Total pages in book: 142
Estimated words: 134898 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 674(@200wpm)___ 540(@250wpm)___ 450(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 134898 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 674(@200wpm)___ 540(@250wpm)___ 450(@300wpm)
I…don’t know what to do.
Do I hide it and pretend like it’s been mine all along? Any artifact is worth a small fortune, even one that doesn’t work. I’m penniless, but I can’t sell something like this. I don’t have the right contacts, and I don’t want to anyhow. I want to be in the guild. I don’t understand why this artifact is here. Is someone trying to get me kicked out for stealing? Do they know that I was flunked last year because of stealing? Aspeth tried to take the blame for it, but I know my name was tossed around as well.
Or is that what whoever put it in my bag expects me to do? Do they want me to hold on to it, and the guild enforcers will search the dorm tomorrow and find me guilty? Is this a setup?
Where do I hide it? Who do I turn it in to?
Before I can figure out what to do, the doors to the dorm room open and Raptor steps inside. His gaze drops to my cleavage, spilling out of my loosened bodice. “If that isn’t the prettiest sight I’ve seen all day. I’m flattered, but I’m also taken.”
Seventeen
Raptor
The gods are torturing me. Somehow, I’ve fallen out of favor with Old Garesh, and now he’s getting back at me by putting a gorgeous, curvy little human wench into my bed. Gwenna’s tits are practically falling out of her loosened bodice, and they’re big and juicy and heaving, her cleavage deep enough to sink my muzzle into, and I’m so mucking tempted.
So mucking tempted.
I’ve never been the type to lust after a woman and not follow up. Thanks to the god’s hand ever-present upon me, I’ve always been highly sexual. But all of that was before Sarya. Sarya, Sarya, Sarya. I’m resenting her absence. Does she not want to be found by me? Is she avoiding me? Have I been assuming things between us all this time? Was I just another client to her?
I run a hand down my face, frustrated. I can’t afford to be so easily distracted by a pretty fledgling. Forcing myself to look away from her (magnificent) tits, I focus on her face…and realize just how pale it is. “You all right?”
“No, I don’t think I am,” she says in a faint voice.
“What’s wrong?” I gesture at the doors behind me. “Should I get a healer?”
Gwenna wrings her hands. “No healer. Don’t bother anyone. I…Can I trust you, Raptor?”
My senses go on alert. All the lust I’ve been struggling with goes cold. Here it is, then. The information I’ve been sent here to seek out. Mentally I’m already composing a letter to send to Rooster and Hawk right after this. But I keep a smile on my face to reassure her even as every part of my spirit grows hard and tired. “Aye, you can.”
With a trembling finger, she points at the bag on her bed.
I open it and gaze down at the tube inside. It’s Old Prellian, and the glyphs immediately start to glow the moment the item is exposed to light. It’s either a carrying case of some kind, or a telescoping spyglass. Whatever it is, it’s valuable beyond imagination. And it’s in a fledgling’s hands.
Precisely where it doesn’t belong.
I’m immediately disappointed. I don’t know why—I’m here to find the thief, after all. I should be overjoyed that we can give up this farce of me being a fledgling.
But the fact that it’s sweet, sassy little Gwenna doesn’t sit right with me. She doesn’t seem like the monster who’s been responsible for all the atrocities that have been happening. It’s one thing to steal, and it’s another to murder your accomplices. “You stole this?”
“What? No! It’s not mine,” she immediately hisses, a look of outrage on her face. “Someone put it in my bag while we were out!”
I eye her, because of course a thief would say that. “How do I know that you’re telling the truth?”
“Hannai’s tits, why would I tell you to look at that thing if I was the thief? Why wouldn’t I just hide it away?” She glares at me, her entire body trembling, and looks on the verge of tears.
Gwenna could just be an excellent actress, but something about all of this feels sincere. In the weeks since we’ve become fledglings together, she’s proven to be a hard worker and trustworthy. Yet I can’t overlook this. I remain calm, and even though my mind isn’t made up, I’ll let her think it is so I can win her trust. “All right, then. Let’s say you’re not a thief. Someone just came into the dormitory and dropped a priceless artifact into your bag. The question is, why?”
“I don’t know.” She presses shaking fingers to her lips, thinking. “There’s got to be some sort of reason behind it. Someone wants me gone from here. They’re clearly trying to frame me.”