Chapter 42
Keira
There was something about the way her face betrayed no emotion. None at all.
It was almost like she wasn’t human.
I knew that of the five nations, a few of them, especially the Northern Isles, were not strangers to unearthly creatures that feasted on human flesh and blood. And yet she appeared so poised as one would see a snake only moments before it strikes.
She had hair similar to mine and only in that sense were we alike. I didn’t know any other girls who had hair in such a vivid shade of red other than her.
She always said I was too small, too weak. Every day when I picked up blade after blade and skinned the corpses of nameless men and women, I wondered what she was looking for in all of us; in me.
Like she couldn’t stand the thought of a child being anything but perfect with her knives.
When I opened my eyes, I was unafraid and keenly aware of the presence in the room.
I let my gaze stray to Rorcan, who sat by the window, looking troubled.
“Can’t sleep?”
He did not appear startled.
“You dozed off,” was all he said.
“I am aware.”
He did not speak after that. And I waited. Waited until he would fall into the welcoming arms of sleep.
~
It was almost too easy; the way I left the older Malavek brother in the room.
I don’t need a tail, especially not when I already have loose ends to take care of. And Rorcan Malavek would be too pricey a loose end and would come back to bite my behind even in death.
The streets of Stunngard were rarely empty, even during this ungodly hour. As I made my way further into the town, the buildings of glass became more pronounced and cramped, taking up nonexistent space and emitting more heat.
The people in the rich fur coats and hats and boots wedged their way through the impossibly thick snow, with ever a chance to relish warmth in the presence of constant snowfall and small spurts of breath.
How bleak, I thought.
And I also thought of the chills running down my back that had nothing to do with the glacial weather. I thought of the intuitive feeling of someone following me and so I made the heftiest of turns to my left and waited.
A leather black hood amidst a sea of greyscale fur was a bad choice for inconspicuous.
I did not have time to analyze.
Another loose end.
In a blur of motion, black leather met black leather until I had my knife around the stalker’s neck.
“Name.”
A grunt. Female.
“Now.”
And then she did something I did not expect.
A move, specifically, that left me on my knees and freed her hair of her hood.
Short and vividly green hair.
“How..?” It was all I could manage. For I knew how that move could leave one breathless because of the sheer pressure on their lungs. I knew that the only person who knows how to do that is the one who taught me.
“Dina?”
When she looked at me, it was like seeing a ghost. A ghost purely a figment of my imagination, come from my past to haunt me for everything I’d done.
“Keira.”
I couldn’t help the way my eyes widened. The way they roved over her suits, very similar to mine; only a tiny skirt wrapped around her hips and the hood. She was real. She was standing in front of me.
“You’re… alive,” I breathed.
“I am,” she said, a small smile blooming on her face. She looked well and for the first time I felt pure and utter relief. I felt the way my heart thudded, thudded, thudded against my ribcage in joy.
My friend was alive.
To be continued…
More and more surprises! Cant wait for next.😍👍🏻