He should’ve said no.

  He meant to say no.

  But somehow, between my soft "Come on, just a peek?" and the narrowed gaze I knew would make him cave, I found himself unlocking the heavy door at the back of his loft.

  The old wooden staircase creaked beneath my feet as I followed him down. The space was narrow and smelled faintly of oil and sawdust. I looked around curiously, tucking my long crimson hair behind one ear, my eyes flicking over every dent and scratch on the walls like they held a secret.

  “You still haven’t answered me,” I said, not bothering to hide the suspicion in my tone. “Why do you live above a guild?”

  Jax chuckled, hands in his pockets. “Convenience.”

  “That’s not an answer.”

  “It’s the perfect answer.” He leaned back slightly, that smirk of his never leaving his face. “I’m a man of efficiency.”

  I made a face. “You’re a man of evasion.”

  He shrugged, but the grin never faded.

  We reached the bottom floor, and the door creaked open into a rge, open space lit by brass mps and crowded with wooden tables, maps, and training dummies. The walls were lined with racks of weapons and shelves of scrolls, notes, and contracts. The pce buzzed with a quiet energy until someone saw Jax.

  “Oi, look who finally decided to grace us with his presence!”

  “And he brought company?”

  I stiffened at the sudden attention, not expecting it. A dozen pairs of eyes turned toward us, some half-dressed in mismatched armor, some lounging with mugs in hand, others sparring in the far corner. The atmosphere shifted from casual to curious in an instant.

  “Wait. Is that a civilian?”

  “Non-guild. Definitely non-guild.”

  “Someone take notes! Jax actually brought someone in!”

  “Hold on, she’s real?” someone called from behind a stack of crates. “Thought Jax's standards were taller.”

  I bristled. At barely five feet tall, I was used to being mistaken for someone younger. But hearing it tossed around in the middle of a guild hall made my jaw tighten.

  Jax snorted. “Careful, Bell. She bites.”

  “She has to,” Bell added, stepping forward. She was the smallest of the bunch but she still peered down slightly at me. “You’re, what, five foot? Are you sure you’re not lost, kiddo?”

  My eye twitched. “I’m twenty.”

  “Oh! You’re grown! My bad,” Bell said, mock-gasping. “So sorry, ma’am. Would you like a step stool for the armory tour?”

  “Would you like a bck eye?” I shot back, crossing my arms.

  The room roared with ughter.

  Jax just leaned against a support beam, grinning. “Yeah. I’m not stopping that.”

  I turned my gre on him. “You knew they’d say something.”

  “I hoped they would,” he said, entirely unrepentant. “Didn’t expect you to threaten Bell, though. That was a nice touch.”

  Bell grinned like she was enjoying herself immensely. “You can keep her, boss. She’s feisty.”

  “Rex,” Jax said, waving his hand. “She’s not joining. Just curious.”

  Another voice called out, this time from a nky, red-headed archer in the corner. “Curious? That’s what we’re calling it now? What, did she force her way down here? Blink twice if she’s holding your hand offscreen.”

  “She doesn’t need to hold anything,” Jax said dryly. “She just asked. Nicely.”

  “She asked nicely?” The room broke out again. “Gods, we are in trouble.”

  Another guild member, tall and broad-shouldered with a mess of curly hair, passed by and cpped Jax on the shoulder. “You in trouble, boss?”

  “Wouldn’t you like to know,” Jax muttered.

  I ignored the ongoing jokes and walked forward, eyeing the weapons and posted contracts with sharp interest.

  “What’s the guild actually do?” I asked.

  Jax walked beside me, hands still buried in his pockets. “Depends. We’re not the kind that signs oaths to empires or bows to royals. We take the jobs the others turn their noses up at. Smuggling. Escorts. The occasional bounty. We also help folks who don’t have the coin to hire proper mercs.”

  “Mercs with hearts,” I murmured.

  He snorted. “Hearts, maybe. But don’t test that theory.”

  I looked at him then, my head tilted. “You always pn to end up here? Running this?”

  There was a long pause.

  Jax looked toward the wall where a faded banner hung. “Didn’t pn on much. But things fall into pce. Or fall apart. Either way, you ride it out.”

  I nodded, more to myself than to him, and took a step back, letting the sounds of the guild settle around me. The pce didn’t feel like home, but it wasn’t as cold as I’d expected either.

  “All right,” Jax finally said, raising his voice. “Everyone rex. She’s not joining, she’s not staying, and if anyone so much as mentions initiation rites, I’m throwing you out a window.”

  “Aw, c’mon,” Bell pouted. “She’d fit in a crate so easily! We could mail her a sword!”

  “There are no crate trials,” I deadpanned.

  “You’re lucky,” Jax muttered as he turned back toward the stairs. “Last guy believed that. We never saw him again.”

  I cast one st look over my shoulder before following him up. The sounds of the guild faded behind me, but my mind buzzed with everything I’d seen.

  “You’re thinking something,” Jax said without turning.

  “Just trying to figure you out,” I replied.

  He chuckled. “Get in line.”

  The door to the staircase hadn’t even creaked closed behind us when a familiar voice called out from across the room.

  “Well, well. Look who finally caved.”

  I could already feel the weight of Irah’s gaze as I gnced up, rolling my eyes before even hearing the full taunt. Jax sighed without turning. “You don’t even know what I caved on yet.”

  “Oh, I know,” came Irah’s smooth voice, as he padded toward us, steps light and almost too quiet for someone so tall. His cat-like ears twitched zily atop his head, and his dark hair was tied in a messy half-tail. The guy always looked perpetually unimpressed, like he’d seen it all a hundred times and still couldn’t be bothered to care.

  “Morning, Irah,” I greeted, already knowing what was coming.

  “You’ve got guts, showing up here like that,” he said, arms crossing as his sharp eyes swept over me from head to toe. Then he paused, considering. “Actually, are you sure you’re not just someone’s lost daughter?”

  My jaw dropped. “Seriously?!”

  “I’m just saying,” he shrugged, smirking. “Five feet. You look like you need a booster stool to reach the contract board.”

  “I could stab you,” I muttered under my breath, but it was hard to stay mad. He always had that annoying way of making me want to punch him and ugh at the same time.

  “You could try,” he grinned, fshing a fang. “But I’ve seen you try to climb a counter, remember?”

  Jax’s ughter echoed beside me as he leaned casually with his hands behind his head. “She did get stuck once.”

  I turned on him, scandalized. “You said you forgot that!”

  “I lied,” Jax said with a wicked grin.

  Before I could argue, a voice chimed in sweetly from the front desk.

  “Awww, are you all being mean to the child?”

  I turned to see the receptionist. She has tight bck curls and round spectacles perched on the tip of her nose. She peered over a massive stack of ledgers, her voice a soft lilting tease. “Really, Jax,” she purred. “Bringing your kid to work?.”

  I buried my face in my hands, feeling the blush spread across my cheeks. “I hate it here.”

  “No you don’t,” She grinned, clearly enjoying every moment of this.

  “Dawn, this is Talia,” Jax said, his voice still rexed, despite the chaos around us. “She handles the guild’s contracts, records, and passive-aggressive threats.”

  “I’m the glue that keeps this chaos running,” Talia added with a wink. “Also, the only one who can read Jax’s handwriting.”

  “I have a proper handwriting,” Jax grumbled.

  “You have scribbles that vaguely resemble a nguage,” Talia teased.

  Irah leaned closer to Jax, eyes twinkling with amusement. “So… what’s the deal? You two dating, or did she bribe you with soup?”

  My eyes widened. “What?!”

  “Soup’s a powerful motivator,” Irah shrugged nonchantly. “Especially if you’ve got the emotional range of a brick like Jax.”

  “I hate you,” Jax said ftly.

  “No you don’t,” Irah said, grinning ear to ear. “I’m your best friend.”

  “You’re a co-worker.”

  “You helped me bury a body st fall,” Irah said with mock seriousness.

  “Fine. Co-worker with benefits,” Jax muttered, clearly done with the exchange.

  Talia almost dropped her quill, ughing. “Oh my Gods, you two are a nightmare.”

  Before I could even respond to the madness unfolding around me, the room shifted. Just slightly. It wasn’t loud or dramatic, but the air seemed to hum with the presence of someone else.

  A man appeared in the doorway near the back, tall and imposing. His long white hair fell straight down his back, tied simply with a knot. His coat was dark green, aged and well-worn at the seams, but his posture was rigid, unyielding, like someone who’d never once bowed to time. His eyes, though piercing and watchful, swept across the room.

  I couldn’t help but feel them settle on me, like they could see right through me.

  The air around us thickened.

  The guild grew quieter, the familiar buzz of chatter fading into something more subdued.

  Even Irah, who was usually unfazed by anything except fire, straightened, his usual smirk fading into something more respectful.

  Talia’s voice was a murmur. “Guildmaster’s out early.”

  Jax didn’t speak. Instead, he stepped aside, just enough to make room for the man, his usual carefreeness slipping just slightly. Not enough to be obvious, but enough to acknowledge the man’s presence.

  The Guildmaster’s voice was low, but it carried effortlessly across the room. “You’ve brought someone new, Jax.”

  I squared my shoulders, trying to look more confident than I felt. “Just visiting. Don’t worry. I’m not here to steal anything.”

  The Guildmaster’s lips twitched, almost imperceptibly. “That’s more than most can say when they walk through our doors.”

  “I can vouch for her,” Jax said, his tone calm.

  The Guildmaster nodded slowly, the briefest flicker of something unspoken passing between them. “Then she’s welcome on your word.”

  I blinked, my mind racing. There was something about their exchange, something between them that was... well, more than just boss and employee. It wasn’t soft or fatherly, but there was a steady strength to it.

  I stared at the Guildmaster as he passed by, offering me a small, respectful nod.

  And then, just like that, he was gone, disappearing behind a door that clicked shut with a quiet finality.

  Silence hung in the air for a moment, and then Irah leaned in, whispering as though the shift in atmosphere had somehow made things more serious.

  “You do know if he let you in, you’re basically part of the family now, right?”

  Talia gasped. “Does that mean she gets the mantle?”

  “I want the mantle,” I said immediately, unable to resist.

  “No one gets the mantle,” Jax snapped, but it was clear he was trying to stay in control of the situation.

  “You got the mantle,” Irah pointed out, a grin tugging at his lips.

  “I earned the mantle,” Jax said ftly.

  “Talia, tell him I can earn the mantle!” I said, feeling a mischievous grin pull at my own lips.

  “You can have it,” Talia offered helpfully. “She’s already survived five minutes with you in public.”

  Jax muttered under his breath. “You all suck.”

  I beamed. “He’s just mad because I’m cooler than him now.”

  With a roll of his eyes, Jax turned and started walking. “Alright. Fun’s over. Let’s go before someone tries to actually recruit you.”

  The deeper we went into the guild, the louder it got and the more alive it became.

  The corridors opened up into broader halls, some with makeshift arenas carved out of wood and chalk, others lined with bounty boards, scribbled maps, and weapon racks neatly organized by type and damage output.

  Even the walls breathed history.

  Scars from practice fights, scorched stone from errant spells, hooks where armor used to hang. Laughter echoed through one hallway, and in another, a mercenary tried to juggle knives while someone else bet coin on whether or not he’d lose a finger.

  It was a far cry from the streets I used to run on.

  And yet... it tugged at something old in me. Something curious. Something restless.

  I kept my arms crossed, my chin tilted at that angle that said I wasn’t impressed but Jax wasn’t buying it. He hadn’t said anything, just kept walking with his usual zy gait, hands in his pockets, gncing back now and then to make sure I hadn’t wandered off.

  “You’re smiling,” he finally said, his voice low as we passed a group of trainees getting yelled at by a woman twice their size.

  “I’m not,” I snapped, immediately schooling my face.

  “You are.”

  “It’s the lighting,” I muttered, trying to ignore the flush creeping into my cheeks.

  “Sure,” he said, looking far too amused.

  I tried to shake it off. This wasn’t my world anymore. I wasn’t supposed to feel like this. Excited. Intrigued. I wasn’t supposed to walk past the vault room with the hidden tripwire and instinctively notice it. I definitely wasn’t supposed to feel that sharp tug in my chest when I caught sight of a young recruit fumbling through a pocket-pick drill and thought, I could do that better.

  It was infuriating.

  I shoved my hands deeper into my coat sleeves and quickened my pace, trying to put some space between me and Jax. He let me, surprisingly. Maybe he sensed something was off.

  We reached what looked like the briefing room. A wide chamber with tables, chalkboards covered in scribbles, and a rotating crystal map of the city above the center. Several mercenaries were in the middle of arguing over mission rewards. I stared up at the map, lips parting.

  "You never told me about this,” I said quietly, a hint of awe slipping through despite my best efforts.

  Jax was next to me again, his shoulder brushing mine. “Didn’t think you’d want to know.”

  “I don’t.” My voice was sharper than it needed to be. “But... still. You could’ve said something. All those times you came back scraped up or with gold like it dropped from the sky. I just thought you were scamming someone. I didn’t know... it was this.”

  Jax tilted his head, considering me.

  “Why would I tell you?” he asked, his voice low.

  I blinked. “What?”

  He shrugged. “We were kids. You didn’t even want to be around me half the time.”

  “Because you’re annoying.”

  “Still am.”

  I gave him a look, but there was no bite behind it. The truth was... I hadn’t wanted to know. Not really. I’d made peace with thinking of Jax as some smug, trouble-magnet thief who never grew up. Not someone who had roots. A pce. People. Purpose.

  That unsettled me more than it should’ve.

  “Irah too?” I asked, unable to stop the words from slipping out. “He’s... part of this?”

  “Yeah. He does scouting and a lot of behind-the-curtain stuff. He’s good at it. Keeps to himself most of the time unless someone pisses him off.”

  “Huh.” I gnced around again, taking in the busy guildhall. “So this is... what? A mercenary club? A group of vigintes?”

  Jax grinned. “Something like that. We do contracts. Bounties. Protection. Some... gray-area stuff. Most of the time, we just try not to get killed.”

  I was quiet for a moment. Then, “I didn’t know you had this side to you.”

  He chuckled. “There’s a lot about me you don’t know.”

  “That’s the part that’s annoying.”

  He raised an eyebrow. “Annoying?”

  “Yeah,” I muttered, gring at the floor. “Because I thought I had you figured out. Just this cocky idiot who dragged me into trouble when we were kids. Who tried to pick fights and steal from nobles and always showed up when things were about to go bad. I didn’t think you actually... did anything.”

  “Wow,” Jax said, mock-offended. “You really know how to ftter a guy.”

  I rolled my eyes. “Don’t get used to it.”

  He didn’t respond at first. Just stared at me with something unreadable in his gaze. Then he said, “You’re still trying not to smile.”

  “Shut up.”

  We stepped into another wing, where guild members were sharpening bdes and checking contracts. Someone shouted Jax’s name, and a few others did a double take at me.

  “Hey! Is that her?”

  “Jax, you keeping her a secret this whole time?”

  “You finally grew a conscience and adopted someone?!”

  I groaned into my hands. “I swear, if one more person says that—”

  “I told you it’s the boots,” Jax said, far too pleased.

  I smacked his arm. “Why did I even ask to see this pce?”

  “You were curious.”

  “No. I was bored.”

  “Still dragged me down here.”

  I didn’t answer. Maybe I wanted to see where Jax went when he wasn’t chasing shadows. Maybe I hated that he had something stable.

  Something I didn’t.

  As we reached the next door, I gnced back at the bounty boards. A sharp, hollow feeling lodged itself in my chest.

  I didn’t know him. Not really.

  And the worst part was—I wanted to.