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Darkness enveloped me as I stood outside a shabby-looking tavern. I brushed a hand over the leather pouch full of pearls secured at my hip before checking all my knives. This was just an Underworld tavern like any other. How many of those had I visited in my life? The only difference was that this one was in a different city. On another continent. Where people didn’t know my reputation. And spoke a language I still didn’t fully understand. Yeah, nothing to be anxious about at all. I pushed down the door’s metal handle.
In the days since we arrived, our shady team had come up with our first act of sabotage. While our friendly and socially skilled team, with a little help from Norah, had started making connections in the city’s upstanding circles, the rest of us had gotten acquainted with the Pernulan Underworld. Zaina had introduced us to a fence who we’d used to sell a couple of pistols in exchange for several bags of pearls. Then she’d taken us on a tour of the city’s sketchy areas and pointed out places of interest. After that, she’d released us on the world to wreak havoc.
Every night, I’d spent a few hours running across town, mapping it in my head. The capital city of Pernula was huge so it was still far from a completed map but I was fairly confident about navigating it. However, I was nervous now as I stepped across the threshold and into the dimly lit pub.
Stale ale and sweat wafted through the air. I crinkled my nose as I surveyed the room. Wooden chairs and tables that had seen better days were crammed into the rectangular space and packed with people. I had debated at length how to play this but had finally come to the conclusion that the best course of action was to simply be me. Pretending to be someone I was not had never worked out well for me in the long run, but the Oncoming Storm was still alive. Granted, it had been a bit touch and go at times but I was far better at being me than I was at being someone else. I raised my voice to a shout.
“I heard this is the place to recruit people for an under-the-table mission.”
Dead silence fell across the tavern as all its patrons turned to look at me. I met their stares with an even gaze.
“Who the hell are you?” a burly man to my right challenged. “And why’re you talking the elven language?”
“I’m not from here.” I swept hard eyes across the crowd. “I’m from Keutunan.”
A murmur coursed through the room. “You’re from the Lost Island?” someone asked towards the back.
The Lost Island, huh? So that was what they were calling our home. I actually quite liked that name.
“Yes,” I replied. “My name is the Oncoming Storm.”
Scattered laughter broke out. “The Oncoming Storm? What kind of name is that?”
Anger pulled at my soul. They were laughing at me. People who laughed at me usually got a knife through their windpipe but I figured one minute into the conversation was a bit too soon to start killing people. Shame.
“Yes, that’s what I said.” I gave them an irritated shake of my head. “Now, we can stand here and discuss differences in naming culture or we can get down to business. I have a mission for–”
I broke off when I felt fingers hovering over the bag of pearls tied to my waist. First they were laughing at me and now they were trying to steal from me. My hand shot out and snaked around the thief’s wrist. Twisting his arm behind his back, I slid in behind him and pushed a stiletto blade against his throat.
“If you ever put that hand on me or any of my possessions ever again, you’ll lose those fingers,” I growled in his ear.
A few snorts could be heard across the room. “Yeah, good luck with that.”
The name the Oncoming Storm should draw gasps of fear not bursts of laughter. These people had no respect for me. I would have to build my reputation from scratch. Rage clawed at my chest. Why did everything always have to be so godsdamn hard?
I shoved the thief away from me and shot another stiletto into my palm. “Come on then.”
The man who had tried to steal my pearls leered at me while snickers rose from the crowd. Unrestrained anger surged through my body. I gave into it. Darkness filled my eyes as tendrils of black smoke whipped across my skin. Sharp intakes of breath echoed through the tavern. That’s more like it.
“Ashaana,” someone whispered.
There was that word again. The word that was incredibly important but the one I couldn’t ask anyone about.
I leveled black eyes filled with rage on the man in front of me. He shrank back and raised his hands. Spreading my arms wide, I turned in a slow circle around the room.
“Anyone else?” I ground out between gritted teeth. The watching Pernulans stayed in their seats. “Good. Can we finally move on to business then?”
A few of the people around me nodded. I tried to pull the darkness back into my soul but it refused to leave. It was like trying to pull a boulder with a piece of string. Damn. I really needed to figure out how this thing worked. However, that was a problem for another day. Seeing as I could do nothing about it, I decided to just roll with it and continued explaining my job offer with black smoke swirling around me.
“Now, here’s my offer. The day after tomorrow I need a flash mob to appear in a particular street at a particular time. You won’t need to do any fighting, killing, stealing, or anything else that actually requires some sort of skill set. You only need to block the road.” I lifted the leather pouch. “I will pay in pearls. Any takers?”
Uncertain glances bounced across the crowd until a man with tattoos along his heavily muscled arms shrugged and stood up. “Sounds like a good deal. I’m in.”
After that, most of the tavern’s occupants followed suit. People shifted from standing to sitting and back again as I gave instructions about the time and place and the target they were blocking. My purse was a lot lighter when I’d finally briefed everyone and handed out the pearls.
“I am very good with faces,” I said and moved my still black eyes between everyone who had received payment. “If you don’t show up, I will know and I will hunt down everyone who doesn’t keep their end of the bargain.” Lightning crackled over my skin. “And trust me, that is something you want to avoid.”
Wood creaked as some occupants shifted uncomfortably in their chairs.
“Besides,” I continued, “I’ll have more jobs coming up and I pay well. So, keep your word and we can do lots of business together.” Spinning around, I strode towards the door. “Be seeing you,” I called over my shoulder before stepping into the warm night.
Only when I was halfway back to the school did the darkness finally retreat into the deep pits of my soul. It left me drained, but hopefully that stunt I’d pulled would spread across the Pernulan Underworld and spark a rumor about the Oncoming Storm on this continent as well. It would make my job so much easier if people actually took me seriously. Regardless, I was fairly confident that the people from the tavern would at least keep their word and block the road in two days’ time. I grinned and broke into a jog. Marcellus would have no idea what hit him.