Chapter 16
R ainwater dripped from the ends of his damp curls, barely missing contact with Emer’s skin. He was close enough that he could breathe in her scent. It was one that he could not name when he first noticed it but soon found it reminded him of forget-me-nots in the evening. Like the very rain that slowed her escape and allowed him to catch her. Like a storm.
Still crouched over her, he scanned the room. No traps. No trip wires. No way to know an intruder had entered the cabin. She hadn’t even stirred when he approached, though he had not been quiet, and it was evident that she’d passed out from exhaustion rather than willfully disregarding safeguards and leaving herself vulnerable.
Calder wondered if she had walked all night or spent it outside. Her clothes were still damp from the brief storm that struck during the earlier hours of the morning, so he knew she hadn’t been in the cottage then. As angry as he was to be caught in the downpour, he had smirked at the thought of her dripping wet and cursing each of the seven Elders by name.
Standing slowly, he backed away from her. Rain scattered from his hair as he ran his hands through it in thought. He moved to one of the nearby chairs and sat.
Calder knew what it was to be a killer, and of all the mysteries surrounding Emer, there was one thing he was certain of since the cliff… Emer was no killer.
There was a cost to seeing someone’s life drain from their eyes, knowing that you had a hand in causing it. He was struck with sudden sympathy and guilt. He thought back to the first time he had taken a life. It was intentional, something he had been trained for, yet he could still recall the weight of the deed on his soul.
He wandered through the woods, the faint song of Li finding him through the trees as she collected wildflowers. He wished he found peace in the woods, joy in his sister ’ s song, but he found the day lacked both. Sadness and anger were his only companions since his mother ’ s death. He certainly did not have his father ’ s presence for company. Their patriarch spent his time soaking his sorrows in the deep crimson of vengeance. A calling that could not be set aside even to celebrate his only daughter ’ s day of birth.
So, today, Calder hunted wildflowers because it was what their mother would do. What their father should be doing.
He tilted his head back, catching a glimpse of the sky through the trees. Alabaster perched above and staring down at him affectionately. Calder despised the menace and mentally corrected himself. His constant companions were: sadness, anger, and Little Bastard.
His sister screamed.
Many had made the mistake of thinking that they would be easy prey with their father preoccupied, and there were few things more precious to Keithen and the Morvran clan than Li . But where his treasured daughter was, his ruthless son was not far behind.
Calder raced through the trees in the direction of her cry, sword in hand. When he found them, his sister had a sack over her head. One man held her arms and the other her feet as they fought to carry her through the woods. A third man shouted commands as the others tried to keep hold of his flailing sister .
Calder was glad they had covered her eyes. It made the next part much easier. He slipped the ax from his belt and its quiet whistle through the air was abruptly halted as it sank deep in the back of the man clearly in charge. He shouted as he collapsed, his ability to walk severed. He would not die, not yet.
Calder turned his attention to the other two as they nearly dropped her.
“ Shit,” one hissed.
“ Fuck,” the other agreed.
She was on her feet, hands bound and face still covered as the men pulled their weapons. One grabbed her by the arm and used her as a shield. Calder cocked his head as the man raised a knife in front of her throat. She went still. Not from fear but to listen.
“ Do you know what the dancing raven loves?” she asked him, her voice saccharine and calm.
“ Elderberries,” Calder answered, her signal to drop.
His sister ducked low at the same moment that Calder pulled a knife from the sheath at his chest and embedded it in the man's throat.
Turning his attention to the last man standing, he closed the distance in a heartbeat and the sound of metal rang through the air.
“ Leave it on, Li,” Calder demanded.
Clang.
Grunt.
Thud.
The third man was pulling himself along the ground when Calder wrenched his ax from his back, evoking an inhuman wail.
“ I ’ ll release you if you tell me who sent you,” he said with a coldness that a boy of sixteen should not have possessed. Pain made the man ’ s words almost unintelligible, but eventually, their motive became clear.
Ransom.
He bent slowly and patted the man ’ s cheek. “ I ’ m a man of my word,” he whispered just before he snapped his neck, releasing the man straight across the Array. He took his sister by the hand and led her from the woods, without taking off the sack.
He took his sister to pick wildflowers on her birthday.
One.
Two.
Three.
Like picking petals off those very same flowers, he suddenly had three bodies to his name. The first of many.
Perhaps he would be as lucky as the knights from storybooks who stumbled upon sleeping maidens in the woods.
Perhaps she would listen to what he had to say. Perhaps, for once, she would not run. Regardless, both of their souls would benefit from delaying their reunion. Hers could use the rest, and his could use the quiet.