The Raven Thief: A Grimm Retelling by Andi Lawrencovna

Author:Andi Lawrencovna [Lawrencovna, Andi]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2021-05-13T22:00:00+00:00

Chapter IX

Dio sat in the chair by the fire, his elbows resting on the cushions at his side, fingers steepled, just barely touching his chin as he waited for Ora to turn around and face him.

Her expression concealed nothing when she met his stare. The usually stoic, laughing, unreadable woman he was used to was gone. In her place stood all the uncertain fear he didn’t understand in her gaze.

Where the confident thief who could control a room with a sweep of her hand? Where the woman who always had a quip and a new plot in her veins?

“The innkeeper said—”

Dio motioned for her to take the seat across from him. “Yes, I’m aware of what the innkeeper said. Please,” he put enough threat into his voice that she flinched at the simple request.

Good.

But why didn’t he feel good at seeing her response?

Her feet slogged as she walked across the room to take the seat opposite him. It was almost like she was fighting herself from responding. The terror in her gaze grew the closer she came, but that fear was not of him.

He watched her sit, the way her body fell into the chair, limbs stiff and uncoordinated. Her eyes were unfocused, a fight between green and black.

On her left hand, the glove covering her skin began to glow.

Not the whole of the glove, just a round band around her finger.

What had the other man said?

The elf-queen gave the dwarves a crown.

The dwarves gave the elf a ring…

Dio looked slowly from her hand to her face to her eyes. She held his stare, but it was not Ora who looked back at him.

When she smiled, the expression was distinctly predatory.

This was what he’d felt when he sat across from her in the bar. This was what rode beneath the cover of Ora’s skin. This was the cause of her fear or was it her fear itself?

He leaned back in his seat, affecting ease and disinterest as he stared at it.

Dio couldn’t bear to call that “smile” Ora.

“Why am I in your room, Diorlin?”

He covered the skittering chills crossing his skin with a sneer. Instinct demanded he pretend ignorance. That he ignore the difference, feign he couldn’t tell that whoever he spoke to was not who he wanted. “Why haven’t you told me the damn plan, Orali!” He made his question into a statement, allowed anger to fuel the words and hide his disquiet.

His fingers clenched around the knobs of the armrests.

If she took it as him holding on to keep back from striking, the Gods be praised.

If she realized it was so that he had a better chance of levering himself out of the seat and away from her…he didn’t want to think of what would happen in that case.

Words whispered in his mind.

He’s not worth it.

Wings beat at the air. A sharp caw pierced his ears.

The dark glow faded from her hand; her eyes sparked with black flecks, and then cleared to green.

Dio lunged from his chair and caught her before she toppled from hers.

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