Lexi picked up the bottle of blue potion and lifted it. Inside, the golden liquid sparked a little as it swished back and forth. From behind the counter, the witch with the cool blue eyes and black hair watched her.
“How much?” Lexi asked about the healing potion.
The dark fae in the tunnels had healed some since yesterday, but it wasn’t fast enough for her liking. She intended to get him out of her life as soon as possible, and if the witches’ concoction helped with that, then she would pay for it. Normally, she would have asked Sahira for this, but she couldn’t do that now.
“Two hundred,” the witch said.
Lexi suppressed a snort of disbelief and dipped a hand into her pocket. It was highway robbery, and they both knew it, but she couldn’t risk drawing attention to herself by haggling today.
She hated being fleeced by the witch, but at least she could rely on the witches’ discretion. The sign next to the register announced all sales were final and confidential.
The witches were known to keep the secrets of their clientele. Immortals and humans wouldn’t buy from them as often if they were running around discussing their purchases. The witch would never reveal what Lexi purchased here.
She removed her small wallet from her pocket and took out two hundred carisle. She didn’t have to look at the Shadow Realms' currency to know that dragons marked the front of it.
The witch smiled as she took the money and slipped it into a leather pouch. She took the potion from Lexi and put it into another leather pouch before giving it back to Lexi.
“Thanks,” Lexi muttered and stifled her impulse to add, “for screwing me.”
Turning away from the makeshift, wooden counter, she ignored the people gathered inside the small hut as she made her way through the shadowed interior. Everyone else in the store was human; she could tell by the distinct lack of power emanating from them. They all stopped their browsing of the potions and trinkets lining the shelves to watch her go.
The humans didn’t have Shadow Realms currency, but the witch behind the counter would take their money. Lexi felt a stab of guilt as she met their curious stares. They all looked tired and more than a little beat down by their new lot in life.
As she passed a woman, the woman shoved a black lump back onto the shelf. A sign above the lump guaranteed it would provide enough food for a week.
Pity tugged at Lexi’s heart when the thin woman bowed her head and her lank hair fell forward to shield her features. The humans hadn’t asked for this; they’d never known it was coming, and now they were suffering the consequences because a madman wouldn’t give up the throne that had corrupted him.
She barely had carisles left, but she found her hand dipping toward her wallet. The price on the stone was fifty dollars or about twenty carisle. The witch had robbed her blind, but apparently, she had a soft spot for the starving masses. Maybe she wasn’t such a smug ass after all.
The woman lifted the stone again, and Lexi scented tears before she put it back and turned away. Lexi stopped and pulled her wallet out. She removed a twenty-dollar carisle and walked over to the woman.
The woman started to turn away, but Lexi grasped her wrist to halt her. When the woman turned back to her, Lexi saw her round belly. She was only weeks away from delivery.
“Here,” Lexi said as she shoved the money into the woman’s hand.
The woman started to shake her head. “I can’t.”
“Take it,” Lexi insisted.
She could feel the witch’s eyes on her, but she didn’t look back. The woman’s fingers curled briefly around Lexi’s as tears rolled down her cheeks.
Lexi pulled her hand away and walked out of the store before she started to cry too. She’d grown up in the mortal realm; she was more comfortable around humans than immortals. She’d grown up with them; they were her people, they were suffering, and she hated it.
Stepping onto the crowded dirt road, she ignored the crush of humans and immortals surrounding her as she swung the leather pouch onto her shoulder and slipped into the crowd.
• • •
Cole despised the crowded human and immortal markets that had sprung up in the cities and towns since the war ended. He understood their necessity as humans scrambled to survive, and those who still had fortunes sought to get their hands on things they’d only ever dreamed about. However, he preferred it when the markets only catered to immortals and were hidden from the mortals.
“Watch it,” Brokk growled when a passing lycan’s shoulder hit his.
The lycan turned to look at Brokk, who lifted his hand in the air. The lycan took in the ciphers on Brokk’s hand and kept walking. Not many immortals sought to pick a fight with the dark fae. The lycan was larger and stronger, but they all feared the dark fae’s powers.
“Bunch of hairy assholes,” Brokk muttered.
Cole didn’t take offense to his brother’s comment. He couldn’t count the number of times he’d called vamps bloodsucking leeches around Brokk.
“I do not have a hairy asshole,” Cole said.
“You never know what the future holds.”
“It better not hold hairy assholes.”
Brokk grinned at him before turning to avoid a herd of humans who scurried past with their heads down. Cole barely acknowledged the humans as he tried not to inhale the stench of dirt and body odor wafting from them. The sweet stench of witches’ potions and burnt wood, as well as the ever-present reek of the distant burning city, hung heavily on the air.
The open road that vehicles once traversed was now a thoroughfare crowded with ramshackle huts and hastily assembled buildings. They’d turned the broken and cracked four-lane road into little more than a lane.
Many of the shops belonged to witches, but there were plenty of other immortals looking to sell things they’d crafted and the food they grew on their land. There were also stalls with vamps who sought to pay for blood. The vamp stalls and food booths were the most crowded with humans, but the witches had a fair amount of business too.
He’d prefer not to be here, but if they were going to know what was happening in the world and how things were going, the markets were the best place to go. Plus, there was a chance he might run into Lexi.
It was a small chance, but one he was willing to take. He’d never been to Del’s home, but he knew it was somewhere nearby. And if he didn’t find her here, he’d….
What?
Hunt her down?
And how would he explain that to Brokk? They were close, they always had been, but he’d never gone out of his way to find a woman. Brokk would find it odd; he found it odd.
However, the possibility of seeing her again intrigued and excited him.
As they walked, he listened to the chatter of the humans and immortals who passed. Most conversations focused on securing supplies to keep their families alive, but there were a few murmurs of discontent amongst the crowd.
He ignored those whispers. Of course, these people were unhappy; nothing of the world they knew remained. What he sought were whispers about where some of the rebels were hiding; he wanted to know where his brothers were.
He was shifting through the conversations swirling around him when he detected the faint hint of strawberries on the air. He scanned the crowd as he drew the scent deeper into him.
He’d smelled strawberries thousands of times before, but this was different. It was fresh and welcoming, and he knew it was her.
Turning, he searched the crowd. He stood almost a head taller than most of those surrounding him, so he could see over them with relative ease.
And then he spotted her exiting a witches’ store and shrugging a pouch onto her shoulder. The sun emphasized the different shades of red in her auburn hair and illuminated her delicate features.
She stepped back from a passing lycan before turning and walking in the opposite direction of him.
“I’ll be back,” he said to Brokk.
Before his brother could reply, Cole started after her.