AllFreeNovel
Share Us
If there was Fae blood in my line that meant that there was Fae blood in me. In Lily. But I hadn’t felt that, not in Amari, not in Lily. We were Catalyst and Requisite, the descendants of Lynar. We were not Fae. Requisites and Catalysts didn’t connect to the Fae beyond them stealing and splitting the power centuries before.
“What say ye, Jack?” Someone called, pulling my focus from my dirt covered palms as they used the name I had given them. It was the name I had always given the Wave Walkers, this time, however, it hit deeper than it ever had before.
The look on my face must have made it clear I hadn’t been paying attention, because they all laughed.
“Da ferry’s being pulled in,” the man who had found me by the beach, Lant, said as he used a long stick to poke both fire and potatoes, sending a shower of embers into the quickly darkening sky. “You said you came from Waide way?”
I nodded, “Ya, I saw ta old man cut ta line too, wen they be pullin’ it in.”
They all exchanged a look, the exchange sending the heavy thrum of the vio magic boiling underneath my skin.
“Isn’ that where you say it hap’n, Tif?” Lant asked, turning to the other man who had been brought up by the road. He sat in the sand near the fire, his hands pressed to warm them as the night crept in and the air grew frigid. As the sun continued to set the lines on his face deepened in the shadows of the flickering light of the fire. They all did, which only made what he said next that much more ominous.
I really should have been paying attention.
“Ay,” Tif, nodded once, still staring at the flames. “Word came in tha’ dere was a man down dere, he kilt a lad, took his skin straight off and bathe in tha’ blood.”
They all gasped and grumbled at the announcement, and for once I was with them, my sound of disgust real even as something dark bubbled right alongside that heavy thrum of power. Not only had that never happened, but I had never in all my years of killing done anything so cruel. Even if I had purposefully killed children, which I hadn’t. Besides Jack I had never killed a child, I never would… There was already too much blood on my hands with Lilly. With Jack.
“Is worst than that, I heard,” Tif continued, leaning closer to the flames so that it only made the shadows worse. “He be’in the someone we be’in heard abou’, that Wanderer. He kills fer sport and pay and now he is huntin’ on da Qits.”
“You mean da one with them eyes, da blue uns?” One of the other men looked absolutely terrified as he looked between each of us, clearly checking our eyes. I tried to look away, but only looked right into the eyes of the Walker next to me, who was also frantically checking eyes, his hand on a satchel that I was sure carried fishing tools that could easily double as weapons.
He, however, looked right into my eyes and then away, as if he didn’t see my dual shaded blues at all.
Except, perhaps he hadn’t. I had kept that new magic, that heavy vio magic, pulled up since I had been approached on the beach. The dangerous thick waves of the magic rumbled against my skin in preparation for something to turn. Just as the heat of my fire and the ice of my time magic changed my eyes color, so clearly had this. But to what?
I stared from man to man as the others were doing, tensed to see my eyes reflected back to me in the glossy horror of those around me. There was nothing but fear and a good mix of disgust from them all.
“Well, at lees nun of us seems ta be da merderin’ type.” I broke the silence with an ominous laugh that only a few joined in on. At least it was enough to take any future blame off me. Not that their story was anywhere near correct, but how could it be? I was sure that was what everything had looked like to Jayse.
Jayse.
Something in my chest cracked and severed at the thought of her name, of what had happened. I pushed the emotions back into that black pit.
“Well, I hope dey caught da man,” Lant said, more embers flying into the air as he stoked the fire. “Qit justice be quick.”
“May da waves give punishment.” They all said together, the call of justice on the Qits was hard and firm. There was rarely any council or court, only death and drowning.
In a way Tayln had saved me from that.
Not that I would have let them. I would have burned the Qit before it came to that.
“Wut we be doin’ without da work den?” Someone else asked, their voice quiet over the crackle of flames.
“I be waitin’. Ferries be back soon, I wager.” Most everyone nodded in agreement on the older man’s proclamation. I didn’t joined them, I already knew where I was headed.
“I might be goin’ to dat weddin’,” I kept my voice low, laying the accent on thickly. “Tis time for a pilgrimage an den I cud see that princess.”
A few of them had looked as though I had lost it, a few others nodding as though they were in agreement, even if the looks that they gave me also said that my mind might be addled. Wave Walkers rarely left the Qits and the beaches, even the temple of the goddess was too far inland for them. What I was suggesting was close to blasphemy to their kind.
“Might be good, see tha princess befo’ she be gone,” one of the Wave Walkers said and something inside of me tightened.
I still didn’t know what I was missing in regards to the princess, but I was starting to think that didn’t matter. I knew she wouldn’t finish the Queen anyway, so if it had to be me alone then I would get it done.
The talking had shifted to the princess, all of the rage still boiling through me as I turned to join in, more sparks flying into the air as someone stoked the fire.
“I bet that be why the movin’ up da wedding, so tha’ li’l girl can be dere,” someone said, and I nodded in agreement with the rest of them.
