Page 16 of A Blade of Blood and Shadow (The Ravaged Kingdom #1)

Chapter

Ten

I left Imogen’s apartment as soon as the sky began to lighten. My muscles ached, and I was still weak from blood loss, but time wasn’t on my side. Silas had taken Imogen, and I couldn’t make myself wait any longer.

Birds chirped merrily from the treetops as I retrieved my daggers from the alley and wiped the blood from the blades. Going out in broad daylight came with its own risks, but at least I wouldn’t have to worry about blood-drunk vampires stumbling back from the bars and clubs.

By the time I pulled up in front of Adelaide’s bungalow, sunlight was just beginning to gild the rooftops of the houses along her street. I didn’t care that it was too early or that my leathers were caked in blood. I banged on her door until the old witch materialized.

As those milky white eyes swept over me, the wards over the threshold hummed and tightened. They buzzed unpleasantly against my skin, forcing me to take a step back .

“What are you doing here, girl?” Adelaide hissed. “I told you never to come here again.”

“It’s Imogen,” I said. “She’s been taken. By Silas.”

The old witch’s face paled, and an old darkness flickered behind those moon-bright eyes. Her lips tightened into a thin line, and I felt her power pulse.

“I knew this was going to happen,” she growled, clutching the edge of the door.

“Five years, and she never heard from you. Five years you stayed away. You could have been dead for all she knew.” Adelaide wrinkled her nose.

“Part of me hoped you were dead. At least then Imogen would be safe from you and your kind.”

I swallowed. The old woman hurtled her words with such malice and vitriol that my stomach tightened and soured.

“The second I learned you were back in her life, I knew you would bring her nothing but pain and suffering. And now look what you’ve done!”

Part of me wished Adelaide had reached out and slapped me. It would have hurt less. Salty tears tracked down my face, but I didn’t bother to wipe them away.

“Save your tears, girl,” she snarled. “They’re no good to anyone.”

“I’m going to get her back,” I said in a shaky whisper. “Please help me.”

“Help?” The old woman stared at me with a mixture of pity and disgust. “There’s nothing you or I can do for her now.”

“P-please,” I stammered, trying to keep my voice steady as snot trickled from my nose. “I-I know where he took her. If I could just — ”

“Of course you know,” Adelaide shot back. “You’re the reason she’s gone!”

Each of her words felt like a physical blow as they pummeled me.

My muscles clenched reflexively against the assault, and I made myself take three deep breaths.

“Listen . . . I know this is my fault. I know Imogen would be better off without me in her life. But you can’t just abandon her when she needs your help. Please .”

I didn’t care that I sounded pathetic. I would grovel at the old woman’s feet. I’d do anything to get Imogen back.

“ I’m not the one who abandoned her.” Adelaide’s voice was surprisingly soft, but it would have been better if she’d shouted.

“If he has her, there’s no getting her back.

But you already know that.” She let out a shuddering breath, and the helpless look in her eyes felt like a knife to the chest. “There’s no point getting yourself killed. Imogen is as good as dead.”

Adelaide’s words were still ringing in my ears as I returned to Imogen’s apartment. I didn’t bother locking the door.

Silas wasn’t coming for me. He’d ordered Imogen’s kidnapping to send a message: I’d pay for my betrayal with my life, but not until he’d taken everything from me. And Imogen was everything.

Ever since my mother’s death, I’d had no one — not a single soul who’d cared whether I lived or died. No one but Imogen, anyway.

For five years, I’d tried to shield her from all of this. I’d shut her out completely — abandoned my friend — and yet she’d still invited me into her home.

I’d told myself that I could protect her, but the instant I walked across her threshold, I’d doomed Imogen to be the object of Silas’s wrath. I hadn’t protected her when it counted.

As I went to tug the curtains shut against the blazing sun, Goose let out a plaintive whine and threaded his body through my legs. I nudged him away with my foot, but he just continued those graceful figure-eights, mewing and rubbing against my ankles.

I glanced toward the ceramic bowl on the kitchen floor — the very empty ceramic bowl. My heart sank. I’d likely made Goose an orphan like us; the least I could do was feed him.

Goose trailed me into the kitchen, continuing to meow and rub up against me as I found the cat food and the can opener.

Goose’s sudden friendliness astounded me. All it took was him being a little hungry, a little alone, for the cat to shower me with devotion. Then again, all it had taken was the promise of protection for me to shackle myself to Silas for the last five years. I was no better than the damned cat.

As Goose lapped up his seafood surprise, I collapsed on the leather couch and watched the slice of sunlight casting through the curtains move across the rug. I drifted in and out of a fitful sleep, only rising to wolf down two bowls of cereal and half a carton of chocolate milk.

By the time the sun had set over the Quarter, a plan had formed in my mind: I would go to Silas and offer myself up in exchange for Imogen’s freedom.

He might have had a use for Imogen, but the hunter in him craved revenge even more.

I knew what he’d do to me, but I could endure it if it meant Imogen would go free.

If my plan backfired — if Silas decided he’d rather keep us both — I’d redecorate that filthy house with the blood and entrails of his hunters.

A grim stillness settled over me as I stood in the shower and watched the rusty brown–tinted water circle the drain as it ran off my body.

I hadn’t realized how much blood I’d had on me when I’d gone to plead for Adelaide’s help. It coated my hair. It was under my nails. It was caked in the divot between my collarbones and had pooled in the creases of skin where my arms met my torso.

Once I’d thoroughly cleansed myself, I French-braided my hair and pulled on my spare set of leathers. If I survived the night, I’d find a leatherworker to patch the holes in my jacket. Leather moto jackets were too expensive to toss out any time they earned a few new battle scars.

I felt a strange sense of calm as I strapped on my weapons. The short swords at my back were a comfort, as was the weight of the daggers sheathed at my thighs.

As I left the apartment, I slid a note under the door of Imogen’s across-the-hall neighbor, asking them to feed Goose and change his litter while Imogen was on “vacation.” I didn’t actually know if her neighbor was the type to feed another person’s cat, but it was the best I could do for Goose if everything went to hell.

I didn’t glance twice at the hungry vampires slumped against the neon-drenched buildings as I made my way to Silas’s. They didn’t want my kind of trouble. I was a huntress with nothing to lose.

My heartbeats grew more erratic as I approached the edge of the Quarter.

Gaudy opulence faded into neglect — sagging porches, peeling paint, foundations crumbling with age.

I passed a Laundromat and a familiar pay-day loans place but walked right past the two-story brick house where Silas and his hunters lived.

I stopped at the corner and doubled back, shaking myself to focus. I couldn’t afford to walk into that house distracted by my own panic.

But as I reached the pay-day loans place again, I realized I hadn’t passed the house. I turned around, looking up and down the block, but Silas’s house wasn’t there.

Gritting my teeth, I strode toward the fence that divided Silas’s yard from the neighboring property.

I blinked and whipped around as a giant Rottweiler lunged at the peeling wooden fence behind me, nearly knocking it over.

I staggered toward the curb as the dog growled and snarled, the spikes of a choke collar digging into its neck.

The dog belonged to the owners of a ramshackle little house with a caved-in porch and a rusted brown sedan parked out front. I’d never seen this house before — never seen this dog, though I’d heard it barking plenty of times. It was two blocks over from Silas’s place. But how had I gotten here?

Trying to keep my unease at bay, I fisted my hands and stalked up the street, rounding the corner to get to Silas’s.

But instead of taking the second right as I’d planned, I ended up three blocks down in front of a seedy gas station, where two scantily dressed mortal women watched me with suspicion.

Growling to myself, I turned on my heel and stomped back the way I’d come. But just as I reached the familiar street, I started to wonder if it was the right street .

Silas’s house had been on a street named for a flower. Marigold? Magnolia? I couldn’t remember anymore.

Unease coiled in my chest, but then I felt the cool kiss of magic along the back of my neck. “Lost?” came a taunting male voice from behind me.

That voice . Something about it made my whole spine lock up and sent a hot shiver of need straight to my core. It was also irritating as hell.

Pleading to the gods for patience, I whirled around and came face to face with Kaden. He stood with his wings fanned out behind him, arms folded across his chest.

“What are you doing here?” I snarled, closing the distance between us so I didn’t have to shout. Silas’s hunters would likely be setting out within the hour, and I didn’t want to lose the element of surprise.

“I followed you,” he said, shrugging as if this was totally normal.

“You followed me?” I hissed, fury and panic rising up inside of me. How had I not noticed that Kaden was following me? The thought was extremely unsettling.

But he simply cocked his head to one side, making those choppy black locks fall across his brow. “You already assumed I was stalking you, so what’s the difference?”

“What do you want?” I asked wearily. I was so not in the mood. I’d been ready to hand myself over to Silas to save Imogen. I didn’t need Kaden working me up into a murderous snit, or I might just burn the place to the ground.

“I have to admit, I was curious to see what you’d do.”

“What I’d do ?”

Kaden nodded. “Your friend’s apartment reeked of hunter — a hunter that wasn’t you. I figured you wouldn’t be stupid enough to invite one of your . . . friends over to her place. Not when Silas is known for collecting witches.”

I narrowed my eyes but didn’t respond. I wasn’t sure which part annoyed me more — that he’d managed to follow me without my noticing or that he assumed I was friends with any of Silas’s hunters.

“So, what’s the plan?” he coaxed. “You certainly don’t look as though you’re ready to prostrate yourself at Silas’s feet and beg for his forgiveness.” He eyed the dozen or so daggers strapped to my thighs, and his gaze felt almost like a physical touch.

“Stay — away from me,” I growled. “This isn’t a good time.”

Then, against my better judgement, I turned and gave Kaden my back. But I’d barely made it two steps when he said, “You won’t be able to find it, you know.”

Irritation flared hot in my chest, tempering the icy terror that had been threatening to choke me since I’d found Imogen’s apartment empty. “Find what?”

“Silas’s safe house. You won’t be able to find it.”

“What are you talking about?” I huffed, wheeling around to face him again. I kept my expression carefully murderous so he wouldn’t see my raw self-doubt.

“Because of the wards,” he said, as though it were obvious. Kaden jerked his head in the direction I’d been headed. “Silas isn’t stupid. He’s got a witch under his control who keeps cloaking wards around his safe house. Why else do you think the clans haven’t exterminated him and his hunters yet?”

Inside, I wobbled. I’d honestly never given it much thought beyond Silas’s carefully cultivated reputation for brutality .

“Silas doesn’t have a witch,” I said, unable to keep the slight tremor of doubt out of my voice.

“Of course he does. You just didn’t know.”

I gritted my teeth and crossed my arms over my chest, as if I could somehow protect myself from the reality that Silas was even more horrible than I’d given him credit for. “If that’s true, then why is this the first time I haven’t been able to find the house?”

“Because you were loyal to him before. Now that you’ve betrayed him . . .” Kaden trailed off. “You could circle that house every night for a month, and you’d never find it. Eventually, you’d forget what it looked like and what street it was on until it faded from your memory completely.”

I just stared up at Kaden. That explained how I’d ended up in front of the gas station and the house with the Rottweiler. The wards had misdirected me. But if he was right that I’d never find it no matter how hard I looked . . .

“Well, that’s just great,” I seethed, wishing I’d kept Gorm’s cronies alive so I could use them for target practice. “How am I supposed to find it now? There has to be a way.”

Something like delight flashed in Kaden’s eyes, and he started walking backwards down the sidewalk with a quick jerk of his head. “Have dinner with me, little huntress, and I’ll tell you.”

“What?” He couldn’t be serious.

“My, you really are a bit slow tonight. I think those wards are doing their work.” He swept his hair out of his eyes and flashed a devilish smirk. “Come eat with me, and I’ll tell you how you can save your friend.”