Page 7

Chapter Seven

Corallin

“ F ather, you wished to see me?” I ask as I come to a stop beside the dark form of Elwis the Eel. He is known by many titles. Assassin lord, vampire, criminal mastermind, innkeeper… but most important to me, my adoptive father.

He is standing in his chambers in the stone halls where the assassin Family of Night of which my father runs is based. He is leaning over a table, his long dark hair falling across his face.

I hear humming and glance to the side to see Fedor, a creepy little poisoner who is undyingly loyal to my father. He doesn’t trust anyone in the assassin family, except for me, so when we stay in this hall, he never leaves my father’s side.

When we stay at the inn, he is our cook because his skill in mixing deadly roots is only matched by his skill in seasoning meat.

Elwis the Eel straightens, and I see what it is that has his attention. It’s two books, they have worn covers signifying their age and frayed ends of their papers. They don’t look like much, but I know that just like my father, looks can be deceiving. They hold untold power.

They are the spellbooks of two of the four founders of the Academy of Magickers, magic wielders who were unequaled in their Spellcraft. Both in their day and all the centuries that followed. It has become my father’s personal obsession to claim as many of these spellbooks as possible.

My sister Bronwyn went to the Academy of Magickers itself and disturbed the rest of Petrov Hansimov who wielded a powerful control over the water. The other belonged to Boris the Conjurer, a renowned summoner of what was said to be near sentient magical creatures who would fight his battles for him. That one was found by my other sister Natasya.

If Elwis has summoned me here, I can only think that means he has found another spellbook, and that he intends to send me to get this one.

I straighten feeling a strange sense of pride. Though most members of our family cannot read the spellbook, it feels nice to be a part of something bigger than the hacking and slashing side of the family business. We are collecting parts of history, and if they serve to make our father that much more powerful? Well, then I’m glad to help however I can.

It also serves to note that my sisters both found the loves of their lives while seeking out these spellbooks. I doubt I will find that which I’m not looking for, but it’s something that I can use to my advantage when I return. Elwis will likely expect me to bring back a man and I intend to oblige him.

“I believe that I have a lead to a new spellbook; although it is only a vague lead.” Elwis glances up at me as he presses his fingertips against the nearest book. “Which is why I have chosen you for this assignment. You are the best tracker in our family, and I don’t trust anyone outside of it with the importance of this mission.”

I smile, glowing at my father’s praise. “I learned from the best.”

Elwis smiles dotingly at me, while Fedor starts chanting through a list of his favorite natural grown poisonous plants. “The next spellbook once belonged to Devalen Tine; he was a renowned healer. It was said that he could even bring back a soul after they’d been briefly dead. Well... I have been tracking a series of unnatural healings, wounds, and illnesses that the academy claims not even magic can heal.”

“And you think this is due to our spellbook?”

Elwis reaches out, resting his ice-cold palm against my cheek. “That, my dear, is your job to determine.”

If there is one thing I would boast in, it is that I have always had the uncanny ability to go unseen and unremembered. It has been a handy gift to have while as an assassin.

I have my father, my mother, my sisters, and now that both my sisters have fallen in love, I have Wilder and Evengi in my life as well. Apart from them, I have not interacted with anyone outside of the people I was sent to kill in longer than I can remember.

Certainly, there are my fellow assassins, but despite our organization being known as the Family of Night, I am set apart for being the daughter of the leader. It’s well enough, Elwis doesn’t trust most of them, and I’m the only member of our family other than them that they have even met.

And before that…

Well, before that is a blank space. My first memory is seeing Elwis the Eel for the first time as he pulls me out of the rubble of a half-collapsed mountain. I was a nobody, all I had was a name I somehow still remembered. He took me in and made me his daughter. He made me a somebody.

I have no idea how long I was trapped in that mountain, I don’t know who I was before that, I don’t even know how I became a vampire. And for the most part, I’ve made my peace with the missing parts of my past.

That is until this woman looks at me as if she knows me and says my name.

The innkeeper’s son standing next to her, who I take to be her husband, given the gleaming silver ring on his index finger which matches her own wedding band, glances between us with confusion. “You know each other?”

To answer the woman strides toward me, her arms outstretched. I pull back, but she ignores it and grasps my hands. She stares into my eyes. Hers are as dark as the night, and they fill with tears. I wonder if she can tell that my eyes are red. As a Higher Elf, my eyes have a slight glow to them which can mask the crimson that distinguishes me as a vampire.

Most people miss it, but most people don’t get this close.

And for that matter most people don’t survive an encounter with me.

“I thought you were dead,” she whispers.

I stiffen, pulling my hands out of her hold. “Clearly I’m not.”

She tilts her head, confusion dancing across her features. “It’s me, Talyria. Don’t you remember me?”

Talyria .

The name feels like it should have some familiarity, but it just doesn’t. She must see the answer in my eyes before I am able to speak it out loud because I watch her face crumble.

Suddenly the husband is there. He glances back to the others in the room before leaning closer. “Perhaps we should take this conversation somewhere more private?”

Talyria reaches up, swiping a rogue tear that streaks across her face. She gives her head a sharp shake. “No need, Victor. Clearly, I was mistaken. I thought for once the gods might show me some favor, but that was silly of me.”

I watch her straighten her shoulders as she turns away from me. Does she genuinely believe that I’m not the person she knew? If not, then how would she know my name?

I want to grab her, demand that she tells me who Corallin is to her. Ask why she thought I was dead. Find out about my past, but I’m trapped here immobile.

My present wars with my past. What if I don’t like the person that I was? I’m fine as I am now, why should I seek to change that for a past that was obviously not worth remembering?

And yet I cannot escape the curiosity either.

I’m left feeling torn in two entirely different directions. And being double minded like this is dangerous. It’s distracting me from my true purpose for being here, a purpose named Valentine.

The remaining guardsman narrows his eyes as he looks at us. “I think we are all straying from the matter at hand, namely my murdered associate.”

I work my jaw. There is that as well. Another distraction, but this one is dangerous. I can’t afford scrutiny. The vampiric sorceress and assassin is an easy scapegoat to pin the crime on. Even if I wasn’t in the building when it happened.

Nothing is going to stop me from returning to my father with Valentine’s spellbook in hand. Not a murder, not a group of individuals who could lynch me, and not this Talyria who claims to know me.

I turn my glare to the Highlander who is watching me closely. And certainly not Lief and the distraction he is.