Fairytales

^FOURTEEN MONTHS EARLIER^

I breathed in the morning air as I perched on the ledge of an abandoned building in the skeleton quarter of Requiem City, a real honest-to-god shithole, but it was also my home—the only home I’d ever known.

This high up, the stagnant stench of the city disappeared and was replaced by the clean scent of fresh pine needles that wafted in from the nearby forest.

The view of the horizon was storybook perfect, straight out of a fairytale.

There ~were~ fairytales about this place. Of how the Requiem Mountains were once the home of dragons.

Actual dragons. Fierce and all-powerful, stalking the villages in search of their human mates.

The other halves of their souls.

The fairytales claimed that once a dragon found their mate, their power grew exponentially, and that dragons would do anything, absolutely anything, to keep their mate.

Or something like that.

It was complete crap, of course. As much as I wished I could believe that magic existed in this awful place, all it took was one glance downward to remember that my life was anything but a fairytale.

My life was struggle and suffering.

My life was doing anything to make a little cash on the ruthless streets of Requiem City.

I was yanked back to reality as my phone buzzed wildly in my pocket. I was filled with dread as I pulled it out—I already knew exactly who it’d be.

Dominic

No more waiting.

Dominic

If you don’t come up with the money soon, your friends are dead meat.

I pictured my friends, Harry and Darshan, bruised and bloody, inches away from death. All because of me.

Dom had grown up with us in Greensward. It was a residential center for kids who had little to no chance of ever being adopted. We were no longer little, or cute, or well behaved. And most of us were close to aging out of the system.

Dom had created quite the criminal underworld while he was there. And even after he left, I wasn’t able to get out from under his thumb.

Shortly after he’d aged out of the residence, Dom had used Darshan, who was blind, as a punching bag to keep me in line. It worked—I couldn’t stand to see Darshan hurt.

But it meant Dom knew my weakness, and he kept using Darshan to get to me.

I took a deep breath, trying to calm my pounding heart as I pushed the horrors that Dominic could inflict out of my head.

But I had a plan to get out from under Dominic’s thumb once and for all.

It was time for the richest family in Requiem City to give back to the people.

***

The Dobrzycka family was said to have ironclad pockets, impenetrable to pickpockets everywhere. And they ~were~ everywhere. The streets were crawling with them, mean-faced and hungry, waiting for an opportunity to land in front of them.

But I wasn’t most pickpockets.

I could smell the gold before I saw it.

I was the predator, and the gold was my prey.

There I stood, on the roughest corner in the skeleton quarter, the blood of its latest victim still sticky on the ground. I scanned the crowd, patiently waiting for my target.

And there he was.

Loch Dobrzycka of the Dobrzycka fortune.

I’d been tailing him for days. I liked to pick out my marks in advance and follow them around. Learn their habits. Anticipate where they will go next.

I wasn’t an amateur like the other riffraff lurking around me.

I happened to know that in his pocket was a brand-spanking-new Robishaw watch he had just picked up at 900 Jewelers, the premier jeweler for the well-to-do, as a favor for his sister, Adara.

The woman had good taste—~expensive taste~. So expensive that she’d only trusted her herculean brother to carry the watch through the “dangerous street trash” for her.

Her words, not mine. Though I couldn’t very well dispute them.

To be honest, I wished I could say Loch was as appalling in person as in my imagination, but the chiseled chest peeking out of his unzipped hoodie and his perfect cheekbones certainly weren’t eyesores.

There was something about his slouching manner, his free-spirited way, and his annoying smirk that piqued my curiosity.

The man had balls to be out here in the skeleton quarter.

God, did I want to see the look on his face when he realized that he, the great god of Requiem City, had been dipped by a street rat.

That was the only downside to being a thief. You didn’t get to stick around to see ’em flip out once they’d realized they’d been fleeced.

Bummer, right?

But whatever.

Right now, I wanted to steal this billionaire’s watch before he knew what hit him.

I needed to. Or else Darshan, Harry, and I were going to be slaves to Dominic forever.

That watch was our ticket to freedom.

So, I was going to give Loch Dobrzycka a little taste of the real Requiem City he claimed to know so well in the commercials that played nonstop on every device in the city.

I was the best friend of the rejects, the junkies, the fuck-ups on every corner.

I was the blood that kept the black market pumping.

I was a sixteen-year-old orphan named Madeline, and nothing in the world—not the five-O, not the myths of “magic,” not even the 1% Dobrzyckas could stop me.

He was standing on the opposite corner, waiting to cross the street. My heart lurched in my chest as I stared at him. It’d been doing that all week.

Once, I was so close when I passed him that I could smell his cologne. I had to force my legs to keep walking and not reach out and touch him.

And I didn’t mean I was going to steal from him right then—no, pickpocketing took planning, after all. It was like there was some invisible force that wanted me to reach out to him. To feel his skin against mine.

I shook my head, trying to get rid of whatever thoughts those were. I needed to focus on my mission.

As soon as the light turned green, I hugged my coat close and walked briskly forward, hiding myself in the middle of the crowd.

When I was halfway across the street, I dug my elbow deep into the rib of a particularly seedy-looking man, ducking away immediately after.

The man stopped, looked around, then lashed out at the man closest to him.

A wave of chaos erupted.

Luckily for me, everyone in the skeleton quarter was already on edge after years of being beaten down and trod on by the so-called elites. It took little to push them over.

This was my chance.

Loch eyed the swarm apprehensively but kept crossing the road.

He touched his left pant pocket protectively.

~That must be where the watch is.~

I rammed into him. His body was surprisingly hard, nearly winding me.

~Whoops.~

I looked up at him, putting on my best terrified-but-innocent expression. Meanwhile, my hand slipped into his pocket unnoticed. Just like magic.

He looked down at me with a piercing stare. His electric-green eyes were so intense.

“Watch where you’re going,” he said, his voice low and gravelly.

My feet were momentarily frozen, and Loch’s frown deepened as he stared at me.

I forced myself to shrug and walk away, avoiding flying punches from the now angry mob as I tucked the watch in my bag.

I had to pause and catch my breath once I was on the other side of the street.

~What is going on with me?~

A sudden urge to look back struck me—one I knew I was supposed to resist. But damn it, I couldn’t help myself.

I ~needed~ to see him again. To have his eyes on me one last time.

I looked over my shoulder and—

Across the road, just beyond the fighting crowd, Loch was staring right at me.

His eyes were so intense on me, that for a moment, it looked like a glitter of green light flared behind them.

I quickly snapped my head around and turned the corner, making sure I was at least twenty paces away before I started running.

So what if he had seen me?

Not like he could track me down. I knew the underbelly of this city like the back of my hand.

I’d just stolen from Loch ~freaking~ Dobrzycka~.~

Nothing scared me now.

Even still, I couldn’t get his ferocious green eyes out of my head. There was something about them. Something that I couldn’t put my finger on.

But I didn’t stick around to question it.

I sprinted away, my feet pounding the dirt-soaked pavement.

I’d done it.

We were finally free.

***

“You did ~what~?” Darshan couldn’t believe his ears. Funny, too, considering he was blind.

“You shoulda seen it.”

We were on the run-down roof of the residential center, watching the sunset as it descended slowly over the distant Requiem Mountains. I’d just filled in Darshan and Harry, and Darshan wouldn’t stop pacing.

Weirdly, I felt more relaxed now than ever.

Zen or whatever they call it.

I zoned out as the two of them continued on about my recklessness.

Looking at the mountainside, I remembered the old stories they used to tell us—how the mountains were haunted. How dragons once roamed the skies above them.

I knew it was ridiculous, but I’d gone on a couple school trips to the forest, and damn if I didn’t feel something weird in there. The shadows, hidden caves, and the weird reverberations.

It’d ~felt~ haunted. But then, nobody believed in magic anymore.

“For the love of this city, Madeline,” Harry said, penetrating my thoughts, “what were you thinking, robbing a Dobrzycka?”

He had a point.

Hael and Loch Dobrzycka were the two most powerful businessmen in the city. Only in their early twenties, the two twin brothers had risen to the top by being absolutely ruthless.

Crossing them was unheard of.

But powerful or not, nobody scared me.

“I was thinking,” I responded, “we never have to worry about Dominic again. Guys. Think about it for a second. In a little over a year, we age out. We’ll be kicked out of this wretched place. And we’ll be free. Really free. I did it for us.”

At that, Harry softened. He put his arm around me. And I put mine around Darshan.

Like I said. Family.

“Madeline, we owe you,” Darshan said. “We really do.”

I sighed, knowing he wasn’t finished. “But…go on. Spit it out.”

“Have you considered what the Dobrzyckas will do when they find out that an orphan from one of the residential centers that Req Enterprise funds ~stole~ from them?”

I was about to retort when another source of light caught my eye.

Headlights.

A giant stretch limo pulled up in front of the center, and an equally giant man stepped out of the backseat. He looked vaguely familiar.

~Oh shit.~ I recognized those electric-green eyes.

But it wasn’t Loch.

It was Hael Dobrzycka. Loch’s twin brother.

Hael Dobrzycka was jaw-droppingly tall and muscular, and he ran his hands through his green-tinted hair as he looked up at the roof…

At me…

My heart pounded in much the same way it had when I’d caught Loch’s gaze.

Hael’s emerald-green eyes traced over me in visible recognition—and then he gave me a chilling smirk.

He stretched out his hand to me, beckoning me to come down.

An instant wave of dread washed over me.

~No one messes with the Dobrzyckas~, I thought.

~And those who do…~