Delilah Dawson - The Damsel and the Daggerman

A light soon appeared—a lantern hanging from the front porch of a stone cottage that would have been charming with just a little more attention. The porch sagged, the flowers in the pots were dead and crumpled, and a mobile of shells and bones clattered helplessly in the breeze from the ocean. At least there would be no blud creatures about, this close to the salty sea spray. Well—almost.

She parked the conveyance and went to her bed, where she’d laid out the many weapons she’d picked up during her travels. The boomerang, the machete, the crossbow, the seawater gun, the brass knuckles with claws that fit over her fingers perfectly. Her main concerns here were giant lobsters and bludseals, which had developed a special oily coating that allowed them, alone of all blud creatures, to touch the sea’s salt and survive. Practically nothing worked against lobsters, of course. Nodding to herself, she tied the machete’s leather holster around her waist, took up her notebook and pen, and stepped down to the sand.

Outside, the drizzle had given way to air heavy and cold with mist, the sea spray floating toward her like formless ghosts and stinging her eyes. The wildness of the place appealed to her, and she smiled up at the sky, at the electricity latent in the clouds. She started up the path, her boots crunching on the crushed white shells. When the door opened to reveal Marco’s shadow silhouetted with light, she sped up and gave him her fondest smile.

“I’ve been waiting for this,” she called over the sea’s pounding.

He said nothing as she skipped up the creaking steps, and she squinted to see his face in the blinding light. What she saw chilled her to her bones. It wasn’t Marco. It was a woman with a knife.

“I’ve been waiting, too,” the woman said.

“Where’s Marco? What is this?”

The woman stepped forward until Jacinda could separate her form from the shadows. She was petite and perfect, with large, arresting golden eyes and shiny black hair cut short to show ears heavy with tribal baubles. Looking Jacinda up and down, the girl twirled one of Marco’s knives between her fingers, quick and sure.

“So this is what Marco was waiting for? You’re so pale and round, like a city cow. To tell you the truth, I’m disappointed.” She pointed the knife at Jacinda’s hand, now on the hilt of her machete. “Throw that into the yard, and put your hands up. Now. I’m as quick with a blade as my beloved Marco, you know. He taught me well.”

Slowly, her eyes never leaving the girl, Jacinda obeyed, untying the belt and tossing the heavy knife out into the sand. The girl nodded slowly, and with a sick turn of her stomach, Jacinda suddenly realized whom she faced.

“So you must be Petra. Funny, you don’t look murdered.”

“Neither do you. Yet.”

Jacinda stiffened, her eyes sliding sideways, looking for a weapon, an egress, an ally. The girl was clever. She must have been responsible for Brutus’s disappearance, and Jacinda had utterly fallen for it, despite her paranoia. But where was Marco, and why did he say nothing? If he was in the house, surely he would come to her rescue?

“What have you done with Marco?”

The girl smirked as if they shared a joke. “Nothing he hasn’t done with you and me. He’s tied up. Come in and see.”

Jacinda didn’t move, and the girl twirled the knife in her face.

“Let me be clear: come in and see, or die on the porch. And don’t try anything funny, or he takes a blade in his soft parts.”

Swallowing hard, Jacinda nodded. The girl opened the door wider and jerked her head inside. With one last, desperate look to her conveyance and the freedom of the sea, Jacinda stepped into the blinding light of the windowless cottage.

Lamps were hung everywhere, and a fire smoked in the heart. The walls were whitewashed and crumbling, the wind whistling in through cracks and carrying flurries of sand and dust. The smells of salt and fish and decay were overwhelming, with just the faintest hint of copper. Bile rising in her throat, Jacinda turned to find Marco pinned to a makeshift target of weathered wood. Ropes held him spread-eagled, tied tightly around wrist and ankle and wrapped thickly around his neck, his face an angry shade of puce. Knives nestled in the wood against his sides in blooms of blood. His eyes were wide with fear and anger, and her gray silk stocking trailed out of his mouth, silencing him.

“Marco . . .”

He shook his head no.

“You wanted the truth, didn’t you? Here’s the truth. Marco is mine and always has been.”

Jacinda’s temper flared. Before she could stop herself, she said, “He wasn’t yours this afternoon.”

Quick as a whip, Petra slapped her—using the hand not holding the knife. Jacinda’s cheek went red, her fury burning up to the roots of her hair.

“Did Marco tell you he likes to take his time? Because that’s where I learned it.” Petra walked to Marco, slender hips swaying in patchwork breeches, and gently ran the blade of the knife down his cheek. “Can’t go killing you quick, no matter how much you try to provoke me. Plus, I promised I’d tell you everything, and I think someone should know, at least for a little while.” She snatched Jacinda’s notebook and tossed it into the fire, where the pages caught and curled over, black.

Jacinda had never been angrier, but Liam had taught her, long ago, how to continue using her brain in a life-or-death situation, even when her body and temper betrayed her. It was the reason she was alive, and he wasn’t. She took a deep breath through her nose, her hands shaking and cold.

“So tell me.”

Petra spun, flinging her knife at Marco in a glittering silver arc that, before now, had given Jacinda a little rush of excitement. Now she just waited to see if the girl had drawn blood and, if so, how bad it would be. The knife was a hair’s breadth from Marco’s wrist but hadn’t pierced his skin.

“We grew up in neighboring caravans, my Marco and me. He was taught knife throwing, and even though I wished to learn with him, I was sent among the women to cook and clean and care for the snot-nosed brats. He gave me one of his knives, and I practiced in secret, and whenever our families circled the wagons, Marco would help me, teach me to throw. When it became clear that I caused nothing but trouble among the women, I was sent to his caravan to be his assistant.” She walked to him, pulled out the knife, and paused, assessing him. “There was hope that he would marry me and settle down, but he resisted. And I did my best to break his resistance, didn’t I?”

Jacinda felt the bile rise in her throat, watching the girl run her pinkie finger around Marco’s lips. He couldn’t move his head, but his nostrils flared with anger.

“Has he kissed you sideways?” Petra said. “I taught him that.”

Fighting for control but unwilling to let the little fiend gloat, Jacinda rolled her eyes and crossed her arms. “Isn’t this all a bit petty?”

“Petty? Have you ever loved someone for ten years, offered them your heart and your body on a platter again and again, and had them pat your head like you’re a tame dog? Every day that he strapped me onto the target, I prayed that he would hit me, that my blood or tears would force him to care for me even an ounce, touch me with any true feeling, but he never missed. Not once.” She walked up to Jacinda, pointing the knife right at her eye. “Until yesterday.”

“You’ve been following him? Watching him?” Jacinda swallowed. “Watching us?”

“Ever since that night on the outskirts of London. Ever since I promised him everything and he turned me down, wouldn’t even bed me. And I sliced him up so badly he went on the run out of shame. The Deadly Daggerman they called him. Everyone thought it was my blood. But he was too much of a coward to fight back, too much of a coward to admit he wasn’t man enough to take a girl’s virginity. Too much of a coward to admit he’d been beaten by a woman half his size. Didn’t even care enough to strike me, dripping with blood in his own wagon. Just ran away in shame.”