Page 2 of Shadow Master
“Stop!” Devon pushed down harder, and the creature froze.
“Freee,” he repeated, almost pleadingly.
“A hobblood…” Aidan joined us. “Has to be.”
Brady had explained how they were bound. Had they been bound to the fortress? Had the building’s destruction set them free? If so, how the fuck had it survived?
“How are you alive?” Devon asked it, obviously on the same train of thought as me.
“Free,” the creature whined.
I stepped closer. “You may be free, but if you don’t tell me how you survived and what happened here, you’ll be dead.” I pulled a dagger from my thigh holster and held it up so the hobblood could see it. “How did you survive?”
“Magari dust. We use it. We be unharmed. We help. We be free. We just want be free.” His eyes welled.
Dust…Some kind of magical shit to protect the hobbloods? A pact with the fomorians? “The fomorians made it to the fortress. The traps were just the tip of the iceberg.” A memory sliced across my mind. A shadow cutting through the kitchen, then again across the grounds. I sucked in a sharp breath. “Oh, God. They were here the night before. I think… think I might have seen them.”
“They used the hobbloods,” Aidan said.
The hobbloods had let the fomorians in. Let them plant their explosives. They’d kept quiet, and now everyone was dead.
“We want free,” the hobblood whined. “Please.”
Something bitter and dark twisted inside me, and my hand tightened around the hilt of my blade. “And what about everyone else? What about all the knights? You let them die.” I raised the blade, rage burning a path through my veins.
“Justice…” Lloyd’s voice held warning. “Don’t.”
I wanted to stab the hobblood. To kill it and watch it bleed. I wanted to end it like it had ended the knights, like it had ended the man I loved.
“It’s a victim too,” Lloyd said. “You know it is.”
Fuck this. “Fuck you, Lloyd. Fuck you.” I lowered my blade, chest heaving, blood simmering with the need to do damage. I fixed my attention on the hobblood. “What’s their plan? Are they still here? When do they intend to attack?”
The creature shook his head, his eyes bugging as Devon applied more pressure. Devon was a man after my heart.
“Answer her,” he growled.
“No. Don’t know. Just be free, we just want be free.”
“Let him go,” Lloyd said softly.
Devon looked to me for instruction, and my heart swelled with gratitude. He was letting me take point. Letting me decide. Maybe not the best decision considering the murderous thoughts swimming through my mind right now, but I appreciated the gesture and recognized it for what it was. A vote of confidence that I’d make the right choice.
Fuck it.
I exhaled, and I nodded sharply. Beside me, Lloyd relaxed slightly.
Devon released the hobblood, and the creature darted off so fast he was nothing but a shadowy blur.
“Cadets incoming,” Aidan said.
There were indeed figures headed our way, six. A troop? Their footsteps slowed as they took in the scene, and then they broke into a run.
I pushed down the anger and turned to Lloyd. “We have to get to the Academy and warn them. We need to contact the Nightwatch Council. We’re going to need reinforcements.”
“Agreed,” Lloyd said. “Devon, Aidan, you guys make a run for the fortress while—”
There was a roar like thunder, and then the rubble ten meters to our left exploded outward. Dust flew, and I threw up an arm to shield my face. A long second passed before I lowered my arm to stare at the spot. My heart stalled, and then blood rushed in my ears, blocking out the cries of alarm around me.
