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Cold air circled the room, drifting through the open shutters. I sat upright in my bed. Naomi was lightly snoring, hugging her pillow. I didn’t know what awakened me but had a gnawing in my stomach and a sense that something wasn’t quite right. It was almost as if someone were watching me.
“Murder!” someone screamed from downstairs, almost making me scream myself, followed by a blood-curdling scream.
I grabbed an oil lamp, then hit the floor and ran toward the screams.
The clerk was pale. Edmund and Maddox came running, and so did a few other guests. A maid working for the hotel stood at the open front doors. I pushed past her but halted two steps down. The motor had been destroyed, torn to pieces. Nothing but immortal strength could have done that. Was it Freya? Or worse, Raiden?
In front of the motor was a slain man, his throat cut open. I faltered forward, noticing the familiar blond nest of curls around his face. When I got closer, my hand shot to my mouth, silencing my gasp.
Alexander.
My gaze darted around us. The maid ran out ahead of the small crowd now gathered near me and the body. She spluttered over her words.
“’E wasn’t a warlock or ’uman.” She gasped. “I saw ’im. ’E ran too fast and were stronger than a bear. ’E was a god, one of those forgotten ones.”
My stomach dipped. Edmund casually moved to my side, leaning down to my ear. “It must have been Aziel,” he whispered.
I hugged my arms around myself, as my nightdress did little to block out the cold. “Or Raiden.”
“He wouldn’t have done this.”
I looked at Alexander’s empty gaze reflecting the stars. I wondered if he had seen their beauty in the final moments, like he tried to paint. “I’m not so sure. The victim is Alexander.” I lowered my voice. “Freya’s partner.”
“She could be here.”
“Maybe, but if he’s dead, then she would have fled,” I explained. “Question is how did she get close? Was she following us? Was he?”
“Raiden?”
I pressed my lips together. “Yes.”
“I don’t think he’d do this.”
My bottom lip trembled. Edmund hadn’t seen the look on Raiden’s face before he ran that night. He was dangerous, a loose cannon, and I was pretty certain he hated me. “Maybe not,” I lied. “It was probably Aziel, but this still makes no sense.”
Edmund stroked his short beard. “We will need to go on foot tomorrow.”
I gazed at the inkblots of black and dark green, a sea of trees under the night sky, and I felt sickly. I wasn’t looking forward to going back in there.
I couldn’t sleep. An image of Alexander’s corpse floated through my thoughts, strangling them. He was the fourth dead body I’d seen in my life, and three of them had been since Raiden stepped into my life. I couldn’t stop thinking about him no matter how hard I tried to squeeze out the memory of the last time I’d seen him. His face… specifically the hatred on it.
“Elle, let’s not wait for the sun to set,” Maddox joked when I trudged into the lobby. Protectors had gathered in swarms, searching the area for signs of who could have caused the damage. I looked at Maddox, then at Naomi. It was the work of a god, but to say which one was hard. It was unlikely to be Freya, but she would have had to be near for Alexander to be there, and why was he so close? Had they come for us?
If it was Raiden, why had he wrecked our motor? The most plausible was Aziel.
“This way.” Maddox jerked his head in the direction of an empty room. I followed him and Naomi inside. “Where’s Edmund?”
“Left an hour ago,” Maddox said nonchalantly. “He’s gone to find an alternative mode of transport. He wants us to wait here until he returns.”
I scratched the back of my neck. “I thought we were going by foot?”
“He decided against it, with everything that’s happened. He wants us to wait here until he comes back. He’s also furious about the motor, but he pretends like he’s not thinking about that with everything happening that’s more important, but I can tell he’s pissed.”
“How long is he going to be?”
He shrugged. “No idea. He could be hours. A day.”
“A day?” Naomi’s eyes widened. “We need to find them now.”
