Page 78 of Wicked Enemy

I shook my head. I needed a plan for how I was supposed to wipe out the other Houses without having to fight them head on. But my window of opportunity was closing. According to Ralph and his friends, the other Houses would be attacking any day now. I had considered infiltration and assassination, but there simply wasn’t time to set a plan like that in motion.

Flexing my fingers, I turned down the final street while plans still swirled inside my head.

What if I got them alone somewhere? If I could convince Aaron, Connor, and Wilhelm to go somewhere alone with me, I might be able to kill them. Though, that was a hugemaybe. All of them were extremely skilled, and the chances of winning a fight where they had me alone and outnumbered me three to one were miniscule at best. But still. There was still a chance. If they had their entire armies with them, my people would be slaughtered and I would probably get killed as well. But if I took them on alone, Imightdie but at least my people wouldn’t follow me into the grave.

I ran a hand over my jaw as I reached the door and pushed the handle down.

The chances of actually walking away from a fight against three gang leaders were too small for me to consider it a good plan. I had to come up with something else. But for now, at least it was a back-up plan in case all else failed.

Water dripped from my armor and landed on the wooden floorboards as I made my way through the corridor and farther into the building. It was a regular house that had been abandoned because the civilians in this neighborhood thought it was cursed. Three separate people had died in here, all by freak accidents, so no one dared to live here anymore.

Only empty rooms with a few pieces of broken furniture stared back at me when I glanced into the kitchen and then what I assumed must have been a bedroom.

“You sure took your time,” an annoyed voice cut through the air as I walked into the deserted living room.

I shot Christian White a nonchalant look as I strolled inside and stopped in the middle of the dusty floor. “I could say the same about you. It has been three days since I gave you the healer’s location.”

His pale blue eyes betrayed nothing as he watched me from a few strides away. I swept my gaze over his massive frame. His clothes were dry. Which meant that he had indeed been here a while. Or maybe he had just worldwalked here straight from his new hiding place and therefore never had to set foot outside?

“Didn’t fancy your usual meeting place out in the grasslands?” I said. “I thought you couldn’t stand the way Malgrave smells.”

He jerked his chin towards the windows where the rain kept pouring. “Didn’t feel like standing around in the rain to wait for your lazy ass.”

My fingers itched to draw my sword and ram it down his throat. But I managed to suppress the flash of anger, and instead ground out, “So, have you verified the information?”

“I have.”

“And?”

“And that healer is now waiting obediently for me in my castle up north.”

Relief flooded my entire chest. Finally. White had his healer, so now I could at last call Gemma back and concentrate all of my energy on how the hell I was supposed to survive a combined attack from all three Houses as well as a white boot invasion. One less problem to worry about, at least.

“Good,” I said. “Then our business here is done.”

A cold smile spread across White’s face. “Not quite.”

The blood froze in my veins.

For a few seconds, the only sound was the rain lashing against the windows and the muted drops that dripped onto the floor from my clothes.

“What did you say?” I demanded at last.

He brushed a piece of imaginary dirt off his jacket. “Our business is not quite done.”

“Oh yes, it is. We made a deal. The location of the healer in exchange for you leaving my people and my city alone.”

“Except… you also killed three of my best warriors.”

“You’ve killed dozens of mine.”

“One of them was my cousin.”

“So?”

“I don’t know how you do things down here, but where I’m from, killing a blood relative requires vengeance.”

I squeezed my hand into a fist. “I don’t give a fuck. We made a deal.”

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