Page 13

Nika

L ev popped his head out of the secret door in the eastern corner of the main compound. After a moment, he motioned for me to follow. We both entered the hallway and secured our cloaks. A few corridors, and we’d mix with the general population.

He led the way, his shoulders back and posture that of any high-level Dark Fae roaming these halls.

It was the Lev I’d grown up with, his mother’s son.

It never failed to impress me how quickly Lev fell into the role he was born into.

How easily he gave off aristocratic airs and dominance—the mask he’d worn all his life.

It was the farthest thing from who he really was, but the pivot from one Lev to the other was as seamless and as remarkable as it had always been.

If not for me, he would’ve been chosen as the next Council leader.

It was the position he was always meant to take, and it was the one Yuma trained him for.

And with him, maybe the change my father sought by staying all these years would’ve happened one day with Lev’s leadership.

But the greedy part of my heart was glad he’d left that life and chosen this one.

Leaving him behind was one of the hardest things I’d ever done.

Following his lead, I lifted my chin, and we exited the hidden hallway into the main corridor. We slowed to a leisurely stroll as if we had all the time in the world. We didn’t, but people in the Dark Fae Society didn’t rush. They didn’t run. They didn’t hurry at all, honestly.

I didn’t expect the crowd we were met with when the hallway curved into the center of the building.

It was where most of our gatherings took place, the Entertainment Hall.

I didn’t expect anything to be taking place tonight.

Most events were held on certain days of the week.

Today wasn’t one of them. So Lev and I made every effort to blend in with the people we’d escaped over half a year ago.

Dark Fae were everywhere. Many I knew by their hands, their eyes, their mouths, the rings that they wore.

Many who’d used those very things to torment me over the years.

At first, I didn’t understand what was happening.

They never congregated like this on a random day of the week, but then I realized the grave mistake we’d made by coming tonight of all nights.

They were holding a ceremony for the new Council they’d selected.

One look at Lev confirmed I hadn’t read the room wrong. Because standing on a platform was Lev’s cousin. The guy who’d made my life hell for decades. The man who was the first to scar my back so it didn’t heal.

The arrogant Dark Fae had donned the official Council uniform, his shoulders decorated with gems and precious metals.

Some dark hair was braided around his head, but the rest hung loose around his shoulders.

In this light, he was the palest Fae in here.

And while his skin might be white, his heart was one of the blackest with Yuma and the rest of the Council gone and buried in the ground.

Zephyr’s yellow eyes scanned the crowd, lips lifted in a condescending smile he’d worn plenty of times while staring down at me.

He’d given me the same look before tearing all of my nails from the root.

After battering my hand and breaking every finger when I refused to answer his questions.

After tying me to a table and stripping me down to nothing, then using a jagged knife to cut my flesh to pieces.

I’d made myself his target from the moment I smirked and flattened him out in front of all his buddies. He'd tried so hard to break me, and it was his greatest regret that he never could.

He’d never gotten a word from me in all the years he tried despite claiming to be the best interrogator the Dark Fae Society had ever seen. While my pain softened the sting to his pride every time I refused to give him the thing he craved most—my secrets—it hadn’t made the annoyance go away.

If it was one thing Zephyr hated, it was someone who didn’t bend to his will.

Seeing him again, the pain of every injury he’d inflicted over the decades came creeping back in. My jaw clamped shut, and I refused to give into the memories of everything he’d done to torture me.

The asshole standing at the head of the platform, whose name was at the top of Silas’s list and circled several times, as if Lev made it a point he was the one Silas wanted most, had clearly claimed the coveted position Lev was always meant to take.

“Shit,” Lev murmured as the crowd cheered. “You don’t think Silas would be ballsy enough to—”

But he wasn’t given time to finish because Zephyr raised his hands and silenced the congregation.

“Brothers and sisters of the darkest plight, tonight we celebrate a society renewed and reenergized. Rebirthed from the ashes of our fallen brothers and sisters. Tonight we take a step into a grand future where our society reigns. A society rising to its truest and greatest potential.”

Lev smirked and tossed me a little look. “Bet he spent hours rehearsing that in a mirror.”

“Count on it,” I whispered, pursing my lips. “Pretty sure he had someone else write it for him, too.”

Lev harrumphed, nose crinkling. “I didn’t know he could pronounce all those words. I’m not even confident it’s really him standing up there after all that.”

I hid a laugh behind my hand, taking care of our surroundings so we didn’t unintentionally reveal ourselves.

Zephyr’s condescending gaze moved across the Fae gathered, full of pompous shit like always. “We’ll find that bitch of a traitor and crucify her on this very platform. Her blood will be the fresh coat of paint this sacred place deserves. You have my word.”

“That’s more like it,” I whispered with a snicker.

Lev rolled his eyes and folded his arms against his chest, not at all impressed. “Can’t help himself, the bastard.”

He hated his cousin more than most because of everything Zephyr had done to me over the years.

Of course, he’d made his cousin’s life hell in the cleverest of ways, but in moments of candid hatred, Lev revealed how it was never enough.

And maybe it was why he put Zephyr’s name on the top of the list. Maybe that was why that name was the one circled several times.

The Dark Fae around us cheered Zephyr’s words. I eyed the corridor to our right. It’d be risky to leave with so many people watching, but if we didn’t, we’d risk not getting the book at all. Lev and I shared a look, thinking quick on our feet.

A distraction might be enough, but what?

We didn’t have anything that would cause a big enough stir to slip away from this many Fae.

I could move quickly, but Lev wasn’t as fast as I was.

He couldn’t match my speed. Without him, I wouldn’t find the book.

As I stood in a crowd of the people who’d spent their days making me their enemy, Zephyr went on.

“Meet the Council you’ve selected as your new leaders to march the Dark Fae Society into its new age,” he announced, several Dark Fae joining him on the platform.

Orion, Agnus, Willow, Dela, and Locke. Of course.

Every single name on Silas’s list was now neatly lined up at the front of every Dark Fae in this society.

“Guess I should’ve called that one,” Lev murmured in frustration. “But no one’s stupid enough to go after a whole new Council in front of every Fae in this place.”

My lips twitched. “Have you met Silas?”

“You’re right. He’s absolutely that stupid.” Lev tossed me a saucy wink and then sighed. “What now? We can’t get away with this many watching. What’s the play here, Niks?”

Sensation washed over me, and a glimmer of blue caught my eye.

Behind Zephyr and the other five loomed a familiar figure.

Silver eyes beamed from the shadows. His mask caught the light raining down on the platform before a murmur rose from the crowd.

I heard several whisper to each other in confusion.

“Who’s that?”

“An additional leader?”

“Why’s he just standing there?”

“He doesn’t look like anyone I know.”

Lev finally caught sight of the same thing I had. “You’ve got to be fucking kidding me…”

I grabbed his hand and took several steps back, trying to get us out of the crowd.

I’d just barely made it to the edge when blue spikes of magic entered the confused congregation, striking several recognizable Fae.

Every one of them was a name on the list written in silver.

They collapsed into the others standing around them.

Zephyr barely pivoted before he was grabbed around the throat and lifted into the air. Silas withdrew his sword so fast my eyes barely saw the movement. Cerulean magic whipped out and bound Zephyr, keeping him Silas’s prisoner.

Twisting, Silas moved like the wind, the metal sword he held a flash of light in the night. Only a second later, the line of newly appointed leaders lost their heads, blood splattering the Fae nearest the front.

No one had time to react. No one had the opportunity to conjure their magic. No one was fast enough for the beast assassinating their newly elected leaders.

The demon was back in front of Zephyr, his sword already impaling the Dark Fae. “You and I have business, yeah?”

Zephyr struggled, but every movement sent the blade deeper. He cried out and stopped moving. “Who the fuck are you?! What do you want, assassin?”

Silas clicked his tongue. His striking gaze found mine across the terrified crowd.

No one dared to move with their leader hostage to an enemy they didn’t know.

Even the guards were too afraid to do anything.

The Dark Fae never expected someone like him to show up, and their inexperience showed in all the inaction.

It was no wonder Yuma hired the Brotherhood to come after me.

The Dark Fae Society was nothing but a name.

“Let’s just say I’m the assassin revenge hires,” Silas mused behind his mask. “Think I quite like that. Poetic, it is.”

I used the distraction to push Lev toward the hallway we needed to take, all while keeping my eyes on Silas at the front. He had me in his periphery as he twisted the blade and made Zephyr cry out again.

“Revenge for whom?! I’ll give you whatever you want, just leave now and I’ll forget this ever happened,” Lev’s cousin bargained helplessly. His magic had been disabled by whatever Silas had done, and all he had left was to beseech his executioner.

I didn’t think I’d ever see him be more pathetic than the day I flattened him out, but here we were.

Chuckling, Silas moved the sword again, taking great pleasure in the agony that left Zephyr’s mouth.

“For whom? My goddess, of course. If it were up to me, I’d torture you until you begged for death.

But tragically, I have places to be, people to kill, so disemboweling you in front of your doting subjects will just have to do, yeah? ”

A guard near me tried to summon his magic for an attack, but Silas, without so much as looking the guard’s direction, sent out several daggers.

One sunk between his eyes, one in his neck, and the other into his heart.

Any one of them could’ve been the dagger that killed him, but it was a message sent out to the rest—Silas would make sure they didn’t escape death.

The guard collapsed dead on the floor, and the room froze with fear. No one else moved as Zephyr tried to plead with the frightened mass to come to his defense. But if it was one thing these Fae exceled in, it was cowardice.

“We need to go,” I whispered to Lev, trying to get my friend to move, but he just stood there, watching his cousin bleed out on the stage he promised to coat in my blood.

Without another word, Silas dragged his sword from Zephyr’s stomach to his throat. His insides became his outsides. Blood and guts poured onto the ground and anyone near the stage. Then with a whirl, the mercenary cut Zephyr’s head clean from his neck.

Chaos erupted. Dark Fae around us scrambled to flee.

Only a few were attempting to fight back, mostly the guards stationed outside the mass.

Silas moved like a demon, beheading every single Fae who tried to attack him.

Lev was paralyzed by shock, watching the scene play out.

It was the first time he’d seen Silas truly become the Shimmering Assassin.

Grabbing his arm, I dragged him away, and after a few blinks, my friend finally came to his senses.

“Wow,” he whispered, moving in sync with me. “I—well, now I can’t really blame him for bragging. It’s annoying how impressive that was. And gory.”

I dashed between doors, heading for the room where the book was kept. “I get it. I didn’t really expect him to be such a monster when we first met either, but right now, we need to get what we came for and then get the hell out. You need to focus.”

Lev shook his head as if to dispel his disbelief and led me into another corridor. “It’s faster through here. The upside to all of this chaos is that it’s unlikely they’d have many people guarding this area. And if they did, they’ll be rushing off to deal with…well, another blow to their plans.”

“Can’t say I was sad to see your cousin’s head and body part ways,” I joked.

Laughing, Lev activated a hidden door and motioned for me to go ahead. “You and me both, Niks. Just a little sad it wasn’t me who did it. That asshole deserved worse than he got, but I’m glad Silas didn’t hold back.”

Slipping into the room, I nodded. “If it’s one thing we can count on, it’s that Silas doesn’t hold back.”