Scorched Treachery (19 page)

“Talon
does what I bid him, Wynifred. If it wasn’t for that, he would be driving you through.”

A wicked smile spread across my lips at his words, ah yes
, Talon. So it wasn’t my power, or even the fact that I was a woman that was affecting him, it was the murder of his younger sister not more than five years ago. Probably best not to mention how she moaned for him before I snapped her neck.

“So that’s a no then?” Finally Ilyan smiled, his teeth flashing briefly before hiding themselves behind his lips.

“That’s a no.” Ilyan shifted his weight, his walking stick moving to rest against his hip, his long boots shifting as they crunched the pine needles of the forest floor.

“So if you don’t want me for my magic, then what do you want me for?”

“Information.”

“You wish me to spy?” I was flabbergasted. Yes, I wanted to make Edmund and my father pay for what they had done, but he was not only asking me to pass on information, he was asking me to put my own life in danger.

“Oh, it is not simply a request for a spy, Wynifred. You are my father’s top assassin. You kill anyone who puts a toe out of line in my father’s sights. Good or bad, you kill them all. And you do it well.”

“I am good at it for a reason, Ilyan.” I smiled, taking his compliment to heart. “It’s not just death. Anyone can kill. Anyone can remove the beating heart of a magical being.” I lowered my voice alluringly as I moved closer to him, wanting to test the boundaries of Ilyan’s bargain. I was pleased when his jaw tightened uncomfortably. “No matter how much I enjoy it,” I continued, “it’s more about finding information, and I can do that above all others.”

“Then find information for me.” He lifted his chest toward me, his eyes flashing dangerously at his words, but I only smiled.

I liked this game
of cat and mouse; but what I liked more was the very real possibility of destroying the carefully placed web that Edmund had created. My adrenaline surged at the very thought. I would make him pay.

“What type of information?” I asked coyly. As much as I liked the thought, I still needed to play my cards right to make this arrangement benefit me.

“His plans, his weakness, what he knows about the sight,” my head snapped to his, my eyes narrowing, but he only smiled. “The name of your next target and every one following.”

I stopped my pacing, my head slowly turning toward Ilyan. All of that was doable
; I could tell him most of the information now. But the name of my target? Ilyan wasn’t requesting that so he could do the job for me, he was requesting it so he could save their life.

M
y job didn’t entail just destruction; Edmund required proof of the job’s completion. He wanted the still beating heart of the victim. Edmund wanted their magic. If I were to turn the names over to Ilyan, then I would have no way of handing the hearts over to him. I would have no way to prove the job had been done.

“W
hat would you have me tell my master, Ilyan, if I suddenly stopped bringing him the hearts of his enemies?” I asked as I paced in front of him, careful not to let my eyes leave his. We may be in the beginnings of a bargain, but I did not trust him, not yet.

“You will think of something,” he smiled, and I couldn’t help but return it. He was right, I would. I had already begun to think of possible ways to disguise mortal hearts as those of magical beings.

“Besides, he is not your Master anymore.”

“And you are?” My voice snapped as I spun to face him, the fabric of my skirt dragging through pine needles.

“I am no one’s Master.” His voice was hard. Odd, he almost seemed offended by my comment.

“I think your muscle would disagree with that.” The shadow shifted at my words, and I found myself drawn to it. Perhaps it was because Ilyan wasn’t responding to any of my advances, and I needed someone to confirm that my techniques were still usable.

“He is free to come and go whenever he pleases.”

“Then maybe I will steal him from you,” I smiled, but Ilyan’s face only hardened.

“Only if you wish to make acquaintance with his sword,” he said through gritted teeth. I could tell right then that he would never trust me, even if he consented to what I was about to ask of him.

I stood still as our eyes locked, each one weighing the other. He was wondering if he could actually trust me, and I was wondering why he hadn’t done away with me already. I had killed more than half of his army with my own hands, and yet, he let me live. I didn’t know if it was pity or desperation that had brought him here, but part of me wished he would plunge me through already.

“Information?” I asked when the silence had become too much.

“Yes.” He swung his walking stick once, slamming it into the ground as if to accentuate his words. I didn’t even flinch.

“And not my magic.”

“No.”

I shouldn’t have felt stung, but I did. It was not because all of my physical advances had yet to be effective, but because everyone wanted use of the last of the fire magic.

Everyone.

They all wanted my power and the upper hand it would give them, but the leader of the Skȓíteks stood in front of me saying he wanted none of it. I would be lying if I said I wasn’t at least a little bit suspicious.

“Am I not appealing to you, Ilyan?” I popped my hip, testing him, watching him, needing to know for sure.

“I’m taken.”

“So it would seem,” I laughed, eyeing the shadow of the man who still stood guard behind him.

Ilyan said nothing, he only stood, jaw tight, his weight balanced on the narrow stick in his hands. I stopped my movement, letting my hair fall down my back as I looked at him. So far, I liked this deal, but we still had my requirements to discuss.

“I will do this for you, as long as you give me everything I ask.” Ilyan’s eyes widened briefly at my words, his shock melting as he settled in to listen to my requests, a small head nod prompting me to continue.

“I will give you the information you need for as long as I can. I only ask one thing, after I am caught, you get me out alive. You give me the asylum you promised and wipe my memory.”

His shoulders tensed at my last request, the muscles moving further toward his ears before relaxing down again. He didn’t like that last part, not that I blamed him.

“You ask me to put a lock on your mind?”

“Yes, I don’t want to remember anything. I don’t want to remember Thom, my child, or the thousands of drops of blood that litter my hands.”

I held my palm out to him as if proving my sins, but his eyes didn’t leave mine.

“I don’t erase memories, Wynifred. That is a form of torture only my father uses.”

“You can and you will if you want me to do this for you.” I smiled, knowing I had caught him. “It is not a matter of power, Ilyan. I know you can do it.”

“I can also bury you alive ten feet underground with one thought, but I don’t.” He smiled. “Or maybe I will.”

I smiled back, but I wasn’t going to relent on this. It was the one piece that I really wanted. I would gladly do all he asked for nothing, but then I would walk away with only my haunted memories for company. It was not a life I wish to lead. I would rather meet my death at my father’s hands. But then I would gain nothing from this arrangement. I did nothing for free.

Even Edmund offered me his own form of payment.

“My memory for your information.”

He exhaled, his muscular chest heaving as he contemplated my request.

“What would you do, Wynifred, once your memory is gone?”

“I’m not sure. Walk the world, discover a new land, perhaps I will join a nunnery.”

The laugh that filtered out of his lips startled me, the humor heavy in the air. I didn’t see the joke.

“You are not the type to join a nunnery.”

“Oh, how would you know, Ilyan?” I snapped. “Once my memory is gone, I can be any kind of person I want to be.”

T
hat was the key, right there. I could be anyone I wanted to be. Not what Edmund or my father wanted. Me. I could make my own decisions.

“Make your choice,” I prompted, pulling a slip of paper out of
my pocket. The white slip contained the name of the man I was on my way out to kill when Ilyan found me.

I twisted the paper as Ilyan eyed it, my actions forcing his decision, giving a good show of faith.

“We have a deal,” he said, his hand extended toward me.

I closed the gap between us, his hand closing around mine.

“I will honor my deal with you as long as you honor mine, Wynifred. You have my word.”

I froze
, the sincerity of his voice shocking to me. No one had ever spoken so simply to me. Well, no one since Thom. I could hear his honesty, the commitment, and the promise in his voice. Normally, I would have shied away from such emotion, but Thom had affected me in that way as well.

“You have nothing to fear, Ilyan.”

“What is his name?” Ilyan asked, pointing to the paper that was still in my hand.

“Dramin, son of Sain,” I said, ignoring the shock that lined his eyes and handing over the piece of paper to prove it.

“Good.” He smiled, thrusting his walking stick into my hands. I clutched it automatically, the heavy wood igniting the magic in my blood.

“This will connect you to me. Use it whenever you have news for me.”

I nodded once in understanding; Ilyan’s smile the acceptance of my promise to him.

He said no more. He simply vanished into the air before me, leaving me alone with his shadow.

No wonder no one could ever find him.

Thomas
Král

The name on the paper was moving, but I knew it wasn’t the ink. It was because of the blood that was rushing to my head in my panic. My eyes couldn’t seem to focus.

Thom had been sighted, and Edmund would have me kill him.

The sound of hammers and horses washed over me as I stared at the name. The construction of Edmund’s new estate was progressing quickly after I had assisted Ilyan in burning down the last one. Why Edmund had chosen the American West as his new base
, I still wasn’t clear on. I now spent more time traveling over oceans than anything else.

“Is there a problem, Wynifred?” I looked up to see Edmund jump down from the carriage we had just been sitting in, the dust from the ground
kicking up around us as he landed.

“Nothing is wrong, sir,” I said, keeping my voice bored and defiant.

“Good,” Edmund sighed as he wrapped his arm around my waist to help me down, bringing his lips to rest against the hollow skin under my ear at the same time, “because I want his head.”

“His head?” I asked, moving myself away from him. “What would you want with that ugly thing?”

“Think of it as a trophy, Wynifred. Sometimes a man wants more than a heart.” He smiled and my insides froze at all that was said behind those eyes.

“Besides, I think it is about time you prove your loyalty to me.” Another smile. What did he know? “Find him and bring me his head before my child is born. That should give you about a month. And if this one is born with eyes the color of mud, you can do away with it and its mother as well. Sounds like a full month for you.”

He moved away from me and strode toward the new house before I could move at all, which was probably a good thing. The desire to kill him right there was too strong, but Ilyan had warned me not to take him on. I don’t know what reason he had for doing so, but I was more likely to trust him than Edmund at this point.

After three hundred years of espionage, I had seen more than my fair share of bad and had even developed what some may call a conscious.

“Where is my brother?” I asked one of Edmund’s goons that was standing around, surprised my brother wasn’t here to follow him around like usual.

“Try the bar,” he said, before shouldering me out of the way. My jaw dropped as I watched him go, my fingers buzzing with energy and a need to teach him a lesson.

No one dared treat me that way, not unless they wished for death. I would have asked what I was missing, but I already knew.

I strolled away from the construction site, my skin prickling with energy as the dirt seeped through my shoes and heavy stockings.

I didn’t look back. I didn’t dare. I walked right to the small tavern in town, where I knew my brother would be, his back to me as I walked into the bar and he downed yet another tequila.

“Another!” he yelled into the empty space, it was far too early for the honest men of this town to be drinking.

“Make that two,” I spat as I sidled onto the stool next to him, the bartender eyeing me as if I had asked him to hand over the deed to the place.

“Now,” I added when it became obvious
that he wasn’t going to pour the drink anytime soon.

“You seem to be in a bad mood,” Cail said, not taking his eyes
off the small, dirty glass in front of him.

“Did you know about this?” I spat, not caring who heard me.

“Know about what?”

I slapped the paper down on the bar letting my magic spread the paper flat until Cail could read the words. His eyes grew wide, and I felt the shield go around us. He held out his hand, and I took it, placing an even more powerful shield around his heart. His face relaxed the moment he touched me
and his mind and body became his own.

“Of course I knew” was all he said, the small statement boiling my anger closer to the surface.

“And you didn’t tell me?” I was furious. Cail had warned me of difficult assignments and helped to disguise the hearts of my victims for the past two hundred years by implanting some of Edmund’s own magic within them. But this time, he had dropped the ball.

I couldn’t disguise a head.

“It’s a trap, Wyn.”

“Of course it’s a trap!” I spat, grabbing and downing the tequila the bartender had just set down in front of me. “He wouldn’t send me after him otherwise.” I swirled the empty glass around out of habit, refusing to look away from it.

“To death!” Cail toasted, before downing his glass, his head dropping to the table the moment he had drained it.

My head whipped around to face him, my eyes narrowing dangerously.

“To death?” I asked, surely he hadn’t given up on me quite so easily.

“Ah, yes,” he said, sitting up to pull a paper out of the pocket in his vest near his pocket watch. “You see, you are not the only one who has been given an assignment.”

Dramin, Son of Sain

It
was
a trap, for both of us. I looked away, the buzzing in my ears growing briefly before I dispersed it, my jaw clenching as I shook my head and let out an irritated breath.

“Come with me.” I didn’t give him time to question me before I pulled Cail
by the hand I still held, away from the bar and up to the long line of rooms above.

“Hey!” the bartender called out after seeing our ascent. “You can’t go up there!”

“I’ll pay you for the room after, old man, and it will be very worth your while.” I smiled seductively over the banister and the old man paled, a small twitch in his lips telling me all I needed to know.

I towed Cail after me before closing the door to the small room behind us, my magic expanding to place a stronger shield around us while still keeping the one around the Štít in Cail’s heart.

I pulled the small stone that Ilyan had enclosed in his walking stick out of my undergarments and held it in my hands, the stone growing warm for just a moment as I said his name, calling him to me.

“Do I need to be here for this?” Cail asked, the irritation heavy
in his voice. “I only help you, not him, after all.”

“By helping me, you are helping him,” I reminded him, but he only ignored me, sitting back on the bed and putting his muddy feet on the clean bedspread. Great, I didn’t want to see the bill for that.

“What is he doing here?” I spun at the thick voice, surprised to see not Ilyan, but Talon standing in front of the door.

“I might ask you the same question?” I said, my eyes narrowing at him.

“Ilyan is indisposed. So he sent me in his place.” He stood straight and tall, his eyes focused on the opposing wall, anywhere but on me.

“You can stutter?” I asked, the impressiveness of that feat heavy
in my voice, even I could not stutter.

“No.”

“Then how did you get here?” Talon narrowed his eyes at me briefly before glancing at Cail. His message was clear. He may trust me, which I doubted, but he did not, under any circumstances trust Cail. There were not many who did.

“Why did you call for us?”

He still wasn’t looking at me, a small detail that I wasn’t going to push. It had taken him a hundred years to come face to face with me and another hundred not to draw his sword every time I was near. This was a marked improvement.

I handed over the papers silently. Talon took one glance before looking back to me, his eyebrow raised.

“These are the names of our next assignments.”

Talon’s eyes widened. “But Dramin was the first.”

“Yes,” I said knowingly, cocking my head at him. That was the point.

“And Thom.” He crinkled the papers in his large fist before sho
ving them in his pocket. “Does Edmund know where they are?”

“I am not sure,” I answered, looking back to my brother who was dutifully ignoring us with a newly lit cigarette in his mouth, the ugly American hat laid low over his eyes.

“He knows,” Talon said, his deep voice quiet. I wasn’t even sure he had meant to speak aloud.

“Excuse me?”

“They travel together, with Sain. It isn’t a coincidence that these names came up together.”

Lovely.

“So, your position with us has been discovered?”

I could only nod.

“Then you need to come with me.” He reached forward and placed his big hand around my forearm, his grip too tight and hurting me. I zapped him, the small shock sending a warning, and he dropped me quickly, his eyes narrowing dangerously at me.

“We had a deal, Wynifred.” Why was he pleading with me? That seemed a little out of character for him.

“What of Cail, Talon?” I spat, not even trying to keep the acid from my voice. “He has risked just as much for you and Ilyan, and one of those names was delivered to him, not to me.”

“The deal did not include Cail,” Talon said, his shoulders squaring as he went back to staring beyond me.

I sighed before my feet took me to pace around him, the irritation causing my movements to get jumpy.

“Then I want to make a new deal,” I said after a moment, coming to a stop to face him.

“What could you possibly have that Ilyan would want?” Talon looked at me, and I stepped back. I wasn’t one to step away from a man, but something in his eyes had changed, the subtly of it catching me off guard.

“The fire magic.”

“What would I do with that?” Ilyan asked from the corner, causing me to jump, my hand covering my heart as I turned to face him. He sat on top of the high wardrobe, looking as thoroughly American as Cail tried to be, except the rugged look actually suited him. The limestone dust was a little much. There was authenticity and then there was trying too hard.

Limestone.

They were working on the estate. I couldn’t help but smile at the ingeniousness of it all. What better way is there to gain knowledge of the layout of your enemy’s fortress than to build it?

“I don’t need your magic. I have no use for it,” Ilyan said as he moved down to the floor, his tall frame towering over me.

“Then bind it, it is my payment to you for saving my brother,” I pleaded, taking a step toward him out of habit.

“What if I don’t want to be saved?” Cail’s voice was loud from the bed that sat in the corner of the room, causing us all to turn to face him. “What if I like where I am at, because, no offense, Ilyan, but I don’t trust you. You killed my mother in cold blood. Tsk tsk. Why should I trust you?”

“It wasn’t cold blood, Cail. You know that as much as anyone.”

“Yes, revenge is often a good reason.” Cail lifted his hat to look at Ilyan, the metal of the bed frame squeaking as he sat up. “She breaks up your parents bond, and you kill her. Seems honorable to me.”

“She was your father’s pawn,” Ilyan said simply, his voice level. I looked between the two of them. Cail had always been good at triggering emotions from others, but Ilyan seemed immune to his taunts. How interesting.

“That too.”

“This is a strange game you are playing, Cail,” Ilyan said, his body turning to address him directly. “Your sister has offered a sacrifice to give you asylum and to take the Štít out of your heart, and you don’t seem to want it.”

“I don’t,” Cail said simply, his eyes not leaving Ilyan’s.

I took a step back, right into Talon’s stiff chest before moving away from him automatically. How could Cail not want this? He had been helping me for a century, and to what end? He was now going to walk away, give us up to Edmund? My jaw clenched in frustration without me even realizing it.

“W
hy is that I wonder?”

“Simple.” Cail said, his eyes still not leaving Ilyan’s, the contest of wills and power strong between them. “With
no one left on the inside, who is going to stop Edmund from coming after her?”

“I promised her asylum, and I will deliver that.”

“You will? Against Edmund? Impressive.” Cail nodded as he moved to the window, everyone’s eyes following him. I could feel Talon tense in expectation. I knew he would do anything to stop Cail if he made a move to leave. He couldn’t risk anyone finding out about Ilyan’s location or breaking their cover.