Page 48 of Fateless

“Sparrow?” Raithe leaned toward me, lowering his voice. “What is it?”

“I don’t know,” I muttered. “I feel like we’re being watched.”

Raithe swept his gaze around the tavern without moving his head. “There is no one observing us,” he murmured, as Halek casually leaned back with his hands behind his skull, also scanning the room. “Are you certain of this?”

“Yes,” I whispered. The feeling wasn’t abating; in fact, it wasgetting stronger. Though Raithe was right—no one in the tavern was paying any attention to our table. “I know it’s strange, but—”

A needle of pain lanced through my temple, making me suck in a sharp breath. Clenching my jaw, I pressed a hand to the side of my head, expecting to find a dart or something sharp protruding from my hood. Almost as soon as the pain began, however, it vanished. As it disappeared, I thought I heard the faintest of echoes in my head, and a hint of satisfaction so fleeting, it might’ve been my imagination.

There you are.

“Sparrow. You okay?” Halek’s worried voice cut through the fading agony. I glanced up and saw him leaning forward, blue eyes concerned. Raithe, too, was watching me, though he had gone dangerously still, as if waiting for an enemy to show itself.

“I’m... okay, I think.” The pain and the strange feeling were gone, like they had never existed. “I don’t feel anything anymore. I guess I was just being paranoid.”

“Are you sure?” Raithe said in a low voice. His tone was calm, but his eyes and posture were still dangerous. I nodded. Everything was normal again, and I wasn’t going to admit that I was starting to feel mysterious pains and hear voices in my head. They might think the stress was getting to me, or worse, they might believe me and want to investigate further. And I was generally opposed to anyone prying into my life.

Don’t rely on anyonewas one of Vahn’s favorite sayings.If you start depending on others, they’ll let you down, and then where will you be? The only one you can fully trust is yourself.

Thinking of Vahn made my throat close, a heavy weightsettling deep in my chest. “I’m tired,” I told them, pushing back my chair. “I think I’m going to turn in early. Halek, if you ever want to double-team someone in Triple Fang, let me know. I bet we could clean out the whole tavern.”

“Sparrow.”

It was Raithe’s voice that reached me as I turned away, not Halek’s. “If you feel you are in danger, don’t hesitate to tell me,” he said as I glanced back. “I promised to keep you safe, but I need to know what I should be protecting you from.”

I smiled at him. “I’m fine, Raithe,” I said. “Trust me, if I see any shadowy assassins lurking in the halls—well, besides you, anyway—I’ll be sure to let you know.”

He didn’t smile back. “I do not lurk,” he told me, though a hint of reluctant amusement bled through his voice. Halek stifled a snort, managing to turn it into a cough, and Raithe sighed. “Just promise me you’ll be careful,” he finished, holding my gaze. “Sometimes, physical threats are not the most dangerous. The ma’jhet were known to wield forbidden magics. They were not as powerful as the Deathless Kings, but could be deadly all the same. If you see or feel anything strange, come tell me. I will keep you safe, but you have to give me the chance.”

I wanted to believe him. I wanted to think that I could rely on the iylvahn, that he would be there like he promised. But relying on people was dangerous. Raithe was interested in my safety only because he thought I was this Fateless. I wasn’t. I was just a thief, nothing more. And when Raithe figured that out, he would disappear.

Like everyone else.

I drew back from the table. The iylvahn’s pale, worried gaze followed, making my stomach twist. “I will,” I told him, and left quickly before he could see I was lying.

That night, the dreams were worse.

Vahn’s face loomed above me, cold and dispassionate. In one hand, he held the black soulstone, pulsing with its eerie nonlight. In the other, he raised a serpentine dagger, the hilt dark and shiny with blood. I lay on a stone altar, iron shackles around my wrists, and could only watch as the blade rose, a sliver of bloody light shining against the darkness.

TheFatelessmust die, the robed, hooded figures around me hissed.TheFatelessand the Deathless cannot exist in the same era. Killher, andrid our world of this plague.

Vahn looked down at me, and for just a moment, his face softened, and he was the person I’d once known. “I’m sorry, Sparrow,” he murmured. “But you should’ve known this was coming. You cannot trust anyone. We are mortal. Betrayal is in our blood. This is the way of things. Everyone you know will turn on you in the end. Really,” he whispered, and the dagger turned, angled at my heart, “it’s better this way.”

The knife plunged down, and I closed my eyes.

I jerked awake, heart pounding and cold sweat trickling down my back. My tiny room was dark; the copper lantern hanging from the ceiling was either broken or had run out of whatever fueled it. Panting, I leaned against the wall, the shadowy visages of Vahn and the Circle fading into the darkness.

Shivering, I pulled my knees to my chest and pressed my face to them, waiting for my heartbeat to return to normal. Just a nightmare. Vahn wasn’t here, and I wasn’t chained to a table with the Circle screaming for my death. Though Jeran was still dead, Kovass was still gone, and the Deathless King was still out there. All because of me.

“Sparrow?” A quiet tap came at my door, and alow voice drifted into the room. “Are you awake?”

Raithe again. My stomach cartwheeled, and I swung my legs off the cot. Pulling up my hood, I rose and took the two steps to the door. It groaned as I swung it back, revealing the dark hallway and a figure silhouetted in the frame, and my heart seized up in terror.

A dead Raithe stared down at me, his eyes shriveled pits in his face, the flesh on one side of his head rotted away. I could see bones and teeth through the holes in his jaw. The smell of decay filled the room, clogging my throat, as what was left of the assassin’s arm shot forward, bony fingers latching onto my sleeve.

I twisted on instinct, feeling my clothes tear as I wrenched myself out of the skeletal grip. Undead Raithe pressed forward, raising his other arm. I saw his curved blade coming at my head and ducked, hearing the steel bite into the doorframe. Diving beneath his arm, I lunged past him into the hallway.

I nearly ran into Halek, who stared at me with glassy eyes, maggots wriggling through his wasted flesh. He clawed at me, and I leaped back, stifling a scream, as up and down the corridor, doors began creaking open and rotting corpses spilled forth. They moaned as they saw me, staggering forward with arms raised.

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