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I dropped the bat and crossed my arms over my chest. “No. Nope. No way.”
The ferret mirrored my gesture and leaned back so it could give me the most contemptuous look. “You cannot fight your fate, Cerridwen. Your blood demands this of you.”
I laughed. “I’ve seen fate broken by everyone in my life. You think I won’t try? Watch me.”
I spun and stormed back to bed. It wasn’t like I wanted to sleep—not with the nightmares that kept coming back every night. I wasn’t looking forward to that. All I wanted was to get away from this damned creature.
The ferret hopped off the counter and loped after me, though.
“You need to listen to me, Cerridwen. There is an entire court waiting for your return. You were always meant to come back and dethrone the usurper.” The ferret’s voice followed me.
Defiance gripped my spine and drew me upright. In the middle of the living room, I stopped and turned so I could glare down at the rodent. It was cute little thing, but it would have been cuter had it never opened its damn mouth.
Stiff hands vibrating with frustration, I raised them and tried to put my anger into words. Before I could get anything out, the massive floor to ceiling windows exploded. I threw my arms over my head and screamed. Glass rained down everywhere.
My landlord is going to lose his mind. This is thesecondtime this has happened!
“Say your final words, Cerridwen Dawnlight.” A husky voice approached.
I peered out from behind my arms to see a man in head-to-toe leather gliding towards me. He held a pair of scimitars in his hands. His eyes had a dangerous golden glow, and his ears were pointed like mine. His sudden lunge surprised me because his movements telegraphed absolutely nothing.
A yelp escaped me when I threw myself back out of his reach. My ass hit the floor, which sent my arcana rolling out of me. I felt it unfold like the petals of a blossom. The wood floor unhinged itself and spiraled into fibrous tendrils that shot towards the assassin.
He had to be an assassin. The man moved like the wind. His footsteps made no noise. I rolled onto my hands and knees so I could scramble back onto my feet. Spinning, I tried to get my eye on him again. I found him out of the corner of my eye. The glint of pale city light glanced off his blade as he attacked again.
With the blade careening towards my throat and my feet unsteady beneath me, I had no choice but to throw myself backwards. As my feet came out from under me, I flicked my hand. The vines reacted. They shot towards the man as his blade pierced empty air.
He wasted no time in twisting to direct the second blade towards me. Glass bit into my shoulder blades when I hit the floor. I had no choice but to roll over the shards or else the assassin’s scimitar would go right through my neck.
“Shit,” I muttered.
My vines had missed. This man was unlike anything I’d ever fought before. I’d dealt with angry shifters and lumbering undead, but I’d never gone up against a fae. To be fair, I avoided them most of my life. They always left me feeling unsettled, and I’d never been able to understand why.
The door in my mind creaked open to reveal a little more truth. I tried to turn my attention away from it. I mean, there was a life-or-death fight happening in the middle of my living room. This distraction wasn’t helping. I had to focus, or I was going to die right here.
I shoved the truth back and steeled myself. No one was allowed to bust into my life and threaten my wellbeing anymore. I was tired of it.
Spinning towards the assassin, I lifted both hands. Every piece of wood that made up my flooring sprang to life and curled towards him. The assassin took in the threats coming at him from all angles. When he saw there was no way out, he turned his attention towards me.
The threat would stop if the source was terminated.
Shit.
I had to move faster. The assassin sprang towards me. I bit back my yelp and readied myself. I would have appreciated a mate in this situation. All my friends had hot shifter men in their lives. Both Ness and Vi scored nearly indestructible dragon shifters. Addie had herself a wolf shifter that straddled the line between life and death, making him nigh unkillable.
I really needed something like that right about now. There was no man to parry the blade heading my way. The assassin brought the blade down right as I rolled out of the way. The tip of the blade caught my arm and tore through flesh.
Swallowing my scream, I grimaced. It was too late for him, anyway. My wood vines shot through his back and lifted him from the floor. I turned my face away from the sight.
“Well played, Cerridwen Dawnlight,” he sputtered, blood from his lips spraying the floor between us.
I cradled my arm close to my chest and stared at the blood on the twisted floor. When I spoke, my voice was small. “Don’t call me that.”
Dead, the man turned to dust and drifted away on the wind. Fae were kind of like vampires in that way. With no soul, their bodies fell apart as soon as the magic holding them together vanished. Which worked in my favor. I didn’t have a body to hide.
But my window was busted again, and my floor looked like a horrifying art installation inspired by Vlad the Impaler. The wood spires dripped with blood, both mine and the assassin’s.
Now that the fight was over, the pain in my arm really set in. A fiery throb overwhelmed my upper arm and shoulder. Shaky, I got to my feet and picked my way through the glass shards towards the kitchen so I could grab a healing potion. They were there for my other friends. I’d never really needed one myself before.
