Page 17

KLEOS

I pushed my luck, bringing in the second course—a pho and barbecue mix—and Silver’s eyes flashed, but she let me get away with it.

Once we’d emptied our plates, I knew my time was up. Before she’d strangle another set of expensive cutlery to death, I opted to stop the small talk and jokes Gideon and I had been engaged in through dinner.

“All right, guys. First of all, I’m asking you not to panic.”

Gideon tilted his head, probably in confusion.

Oh, right. He didn’t panic. Another word he didn’t truly comprehend, just like grudges.

On the other hand, Silver’s lips were one straight line. I could tell she was physically preventing herself from shouting already. Out of the two of us, she should be the redhead, given her temper.

Deliberately slow, I removed the cashmere cardigan I’d thrown over my tank top.

Gideon’s eyes widened the moment they settled on the first red rune on my collarbone, and I had the displeasure of witnessing one of the rare moments when my easygoing cousin lost all humor, his sky-blue eyes turning to ice.

For once, he looked more like my father than good-natured Uncle Leo.

It was ever so easy to forget that Gideon, for all his charm and easygoing personality, was also a half dragon , and just as fiery and protective as Silver.

Dragons were, after all, the kind of creatures who left everyone alone, so long as they didn’t trample over their territory, threatening the safety of their clans.

I was a part of Gideon’s clan.

Unexpectedly, Silver was the lesser of two evils, though she was pissed. The runes merely confused her, while Gideon knew what they could have meant.

Rather than letting either of them conduct the interrogation they were no doubt seconds away from starting, I quickly launched into the entire story at my own pace.

“I woke up in a lot of pain— burning ,” I specified when Gideon’s mouth opened to ask what kind of pain. He was in work mode. “In the middle of the night a few weeks ago, on the last full moon.”

I took care to give as many details as possible.

“I stopped a curse while it was progressing, cutting it off in the middle of it. I started researching it immediately—that’s what I’ve been doing when I stayed late in the archives,” I explained to Silver.

She found me after hours at least three times per week, so she nodded reluctantly, still put out, but not as angry as I knew she would be in a few moments. After all, she could have asked what, exactly, I had been researching, but she hadn’t been interested. That won me a few points.

“I wasn’t too worried,” I admitted, to justify my silence.

“I mean, I wanted to find out who did this to me and make them pay, because fuck, it hurt . And as the runes haven’t faded, I also wanted to dismantle the curse, in case it was doing something to me.

From what I can tell, the fact that I struggled to move means that the point was to control my body, make the caster able to move me as they please.

I figured it was a particularly nasty prank.

I mean, we’ve seen stuff like that back in school. ”

That much was true. People had been cursed into doing some ridiculous things for the entertainment of their fellow students our entire lives—jumping around, dancing in the middle of class, stripping at lunch…Teenagers and sorcery meant mayhem.

Only typically I wasn’t the victim.

“I tried runes, clearing potions, plus several charms, but nothing worked. I can’t even mask them. So—” I cleared my throat, my eyes returning to Gideon’s steely, analytical gaze.

Gulp .

“Then I saw your file today, and I realized it was more serious than I thought.”

“I’ll say.” Gideon was still ice, barely contained rage. He wasn’t exploding at me—that wasn’t in his nature—but I knew if I could place him in the general vicinity of whoever was behind this, he’d literally roast them alive.

Turning to Silver, he summarized his own investigation in a few words to bring her up to speed. “Three bodies were found, one per week, all covered in those runes.”

That was when she turned to stone.

“The same mixture of rubbish that doesn’t make sense to anyone,” he continued. “I only got the file today, and I asked Kleos to take a look—at the marks, mind you, not the gory details—since she’s good at runes.”

I expected the doll-sized tornado to start shouting, maybe throwing things. She did far, far worse.

We’d been best friends for over a decade, and not a single time in all those years had I seen Silver cry.

Not even when that dumb bear shifter she used to have a crush on said she shouldn’t bother with pink lipstick because she was such a tomboy.

She just punched his nose, breaking it in two places, before dying her hair pink for the first time—and doing it every day since, ensuring she was always wearing a touch of pink in her badass tomboy getups.

But now, there was a single tear falling down her cheek—molten, liquid silver, shining in the light.

“You could have died,” she whispered, wiping her face with the back of her sleeve. “Those three people—they had the same hex, and they died .”

She stood up suddenly, and started to pace the length of the windows opening up to the balcony, back and forth.

“Who could have done that? I mean, hexing you ?” She emphasized the last word. “You aren’t even affected by magic.”

“That’s not entirely true,” I replied. “Throwing energy straight at me doesn’t work, sure.

But potions—anything injected inside me, or consumed—can affect me.

As does rune magic, clearly. But runes have to be, well, carved .

There was no one in the room with me and a burning knife in hand, that’s for sure. ”

I glanced down at my skin, the memory of that night still fresh. “I have never seen anything like that, or heard of it before. Carving someone’s skin at a distance? All my research leads to a big, fat nothing. When I saw Gideon’s file, I figured I should bring you up to speed.”

“You should have told us on day one, Kley.” Gideon scratched his chin. “But well, before today, I would have figured you could handle it too. Fuck . Maybe I should call Lucian.”

“Lucian?” Silver frowned. “The necromancer ?”

That title made me roll my eyes. I was ninety percent certain it was just a rumor meant to scare people. There was no way he could actually raise the dead. Was there?

Not that it mattered.

I opened my mouth to caution Gideon. I knew my best friend. She was pissed, frightened on my behalf, and on top of that, already predisposed against, well, anyone by the name of Regis. Like half of the city, even my family.

No, especially my family. I didn’t see my parents often, but rants about the founding families and their rights were one of the primary topics that came up when we had to do small talk. Especially from my mother. I’d heard my father argue with her a few times.

Yes, they were immune to all laws of men, but this was on purpose, so the founding families could take it upon themselves to protect the city as they saw fit—and there was little argument that this was what most of them did.

Be good, or the Nachtigall will come for you was a threat as common in town as the Krampus and Baba Yaga were outside our walls.

And there was no denying that the fear of actual fury descendants was more efficient as any evil spirit.

My mother always countered by mentioning him . Cassius Regis, Lucian’s grandfather. The cautionary tale. The man who attempted—and would no doubt have managed—to murder every new blood in the city.

Then my father would say that was exactly the point, because the founders stopped him eventually. They had a purpose in a city so full of powerful entities: reminding everyone that crossing the line would lead to consequences.

After that sort of shouting match, my parents would stop talking to each other for another blissful month.

Silver, like my mother, often parroted her annoyance over the fact that some people were above the law.

I guess I never saw it as a black and white issue because I was prone to listen to my father rather than my mother.

He made sense. Without the fear of a powerful authority able to take action, what would this city be? A living nightmare was my guess.

Gideon nodded to Silver. “Yeah, he’s a rune expert. As Kleos was clueless, he was my next call this afternoon. I have an appointment to speak to him on Monday. Kleos, you should come with me. He should take a look at those runes. Maybe he’s seen them before.”

I quickly agreed, trying not to appear overeager, and ignoring the sudden shiver that ran along my skin. Because it had nothing to do with fear.

“Wait a minute. That guy, who was around at the time, is a rune expert, and you’re just having a chat? Instead of, I don’t know, arresting him ?”

Gideon stared at Silver, shocked. Me, not so much. I tried not to sigh.

“Silver…it’s not him. It’s just not.” Gideon’s argument was certainly lacking.

I bobbed my head in agreement. It wasn’t Lucian. The end.

“What the fuck? He had access to her, the means, the motive?—”

“He has no motive,” Gideon said.

Again, I nodded.

“Are you blind? Weren’t you at the Silvervine last week? He fancies her.”

I flushed. “That’s nonsense.”

“I mean, sure,” Gideon responded at the same time. “But he wants to bang her, not fucking kill her.”

“He’s a necromancer , with a death touch!” Silver snapped.

“Neither of which are rune magic,” he reasoned. “I’ve read about his power; it absorbs all vitality, basically mummifying the victim, if they’re sucked dry. None of those bodies had any sign of that kind of magic. Just…abuse.”

I decided not to ask what that meant, exactly. I truly had enough nightmares already.

She crossed her arms around her chest. “He’s a murderer, too.”

“Sure. So am I. I killed about a dozen vamps, a rogue kitty cat, and a hellhound the last seven days alone.”