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“No!” Had that been her voice? It sounded so much like her, but not at all at the same time. A shape plummeted down from the trees above, landing on Gavin in a blur of black cloth and the silver flash of a blade.
Panic clutched Violet’s gut, and she rushed over to where Gavin was grappling with his assailant. A boot collided with her stomach, and her fingers slipped off the handle of her own knife as the air was punched from her lungs.
The petite shape clung to him with long arms that wrapped across his shoulders. It hissed at the burn of his magic but refused to let go. The hood of a dark tunic covered the attacker’s face. The fabric wasn’t black, as Violet had assumed at first, but a deep burgundy shade.
The woman screamed, her voice shaking with anger and sorrow. She lifted her blade to drive it into Gavin, but Violet’s spell hit her full force, sending her flying a few meters back into a dry bush.
Gavin jumped to his feet and stood at Violet’s side. With a fluid motion, he pulled his short sword off of his belt. They didn’t know if this woman was a Crow, waiting for someone like them to show up here. Or she might be a thief.
More likely the second, to judge by her lack of wrestling skill. Her attack had been passionate, but far from that of a trained warrior. Violet drew her knife and waited as the hood slipped from the woman’s head, revealing long black hair.
She looked up, and Violet stilled when she noticed the color of her irises. Lavender, the same tone as her own—if not a touch lighter. A gift she had inherited from her father, a family trait that marked her as part of what had once been a powerful bloodline of magic-wielders. The very reason Dargan, God of Shadows, was chasing her.
There were only two people she knew in the world who had the same eyes as her. One had died outside this cave. The other was her sister. “Thalea?”
Gavin lowered his sword. To judge by the change in his expression, Violet got the impression he was putting the pieces of the puzzle together. “Your sister?”
Now that she wasn’t moving like a shadow hunting for vengeance, Violet could spot the familiarity of the features she remembered so fondly. The small nose and thick lips that were so similar to her own.
Her sister’s brows rose to the edge of her hair. “Violet?”
“In the flesh.” She put her knife away, slipping it back inside its leather casing and walked with long steps toward where Thalea sat by the bush, offering her a hand. “Sorry if I hurt you. Though in all fairness, you were trying to kill us.”
Her sister ignored her hand and rose to her feet by herself, dusting her pants off with an angry huff of air. She narrowed her eyes at Gavin. “This bastard killed Dad!”
“That was your father?” Gavin’s voice shook, his face paling further. “Violet, I’m sorry…”
She raised her hand and Gavin stopped. “Don’t pity me. I know well what Neems are.”
“I’m not,” he said with a harsher tone than she expected. “I feel with you.”
“I haven’t seen him in a long time.” Violet shrugged one shoulder, trying to brush off the weight of how much this hurt. Gavin drew closer with a sad tilt to his brows, yet he didn’t touch her. Oddly, just the fact that he was near her was comforting.
“Well, it’s great to know that twelve years are enough for you to not give a shit about him being killed.” Thalea’s whole body shook, and maybe she wasn’t past attacking them yet.
“She cares,” Gavin barked, taking a step forward and shielding her from her sister’s murderous glare.
“You don’t get to talk to me. You were the one who killed him.”
“Neems aren’t alive, Thalea,” Violet said. “They’re angry echoes of who our loved ones were, nothing more. Father would have slain you without hesitation. He tried to do the same to us just a moment ago. He would have killed us, had Gavin not dissipated him.”
“No. He wouldn’t.” Her sister crossed her arms and glowered at them both. “I have been coming here for years now. He hasn’t hurt me once.”
Violet mirrored her sister’s pose and lifted her chin. “Has he ever seen you?”
Thalea opened her mouth and then shut it. “It doesn’t matter. I let him be. Why did you come back here to take that away? It was the last I had of him.”
Violet’s sorrow for what had just happened deepened. The numbness in her body increased. She hadn’t known her father while she was an adult, and all this time she’d wondered what he would think of her. She didn’t want anyone to see her fall apart either way. Not Thalea, not even Gavin.
“I know it feels like he was alive, because he lingered here. I assume he’s been dead for a while?” Violet strode closer to her sister. Gods, she’d grown up so much. She hadn’t seen her in twelve years. She was a young adult now, aged twenty. Violet’s junior by only three years.
It didn’t matter though. Looking at her like this, all she could see was the little girl who’d chased after the carriage, screaming for Violet to stay when the Crows had taken her away.
Thalea wiped her eyes with the back of her hand and bared her teeth. “Why are you here? Shouldn’t you be in the Iron City?”
“Because—”
“Are you a deserter?” Thalea asked, and the calm mask that had fallen over her features obscured her intentions. Would she scream insults at Violet, much like everyone she’d considered a friend had done?
