AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Oh, and Boy,” I whispered, well aware all signs of the game had left my voice. He was standing now, his form back to his usual shadow. “Thank you.”
He nodded before I shut the door. A second later, the snick of the lock sounded through my room as he locked me in. He locked me away from him and where he slept, and the precious moments when he revealed that face that I was suddenly dying to see.
Chapter 5
Caspyn
Icould smell the bloody bastard.
Smell the tang and rot that lingered in the air whenever their kind was near, feel the sliver of a current that waved over my skin. It pulled and tugged in a blazing heat that crackled like lightning. Each fork of power sizzled over my skin, pulling me toward the bastard.
Showing me right where my prey was.
The Fae.
It had taken me years to realize that was what I had been feeling that night as a child, the tingle rippled over me as it pulled me toward someplace in the world. It was a warning system, telling me what monster was coming and what I should do with it. It wasn’t the only skill I mastered after that night, or the only one I had been given. But right then, it was the only one that mattered. The stronger the tingle, the closer the murderous Fae was to my knife.
This one was close.
I had been tracking the Fae through the forest for three days, the creature's motions bringing me closer and closer to the capital and the terrible Runturin that housed my true prize. I would be there soon enough. I would face her soon enough. But first, I would kill as many Fae as I could. This one was next on my list.
I had caught the vile stench of Fae two days ago in an inn on a Qit near Fynnd. The floating fishing villages were a haven for Fae as they tried to go undetected in Okivo; with so many workers and merchants coming in and out, it was easy to go undetected. Well, it was easy if I wasn’t there to sense the Fae. That tingle, that lightning sense, only made the Qits the best places to hunt.
This one was unlucky, seeing as I had been on the Qit of Fynnd for a completely different reason.
I had been hired to kill a wealthy landowner over a squabble and debt and had just finished the job when my skin had begun to pull, when I felt that rattle in my veins. I should have gone home to Waide, reported on the completion of the job I had left, but I couldn’t deny that pull. I couldn’t deny the way my blood screamed to end the Fae, to watch the foul blood gurgle from his neck in waves of purple.
The pull that was now everywhere.
Pushing my shaggy hair out of my eyes, I kept myself low to the ground, the tattered cloak I had taken to wearing fluttering over the dirt and twigs like a wave of smoke, my well-oiled boots not making so much as a noise as I moved forward, careful to place my foot so as to stay silent. My skin zinged, the sensation so strong he couldn’t be more than a few steps away now.
So close. Soon he would be mine.
My senses tingled as a sharp crack of a twig echoed from somewhere in the darkening forest ahead, the sound sending a bay of yellow and black birds into the pinkish sky of the setting sun. If I was hunting anything else, I would think the monster was stopping to make a fire and camp for the night.
Except the Fae do not camp.
The Fae do not make noise.
The scum knew I was hunting him.
This was about to get very, very entertaining.
Perfect. I liked it when it was fun.
Dropping to a low crouch, I pulled one of my long, curved blades out of its sheath, moving my heavy cloak out of the way as I held the ornate weapon before me. The sharp golden blade was inlaid with jewels and silver, the hilt perfectly fitted to the palm of my hand. This blade, and its twin, were priceless weapons forged in the high mountains of Dám, where the snow never stopped, and given to me after a decade of service among the assassins there.
The perfect weapon to kill Fae.
To kill a queen.
The shimmering gold of the blade glinted against the last of the sun as I wiped it against my well-worn bearskin breeches and scanned the trees. The Fae would be too smart to give their position away as I became the hunted, but it didn’t matter. It wasn’t the Fae I was looking for now. The beast was going to find me regardless. Right then, I was in need of some time.
There was a bush within reaching distance, the twisted wood and bright green leaves exactly what I needed. Still scanning the trees, I reached out, wrapping my fingers around the scratchy trunk of the gnarled thing. The lifeforce of the foliage vibrated and thrummed through me in waves of energy, of life. It was a heartbeat of power, a breath of eternity, and it was mine. That steady thrum pulsed in time with my heart as my magic tugged at the plant, the icy hand of this magic wrapping around me as my multicolored eyes both slid to the bright blue shade of ice and death that denoted this power. With each breath, I watched the tree as I pulled the last of the plant’s life out of it, pulled its time. Leaves withered and died, the withered trunk turning to ash beneath my grip.
One moment, it was there, the next, it was a few specs of dust on the wind as my skin buzzed and my soul throbbed.
This was the other power I had gained, the other magic I had learned to wield and control and bend to my will. That of time. It was how I had moved back to this time, and how I slaughtered the Fae.
