

Kat nodded. She backed away.

Elly reached into her dress and drew out a small wooden token. “Show them this. They’ll take you in. I wanted to introduce you myself, but it seems like there’s no time.”

“I…” Kat looked at the token, then snatched it away. She hesitated. “Thank you.”

Elly beamed. “Please, don’t worry about it. It’s simply my duty.”

Standing there in the alley, Kat watched the four adults walk away, her eyes big, body trembling just a hair. They faded out of view slowly, finally turning the corner. Only then did Kat glance at the wooden token in her hand.

She snorted, then tossed it to the side of the road. Shaking her head, she sauntered off in the opposite direction. “Yeah, right.”

A young man stepped out from the opposite alley and fell in behind her. “Did you enjoy putting on the pitiful orphan act again?”

“Not really. I’m sick of it, honestly. I wish I aged a little faster, so I wasn’t always stuck playing the stupid orphan,” Kat said, stretching.

The man snorted. “You do it so well, though. Even my heart trembled a little.”

Kat scowled and leaped into the air to kick him. “Shut up! And the fuck is with these wyrms? They almost disarmed themselves before those damn uglies got in the way!”

The man shrugged. “You said to rile them up. It’s not like that’s a precise science, down to the second kind of art.”

Kat let out an exaggerated sigh. “Why is it so hard to find competent help these days?”

“So? What about that mage of theirs?”

“Gideon? He’s an ass,” Kat said.

The young man quirked an eyebrow. “I didn’t mean his personality.”

“Is he a threat? Yes. Undoubtedly. He’s more terrifying than any mage I’ve seen before in my life. But I feel like our master knows that already,” Kat said, looking at the man from the corner of her eyes.

A small smirk played across his lips. He turned, gazing toward the distant capital, so far away. “Well… who can tell?”