Page 18 of A Blade of Blood and Shadow (The Ravaged Kingdom #1)

“Okay, fine.” He set his fork down in a puddle of syrup and pushed his plate away. I could tell from his pause that he was choosing his words carefully — always a bad sign with the fae .

“Silas is . . . very old for his kind. He has terrorized the Quarter for many years and done unspeakable things to my people.”

I didn’t contradict him. I couldn’t. Not when I’d seen the cruelty Silas was capable of.

Still, Kaden’s answer didn’t quite fit. Whoever he was, he was powerful — powerful enough to send those demons fleeing in terror. If Kaden truly cared about ending Silas, I couldn’t imagine he’d need my help to do it.

“You don’t need me to get to Silas,” I said finally.

Kaden waggled his eyebrows and snatched the cherry from my half-empty shake, pulling the fruit off the stem with his teeth. “That’s where you’re wrong, little huntress.”

I was so taken aback by his answer that I didn’t remember to glare at him for the nickname. My confusion must have shown on my face because he said, “When is the last time Silas actually left that house?”

Kaden watched my face carefully as I thought about it.

Then understanding washed over me. Silas rarely, if ever, left that house.

I’d always thought it was because he had his hunters to do his dirty work for him, but perhaps it was because he genuinely feared what would happen to him if he set foot in the Quarter.

“He is safe behind those wards,” said Kaden. “Even from someone like me.”

“And why do you think I’d be able to help with that?” I hadn’t been able to get near that house, and it wasn’t as though Silas would leave if I asked him.

Kaden cocked his head to one side. “You are not like Silas. At least, not entirely.”

My insides clenched at his insinuation, and Kaden nodded. “You are not a pureblooded hunter. ”

My cheeks heated, and I looked down at my empty plate. Even though it was obvious to any hunter that I wasn’t quite like them, my human half still felt like a shameful secret.

“How did you know?” I asked hoarsely.

“I can taste it in your magic.”

I flicked my gaze up to meet Kaden’s eyes and saw that a light flush had burnished his cheeks. “Plus, your scent is not quite right for a full-blooded huntress,” he added quickly.

But my mind had latched onto the first thing he’d said. “You can taste that I’m half mortal?”

“Mortal?” Kaden looked confused, then understanding lit his eyes, and he let out a bitter laugh. “ Gods . Silas really did a number on you if he let you believe you’re half mortal.”

I clenched my jaw so hard that it hurt. “What is that supposed to mean?”

“You’re not half mortal!” Kaden laughed again, but it was an unhinged, bitter sound.

Irritation flared in my gut. I was so tired of feeling inferior. Powerless. “If I’m not half mortal, then what am I?” I snapped.

“You’re half hunter, half witch.” He said it as though it were the most obvious thing in the world. “A witch of the Coranthe line, to be exact.”

My heart pounded in my chest. A witch? I was half witch ?

But that couldn’t be. My mother had always told me my father was a hunter, which meant any non-hunter genes had to have come from her. I’d never seen my mother do magic. I’d always assumed she was mortal .

My head spun, and Kaden’s gaze turned thoughtful, a mixture of pity and tenderness in his eyes. “You really didn’t know?”

I shook my head, feeling embarrassed. I’d been so young when my mother was killed. I remembered little things about her — her scent, her clothes, her voice when she sang to me. I remembered how she’d loved to pick wildflowers and how she’d hung bundles of herbs upside down in our kitchen to dry.

It made me sad that I hadn’t known this most basic thing about her.

Then my mind went to the fight with Gorm and his cronies outside of Imogen’s apartment building — that burst of power that had come from my body.

I’d been weak from blood loss — half out of my mind — so I hadn’t given it any thought until now. Looking back, I realized I’d killed them with magic.

“Is it . . . Is it that obvious?” I asked, shaken by my own realization. I’d gone my whole life not knowing what I was, and Kaden had guessed it in about five minutes.

He shook his head. “Not to most. The Coranthe line was thought to be extinct. There are very few alive today who remember what they were like.”

“But you do?”

He nodded. “I have known a lot of your kind, so your scent — your taste — is familiar to me.”

My stomach tumbled at his words. Then another question popped into my mind. He’d said that Silas was old for his kind, but the way Kaden spoke . . .

“How old are you?” I asked.

The dark fae looked to be in his late twenties, but living in the Quarter among vampires, I’d learned that looks could be deceiving.

Kaden tilted his chin forward, and those stormy gray eyes seemed to pin me to my seat. “Old enough to see what I thought was the last of the Coranthe line be killed.”

I swallowed, anger bubbling in my gut. “Do you think . . . Do you think Silas knew what I was?”

“I would almost guarantee it.”

At those words, the fury that had been simmering inside me since Imogen had been taken boiled over.

For five years, Silas had let me believe I was weak — inferior to him and the other hunters because of my mortal heritage. He’d rubbed my nose in the fact that I wasn’t full hunter every day I’d been with him, and Vince and the others had used my half-breed status against me.

Then again, I’d already felt powerless when Silas had found me — battered and broken and weak from blood loss. He’d seen it in my eyes that night and used it to control me.

When I finally broke free from my dark train of thought, I saw that Kaden had been watching me carefully. I had a feeling he saw everything I was feeling, and that made me uneasy.

“I couldn’t believe my senses at first,” he said. “But then I saw your blade, and I knew.”

My hand went instinctively to my witchwood dagger, which I now kept within close reach.

“It’s runed against demons, yes, but those runes also prevent any but a member of the Coranthe line from wielding it.”

I blinked in surprise, looking down at the dagger with its intricately carved hilt that never seemed to tarnish. “But you touched it. Back in the alley when you sent those demons away . . .”

“Touched it, yes. But if I had turned the blade on you and attempted to wield it . . .” He shuddered. “The magic in those runes would have shattered my mind if it didn’t kill me outright.”

I raised my eyebrows. All these years, it had surprised me that Silas had never tried to take my blade for his own, but maybe it was because he knew he couldn’t use it.

“A witch has warded Silas’s house against intruders,” said Kaden. “Only a witch can unweave those wards.”

“And that’s why you need me,” I said slowly.

“I need your powers.”

My head spun, and I suddenly felt angry and overwhelmed. “But I don’t —”

“You killed those thugs outside your friend’s apartment with magic,” said Kaden. “In all my years, I’ve never met a hunter who could do what you did, so don’t tell me you don’t have any powers.”

I opened my mouth to protest, but no words came out. If he’d seen what I’d done to Gorm and the others, there was no point in denying it.

“And I’ll bet that’s not the first time you’ve tapped into magic that wasn’t strictly hunter magic,” he added.

I swallowed, searching my memories. They were fuzzy, but I could recall a few incidents when I’d been in that horrible group home with Imogen.

There’d been an older boy at the house who wouldn’t leave us alone. One night, he’d cornered me in one of the bedrooms, and I’d blasted him through a second-story window. The boy had broken his back.

It had been years since I’d thought of that night. It had been so terrifying that I’d stuffed the memory away. Rather than admit that I didn’t know how I’d done it, I told everyone I’d pushed him.

“It doesn’t matter,” I said after a moment, shoving the memory back into the past where it belonged. “I don’t know anything about unweaving wards.”

“You don’t need to.” Kaden leaned forward and lowered his voice to just above a whisper. “I know a faerie who’s in possession of a cipher that can unweave any ward. I just need a witch to use it.”

I raised my eyebrows. It sounded too good to be true. “And this faerie is a friend of yours?”

“Not exactly,” he admitted.

“So why would he do us any favors?”

“He wouldn’t.” Kaden’s gaze flicked to the side. “But we’d just need to borrow the cipher.”

“You mean steal it.”

Kaden’s head bobbed from side to side. “Semantics. He won’t even know it’s missing. Trust me. We can even return it, if you like.”

I let out a long sigh. Stealing from a faerie was not on the list of things I’d like to try. “And how do you plan on stealing this magical cipher?”

“Lucky for us, this faerie is hosting a little soirée tomorrow evening, and he’s invited me.”

“And you want to go to this party and steal his cipher,” I guessed.

“No, little huntress. What fun would that be?” Kaden’s eyes smoldered in a way that made my insides feel uncomfortably warm. “I want us to go to the party and steal his cipher.”