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k_a_webb“They won’t know what it is?”
He shook his head. “All they will know is that there’s a reason I offered you a place of safety and we only do that if we’ve found out that there’s something unusual about the person we were after. It’s not something, fortunately, that happens very often.” He studied her. “It’s also not something that I ever planned on doing, because I much prefer having the magic than anything else, but you… you’re different, for reasons that I am not at liberty to tell you yet, and knowing that means my only option is to convince you to come with me.”
Jillian swallowed, even though her mouth was drier than it had ever been before, and he surprised her by holding out a flask. “Thank you, but I was taught never to take anything from a stranger.”
“I promise you that there’s nothing unusual in it and, honestly, now is not the time to turn down something that may give you some strength. Coming to the Hideout with me makes the most sense, so you’re going to have to at least pretend that you trust me, because otherwise they’ll think that I can’t protect you, even though I can protect you whether you trust me or not. Unfortunately they see a lack of trust between people as a weakness they can exploit, so they’ll try to turn you against me, make you think they’re the better people, when they’re no better than me – they’ll just want to know what’s special enough about you for me to offer you a place at the Hideout and it’s not something they’ll be able to see, so you’ll probably end up dead if you let them do that.” He shrugged. “The other option is to walk away and for that you’re going to need your strength too, because right now you aren’t going to last another day.”
Biting hard on her lip Jillian heard her mother’s voice, telling her once again that strangers were not to be trusted at all and yet it had been her family that had been the real problem. He was offering her something, admittedly for selfish reasons, that her parents wouldn’t give after they found out what she was, because they’d made the decision that they were much better off without her. They were probably right, but that didn’t make being on the streets any easier, in a place where she knew one day the Thieves would come after her. Finally, still unsure, she took the flask and sipped, surprised when she found it was full of soup.
“You haven’t eaten and soup is a good way of getting both food and drink inside you.” He smiled at her, even though he seemed a little rusty at it, like he hadn’t smiled for a long time. “I know you don’t want to trust me and if I was in your position I wouldn’t, because I know too much about me, but…” He snapped his mouth shut. “Putting this into words isn’t easy. I don’t have a lot of time to convince you to come with me, before someone finds out what I’m up to, and I don’t want to leave you here.”
Mirrored from K. A. Webb Writing.