AllFreeNovel
Share Us
I took a step back toward the door as Leif raised his hand. “We’ll let her go back to Kithonia. She’s no threat to us there.”
“Are you kidding me?” another hunter snapped. “She’s a criminal!”
“She’s delusional,” Leif replied. His words cut me deep again. “And a victim, and one day she’ll see that. Until then, I’m sure her guilt can punish her enough.”
I have no idea what possessed Leif to believe my guilt would be enough punishment—save for his desire to see his sister again. A few of the hunters voiced the same opinion.
Leif shook his hand. “Quiet! We may yet need her.” Although he hardly looked excited about the prospect. He returned his focus to me with a look that froze my heart. “We’ve found evidence that the shadow demon running around Earth is the Thief King. He has Quinn.”
“I know,” I said. “I know Sylas wants to get back here to Earth. We’re pretty sure we know why.”
Leif chuckled darkly again. Hollow. “Then you know who probably took Willa, and it wasn’t us. Sylas kidnapped Quinn and we still don’t know why. But if he’s aware Mrak is free, that your existence is part of what’s allowing that, it wouldn’t be a stretch to think he captured your friend to get to you.”
And by hurting me—or making it easy for me to make foolish decisions because of it, like going right to the Lunar League’s headquarters—Mrak would be hurt, too.
I closed my mouth and nodded once to Leif. “Thank you for the information.”
“Don’t thank me,” he spat. “Use it to get Quinn back, or never return to Earth. I won’t hold them back next time.”
“I’m not sure why you bothered now,” I commented before thinking better of it. To be honest, I was surprised these hunters were listening to Leif at all, considering a few days earlier it’d seemed like he was much lower on the chain of command.
But that was before so many had died in Cassius’s manor.
Leif nodded back to me, his gaze urging me to leave. He didn’t need to tell me that information. He could have let me leave wondering if he’d been lying about Willa, or if she were simply dead and gone. But Leif was, apparently, still trying to save me. He was trying to help me save Willa, too.
“Thank you.” The words came out thickly, resistance holding them back.
Leif offered a single word in return. “Leave.”
I nodded again and backed out of the Lunar League’s headquarters, knowing full well that doing so without a confrontation had been a miracle. And I had Leif’s endless goodness to thank for that.
I wished I still had that goodness within me, too.
I spent most of the remaining twenty-four hours before Karn reopened the portal to Earth keeping my head down. It was nearly impossible to keep from visiting what charred walls remained of Dark Iron, but I refrained from visiting my workshop. There was nothing there for me now, not even a single weapon that could help fight Sylas.
By the time I began making my way back toward Cassius’s manor to wait for the portal to Kithonia to open, I was restless. Ready to find Willa. Worried about her. I was also eager to find out if Mrak and Karn had discovered who’d tried to poison me—or if other dangers might await me when I returned.
As eager as I had been to join Mrak in Kithonia for the first time, the thought gnawed on me now. I wanted to go home. Kithonia was dangerous, especially for me while I was mortal. And absolutely so for Mrak, who Sylas was clearly targeting. But home for me was now with Mrak. There was nothing more I’d wanted while waiting for this portal to open than to curl up in his arms and never let go again.
I’d made a lot of terrible choices. Which was, in hindsight, why Leif’s words had cut so much. But all the decisions I’d made, I’d made out of a need to survive or to bring my captors to justice.
Maybe that was why a part of Leif still wanted to help me.
A shift in shadows tucked between buildings made me freeze. My breath caught in my throat as my gut wrenched with the distinct feeling of something not being right.
I shifted, turning my full body toward the alleyway. The shadows leapt before I had a chance to even react. A great beast formed from the shadows, its jaw snapping shut with saliva dripping from long, jagged shadow teeth. I had enough time to throw my arms up to protect my face as its body collided into mine with way more force than a shadow should be able to.
We sailed backward, clearing several feet of air horizontally before both of our bodies slammed into the pavement and skidded another three feet. My back screamed as skin tore and pieces of the road dug into my back. I cried out, summoning my shadowy fire magic to my hands. The almost ethereal flames danced as they wreathed themselves around the shadow creature’s neck. It roared, rearing back despite keeping massive, tendril-like claws pinned against my shoulders.
Shadow demon—maybe. But this hell-hound-like creature was so different from Mrak and Karn. Absolutely not humanoid in the slightest. And yet, its barely there form was so similar to how Mrak’s had been. There, but not. Touchable and having mass, but only just so.
“Getoffof me,” I spat through gritted teeth. My fire seared a ring around its neck as the creature went to bite mine. Panic spiked within me. I ducked my head to the side at the last second. It’d have to try harder to bite someone whose neck had already been pierced so many times. The creature’s snapping jaws connected with pavement. It reared back and cried out in agony.
Good. I was in pain too, but I churned that pain with my fire magic and seared straight through its neck. “Bad. Dog.”
The shadow creature jolted back and forth, trying to break free of my magic binding—and it nearly did. I had to shift my entire concentration to the magic between my hands from surviving. But so did the shadow demon creature. Finally, it let go of me and jumped to the side, crying out and trying to pry the binding from around its neck.
I pushed off the ground, biting my cheek through the pain, and snarled. “Who sent you?”
