Amanda Bonilla - Shaedes of Gray - A Shaede Assassin Novel

The Lyhtan continued to laugh, the sound crawling up and down my spine like a thousand tiny insects. It spit and coughed, spewing a fowl-smelling gunk on my shirt. “I will walk proud in the light of day and laugh as we wipe your kind from the face of the earth!”

The time for talk had long passed, in my opinion. I felt the setting sun with a clarity that I had not recognized before. Every facet of my being tingled with the approach. Twilight was upon us, and, particularly, the gray hour that I longed for. I released the Lyhtan, who laughed hysterically again, drooling all over itself, rocking back and forth against its shackles. I pulled back and waited until I felt the sun pass below the horizon, as if I had plunged to the other side of the earth. With all my strength, I cut down with the blade. The Lyhtan’s laughter stopped. Its head rolled toward the door, where Raif stopped it with his foot.

“I take it we’re done with him?” he asked.

“Him?” I snorted. “How could you tell?”

Raif graced me with a humorless laugh. He rested an awkward hand on my shoulder. “What did he tell you?”

Of course, he meant his deceitful, high-handed brother. “Nothing worth a damn,” I said, leaving the Lyhtan’s body and the council room. “We’re in deep shit, Raif. This is bad.”

“Tell me,” he said, low and dangerous.

I didn’t have much to offer, save a few threads of thought I could not weave together. I relayed everything I knew, starting with my supposed making and ending at Xander’s revelation that I was neither made nor born, but a creature of my own creation. Raif already knew almost everything else, and the things he did not know didn’t garner much surprise. He was a pragmatic man, a skilled warrior, and one of the few I counted as a friend. I didn’t leave out a single detail, and I spared no one’s feelings, least of all his in offering my opinion of his brother. The corners of Raif’s mouth twitched and he shook his head.

“It’s hard, Darian, to rule. Xander protects his people the best way he knows how. If he must lie and cover things up to do so, then so be it. I am sorry that much of it was at your expense, but you’ve got to accept these things, get over them, and focus.”

“On what?” I asked.

Raif’s eyes glowed with bloodlust. “Battle.”

Chapter 24

“ I’ll be there in fifteen minutes.”

“No, you won’t,” I said into my cell.

“Bullshit. You’re going to need me. I’m coming.”

I wondered what it would take to keep him at my apartment. I couldn’t focus on protecting my own neck if I was too worried about protecting his. I was officially in deep shit, and there was no way in hell I would risk Tyler’s safety. If anything happened to him—especially in the course of protecting me—I’d never forgive myself. Eternally gallant described Tyler to a tee. I didn’t want to do it, but perhaps another wish was in order. “Tyler, please . . . do as I ask.”

“Dar—” He started to argue back, but the next thing I heard turned my warm blood to ice. A scuffle, shouting, and several loud crashes. I held the air in my lungs and didn’t dare breathe as I listened to sounds of Tyler’s assault, followed by a furious roar that could only have come from an animal. Raif peeked around the corner from the next room and froze, watching with suspicion. I returned his regard with my own expression of urgency, and he left his comrade in midconversation. He stood at my shoulder—and waited.

I heard the sickly rasping of breath before it actually spoke. The same wave of terror raced down my spine. The war had begun.

“We have your pet, Shaede,” the voice said. “If you want him back . . . unsullied, you must turn yourself over to my master.”

“How do I know you won’t kill him anyway?”

The creature laughed—a sound I had come to hate—and said, “How, indeed?”

“Tell Azriel and your Enphigmalé I’m not afraid of them,” I said with as much defiance as I could spare. I’d almost reached my quota for one night, and I needed to save a little for later.

Again the creature laughed. I’d begun to think it was the only sound their race could make. “You’ll come, Shaede. Because if you don’t, the Jinn will die.”

Could I wish Tyler out of this very dangerous situation? It might work. He was my genie. If I made a wish, he had to grant it. Right?

“Well,” I said aloud, as if I were actually contemplating letting them have Ty, “I’m not sure that’s a fair trade. A magic-wish granter in exchange for a girl? Seems like you’re getting the shitty end of that deal.”

More laughter. The first thing I planned to do when I got my hands on this particular Lyhtan was rip out its vocal cords. I’d see if it found that funny.

“Come and trade yourself for him, or he dies.”

I sighed. “Do you know what I wish—?”

“Don’t say it,” the Lyhtan hissed. “Make a single wish, and we tear the Jinn’s throat open.”

They wanted me . Period. And to get me, they’d taken the only thing on this planet I cared about. Shit, how could I have been so stupid ? I should have handcuffed Tyler to me, begged him to come with me, rather than wish him confined to my apartment for the day. I couldn’t lose him. I refused to let him die in my place. Azriel was a shrewd sonofabitch. Leave it him to know my Achilles’ heel: affection.

“Fine.” The word sounded as final as death. I put my finger to my lips as Raif opened his mouth to protest. “Where and when?”

“Dawn. At the domed fountain.”

The domed fountain. I knew of only one in the city that matched the description. “I’ll be there,” I said, and the call disconnected.

“Where are you going?” Raif demanded.

“The Seattle Center. They want to make a trade.”

Raif glared and shook his head as if he felt sorry for my simple stupidity. “The Jinn for you—am I right?”

I nodded. Tyler’s smile, his homey smell, the warmth that blossomed within me every time I saw him . . . The growing lump in my throat would undoubtedly betray my bravado if I spoke.

“They’ll more than likely kill him anyway. You know that, don’t you?” Raif was as cool and detached as anyone could get. I envied him that.

Laughter bubbled up from my chest. I thought of the insectlike creature holding Tyler’s phone up to its . . . ear hole? I couldn’t help myself. The sound sputtered from my closed lips and quickly turned into an all-out guffaw. Raif looked at me like I’d finally lost my mind, and for a moment I would have agreed with him. Tears rolled down my cheeks as I continued to laugh. My stomach ached from it. But slowly the laughter transformed into something altogether more hard and angry. It ended in a slow, building scream that sent my mentor back a pace or two.

“Out!” Raif commanded, and every soul in the room vacated the main floor in a dusting of shadow, the compression of which nearly forced the air from my chest.

I doubled over, drawing as much oxygen into my lungs as I could. Shaking with rage and fear, I stayed bent over for a long time, unable to meet Raif’s gaze. A quiet moment passed, and I focused on the sound of my breathing until Xander came rushing down the stairs.

He was geared up for a fight. His mode of dress wasn’t unlike Raif’s, though it lacked the elfin flair. With a sword on one hip and a dagger at the other, he reminded me of a medieval knight, complete with chain mail. Xander’s was a little more modern—shiny and somehow glittering in the faint artificial light. His boots looked like military issue to me. I wondered if a Shaede among us ever considered using a gun, but I assumed a bullet to the chest would not be nearly as effective as a clean cut through the spine.