Page 3 of City of Secrets and Shadows
Our hands clasped, fingers locking around wrists in a warrior’s grip. For a heartbeat, we were perfectly balanced, perfectly in sync – his strength matching mine as I pulled him up beside me. In that moment, I glimpsed what might have been possible between us if we’d met as equals, as comrades instead of rivals separated by blood and prejudice.
Then we were both on the roof, contact broken, the moment passed. But something had shifted, some small acknowledgment that perhaps, just perhaps, we could work together without killing each other.
At least until we got back to Livia.
We made our way across three rooftops, skirting around collapsed sections and jumping narrow gaps between buildings. The town burned around us, but from this height, we had a clearer view of escape routes and patrol movements. It was almost too easy – the soldiers were focused on fighting the Talfen raiders who still swooped through the night sky on their uncollared dragons, leaving the streets between battles largely unguarded.
As we reached the edge of the merchant district, we descended back to street level via a half-collapsed wall. The eastern gate was visible now, its wooden frame charred but still standing. Beyond it lay the desert road, and somewhere in the darkness, Livia waited with our dragon. We started toward a narrow alley that would take us beyond the city walls, our footsteps silent on the ash-covered stone. We were almost there when Septimus paused.
“Wait,” he said, voice oddly calm. “I think I hear something.”
I stopped, tilting my head to listen, but caught nothing beyond the distant sounds of battle. “There’s no one—”
The blow came from nowhere – a vicious strike to my kidney that dropped me to one knee. Before I could recover, his foot connected with my chin, snapping my head back with enoughforce to topple lesser men. I rolled instinctively, the arena’s lessons burned into my muscles, barely avoiding the downward stab of a dagger I hadn’t even seen him draw.
“What are you doing?” I snarled, scrambling to my feet, tasting blood where my teeth had cut into my cheek.
Septimus circled me, the dagger held low and ready in his right hand. His face had transformed, all pretence of cooperation stripped away to reveal the cold hatred beneath.
“What I should have done before we ever left the arena,” he said, his voice flat and certain. “She’s never going to be safe with you around. None of us will.”
I raised my hands, trying to appear non-threatening despite the rage building in my chest. “We just escaped together. We’re on the same side.”
His laugh was sharp as broken glass. “Same side? You’re Talfen.” He spat the word like venom. “Your people are burning this town to the ground. That’s what you are – what you’ll always be underneath that human face. An animal. A monster.”
He lunged again, faster than most men could move, the dagger slicing through the air where my throat had been a heartbeat before. I sidestepped, catching his wrist and twisting hard, but he used the momentum to drive his knee into my stomach. We separated, both breathing hard, measuring each other.
“I never asked to be born half-Talfen,” I growled, looking for an opening. “Any more than you asked to be born a slave. We were both thrown into cages not of our making.”
“The difference,” he said, circling again, “is that I’m still human. I don’t have the blood of demons in my veins. Look around you! This is what your people do! This is what you are!”
He attacked again, a flurry of calculated strikes that would have impressed me in the arena. Here, with my life at stake, I could only react, blocking and dodging, never quite finding an opening to counter without killing him.
“You’ve been waiting for this,” he continued, each word punctuated by another strike. “Waiting for your moment to show your true nature. I’ve seen how you look at her. You think you can have her? Take her back to your savage kin?” His face twisted with disgust. “She’ll never be safe with your kind around. You’re all savages underneath.”
Something snapped inside me then – the careful control I’d maintained my entire life, the walls I’d built to contain the parts of me the empire taught me to hate. With a roar that was more Talfen than human, I surged forward, no longer concerned with merely defending myself.
My fist connected with his jaw with a sickening crack, and I felt bones shift beneath my knuckles. He staggered back but managed to slash the dagger across my forearm, opening a long gash that immediately welled with blood. I barely felt it. The rage was too hot, too consuming.
I drove forward, using my superior strength to slam him against a wall hard enough to knock the air from his lungs. His dagger clattered to the ground as I pinned him, one forearm pressed against his throat, the other hand gripping his wrist so tightly I could feel the bones grinding together.
“Is this what you wanted?” I growled, my face inches from his. “To prove I’m the monster you always thought I was?”
Despite the pressure on his throat, despite being completely at my mercy, Septimus’s eyes showed no fear – only cold, implacable hatred. “Just... like... your father,” he choked out.
Something about those words cut through my rage like ice water. Was I becoming the very creature he accused me of being? The very monster I’d spent my life proving I wasn’t?
I eased the pressure on his throat just slightly, enough to let him breathe, and in that moment of hesitation, he slammed his forehead into my nose. Pain exploded across my face, hot bloodpouring down my chin. I stumbled back, vision blurring, and Septimus lunged for his fallen dagger.
But I recovered faster than he expected. As his fingers closed around the hilt, my boot came down on his wrist, pinning his arm to the ground. He looked up at me, defiant even now, and I knew this would never end unless I ended it.
“She chose me too,” I said quietly. “Not just you. She chose us both.”
His face contorted with rage. “She only pities you, beast. She—”
My fist connected with his temple before he could finish, a carefully measured blow – enough force to knock him unconscious without causing permanent damage. His body went limp beneath me, head lolling to one side, the fight extinguished in an instant.
I stood over him, breathing hard, blood dripping from my nose and arm. The rage receded slowly, leaving behind a cold clarity as I contemplated my options.
