Page 99 of Slayer

Celia reached out and grasped my shoulder. “I’m sorry.”

I just nodded, trying to put everything together in my head. I couldn’t help but think of the picture of my mother holding me in the storage unit, umbilical cord still attached. Had she gone to drop me off at the hospital with the humans and then been attacked?

Seemed like it.

If Celia said she was dead and with no pulse, then I believed her. That meant Emilie was just trying to get money. Whatever arrangement she had with my mother when she was alive for whatever reason, I wasn’t going to keep it going. Unless Emilie was right, and somehow my mother was still alive. A healing rune wafer maybe? My mother was supposed to be some all-powerful arcanist. What if she drew a rune on herself, that…I don’t know, brought her back to life in case of blood loss? I’d seen crazier things in the past month.

In that case, maybe paying Emilie just a few more months while I figured out if my mother was really still alive would be smart. After all, I had millions. What was twenty grand a month?

Another person came in wearing all white and called more names. I sat. I stood. I paced.

Finally, I pulled out my phone, logged into my banking app, and restarted the payments to Emilie. Just as a safety precaution, just in case my mother was alive. Then I turned my phone off and pushed it from my mind, trying not to feel like I was a rival.

Eventually, after what felt like over an hour, Asher was the first to come back through the door.

I stood, rushing forward to glance down at his marks.

There were four. I had no idea what they meant.

His face was unreadable. He seemed spaced out, processing. Then the mask slipped, and I saw a deep sadness cross his features.

“Are you okay?” I asked.

He nodded, and Celia congratulated him.

“Strength, speed, protection, and…loyalty. Nice.” Celia read the runes easily.

“Will that make him a slayer?” I asked out of curiosity.

She shook her head.

“Striker,” Asher said.

Oh. I had assumed he’d be a slayer.

I opened my mouth to ask something else when my name was called.

Turning, I saw Akari in the doorway. She smiled softly at me and waved me over.

Nervousness filtered through my body, and I glanced at Asher for reassurance.

“Be strong,” he whispered, and I frowned.

Be strong? Why? Was there something I needed to be strong against?

I walked over and followed Akari down a cream-walled hallway made of all glass on the right side. We were walking past the Veil Stone, and it was like a drum inside my chest had begun to beat. I felt pulled to the right, like I wanted to touch the glass.

“You feel the call?” Akari asked.

I glanced at the Veil Stone again and had the strangest urge to touch it. Had we been outside and close, I would have tried.

“Call to what?” I asked her as we passed a door on the left and kept moving.

“To touch the stone. Every hunter feels the call, but only the trained arcanist can survive touching the mother stone.”

Survive it?

I swallowed hard. Maybe that was why Asher had warned me.