Page 27 of Oathborn
A tempting thought, to be be done with this heartbreaking business of trying to protect people. “I saved your life,” Tivre whispered, doubting thatbullet he’d taken twenty years ago would replace all the suffering Tivre had caused. Still, for the sake of peace, Tivre had to try. “You owe me the same.”
Hesitation flickered for only a second in the otherwise cold blue eyes.
“After this, we’re even.” Javen threw Tivre backward. His body crashed into one of the church pillars. When his head hit the cold marble, stars blossomed in his eyes. Until his consciousness left him, visions of the future and painful memories of the past flickered by, both mocking the cursed reality he now lived.
Chapter nine
Zari
The text of the note echoed over and over in Zari’s head.
Tell no one.
The note had appeared in her pocket, as if by magic. Still, she hadn’t trusted its order, had gone first to the precinct, only to run into Captain Javen again. She stood in front of the cathedral’s massive wooden doors, sweat trickling down her spine. If Javen had already arrived, he must have hidden his motorbike, for there was no sign of it.
Zari pushed open the door. Inside, the vast space was silent. “Hello?” she called.
It had taken her longer than she’d wanted to reach the cathedral, as she’d nearly crashed the bike multiple times. Every delay made her fear grow, her heart lodge firmer in her chest. Had this been the wrong course of action? She’d considered going across the city, back to Annette’s home, but Pietr might not even be there. Then she would have wasted precious time.
She’d made the best plan she could. Now she was here, and though she was afraid, she walked deeper into the shadows. A scrap of moonlight danced over the floor, illuminating a corpse cut in half. Zari bit back a gag at the sight.
Ahead lay a bright splash of color, yellow silk pooling around another prone body.
Annette!
No, no, no.Zari should have been faster, should have never…
Dropping to her knees, Zari examined her. Annette’s chest rose and fell, proof she still breathed. There were no wounds, no marks of a struggle. “Thank all the stars,” Zari whispered. Her eyes raked over the rotting pews, searching for any other signs of life. A third figure lay against a pillar.
Zari’s skin prickled when she recognized him as the strange man from the park. He wore the same clothes, though now, his hair was pure white and streaked with blood, and his ears were pointed, their tips showing through his shaggy hair.
He truly was a fae.
Zari surveyed the situation. One dead, one unconscious, and one unconfirmed. She’d have to assess his damage next. Carefully, she reached out, meaning to check his pulse, only for his hand to catch hers. “Hello again, Zari Ankmetta.” His strangely bright green eyes met her own. “Has anyone ever told you that you look like your father?”
“My… father?”
“He and I are good friends. Back on the isles.”
Present tense.Are.
Everything stilled, as if time itself had stopped. Her father, alive? Flashes of memory, of a telegram, a funeral procession, slammed into her. “No. No, Blood Ember killed him. I saw the body!”
“Are you so sure?” Those strange green eyes, with their pupils so like a cat’s, watched her closely.
“They wouldn’t have lied to me.” Even as Zari protested, she remembered the body, the space covered by a cloth above the neck, for they’d said his head was never located. A hallmark of Blood Ember’s.
“Because people in power never alter the truth for their own gain.”
Zari’s face flushed. “What attacked you? What happened to Annette? Who are you?”
“Someone. Sleeping. Tivre,” he ticked the answers off on his fingers, quite flippantly for his injured state. “And if you’d followed my note’s advice, your dear friend would have avoided being unconscious in the first place.”
“So you were the one who left that note!”
“I sent a note because I value your father’s work. The Accords are rather nifty documents, keeping both our people safe and all.”
“Or they had kept.” Zari muttered, staring at the dead body. If the strange smoke-based attack did not begin the war, surely the death of a fae in the capital would.
