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Show me what you got, Dace,I challenged him back.
“I am not.”
He disappeared in one blink, reappearing next to me and sweeping his leg under me.
“Ah.”
My body toppled backwards through the air, my arms reaching for where he had been, but no longer was.
“Show pony.”
He appeared where he had started and watched me land on my butt in the grass. An ache rose up my tailbone.
He was mocking me, that ass.
“Cool,” I said. Pushing off the ground, I stood and dusted my legs off. “Now try that again with something in your hands.” I tried to look bored, like Dace so often did, as I pulled the apple out of my pocket and tossed it to him.
“Well, if I put it in my pocket,” he slipped it into his pants and disappeared. His voice erupted over my shoulder as he pulled the apple back out. “Not a single problem.”
“But...” I said slowly.
“But if I hold it in my hands.” He gripped the apple and disappeared. Only the entire thing didn’t disappear. A small sliver of the apple was shaved off and the majority of the apple fell and rolled on the lawn. Dace stood next to me. His shoulder rose and fell in a shrug as he held up the slice of apple and bit into it.
“I would hate to be that apple,” I muttered.
We stared at the ground together for a moment. At some point, he was going to have to carry something bigger than an apple. Bigger than the tiny slice he was chewing up right now.
Stepping through the slick dew, I bent down and picked up the apple remains. Red flew through the air and landed in Dace’s quick hands. “Try again,” I pointed at the apple. “But faster.”
“My powers aren’t fueled by my emotions, like yours.” He gently tossed the apple back and forth between his hands.“Making me mad won’t help me to improve.”
“Then what helps motivate you?”
Dace licked his lips and tilted his head. He took a step toward me. The air next to him shimmered and he turned quickly. Jesseline appeared, hair mussed like she had been laying in bed, and her clothing sloppily thrown on.
“You have a visitor, Dace.” Her hand rose to point toward the castle.
Our smiles slowly faded from our faces. Together we walked around the barn and looked up the twisting pathway. At the bottom of the long flight of stairs, a dark figure waited, masked by the gloom of the sunless sky.
Atowering figure couldn’t be made out at this distance in the night. Concern set small wrinkles between Ryker’s brows and removed any glimpse of a smile I might have earned.
Jesseline walked between us, her voice low. “He is an assassin from our guild, but not one who works under the same employer as us. I wouldn’t trust him to get within arm's distance of you.”
The sounds of the night—hooting owls, croaking frogs, and chirping insects—felt muted now that my heartbeat filled my ears. I tried not to think too hard about how, from where we stood, the outline reminded me of an old ghost story my parents used to tell me about burgundy witches. It felt like they had brought them back from extinction to hunt me down now. As we neared, purple hair and deep, navy-blue eyes came into view. I couldn’t remember a name, but his face was familiar, someone I’d seen in the castle many times before.Still, my fingers brushed the knives on my belt.
“He works for my parents.” I groaned. “Do you know what he wants?”
“No, he said he would only speak with you.” Jesseline pulled the hood of her dark cloak up over her head and gave us a small nod before she disappeared. Though I doubted she would go far, not with this guest lingering around.
The assassin took a step closer, but I held out a hand, projecting my voice just enough to sound assertive, “That’s close enough. Why are you here?”
“Your parents are asking to have a word with you.”
“Well, get on with it,” I said, planting my hands firmly on my hips. I dared a glance at Ryker, who stood quiet and impossibly still at my side.What is going on in her head?
“They want you to come home to talk. They didn’t tell me the message.” His hands remained folded in front of him, a good sign that he wasn’t waiting for his chance to slip something from his belt.
I snorted. “No, no, no.Theydisowned me, not the other way around. I won't be catering to their every whim. So you can justpoofright on back and let them know.”
