“My master gave me clear instructions to protect you,” he growled as he locked eyes with the blond military magician.

  I wasn’t sure who to bet on in a death match between a pair of military magicians and a Cu Sidhe. I pulled my silver knife and turned to face the two behind us. A young college student started walking down the path on the opposite side of the road, turned on her heel, and walked away. Good call.

  The woman walking next to the bear shifter rolled her eyes before she threw a small glass orb at my feet. A soft grey smoke curled around my legs, and I tried to kick it away. She must have been an alchemist. I didn’t want anything they might create near me. Another orb hit Rex square between the shoulder blades as he snarled at the military magicians. The damn smoke followed me, clinging to my legs as I tried to move away. Soon, I couldn’t keep my eyes open, and the ink network was pushing me to stay awake, to fight. I couldn’t. The fucking alchemist had hit me with an intense sleep mist or something. Fuck.

  I was vaguely aware of the sensation of my body hitting the hard stones and a snarl of frustration from Rex. My body wouldn’t respond to any of my commands. Try as I might, I couldn’t make my eyes open or my muscles respond. Kyra yowled at me to do something. I was locked in and slowly losing what little grasp on consciousness I had. It wasn’t supposed to end like this.

  12

  I woke up to the acrid scent of something I didn’t want to be anywhere near. I had no idea what it was, but I groaned and pushed myself away from what I thought its source was. Slowly, my muscles obeyed my commands, and I opened my eyes. The pale cream and rose wallpaper was familiar, but it took a second for me to remember from where.

  “Mr. Corbeaux, welcome back,” a nasal female voice said.

  I pushed myself into a sitting position and looked around to find Rex. He was glaring at the woman with pale pink hair and violet eyes before us. She stooped down to be at our eye level.

  “You left rather a mess at Devereaux’s house,” she said, pursing her lips.

  “I warned him,” I said.

  She sighed and stood up, brushing imaginary wrinkles from her pleated skirt as she did so.

  “It seems that we’ll have to adjust our plans,” she said.

  “A shame, but hardly the end of the world,” a younger man said.

  My head was still fuzzy, my muscles slow to respond. I made a mental note to form a sigil to stop or reduce the impact of alchemy. It would be complicated, but I wasn’t going to be taken down that easily a second time.

  Rex offered me his hand and helped me stand. The room spun as I looked around and saw three Ceremonials scattered around the large space. What appeared to be will-o’-the-wisps hovered within glass orbs that were suspended from the ceiling to light the space. They were living creatures. They shouldn’t have been trapped as light sources. I didn’t want to know how they turned them off. The main area was open space with dark wood floors and a number of over-stuffed chairs dotted around the place. Large paintings that seemed startlingly lifelike hung from the walls in thick gilt frames. A middle-aged man with a hooked nose and small eyes appeared to be judging the room.

  “Can’t he just kill our rivals?” the man about my age asked.

  His pale brown hair was cut close to his scalp on the sides of his head with a tuft of darker brown hair on top. It looked ridiculous.

  “That seems like rather a waste,” the woman said.

  “Surely he can bring through more useful tattoos to those who have them?” the old man who had been standing near the floor-to-ceiling window said.

  He turned to face us, his large eyes sharp with intelligence. His olive skin was entirely free from wrinkles, despite the feeling that he was very old. His suit hung beautifully over his lean frame, but there was something off about the image. I could feel it more than see it. It niggled at me. It was as though the skin wasn’t his, somehow.

  “Yes, that’s perfect. Mr. Corbeaux, you will be contacted tomorrow. I will discuss the arrangements with my colleagues. Remember that we hold your loved ones, so don’t do anything silly,” the woman said.

  I held my tongue. If I said something, it would be very silly. We were escorted out onto the street by an older man in black and green robes. Rex remained tense and silent at my side until we were out of earshot of the Ceremonials.

  “We will be better prepared next time,” he said.

  The growl around his words said everything. It can’t have been often that a Cu Sidhe was taken unawares like that.

  “They knew I was with you; their alchemist created her concoction to affect me, too. That means one of my kind suffered. She must have used one of my kind’s blood, perhaps even our essence to achieve that,” he snarled.

  I had nothing to say. There were no soothing words to such a statement.

  “I’m going to work on a sigil to protect us both next time,” I said.

  It would be a difficult feat, but I wasn’t going to allow those bastards to push me around like some pawn. The longer we allowed them to remain in control of the situation, the less chance I had of getting Keirn and Vyx back. I texted Fein, asking if he had any news, something we could work with.

  I needed to keep moving forwards, to focus on getting Snow back. If I paused, then the memory of the man’s essence crumbling beneath my fingers would haunt me. I had done that.

  “Don’t obsess, Dacian,” Rex said with his usual smile back in place.

  “I’m not that type of person,” I said as we walked around a cluster of older women having a gossip circle in the middle of the path.

  “You didn’t set out to bring about the result you achieved.”

  I sighed and let it go. Rex was right, the Ceremonial’d been informed of the potential, and he chose to go through with it. No one had held a knife to his throat and forced him into the decision.

  “Come on, we’ll grab burgers. I’m sure Shadow and Luka will appreciate them,” Rex said as he gestured down the road to our left.

  My stomach growled. Tattooing was incredibly hard work.

  Rex kept the conversation flowing about everything from news of new restaurants to places we wanted to see in the future. I was grateful for his efforts to stop me from dwelling on everything. If I kept moving forward, then I wouldn’t sink.

  The cougars looked like they’d been through the wars when we walked in. Shadow was smoothing out Luka’s ruffled hair and kissing the side of his face as he did so. They both had shadows of bruises on their arms and faces. Judging from the stiffness in Shadow’s movements as he took the burgers from us, they’d been in a big fight.

  “What happened to you?” I asked between bites.

  “Trio of military magicians tried to scare us away from looking into the Ceremonials,” Shadow said.

  “Don’t worry, they lost,” Luka said with a toothy grin.

  I knew they were capable fighters, but military magicians had magic on their side. To say I was glad to have them on my team was an understatement.

  13

  Once we’d eaten our fill and shared our stories for the day, I slipped away to my room. I needed to try and pull together an anti-alchemy sigil. Kyra and Keirn’s fox followed me around like little shadows. Kyra restrained herself from stealing my pen, for a change. She curled up on my shoulder and purred into my ear while the fox curled up on my lap. Together, they managed to chase away my guilt and help me focus on the task at hand.

  At first, I thought I could form a heart that would power the sigil against alchemy as a whole and then use the threads around it to refine the actions. That quickly proved to be foolish, as the amount of power that would be needed by such a broad barrier would knock me out the moment it was used. Then I tried to form a series of smaller interlinking sigils that would combat the individual types of alchemy they might throw at us, from sleeping potions to fire powders. I got twenty sigils deep before I gave up and accepted that there were just too many possible ways for them to attack us for me to list every single one. At that point, I was growing tired and stiff. The sun had long set, and the eerie quiet of night had settled over the city.

  It wasn’t long before the quiet began to set my nerves on edge. I tried to focus past it and work out a way to structure the anti-alchemy sigil, but the ink network was growing spikey and withdrawn at my attempts. That, on top of the silence weighing on me, led to me throwing up my hands and giving up. We’d just have to deal with it as it came.

  The night was difficult. Keirn’s fox cuddled up to me, and Kyra purred by my face, but that didn’t stop the nightmares. I dreamt about Keirn crumbling beneath my fingertips and blaming me. Why wasn’t I pushing harder to get him back? I woke up gasping for air. Keirn’s fox put its front paws on my chest and licked at my cheek, trying to soothe me. I buried my face in its soft fur and told myself it was just a stress dream, nothing more.

  The pale lilac light of dawn crept through the crack in my curtains. I couldn’t have slept more than a handful of hours. Kyra tried to hold me down as she attempted to groom my unruly hair and make me presentable. I appreciated her efforts, but placed her back down on the bed and went to the window. The rooves glistened with frost, which gave the city a fresh, crisp appearance. I missed the rooftop I had on Wildrun. Gazing out over the city had brought me some peace. A smile formed as I knew that Keirn would have nudged me and told me to find a way up onto the rooves, then. I wasn’t going to lose him.

  The flat was still and quiet as I made my way into the kitchen in search of coffee with many wake-up tablets in it. The Ceremonials were going to demand my presence again, and I needed to be sure that I was entirely awake for that. My phone buzzed, and I looked at it, half-expecting to see a text from Vyx. It was Fein saying they were making progress with the council and the Ceremonials. Did that mean the council knew about me? My chest constricted at the thought. Fein was powerful, but could he really protect me from the council? At what cost?

  No one outside of the council truly knew what went on within its confines. Of course, we all felt its reach, the rules they enforced with a heavy hand. The inner workings were nothing more than rumor and gossip, though, and none of it was happy. I swallowed down my fear - one thing at a time. If the council came for me, then we’d run. We’d done it once, we could do it again.

  I put out the animals’ food first to stop Kyra from stealing my breakfast. Who was I kidding? The little wretch would try and steal it anyway, I was just giving myself a head start. I made a large pot of strong coffee and threw a couple of alchemical wake-up aids in there. There was probably some horrible side-effect when they were used long term, but that was something to be dealt with at a later date.

  The lilac light of sunrise was soon extinguished by a bruise-purple light that flooded the room and gave everything a deep sense of foreboding. I watched as a heavy storm rolled in over the city. The clouds moved at a quick pace and consumed the pale sky. It wasn’t long before the first snowflakes fell. A pang of sadness hit me. Keirn would have both loved and hated that moment. Snow held an important place in his life, but he hated being cold. I rested my forehead against the cold windowpane and tried to push the emotions down. He wasn’t lost. There would be many more snow storms to enjoy that season.

  14

  The letter came at exactly ten am. The cougars had already left to do something for Fein. They’d been in high spirits and promised to bring back lots of pizzas for dinner. I don’t know how the letter got there without my seeing it. One moment, I was watching tv, trying to remain calm, and the next the familiar flutter of paper being pushed against wood caught my attention. I’d jumped up and run to the elevator, but it hadn’t been used in an hour. There wasn’t a single sign of anyone having been there, aside from the letter. Keirn’s fox and Kyra both inspected the area and came back with pinned ears and growls.

  I tore the letter open and skimmed the short scrawling note inside. Another name and address, this time with a note not to kill them.

  “If they insist on my bringing through a tattoo that isn’t theirs, then they will die!” I growled and threw the letter down.

  It fluttered to the floor unsatisfactorily.

  Dragging my fingers through my hair, I calmed myself and texted Fein and Rex. This needed to be wrapped up, and soon. I was rapidly reaching my limit on how much bullshit I was willing to take from the Ceremonials.

  I had three hours to kill before I headed over to do the next tattoo. A sensible person would have spent that time preparing sigils and other protections against the inevitable Ceremonial betrayal. I picked up every blade I owned and pushed Kyra back into her tattoo before the fox took up its place in my satchel. With that, I headed out into the snow-covered city and went looking for an alchemist’s shop. Yes, I had my ink magic and blades, but these were Ceremonials. I wanted to be able to protect myself, really protect myself.

  Rex found me near Old Town Square, where I stood slowly turning in circles, trying to remember which street I needed.

  “Dacian, what’re you looking for?” he asked.

  I frowned and peered down the flashy street with the over-priced fashion stores.

  “The alchemy shop. I want to go into this with every angle covered,” I said.

  Rex grinned at me flashing his sharp teeth.

  “You don’t think I’m enough?” he asked.

  I shrugged and smiled. “We were knocked out and dragged off last time.”

  He laughed.

  “I’ll give you that. Come on, maybe they’ll have something for me, too,” he said as he strode off towards the narrowest street jutting off from the square.

  “So er… how do you do what you do?” I asked.

  It was a morbid topic, but there were worse things to discuss. Anything to keep my mind off the worst-case scenarios.

  He glanced over at me with a wide smile. “Well, that depends on which bit you mean, now doesn’t it?”

  How did you ask someone, in public no less, how they murdered people and became the thing of nightmares?

  “All of it,” I said.

  He laughed and startled a rather delicate looking pair of women with long ribbons in their hair that stated they belonged to a high elf house. The women moved away from us and kept giving us concerned looks as though we were going to eat them. If only they knew.

  “I feel life essences. I can’t snap them like a death magician, but I can play with them and feel exactly how to destroy them,” he said casually.

  “And you belong to Fein?” I asked.

  I expected him to growl at that. Not many beings were ok with being owned. Instead he smiled and nodded.

  “That I do. He gives me plenty of opportunities to do good work.”

  I raised an eyebrow at him. Opportunities to do good work wasn’t how I would have phrased plenty of people to kill.

  Rex nudged me. “I have performed my duties,” he said glancing around for anyone listening too closely, “on the most heinous of people. I was there when he saved Tyn from the blood brothel. I’ve removed drug lords, tyrants, and those running slave rings. Together we make the world a brighter, more comfortable place.”

  I mulled it over. All of Fein’s people had been happy and proud to work for him, they all spoke of the way they helped those who needed it.

  Rex stopped and turned to me.

  “Fein’s people are not sycophants, Dacian. We’ve all seen firsthand the benefits of our actions under Fein’s guidance.”

  I held up my hands, not wanting to get into a fight.

  “I didn’t say you were sycophants. I’m still coming to terms with his methods, is all.”

  “And I’m sure you’ll have no problems with employing them if they’ll help you get Keirn back,” Rex said as we stepped into the alchemical shop.

  He wasn’t wrong. If I had to kill a few dozen Ceremonials to get Keirn back in one piece, then so be it.

  15

  “There’s more to me than… that,” Rex said as he glowered at a bottle of purple dust.

  I squeezed my eyes shut. I’d been a dick.

  “Sorry. I was just looking for something to talk about,” I said.

  He raised an eyebrow at me. “You need to work on your conversational skills.”

  I shrugged and picked up a pale blue stone. “I wasn’t very social for most of my life. I was hiding.”

  The stone warmed under my touch, and I placed it back down before it exploded or some such. It would have been very much like the gods to play that sort of prank. I moved away from Rex and looked at the assault section of the shop. It was bursting to the brim with vials, bottles, blades, and crystals. Some of the bottles had swirling labels on them that proudly proclaimed that the contents were exactly what the viewer needed. I ran my thumb over the smooth edge of one and frowned. Did I want to start carrying a powder that would boil the recipient’s blood? Is that where I was in my life?

  “If you’d stop being a pretentious prick, then you’d see that all of Fein’s people went through the same or worse. No, we’re not chosen ones, but we’ve been through some shit. So, get your head out of your ass and make an effort. That’s all I’m saying on the topic. Now step away from the explosions, you’re better off with something to aid your blades.”

  I tensed and prepared to defend myself against his accusations. He had his back to me and was looking through a series of small vials in pastel colours. He was right. I’d done nothing but view Fein and his people as heavies with no fucks to give about the people they hurt. They’d done a lot to help me and those I loved.

  “Alright, no more excuses,” I said to Rex.

  He grinned at me and handed me a silvery-blue vial. It was barely bigger than my little finger, and the price-tag was more than my leather jacket.