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“How do you know it was a Mutisa?” Araki looked at me coolly, lowering his teacup onto the table.
“It is a theory,” I replied, “Two years back when I was in Vërbyr…for a mission…There were murders just like this happening in a small town there.” Vërbyr was a nearbykingdom of mostly shifters. I had been sent to kill a merchant trading creature in the dark market. Mutisa were creatures that cannibalized any being with magic, especially fae.
“Hmmm, perhaps it is,” Araki said thoughtfully. “But there has never been a sighting of them in Halafarin.”
“It doesn’t matter. If we all suspect it, isn’t it worth looking into it?”
“Why are you determined to believe I’m not already doing so?”
Perhaps he was. Perhaps his unkempt look was a tale of him doing exactly that last night.
“Was the fae duchess married? If she was, the creature would likely search for her husband.” I spoke. Mutisa inherited memories of their victims and used them for hunting the late victim’s family or anyone the Mutisa deemed worth hunting.
“She was,” Araki replied, “But why are you so determined to help me?”
“You and I might be enemies, but Halafarin is my home. I’d do anything to protect it,” I met his gaze squarely.
“I must say, your passion moves me,” Araki said, “You want me to trust you? Then earn it. I’ll show you parts of the investigation, but you must give something in return.”
“I will not give the location of the Nightshade,” I gripped the cup tightly.
Araki’s face turned sharp as steel. “What’s more important to your survival right now?”
“No,” I responded sharply, “I won’t betray the people who have raised me for the sake of helping a king who is gambling the safety of his kingdom away on a measly piece of information. If your kingdom meant that much to you, you would take all the help you were offered with or without leverage.”
Standing, I walked away from the table without another word. Araki called after me, but I ignored him. I took to the main garden, knowing he could see me. I cared not. My determination to show him I could be useful spurred me on. Halafarin was not just his kingdom. It was rightful mine. And as long he kept me alive in the palace, I was going to be useful, not only finding a way to murder him but saving my kingdom as well. I hurried across the garden and exited through a wall I saw Araki and Klaus use a few days ago. If Araki didn’t want me to leave, he didn’t attempt to stop me. Nobody did. I waited, trying to see if any alarms would be raised. I risked a glance back at the terrace. Araki remained seated. Being so far, I couldn’t tell if he was watching me. I told myself it didn’t matter as I headed to the town centre.
*
It didn’t take long to catch whispers of the duchess’s house. I borrowed someone’s amplifying power to eavesdrop, soaking up rumours and pieces of information until I had a rough guess of where the manor was.
I found one guard sleeping outside the gate when I arrived, but otherwise, the house was strangely empty. A whiff of magic hung in the air, soft and subtle. But as I shook off the dregs of the borrowed amplifying spell, I found it was no longer noticeable. I frowned. Odd. In front of me, the manor was shrouded in darkness despite the early morning brightness. I immediately became suspicious that it was what the magic wasdoing, a deterrence to leave the crime scene alone. I imagined Araki coming to the manor in the dark hours to cast a protection spell around the house as he had done with our camp. It had to be something physical, a spell book, less magic because I couldn’t feel anything off within me through our bond. I snuck inside the house, lest the guard woke up and caught me. Again, as I pushed the door, it opened without resistance. I stepped inside. It was dark in the foyer, the windows shut, and the curtains drawn. Shoving a door to one of the rooms, I spotted a barrier over the archway.
Carefully, I reached out to touch it, and a tendril of magic snaked out from the shimmering mass. The end of it caressed my collarbone as if in question. I opened myself up to the magic, feeling Araki’s distinctive magic covering the place. The tendril dissolved beneath my clavicle, burying in me, searching me, assessing my magic to ensure I meant no harm. A tinge of guilt for accusing Araki of not caring slithered into me. Pushing the feeling aside, I stepped deeper into the room. There was nothing amiss in the room, no traces of blood or struggle. The armchairs close to the hearth were orderly as everything else was. I looked at one of the portraits hanging above the hearth. It was of a dark fae man beaming up at his wife on what appeared to be their wedding day. The Duchess was beautiful, as all fae were. I swallowed a sudden wave of grief. Life was so fickle, even for non-human creatures. Even beings with magic could protect themselves to an extent.
A scratch of a nail on the wall echoed in the silence.
I stiffened as my head snapped to the shadowed corner behind me, furthest away from the magical barrier. How had something gotten through the barrier? Or were they already inthe house when Araki put the barrier? For a moment, I hoped it was the duchess’s grieving husband.
But the flicker of hope was snuffed when something worse than I had encountered before rose from the shadows. Red eyes glinted watchfully from the darkness, followed by rustling sounds through the room as it rose to its full height. A disfigured creature that once had been a normal man- with razor fangs and sickly skin now watched me. Dread washed over me.
A Strigoi.
I had only ever read about them in a bestiary. A person cursed into a monster to feed on flesh and blood. This was no Mutisa but a creature born from sorcery. The Strigoi before me appeared not to have finished its transformation. Instead of being guided into Bruxsa, a higher vampiric stage, it had been abandoned in its lesser vampiric form.
A scream tore through me as the Strigoi charged for me across the room, tearing one of the armchairs in half without much of a struggle. Leaping to the side and dodging the attack, I drew magic from the Araki’s barriers. The archway shattered from the pull. I gathered the magic, turning it into an offensive attack. I threw an orb streaked with gold and purple at it.
The Strigoi skidded across the room and evaded my attack then advanced until I was almost cornered against the hearth. I couldn’t lead it out of the room. With the house shadowed, I was bound to lose sight of it immediately. It could escape into the village beyond. Quickly, I gathered another wave of magic and twirled it in front of me, creating a protection wall. I staggered, the stones of the hearth digging into my back painfully as the Strigoi slammed against the barrier I had just formed. The magic flung the Strigoi back. But it recoveredinstantly and flew at me again, its eyes fierce with the promise of my blood. Clenching my teeth, I gathered more magic, ready to fight it again. But then, a blast of wind hit the room. An arm wrapped around my waist, yanking me back. My heart thumped hard in fear, thinking it was another Strigoi.
“It’s me,” Araki whispered. “Don’t kill it yet.”
My tensed muscles relaxed marginally. It then occurred to me that Araki had known where I was going when I left the terrace. I wondered if he was testing me to see what I could do alone or if I could figure out more clues from the house alone.
“Stay back,” Araki warned as he stepped forward.
I watched as he whipped a tunnel of wind around the Strigoi, holding it back while he muttered a spell. The Strigoi froze in midair, claws outstretched. With the light of Araki’s magic, I could see dried blood around the vampire’s mouth that crusted along its lips. I gagged. Araki turned to me in his Dhajork form, his violet eyes blazing, and his canine protruding just like in the forest. Keeping the Strigoi at bay with one hand outstretched, he beckoned me closer. With my magic still crackling on my fingers, I approached closer.
“Bind his hands and don’t let go. He’ll try to break free when I release him from this hold,” Araki commanded.
