Page 81 of A House of Fangs & Deceit

“Yeah, I give that a week,” he said with a slight edge to his voice. “We have two hours to search, and then we need to head back to make sure we make it before night falls.”

A shiver ran through me at the idea of being caught out in the wilds at night with Vail. I couldn’t help but remember that night when we’d both lost our parents and this animosity between us had started. Before then, we’d been friends in a way. He was three years older than me and was often busy training with rangers or traveling outside House Harker with his parents. But we’d always gotten along, and I’d often sought out his company when possible.

Whenever my parents traveled outside of House Harker, it was Vail’s parents who always escorted them. When Vail was old enough, he started going as well because his parents thought it would be a good experience for him. My parents often brought me along too, which I never could understand because I was too young to gain anything from their political conversations, but they rarely left me alone in House Harker.

Most of the time that Vail and I spent together was on those trips. We were usually the only two children, and despite our age difference, we got along really well.

I’d loved picking Vail’s brain about what it was like to train to be a ranger and asked him about what types of monsters he’d seen. He was more than happy to show off his knowledge and keep me entertained. Every time we’d stop to rest, he’d show me different animal tracks or point out plants that wereedible. Some of my best childhood memories were those trips, solely because of Vail.

I studied his face. With the jagged scars running down the right side across his eye and his long beard, he looked so much older than me when only three years separated us.

I remembered what he was like when we were kids. Even then he carried so much responsibility on his shoulders, determined to live up to the expectations placed on him by his parents who had been the previous marshals of House Harker. It was hard to reconcile the boy I remembered with the man standing before me.

“Will you ever stop hating me?” The words slipped out before I could think better of it.

Vail flinched. It happened so fast that I almost missed it, and part of me still doubted that I’d even seen it to begin with.

“I could have saved them,” he said, turning away from me. “Your selfishness cost me my parents.”

“Bullshit,” I hissed.

“Excuse me?” He whirled to face me, the silver fractures in his eyes widening, making him look more than a little terrifying, but I didn’t back down.

“I understand why you felt that way when we were kids.” I closed the distance between us until only inches separated my chest from his. “But you are a grown-ass adult now! Our caravan was attacked by over a dozen wraiths! And only the moon knows what else!

“Your parents ordered you to protect me because they wanted you to get away! They knew that they wouldn’t be walking away that night, but they wanted to give you a chance!”

“I COULD HAVE SAVED THEM!” Vail roared in my face.

“No! You couldn’t have!” I yelled back, leaning forward even more until my chest bumped into his and I had to tilt myhead back further to continue holding his pissed-off gaze. “If your well-trained and experienced parents couldn’t fight their way out of that night, there was no way in hell their thirteen-year-old kid was going to make a difference. You need someone to blame for that night, and you chose me because I’m a convenient target, but my parents died too, you asshole!” I shoved him with every ounce of strength I had and still only managed to push him back a step.

Vail’s nostrils flared, and his eyes turned solid silver, giving them a ghostly appearance. My eyes flicked briefly to his hands, which were clenching and unclenching at his sides like he was imagining wrapping them around my throat.

The small voice that I’m pretty sure was my survival instinct was screaming in one corner of my mind to back away with my hands held up and try to look as small and harmless as possible, but the voice that was full of rage was louder and it was telling me to hold my fucking ground. So I did.

“I guess we’ll never know,” Vail said in an eerily calm tone. “Because you took that choice from me when you knocked me out.”

He stared at me for another moment before taking a step back and walking to the other side of the settlement, where he started angrily sifting through the remains. The tension bled out of me, and I felt so tired all of a sudden. I don’t know why I bothered trying to fix things between me and Vail. He was the only one besides me who had survived that night, and I just wanted to have someone to talk to about it.

I wanted to know if he had nightmares. If he still heard the screams and terrified commands of our parents telling us to run and protect each other.

I looked down at my palm and the jagged scar that ran across it. At some point in the attack, I’d cut it deeply, and then when Vail said he was going back to help his parents after we’d gotten away, I’d panicked. I’d screamed at him to stay, notwanting to lose him too. He’d frozen for a moment at my command, but I didn’t think he would actually stay, so I’d grabbed a chunk of branch off the ground and hit him with every ounce of my eight-year-old strength.

Normally, it probably would have just annoyed him, but he already had a bunch of wounds at that point and had dropped like a stone.

When he woke hours later, his eyes burned with hatred at what I’d done. He’d looked at me the same ever since. I let out a long breath, trying to expel the last of my anger with it. Vail would have to deal with his issues towards me at some point because I was back at House Harker, and I wasn’t going anywhere.

Not wanting to push Vail anymore, I stayed away from him for the next hour while I searched through what was left of the human settlement. A dull pain throbbed within my chest from a wound that had never healed.

My parents had been my entire world. They’d both ruled House Harker and that had kept them incredibly busy. But they’d always made time for me, always making sure that at least one of them was always there to tuck me in at night. It was my father who had instilled my love of riding. And my mother a love of reading.

When they died, it shattered me. I didn’t know how to handle the grief and I’d wanted to be strong for Marvina and everyone else at House Harker. So I had gathered all the jagged pieces and shoved them into a box that I then tucked away into the farthest depths of my soul.

And Vail had just reached in to grab that box and rattle it.

I was debating if I could shove him over the cliff and down onto the beach below when the glint of steel caught my eye. All of the buildings had long since been wiped away but their foundations remained.

Dropping to my knees, I pushed away bits of dried grassand dirt, revealing a locked cellar door. The metal lock remained strong, as did the thick bars stretching between the doorframe like a grate. Some slabs of wood were bolted to the bars, but most of the boards had decayed, allowing me to see a little bit of the room beneath the door.

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