CHAPTER 2

It didn’t take long until Lockinge was bathed in flames. And the more those sparks ignited, the harder it was to clear the smile from my face.

Smoke billowed from the countless buildings engulfed in the raging inferno. The heavy presence blanketed the already obsidian sky until the moon and stars were no longer visible. If it wasn’t for the mask of dark material I’d pulled across my lower face, I would’ve tasted ash and charred oil across my tongue, because the air of the city was thick with it.

Duncan kept pace beside me, thick-muscled arms pounding at his sides. Kayne led the party with his hawk slicing through the sky. Althea drew up the rear, though I couldn’t see her as my focus was pinned on the castle ahead. The slapping of her footfalls and laboured but controlled breathing informed me she was close.

Even as humans flooded, sleepy-eyed and terrified, from their homes, I couldn’t help but delight in my excited exuberance.

It’s fucking working.

I only risked a moment to glance over my shoulder to see our plan in fruition. Stretching wide across the cramped, dark streets and lanes of the Cage were buds of tangled flames as every dwelling belonging to the Asp burned.

The sacrifice of the Asp’s many hideouts was meant only as a distraction. Something to draw the Kingsmen and Hunters from the castle to investigate the destruction and manage the chaos. This was our way of clearing a path to allow entry back into the castle grounds and back to the place we’d not long escaped. Our return was solely for one purpose. To break into the prison and free the hundreds of fey trapped far beneath the city.

And the flood of armoured men and women, each displaying the white-splashed symbol of the Hand across their chests as they ran through the main streetways from Lockinge, confirmed the plan was working.

My ears still rang with the explosive blast Althea had created once she threw her conjured flame toward the building we’d called home during the past weeks. No love was lost for the cold, mould-covered rooms and the rats that had attempted to evict us. Even as we passed through the middle sector of the city, keeping in the darkened side streets, I recognised the small inkling of guilt for the lives of the creatures that would now be burned meat back in the slums. Their deaths were the sacrifice that had to be made for saving the others.

Sacrifice, the harsh truth of the word, being something I was all too familiar with now.

There was only so much I could’ve prepared for. And even more steps ahead of us were out of my control. I couldn’t let the pessimistic worries cloud my judgement. There were only so many times I could’ve mapped out the precise route through the city toward the castle. My mind had reeled with my desire to free the fey from Aldrick’s capture. For weeks, it was all I could think of. From the moment Seraphine smuggled us back into Lockinge until now, my focus was on them.

Sometimes, when the winds changed, I could still smell the sewers upon my skin. Clambering through the thick, unknown substances begrudgingly flowing into the ocean through a series of cavern-like tunnels beneath the city. We came back into Lockinge, covered in shit with even more to deal with.

It would all be worth it. At least that’s what I convinced myself of over and over during the nights I lay sleepless beside Duncan on the roll-out mattress back in the now burning building.

First, I asked Elinor to secure means of travel for the countless number of fey we would save. Ships, and a lot of them at that. A way of returning the fey home. I’d believed it would have been the hardest challenge ahead, but I was wrong. Convincing Seraphine to give up the dwellings the Asps owned within the city took the most effort. I did it because there was no other option, but the cost was great. No matter how many times Althea asked, or Duncan raised a brow in inquiry, I didn’t reveal what I’d traded for their help. But as it was with the guild of assassins, nothing was free in life, only in death was money as useless as breath.

Seraphine had lost everything with her sister’s death. Aldrick had taken her twin from her and left her as one piece of a set of two. But coin still bled a darker red than the blood of family. I was a fool to even think the assassins would have helped out of the desire to do what was right. Just as Seraphine had said to me when I first requested her help, the words were still clear even now.

Saving the world from a demon god does not save us from poverty. That’s another war entirely.

Right and wrong were simply two sides of the same coin, and the Asps didn’t care which side it landed on, only that it landed in their palm.

I felt as though we’d been running for only a moment before we came to our agreed meeting place. Kayne pressed himself into the side of the merchant’s building before it gave way to the main street. It gave the best view of the main parade that led toward the castle. The same parade Duncan and I had been dragged up when we had first arrived in Lockinge. Back when I didn’t know the Hand’s true identity. Before he revealed himself as the very creature he’d petitioned his followers to hunt, capture and kill: a fey.

“How many do you see?” Duncan asked, hardly a hair out of place. He didn’t look as though he’d run up the harsh incline of a city, whereas I fought the urge to fold over to catch my breath.

Kayne was silent for a moment, craning his head around the corner of the apothecary shop that provided us shelter. This was the last place to hide before we had to begin the more tiresome fight toward the castle’s entrance. “Forty,” he replied, “maybe fifty, from what I can see. Not counting those surveying the walls or watching from within the bastard castle.”

“Fuck,” Duncan groaned. Reminiscent of another time and place when he had expelled the same word under different circumstances. “I thought more would be drawn by our distraction.”

I pressed up behind him, running a hand up his hard back and lacing it over his shoulder.

“We planned for more,” I whispered. “But that is what a contingency plan is for. Don’t worry, this isn’t going to halt our next step, just… make it slightly more difficult.”

Staying positive was the only option for success, I had to keep the morale up.

“And hoped for less,” Althea interjected, pulling down the covering of material from her mouth. “What are the chances we are up against powered-up humans? Because that is what will affect our success rate.”

Duncan stiffened beneath my hand. I squeezed my fingers into his shoulder, hoping to provide him with some grounding comfort.

“Your guess is as good as mine,” Kayne replied. “I could get a better grasp of the number if you let me send Lucari to scout–”

“No,” I snapped, swallowing the urge to shout. “She is important to us, I can’t risk Lucari. The second someone spots your hawk, it will give us away. Lucari stays with you until we are so close to the guards that your sword has already pierced through the first chest you find. Only then can she be free to tear their faces off.”

If my hearing was as strong as Althea’s, I would have been certain to catch the sound the lump made in his throat as he swallowed. His silence spoke volumes. I could see the trepidation in his unblinking eyes as he wrestled with himself internally. Lucari meant a lot to Kayne, and to my cause.

“No one is forcing you to take part in this, Kayne,” I said, stepping closer to him. “I will not think less of you if you sit this one out.”

Kayne was facing the real possibility of fighting those he once fought besides. This was a big ask – I recognised that.

Kayne kept his chin raised, looking down the point of his freckled nose at me. “I’ve made my choice. And I’m here, aren’t I? If I didn’t struggle with the concept of killing innocent people, I wouldn’t be human.”

He used his words with intent, and I felt their stab.

“Innocent isn’t a word I would have used to describe them,” I replied.

“Regardless of that. I fight with you.”

Relief unfurled in me. “Will you feel the same if you face someone you once knew? If the person at the end of your blade is another Hunter you were close to? I need to know that you will slay anyone who stands in our way.”

My eyes flickered between his, trying to catch some hint of cowardice. If there was any of that emotion lurking, Kayne did well to keep it concealed.

“Robin,” Duncan said, using my name to draw me back to him. Like an anchor, the deep alto of his voice had the power to gather me in his hands and make me feel safe. “Do you trust me ?”

“I know where you are going with this,” I replied, losing myself in his deep, forest stare.

“Then you don’t need me to remind you that I trust Kayne, so put your faith in me. Regardless of what his thoughts are toward your…” Kind . He wanted to say it but held back as he caught daggers from Althea. “What I’m trying to say is Aldrick is our common enemy. Fey, human, he is a threat to us all. Ensuring he cannot do what he has done to me again is the first link in the chain that we must break. We can only win if we work together.”

“Ever considered trading in the hunting of my kind for a living and giving speeches to the downtrodden instead?” Althea questioned, head tilting sideways an inch. There was no denying the sharp steel in her voice. I winced as she sliced through the sudden tension between us. “You’d do well at it.”

“Please. I haven’t allowed for time to argue,” I said, before Duncan could retort with whatever lingered across his full lips. Turning my attention, I regarded Kayne and Lucari a final time. The hawk scrutinised me through beady, wary eyes from her perch upon his shoulder. “Kayne, I trust you will do the right thing when presented with it.”

He nodded, gaze sharp as a blade.

“Then there’s only one way to find out,” Althea replied for him, pushing past us all so she could get a look at the next barrier we had to get through. “So, who’s ready for some rough and tumble?”

Duncan grinned, raising his hand to the two-handed hilt protruding from the cloak upon his back. It was his way of confirming he was, in fact, ready.

Kayne followed his friend, drawing out the twin swords resting patiently on his belt, twisting each in a full arc at his side as Lucari chirped with equal readiness. “I’m in.”

I had weapons at my hip and others strapped around my arms and thighs. Seraphine had taken a keen interest in training me in the art of sharp objects, even though my best weapon lingered in my blood. Magic. I may not have been accepted into the guild with my skills, or lack thereof, but I was more confident with the handle of a blade in my hand than I had been before.

Although tonight, those were not my weapons of choice.

Nor was a blade or axe something Althea planned to use. I recognised the heat spilling from her skin as it reared its presence to the surface. Magic sang in the air, delighted for the release. We would fight with the power Aldrick longed to harvest – turning what he desired most back on his hard work.

Although I’d yet to release the hold on my magic, I could feel its hunger for revenge. It comforted me.

“Before we go,” Duncan muttered, pulling me tight to him. “One last thing.”

Our entanglement had been reserved from public displays of affection. It had not felt right to flaunt it around Althea, or Kayne for that matter. They both knew about us, but still, there was an unspoken rule which kept distance between us when others were around.

A rule which Duncan swiftly broke before we threw ourselves into the pending fight. He pressed himself to me, sword gripped in his hand to stop himself from reaching out for my face, as I was confident he wished to do. With a quick dip of his head, I found his lips pressed to my own.

A wave of serene peace rushed over me. Before I closed my eyes, I caught the deepening of the single, lined scar which ran from the corner of his eye to the corner of his lip. It was one of many imperfections I obsessed over. I didn’t need to run my finger down its trail to know just how it felt to touch. That feeling was already embedded deep in my mind.

His kiss was soft and far too quick. It wasn’t ridden with the usual tangling of tongues and nipping of teeth at lips. It was pleasant like a compliment, one which warmed my soul.

When Duncan pulled away, I gravitated toward him. My weight fell against his rigid, firm stance. He breathed out a sigh that sang with a smile.

“My king,” Duncan said.

“Shouldn’t you bow when speaking to me?” I whispered.

Duncan’s bright eyes flashed as he winked. “There will be time for that later, once we free your people and amend some wrongs.”

I stood, dumbfounded, as Duncan drifted away from me, nudged Kayne on the shoulder and strode out in full view of our enemies. For a moment, I almost called for him to stop, forgetting that this was all part of the plan. My plan.

With the confidence of royalty or someone who simply believed he belonged somewhere, Duncan strode toward the murmuring guards, who soon noticed him. Highlighted by the backdrop of the burning slums of Lockinge, Duncan called out with a voice conditioned with command from years of being his prior deadly self.

General Duncan Rackley, the Hunter.

“Aren’t you going to see what all the fuss is about?” Duncan’s shout carried through the night, hardly muffled by the drawing of swords or the twang of bows being pulled taut. “Your city is burning, and you’re standing around like you don’t have a care in the world.”

“Halt!” a Hunter shouted.

Duncan didn’t stop.

Come on.

Althea gripped the back of my cloak to stop me from running out.

Where are you?

“Wait,” Althea hissed into my ear. “Just wait.”

“What was that?” Duncan shouted back at the Hunter. “Come a little closer and say it again. This time, put some effort and inject some confidence into your command… perhaps I might believe it.”

“Another step, and you’ll find yourself pierced with arrows like a turkey during yule.”

“Where is she?” I asked Althea, finding words difficult as my heart thumped in my throat. Duncan was drawing their attention to him, but that was useless if our guest never showed.

“Seraphine will come,” Althea replied. “Have faith in her promise. She has not let us down yet.”

Faith. Such a strange concept. It did little but encourage hate and spill blood. I was certain there was a beautiful side to such a thing as faith, but I’d yet to find it.

I bit down on my lower lip, filling my mouth with the sharp taste of copper. It was the only thing stopping me from giving in to my anxiety and shattering.

“Now, now, I have only come to have a chat. Hunter to Hunter.” Duncan was out of view, but his voice was ever more powerful. “How about it, a little heart to heart. Me, you and… my blade?”

“Hurry…” I said, my inner thoughts now controlling my words. Ice crackled across my closed fists, numbing my palms as my nails dug into them. An icy chill wind gathered from the dark street behind us and pushed at my back as though to urge me forward.

A whistle cut the night just as it had back in the Cage. I could have fallen to my knees as another returned the call, then another and another, until the sky was full of signals.

“NOW!” Althea cried, but I was already running.

Lucari squawked, unleashing her cry of war as she took flight alongside Kayne, who followed with blades raised, into the main parade.

I released the magic I held, called out in silent prayer to Altar for support and lead my allies to battle. All in time to witness the Children of the Asp reveal themselves among the crowds of unprepared Hunters. One by one, the assassins drew their blades, spilling the blood of our unexpecting enemies all across the streets of their oh-so-great capital.