“You said you’d tell me yours,” Arlon said after a moment. “Was that your worst day?”
“No.” Bridgette lifted her eyes to meet his, and Arlon recognized something of the pain and anger that lingered in them. “That was the night I took your old boss upstairs.”
Arlon’s stomach plummeted. “I-I’m sorry.” It felt inadequate. Itwasinadequate. There was nothing he could say or do that would heal the wounds Vian had left, but he still felt the need to try. “He was an evil fucker. He hurt a lot of people, and I’m sorry you were one of them.”
Bridgette’s eyes studied him, and it was like she could see all that he wasn’t saying. “You were hurt by him, too.”
He forced a smile, a weak, fragile thing. “A close second for worst day of my life.”
Bridgette’s wavering smile matched his. “Well, he’s dead now, right?”
Arlon sighed, his shoulders relaxing a little. “He is.”
“Well, then. Cheers to one less evil fucker in the world,” Bridgette said before she held the pipe out to him.
His fingers brushed hers as he took it. “That story’s a happier one, if you want to hear it.”
Bridgette chuckled as she leaned back comfortably. “Go on, then. Tell me a happy tale.”
Arlon took another draw from the pipe, grinning as he released the plume of smoke into the night sky. “After Fawn arrested me and a few of the others, I think Vian got desperate. He’d already proven himself a big enough problem to warrant the Crux’s intervention, but after his Wolves got thinned, he started killing more readily, got more brutal with his extortions. But he was no less careful about covering his tracks.For the entire year I was indentured here, Fawn was trying to track him down, without luck.”
“So what made you decide to help?” Bridgette asked as she took the pipe back.
“Fawn promised me a clean slate and a new life as a wizard, to start.”
“And?”
“And… after a year of helping me recognize all the ways Vian had fucked my life up, Iwantedto help,” he said.
Bridgette hummed as she tapped the ashes out of her pipe. “You’re also in love with her.” Arlon’s stomach plummeted, but at his look, Bridgette scoffed. “I have eyes, you know.”
Arlon cleared his throat, forcing that thought aside, though his racing heart took a moment longer to settle. “Anyway, I gave her the location of every hideout I knew of under the condition that I got to come with her to clear them. We caught up to Vian at the tail end of winter, and I don’t think I need to tell you that a prick with a sword, even one as vicious as Vian Wolf, was no match for a fully armed wizard.”
Bridgette leaned back with a smirk as she looked up at the sky. “Bet it was satisfying to watch him try.”
“It was the only time I ever saw him afraid,” Arlon said. “And knowing that he died feeling even a fraction of the fear he’d caused throughout his miserable life was good enough for me.”
“A deserving end,” Bridgette said before she spat on the ground next to her. “Hope Quietus sent him straight to hell where he belongs.”
Arlon copied the sentiment, spitting onto the grass. “Without a doubt.”
The silence that fell between them was a comfortable one. One that was only broken when Bridgette let out a wistful sighas she got to her feet. “Thatwasa happy story. I think I’ll sleep better for having heard it.”
Arlon would too, but he didn’t admit it out loud. Instead, he said, “Thanks for… this.”
Bridgette gave him an appraising look before she said, “Walk me back upstairs?”
Arlon got to his feet, and Bridgette slid her arm through his. The warmth of her touch was a surprise, but not an unwelcome one. They walked arm in arm all the way back to her room in the abjuration tower, which was, in fact, just a few doors down from his.
“Goodnight, Arlon,” she whispered as she opened her door. “Sleep well.”
“Yeah, you too.”
7
“Are you alright, Arlon?”
“I’m alright, I’m alright.”
