7. Gaius
Chapter 7
Gaius
F our guards were on patrol at the council building when I arrived. Immediately, the hair on the back of my neck prickled. There should have been six.
I landed as silently as I could atop one of the pillars surrounding the flat roof. It was one of the two closest to the door that led into a private meeting chamber and then down into the main parts of the expansive building. Each of the pillars was ironically adorned with stone kin carvings—three were gargoyle, with their mouths formed into water spouts, and three grotesque. None of them were animate, they were decorative only, but I’d always wished I could free them from the bricks and cement anyway. Perhaps I’d get my chance soon.
Settling in, I channeled every ounce of patience I possessed as the guards performed a monotonous march across the roof. They paced down the edges of the short sides, up the longer ones, turned, then they’d switch with their counterpart. Repeat. Switch. Repeat. There was a commotion in some trees nearby, but I couldn’t take my focus from the door to check what it was. Probably just a raccoon or birds getting into a row over sleeping arrangements, anyway. My chest was burning again, something that seemed to be happening more and more frequently no matter what I ate or drank. I’d be reduced to asking for some kind of remedy from Lovette soon.
Shortly after the clock chimed the hour, the doors opened, and my targets walked out into the moonlight along with the two missing guards. The fools were nothing if not predictable.
The guards dispersed to stand along the pillars, allowing the councilmen a sense of privacy near the doorway.
“Everything is fine, Hugo. The concerned members can be assuaged with some sweet words and promises that everything will be buttoned up.” Augustus, a large man with perhaps four remaining white hairs swept across his bald head had always left a sour taste in my mouth.
“You seem so confident,” Hugo replied.
“Should I not be? It’s always worked like that before.”
“The fae informant is missing, Auggie. Likely dead . The one who’s been partnered with us all this time. Doesn’t that worry you?” The slight man bounced on his heels in his excitement, making it necessary to push his wire-rimmed spectacles back up his nose with his thumb.
Augustus chuffed. “Not in the least. If he’s dead, then that’s one less end to tie up, isn’t it?”
“Perhaps, but any who knew of his connection to us will be looking our way when they also realize he’s gone missing.”
“They won’t, Hugo.” Augustus sounded exasperated with his friend. “That fae was known for his temperamental nature and only appearing when he felt like it. Put this worry out of your mind.”
“Fine, but the necklace we confiscated is counterfeit, which means the real one is still either in the possession of a founding family descendant or just loose out in the world somewhere. Do you really think nobody else will notice that detail should they go to examine it further?”
“Why would they even bother to look? It’s been catalogued and stored safely in the archives. Your concerns are understandable, Hugo, but misplaced.”
“Fine. But even you can’t dispute the others are getting increasingly suspicious. Everything we’ve been working toward is beginning to crumble. Not to mention the incidents with Caster and the merchants. None of the local humans are talking, and I find it unbelievable that nobody saw a damn thing! That all had to have been Caled?—”
There was another rustle in the trees behind me, enough for one of the guards to tilt his pike as he peered over the wall.
“Quiet!” Augustus hissed the word, flinging his wide arm out to silence his coconspirator.
He glanced around, posturing like he was preparing to fight, but the guard relaxed. They shifted to take positions at the four corners of the roof, one now almost directly below me. He stood rod-straight, only his eyes and head moving as he continually scanned the area, but he never looked up. Foolish and short-sighted not to consider that the enemy might fly.
I leapt over to the top of the doorway, causing the councilmen to gasp and the guards to jerkily rush in response. I’d landed too heavily on my bad leg, tilting dangerously to one side. It was ungraceful, if nothing else. I swore under my breath as they collected themselves below me.
“Did I hear my name?”
“You!”
“Me.” The need for justice, for revenge, surged through my body. It felt like a thick sludge moving through my veins. I embraced the darkness that resided within me as I dove down on top of the councilmen. I nicked one with my outstretched claws as he dodged away and the others with the pointed spurs on the ends of my wings as they tried to flee back inside.
Blocking the doorway with my body, I unsheathed my sword. “Hang on now, I’ve quite a bone to pick with you both,” I warned them.
“You’ll be killed for this,” Hugo spat.
“I’d love to see you try.”
To his credit, he did. Unfortunately for him, he was old, slow, and hadn’t shifted in who knew how long. Most members that sat around the council tables had become too used to the comforts of human life. I would go so far as to claim none of them fit in anywhere outside this stuffy, pompous, bureaucratic building.
Before he could either pull a weapon or shift into his stone skin, I had him by the throat with my sword.
“Back off!” Augustus yelled, one hand raised to the guards. The three that had approached stopped moving but held a loose formation around us. “Let him speak.”
I snarled. I was not here for reason or talking. I was here to watch the traitors who had turned me into a monster bleed out beneath my feet.
Something heavy hit the flat roof. I heard a scuffle in the distance behind me, but my back was turned. Then there was a sound that chilled my blood. A very female gasp, one prompted by struggle.
I jerked my head, looking over my shoulder. My blood surged as Lovette came into view across the roof, her dagger bloody as she stood wide-eyed over the body of a guard. She swiped away some splattered droplets from her own throat, then turned to face the remaining guards.
“Stop!” I shouted, hoping that the authority I poured into my voice had some effect on the guards. It did, but only for a moment. At least their training had done that much.
“I’m fine!” she yelled back, already parrying with one of them, a dagger in her hand and her wings splayed out wide. She was not, however, in her full stone form. Her anger had been riled, but I could tell she wasn’t comfortable causing harm to the humans. She kept glancing down at the body, no doubt wondering if she could still revive the man. “Please don’t make me kill you,” she said firmly, though her tone held an edge of pleading. The guards stepped back, stance defensive, but instead of keeping up the dance, they just watched her.
“ Shift , Lovette,” I growled, hoping she listened.
“How interesting,” Augustus commented. “Isn’t she one of General Aurichal’s daughters? She special to you in some way, Caledon?”
Rage thrummed under my skin like a living thing, dark and fiery in its intensity. He dared speak of her like that? To threaten me was one thing, but his focus shifting to her was another beast entirely. Protecting someone else, especially Lovette, hadn't been part of my calculations. Her presence made me feel off balance, my skin too tight. Anxiety closed up my throat and made my chest heavy.
In response, I said nothing, only tightened my grip, the edge of my blade pressing into the fragile skin of Hugo’s throat.
I wanted him to feel like I did; like he couldn’t breathe.
With my blade through his trachea, that would certainly be a problem.
“Looks like your wounds have healed up,” Hugo wheezed, the spot where my forearm had been reattached right near his face. “Quite a miracle, that. I heard there was a magicked sword involved. Rumor has it there are dreadful side effects for everything it touches. By some accounts, you should already be dead.”
“Questionable how you forced the forge mistress to hand over that blade, councilman. Having it evaluated by a talented smith seems far more productive than shutting it away in the archives. Unless you were simply returning it from where it originated?”
“You sure you’re feeling alright, Gaius? That’s a lofty accusation. Though you do still seem a bit unsteady. Perhaps all the ale you’ve been drinking is having some unwanted side effects?”
I ticked my head to the side, neck cracking as the tension eased slightly. I’d thought through at least a dozen scenarios for how this would go. All of them ended with the councilmen dead. But now I worried I needed to know everything they knew before I took their miserable little lives.
“The red-haired fae. How long was he your agent?” I growled the words into the ear of Hugo, pressing my blade tighter to his throat. “He attacked me with a cursed blade, nearly took my limbs from me altogether. Lost me my job, my post. I obeyed my orders blindly for decades, protecting him. Protecting the council. So why would you still worry about him at all? What does he know that you don’t want getting out? What value did he hold that you were willing to sacrifice me and all of Revalia for?”
My gut rolled, remembering the day the red-haired fae had divested me of an arm and a leg. Not only had I told my soldiers to ignore that they’d seen him do it, I’d been willing to just be done with this existence because of the injury. I shuddered. There was a blurry place in my mind when I tried to remember why I’d covered for the fae. I knew it had been an order, but to what end?
My anger rose, realizing how weak and foolish that sounded. When had I grown so ready to give my will, my control, to someone else?
Augustus smirked. “I told you he wouldn’t remember.”
Every muscle in my body stiffened. Frustrated, I realized I couldn’t kill them now, not until I knew all their secrets and how I fit into them. I didn’t deserve it, but I also wouldn’t mind some closure to ease my own self-hatred if there was some to be had.
As I weighed my options, the sound of Lovette crying out in rage echoed off the building. I spun us a quarter turn so I could see what had happened. Her clothing was splashed with crimson, her eyes wide and arm still outstretched, though no guards remained standing. And she hadn’t shifted, despite my command for her to do so.
“I asked nicely,” she said, an almost indistinguishable tremor in her voice. “I said please. I didn’t come here to kill anyone.” Yet she had, in only her human skin. The sight of her bright-blue eyes full of frustrated tears, a streak of blood across her face, gutted me.
As I stared, I realized how foolish I’d been, yet again. Her arrival had been the perfect distraction, and they’d taken advantage of it. The doors opened and several more guards boiled out. I was shoved, weapons thrust at me from all directions. How they’d sent a signal was a mystery, but it was too little too late for me to worry about that.
My blade dragged across Hugo’s throat as I beat my powerful wings enough to lift me up and away from the threat. Unfortunately, it was not enough to do substantial damage. I ducked and dodged the oncoming advances after drifting back down in a more open spot, the cowardly councilmen fleeing back inside. Several of the guards followed them, blades held out as they backed through the door.
I spun, finding Lovette ready to battle with her dagger, stubbornness and bravery pulled down around her like a shield, and a look in her eyes of sheer determination. She was not trained for this kind of battle, and there were several of them for her to face at once. And the blasted woman still hadn’t shifted into her stone skin.
I had only a moment to decide whether I would fight them all, then chase down the councilmen or take Lovette and retreat. The slow ache under my ribs that I couldn’t shake, the heartburn, the anger—I’d never uttered out loud what I suspected the cause was, but there was no doubting it now. And because of that, there really was no choice to be made at all.
It had to be her. It would always be her.
I rushed toward the edge of the roof, slashing and shoving as many bodies out of my way as I could. I threw myself at Lovette once I was within range, my wings flared out as wide as they would go, making myself a shield around her. If I’d gauged it right, I could grab her up against me and get us to safety before they got close enough to take a single throw with their spears. If I was wrong, I could hope that the guards had terrible aim but not much more. I’d suffered plenty of injuries by that kind of weapon before, and while not pleasant, it was something I could easily survive. Especially with her there to help me.
Lovette’s eyes widened as she saw me barreling toward her, no doubt as fearsome as the angry men with spears and swords and pikes. I hit her with enough force to make us both lose our breath, but my wings held true.
“Tuck in your wings,” I ordered, and she readily did so, her body soft against my chest, her arms lashed around my torso in a fierce grip, her legs twined with mine.
Once I was able to catch the wind, I flew us back through the city without pause. I didn’t turn around to see the men shouting behind us, nor did I give any thought to humans who might spot us flying low through the streets. For a moment, I considered stopping at d’Arcan but just as quickly discarded the idea. I didn’t want to deal with any questions right now, and both Magnus and the demons in residence there would certainly have some for me.
My chest felt like it was on fire, my heart thudding with undue urgency even now that we were out of immediate danger. It didn’t feel like anger, though there was certainly plenty of that to go around.
“Months I’ve been preparing for tonight, and you lost me both of my targets! Why are you always places you should not be? Are you injured? Why did you refuse to shift into your stone skin? It would have protected you!”
“I’m sorry,” she said, voice unusually soft. Her subdued mood worried me far more than if she’d been yelling back at me. The way she stared at me made me feel naked somehow, exposed.
When the conclave finally loomed close, I took us directly to my hut, preparing myself for whatever hellfire was about to rain down upon me while simultaneously trying to head it off with my own the moment the door was closed behind us.