Page 34 of Dark Night of the Soul

“Get back upstairs,” I said through clenched teeth. “Do not let the others come down here. If anyone else comes, don’t hesitate.”

The last thing I needed was to explain the dead man.

“What about—”

“I’ll deal with it.”

She nodded once, then turned and went back up the stairs on silent feet.

I sheathed the knife at my waist, then bent to pick up the arms of the dead man and drag him outside into the night.

A message.

I dropped the lifeless body on the gravel drive. Then waited.

“Come get your dead,” I said.

The air shifted. I didn’t turn. Whoever had remained wanted to be noticed.

A Watcher stepped out of the air a few feet away. In the shadows, it was too hard to make out his face, but I’d bet it was someone I knew. Someone I fought with. Someone Sebastian wanted me to see. He stood with his hands loose at his sides as if we were here to chat about the weather.

“You’re efficient,” he said. “You always were.”

Decker.

“Thought you couldn’t move like that anymore,” I said, voice even.

Because those powers of teleportation were taken away from him.

His laugh was sharp and humorless.

“I got that fixed.” He stepped close enough for me to see his face. “You always did hate surprises. Didn’t you, brother?”

The word scraped raw.

“Of everyone Sebastian could have sent,” I said, “he sent you.”

The air between us crackled, not with magic, but with memory. Battles fought side by side. Oaths broken. The moment I chose her. Lines crossed too many times to count.

He grinned. “Nice twist, huh? He thought it’d be fitting.”

Sebastian sent Decker because his loyalty had always been a hunger and I’d been the one thing it couldn’t swallow.

I said nothing as I stared him down.

“When you walked away for her, you didn’t break vows,” he said. “You rewrote the rules for all of us.”

I ignored him. “Where is she?”

“She fought,” he said, deliberately not answering. “Used a letter opener. Creative. Edward would’ve approved.”

He smirked. My hand tightened at my side.

“Where is she?”

“She’s alive,” he continued. “For now.”

I stepped closer. Close enough that he’d know how fast I could kill him if I decided.