A/N:
Hey guys! First off, this was beta-read by herondales_home on instagram, so shoutout to them!
Thanks for all your sweet comments! Special thanks to EmmaCarstairs01 and Miss Meep for always commenting *insert heart emoji*
I've had a really hard week and all your comments have helped me get through it.
So everyone who commented on the last chapter — Hajrah Ibrahim, , CarolMS, SisiphoWrites, Guest887, LLLSSSBBB964, Ginny Weasley100, Viv, DesperateRomantic, and of course EmmaCarstairs01 & Miss Meep — please know that you all made me smile. I love you guys.
Nesta froze as she felt the knife.
A sideways glance told her Brielle and Khoniya had also gone completely still.
Trying to stop her racing pulse (and avoid a breakdown), she scolded herself for never agreeing to those fighting lessons Feyre and Cassian had pushed her towards. Breathing through her nose, she tried to take in her surroundings.
It seemed like there were only 2 people — one person helf knives in both their hands to threaten Khoniya and Nesta, while Brielle was held by a different person. Perhaps that information could be used in some way.
"Give us all your money and valuables," said the one holding Brielle. Her voice was strong and feminine, as if she were used to commanding people.
"Okay," Khoniya said, taking out some type of necklace from her purse. "Where should I put it?"
Nesta had no idea why Khoniya was trying to talk to their assailants.
"Drop them on the floor," said the one holding Nesta and Khoniya. The voice was masculine, but not very deep. It seemed like they were not yet an adult.
Khoniya dropped the necklace around elbow's length away from her, then retrieved her wallet, this time extending her full arm before dropping it.
Were they really going to comply?
Khoniya made eye contact with her. Her eyes were glimmering with mischief.
Khoniya removed her bracelet slowly.
Brielle had dropped her wallet and was removing her watch.
Nesta decided to pretend to comply, and dropped her wallet as well.
Khoniya turned towards her under the pretense of removing an earring, made eye contact with Brielle and then Nesta.
Brielle gently placed her watch on the ground.
Khoniya mouthed, "Grab his wrist" to Nesta.
There was no need to say "on my signal" — they were close enough to understand each other. Nesta's head twitched, indicating her assent.
Khoniya lifted her hands and lowered her head, removing the other earring.
Then she suddenly twisted the assailant's wrist and bit down hard on his arm. Shocked, the attacker let out a small yelp and loosened his grip slightly. Khoniya quickly twisted herself, and kneed the assailant in his genitals. As he bent forward in pain, Nesta twisted his other wrist, creating enough space for her to duck out of his grasp.
At the yelp, the other assailant had turned around — it was the perfect distraction Brielle needed to elbow her attacker's jaw, bend down, and slide out from under her attacker's grasp. Brielle held onto the knife-holding arm, twisting it behind the assailant's back.
When Nesta looked back at Khoniya, she had done the same with one of the male attacker's arms, while she had simply bent his other wrist, making him drop the other knife.
"Nesta, come here," she called. "Can you remove the scarf around my head?"
Nesta did as she was asked, and handed it to Khoniya, who tied the scarf around the attacker's wrists.
At Khoniya's look, Nesta kicked his groin once more. Khoniya then kicked the back of his knees — or was it his thigh? Anyhow, the male fell to his knees. Khoniya disarmed his other hand, and put him in a choke hold.
Brielle had also disarmed her assailant.
Nesta, suddenly wanting to feel useful, picked up all the valuables she and her friends had been forced to give up.
Once she was done, Brielle declared, "We're turning you in."
"Good luck dealing with the constable," Khoniya added in a threatening tone Nesta had never heard her use before.
"Velaris has a constable?" asked the female attacker.
As she studied them, Nesta suddenly realized that they both seemed very young — they probably hadn't even settled in their adult bodies yet. They both had dirty blond hair — dirty as in the roots were dark (their hair was actually quite clean) — and pale skin.
"Please," the male suddenly begged. "We're sorry. Don't take us to the constable."
Nesta laughed sharply and mockingly. "Don't you think you should have thought of that before you attacked us?"
"We didn't want to hurt you!" said the female. "We just wanted to rob you."
"Okay, first of all, a robbery is a crime," Brielle retorted. "And secondly, what about the fact that you literally held knives to our throats?"
"That was just to threaten you!" the female explained.
"Wow, that makes me feel so much better," Nesta snorted.
"Really helps your case. Have fun explaining all that to the constable!" Khoniya added.
"Please," the female pleaded. "Can't you just cut off our hands yourselves?"
Brielle raised an eyebrow. "Wha-?"
Another female suddenly appeared in their alley.
At first, Nesta was worried she was a random stranger who would misinterpret the situation and think Brielle, Khoniya and Nesta were attacking these two fae, but then she saw her hair. It was the same dirty blond hair that the assailants had.
"Urg," Brielle groaned, holding up her original attacker's knife. "I'm tired. Do we really need to fight another one?"
The female was wearing a long, black coat, and black high heels — and was that kohl lining her eyelids?
Looking at the two captured assailants, she groaned, "What the fuck did you guys get yourselves into now?"
"We're just trying to rob them!" the male defended.
Brielle snorted, "Yeah, with a knife."
The female shifted her glance to Brielle, as if she hadn't noticed her before. She then turned to Khoniya and Nesta. And then sighed.
"This is why I told you guys to stop. You're not good at robbing people. I knew this would happen."
"Oh come on," the other female pouted. "We're not that bad. Besides, we'll get better with practice."
"No, you won't," the black-clad female replied. "This is the last time. You're done."
The two assailants began to plead the female.
Brielle cleared her throat. "Um, guys?"
They fell silent.
Brielle continued. "This is the last time, since we're taking you to the constable."
"Please don't," the black-clad female begged suddenly. "I'm so sorry about what happened. I'll give you whatever you want — money or clothes or anything else I have. I promise they'll never bother you or anyone else again. Please."
"I'm sorry, but I can't just take your word for it," Brielle replied. "I don't even know who you are-"
"I'm Saibh, and these are my younger siblings Riona and Cian," she explained. "Please. I'll give you anything — we can work as your maids forever if you'd like — but just don't report us. Please. You can cut off their hands and even mine as you see fit."
"Wow, ok. Listen, Saibh, we have nothing against any of you. We aren't cutting off any body parts. We're just going to abide by the law, and let the constable take care of it," Khoniya said. "It won't be that bad. They'll be thrown in jail for a few years, and then they'll have to do some community service or something, but in the grand scheme of things, what's a few years when you're not mortal?"
"You don't understand," Riona cried. "That's not what they'll do to us."
"We're not supposed to be here. They'll send us home," Cian said in a low tone.
Khoniya's eyebrows furrowed. "What?"
"Look, we'll explain everything, but do you mind letting go of them? I don't think it's the most comfortable position and it's quite a long story," Saibh said.
"Do you think we're that dumb? We aren't just going to let you guys go," Brielle rolled her eyes.
Saibh knelt to the ground, holding out her wrists. "We'll sit like this, and I promise we won't move. You can each hold a knife if it would make you feel more comfortable."
"Put your back against the wall," Khoniya said, and the three of them moved towards the side of the alley following her directions.
"Saibh, we don't want to hurt you. Are you sure you can't just leave? We'll only deal with your siblings," Khoniya said.
"No. Please let me explain."
"Fine," Brielle agreed. "You can explain. At the end, we'll make our decision. But if any of you even think of trying to escape or attack us, you're all going to the constable directly. Got it?"
Saibh gulped and nodded. Riona and Cian nodded as well.
"Good. Now start talking."
"Okay, where should I begin?" Saibh mumbled.
"We're from the Court of Nightmares," Riona said. "Our father is one of the lords of Hewn City. Nowhere near as important as the steward or anyone like that, but he's still fairly powerful."
"He fought in the war," Saibh continued, taking over from her sister, "And he received a minor injury, but nothing serious. Then, about a year and a half ago, he disappeared. We think he was murdered, but the official story is that he went for a surgery to heal the injury and the surgery went wrong. It's possible that he's still alive somewhere, though unlikely."
"Do you know who tricked your father?" Brielle asked.
"We're not sure. My father has many enemies," Saibh replied. "Anyway, my elder brother Tiernan took his place as the head of our household."
"Did your brother and your father get along?"
Cian snorted. "No one got along with Father."
"Alva did," Saibh contradicted. Making eye contact with Khoniya, Saibh explained, "Our father had three wives — Oona, his first wife, was given to him for a marriage that his father had arranged to increase their power within Hewn City; Alva, his second wife, was the daughter of a rich male of a slightly lower class that he fell in love with; Orla, his third wife, was the daughter of a lord of around the same status as our father. Father and Oona never got along, and when their marriage only produced one female child 75 years, he married Alva. He no longer paid any attention to Oona. Alva and he were in love, as I mentioned before, and they had two children — but they were both girls. By this time he was already over 150, and he needed to have male heirs. Well, he didn't need to, I suppose, but Father always hated his younger brother and could not stand the idea of him inheriting his position. Still, Father probably would not have taken on another wife — to be quite honest, he wanted his heir to be him and Alva's son — but Alva fell ill. Her having another child would have been dangerous to her life and the chances the baby would be healthy were also very low. So Father married Orla, our mother. She gave him four children — two males and two females. Father was obviously happy about the males, and didn't mind mother's presence, but still preferred Alva. Anyway, after Father's disappearance, Tiernan took his place. He started making changes…"
Saibh trailed off.
Cian cleared his throat and continued, "He locked away Alva and her two handmaidens in a small building far from Hewn City, with guards placed so that no one could visit her. He said it was to help her recover her health or some shit, but you know. It's all an excuse to put her away. Then he brought Oona on a trip with him and we think he made some kind of deal with her. Anyway, she decided to stay in our second vacation home on the edge of Hewn City, which is the smallest of our houses. She only has two guards and two maids, who do her cooking, shopping, and all of that — she hasn't been seen leaving the house. Then Tiernan started trying to make deals to arrange the marriage of Riona."
"Father, for all his cruelty and faults, was a firm believer in waiting for the right opportunity to marry off his daughters — Cara, for example, was over 100 when she got married, but she married the steward's nephew, who was probably the most eligible bachelor in the last 5 centuries. The steward's bachelor also didn't want to marry for politics, because he knows everyone in Hewn City is a viper, so father dressed Cara up in her most elegant dresses, and made sure that she crossed paths with him a few times — he ended up falling for her," Saibh said. "He never found out about father's schemes, of course. But anyway, that's why I'm not married yet, even though I'm almost 50. Tiernan, though… Females are most valuable right when they come of age, at 17 years old. He wants to find the richest, most powerful family to sell her off to. Mother was opposed. She herself had married Father very young, and had respected that Father wasn't doing the same to his daughters. When she voiced this opinion, Tiernan decided to have her put on so-called bedrest. Basically, he stationed guards in front of her room and did not allow her to leave it. Maids brought her three meals a day. She could only open the window if a guard was present inside of her room."
"And then, when Cian dared to make one side comment about what Tiernan was doing to Mother, Tiernan threatened him," Riona continued.
"We had to leave. We knew it was only a matter of time until Tiernan found an excuse to kill Cian, Father's only other male child. Tiernan was also almost about to finalize a deal with Azazel, the infamously cruel second son of a rich but not very powerful lord. If the deal was sealed before we left, Azazel would have definitely come after us and most likely either beat up, erm, used and chained Riona or killed her," Saibh explained.
"Those of us from Hewn City are not supposed to leave. We have a bit of territory in the mountains where we can have vacations and stuff, but we are most definitely not allowed in Velaris. If they caught us, they'd take us back," Cian added.
Nesta frowned. "Didn't R- the High Lord make a deal with your steward, Keir, about citizens of Hewn City sometimes being allowed in Velaris?"
Saibh rolled her eyes. "It was all a ruse. The High Lord," she spat out the words like they burned, "made every single shopkeeper and landlord and basically everyone promise not to serve Hewn City residents. Of course, some spoiled lord threw a hissy fit when he realized, and the Inner Circle," she rolled her eyes again, "used it as an excuse to kick them all out and never allow them to return. They also took the opportunity to punish a few of the lords who dared to speak out about the High Lord going back on his deal."
Khoniya, Brielle and Nesta exchanged glances.
"Stay here," Khoniya said to them. "If you move even one inch, I'll report you to the constable."
Their faces were all pale.
Then she jerked her head at Brielle and Nesta. The three huddled together.
"What should we do?" Khoniya asked.
Brielle bit her lip. "Well, we can't just leave them here…"
"Should we ask them a few more questions, and then decide?" Khoniya suggested.
"Why not?" Nesta decided.
They turned back around. True to their word, none of them had moved.
"Alright," Khoniya said sharply. "Nice sob story. But why were you robbing us?"
"Well, we've been here in Velaris for about three weeks. At first, we wanted to try to get some sort of job, but they require identification or at least some kind of verification about your past, which we obviously can't provide without them realizing where we're from. We were able to stay in one small room at the cheapest inn with the money we brought with us when we escaped, but it's impossible to keep that going. Besides, all our jewelry and stuff can't be sold without raising questions. So Cian and I started robbing people, and Saibh started, um," Riona rolled her lips.
"Providing, ah, entertainment for males," Saibh said. It was clearly a euphemism.
At Khoniya, Brielle and Nesta's shocked looks, she quickly started, jumbling her words, "No, no. It's not- Even though I don't plan on going back to Hewn City, I still-" She gulped and continued more intelligibly, "Virginity is extremely important and valued where I'm from. Even though I'm not going back, I still don't plan on giving my virginity to some stranger. I couldn't find any whorehouses in Velaris, but, well. There are always men willing to pay for some private, semi-nude entertainment. And if they don't want to pay, well, usually they're too focused on the bulge in their pants to notice their wallet goes missing for a few moments," Saibh grinned despite herself.
"Another team meeting," Khoniya whispered. After shooting deadly glares, the three of them turned around.
"Okay, there's no way we can send them back to Hewn City," Brielle said.
Khoniya sighed. "Nesta, what do you think?"
"I think…" Nesta furrowed her eyebrows. "You have to be in a desperate position to sell your body when you value things like virginity. You can tell that she was being honest by her clothing and kohl, but also by the look in eyes when she was explaining…"
Khoniya nodded. "You're right. And the other two — Riona is only 17! And the other one-" She turned around. "How old are you, Cian?"
"I turned 15 two months ago," he responded.
Khoniya shot her two friends a knowing look.
"Well, if we don't report them to the constable, what do we do?" Brielle asked. "We can't just let them go — no matter what they just said, they'll get desperate for money and return to crime on the streets. And we can't let Saibh go on like this! Plus, it's only a matter of time before Riona turns to selling her body as well…"
"We could try to help them, but what's stopping them from attacking us again?" Nesta countered.
Khoniy hummed.
Brielle hesitated, glancing back at them. "We could try to give them a chance. We're expanding the store, so we could give Saibh a job there. And of course, we'll threaten to take them to the constable or even the High Lord if they do anything out of line."
"How do you know they won't try to rob your store or attack your customers?" Khoniya sighed.
Brielle shrugged. "I mean, if they do that, they won't have a constant stream of income anymore…"
Brielle and Khoniya turned towards Nesta, asking her opinion.
"I suppose we could give them a chance," Nesta decided.
"Okay, we aren't going to report you just yet," Khoniya said. "But we also can't just let you go."
"You can, though," Cian countered, only to be silenced by Khoniya's glare (it really was fearsome).
"Saibh, I'm willing to offer you a job at my boutique," Brielle announced. "Nesta works there as well. We're expanding the shop, so we need help setting up and managing the new section, as well as some new ideas."
Instead of jumping with joy as expected, Saibh hesitated. "I- Thank you for the offer, but I'm afraid I can't take it."
"Why not?"
"In my current, ah, employment, I receive my wages, so to speak, every day. I use it to buy us food and lodging for another day. I don't know how your boutique works, but I do know that shops don't usually pay their employees every day. Besides, I have no experience working in a boutique."
Brielle bit her lip. "I could pay you once a week?" she offered. "And don't worry about the experience. It's my first boutique, and I don't care about such things."
"I didn't have any experience either," Nesta added.
Saibh regretfully shook her head. "I really, really appreciate it. But even if I could afford the food, the place where we're staying… Let's just say the female at the Inn dislikes that we only book one, tiny, cheap room even though there's three of us. She's always looking for an excuse to make us pay more or kick us out. I can't-"
"What if," Khoniya blurted out suddenly, "You stayed at my house?"
Riona and Cian's faces brightened excitedly, but Saibh replied, "We couldn't impose."
Khoniya studied the female. "I need to speak with my mate before I make any decisions, but I am willing to let you stay at my house, provided you agree to follow my rules."
They flinched.
"No," Saibh began, only for Riona to cut her off.
"Come on, Saibh, why not? This is our only chance-"
"Ri, first of all, we don't even know-"
"Please, Saibh?" Cian cut in. "We can't continue like this."
Khoniya closed her eyes. A few expressions rippled over her face and it took Nesta a moment to understand that Khoniya was mentally communicating with her mate.
"Okay," Khoniya declared. "You can stay at my house. The rules are: don't steal from us, don't run away without telling us unless it's an emergency, and don't attack us or harm us in any way. I'll also require you guys to help out in some way — with cooking or cleaning or shopping or something. Does that sound reasonable?"
Cian and Riona nodded eagerly, then turned to their elder sister with pleading eyes.
Saibh sighed, then slowly nodded.
"Where'd you get that scratch?" Cassian asked innocently as they walked down the baby clothes aisle (seriously, why were there so many options? Who wanted to dress their baby in fancy dresses or — Mother forbid — a costume of some strange animal? Did they not realize the baby would just spit up and ruin the ridiculously overpriced article of clothing?).
"What?"
"The one on your neck?" Cassian said.
Nesta hesitated for a few seconds before beginning her tale. "I was walking to a restaurant after work, with my friends Brielle and Khoniya, when suddenly we were attacked…"
She explained the attack and how they had found off the captors.
"What did you do with them afterwards?" Cassian's voice held a dangerous quality she seldom heard, especially after the end of the war.
She hesitated to explain, remembering that, despite everything, Cassian was a member of the Inner Circle. "Well, we were going to bring them to the constable, but they explained that they were not supposed to be in Velaris. Actually, first, their elder sister showed up. Basically, they escaped from their home and had nowhere else to go, and without the proper documentation, they can't work in Velaris, so their sister worked entertaining males while the two of them stole from people. We agreed that we couldn't just let them go and continue this, but we also couldn't force them to go home under their circumstances, so my friend took them in. And Brielle decided to let the elder sister work with us."
"Isn't that dangerous?"
"Well, first off, the elder sister never really attacked us. They seemed very genuine, and it wouldn't be advantageous for them to attack us, since we'd just report them," Nesta answered.
Cassian went silent.
For the remainder of the shopping trip, they spoke about light, unimportant topics — the weather, books, the best cafés, etc.
It was only when they returned to Nesta's house and had settled on the sofa, each with a cup of black tea in hand, that Cassian broached the topic once more.
"Were you hurt? Is the baby-"
"I'm fine, Cassian. And they never touched my stomach or threatened me in any way besides the knife to my throat, which barely scratched me, so I'm sure the baby's fine," Nesta answered. It felt strange to reassure Cassian, but in some way it also felt nice to for once not be the source of his frustration, anger and disappointment.
"Okay." He gulped and nodded. After a couple seconds, he added, "It's nice of your friend to agree to take them in."
"Yeah," Nesta agreed. "I think she feels a bit connected to them, since they ran away from their family, and Khoniya also needed to leave her family to come here to be with her mate."
Cassian's eyes were downcast as he said, "Taking in kids, even if they aren't that young… It could really make a difference in their lives, you know?"
Nesta was suddenly reminded that Cassian was an orphaned, bastard-born male.
"It's great that they have each other, but if they were raised in a harsh environment, every kind word or action can mean so much." His voice had not gone soft, but his eyes had a far away look. "Taking them in, showing them affection, even just giving them a space where they feel safe can completely change their lives."
He blinked and his eyes returned to normal. "Anyway, if they need any help or anything, let me know."
While his left hand was occupied holding his tea cup, his right hand rested on the sofa, palm-up. As she took a sip of tea, eyes firmly on her cup, Nesta gave into the urge to move her left hand a few inches and place it on top of his palm.
His palm was rough and calloused, but also surprisingly soft.
Cassian sat utterly still, shocked.
Shit. Nesta, you're such an idiot. Why would you invade his personal boundaries like that? Nesta berated herself. He didn't ask for comfort. He doesn't want it from YOU anyway. He knows you're a bitch who doesn't deserve anything, least of all affection. Why would he want this from you?
She started to retract her hand, schooling her expression so as to not betray her embarrassment, but at that moment, Cassian curled his fingers and grasped her hand.
Her hand was far too sweaty despite the lack of heat, and her nails were short and—
Her thoughts dissolved as her eyes met his.
His warm eyes reminded her of caramel that she'd eaten a few times as a child, when her father had returned from a voyage. She remembered the sweet taste that slowly filled her mouth… and just like that, she was now craving caramel.
They sat in comfortable silence.
Then Nesta dared to ask, "You were raised in the Illyrian mountains?"
Cassian let out a breath and nodded. "Yeah. I grew up in the war-camps. My mom was a laundress in one of the camps, but as soon as I would walk, I was sent to a different camp. I used to have to fight other kids — their food or clothes would be the prize for winning. Kids who were older than me usually agreed, because they wanted to show off their strength and put me in my place, but I beat them a lot of the time. They hated me, really. No one wanted to associate with a bastard-born nobody with a knack for violence and getting into trouble…"
A/N:
That's it! Hope you guys liked it.
Please leave reviews to let me know what you think!
I know this chapter was a little OC-heavy. I swear that this is it — no more new OCs will be introduced. (I'm not a huge fan of OCs in fan fiction, even though I know I've used kind of a lot...)
We're more than half way through the story now. Did you guys enjoy the Nessian scene? Much more Nessian shall follow in the next chapter ;D
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