“You said you found him,” she said.
“What were you expecting me to do?”
“Did you find him?” There was a harder edge to her voice.
Gavin smiled. “Who is he?”
“You found him, though?”
“If you don’t answer my question, I’m not going to answer yours,” Gavin said.
“You will answer.”
A strange streamer of green swirled around him, attempting to trap him. It matched the color of her eyes.
Magic.
Of course it would be. Why would he have expected anything else? She’d been willing to come into a place like the Dragon and had fearlessly approached him—a man she claimed to have heard of, one who had a reputation in Yoran and elsewhere of being a dangerous assassin. Yet she had been unfazed in asking for his help. People simply didn’t approach assassins if they didn’t have some sort of power of their own.
“You’re going to regret that,” Gavin said.
“Where is he?” she asked again, her tone harder than before.
Gavin started to focus, paying attention to the core energy inside him. Out in the darkness of the street, it was easier to embrace that energy deep within him. He didn’t know if it was magic like Anna claimed, but if it was, then it was a part of him that he’d been trained to reach. As he attempted to access that power, to dive deep to grab hold of it, he could feel it surging up within him.
It gave him the strength to find a way to reach for the bindings around him that came from her green swirl of power. He focused on them.
The Chain Breaker.
That was his nickname, earned through the games he’d played with Tristan.
The leathers and the ropes had been the easiest. The chains had been more difficult. It wasn’t until he had learned to tap into that core energy that he’d been able to find a way to escape from the chains, when he was no more than thirteen or fourteen. They had given him his nickname.
Over time, Tristan had used heavier and heavier chains as a test meant to see whether Gavin could escape. He had required more and more strength to progressively break free from them.
Now he had to wonder if Tristan had been training him for something else.
Gavin pushed out, exploding out of the bindings around him. He withdrew the El’aras dagger and was not surprised to find it glowing. He darted forward, jabbing the tip of the dagger toward the woman. In the past when he’d broken free of magical bindings, he hadn’t thought he was using magic at the time, but he probably had been.
“Try that again, and you will find this blade buried in your neck,” he said.
She watched him. There was no fear in her eyes, only determination mixed with something surprising. Hatred. “Did you find him?”
“No,” Gavin said.
“What?” She jerked free, using a hint of her green magic to blast at him and stagger away. He didn’t fight her at this point. He simply stood, watching. “I thought you said that you found him.”
“You hired me to find a boy. I didn’t find a boy.”
“A girl,” she whispered, shaking her head. “Of course. He was masking the presence. Clever.”
“What was that?”
Erica twisted her hand, and another swirl of green began to work its way around Gavin, thickening and becoming substantial. This time, it started to spiral up from the ground, working more and more rapidly as it weaved up and around him. It started to trace around his thighs, winding up like vines growing around him. He focused on his core energy and tried to break free, but the way that she was holding it made it difficult for him to blast out of.
Instead of trying to fight his way out, Gavin used the El’aras dagger. He carved through the green vine. It peeled away, dropping to the ground before disappearing.
He darted forward, and this time he jabbed the dagger into her shoulder. She cried out.
Gavin withdrew and stood across from her. “I warned you.”
“You really are everything I expected,” she said.
“Who told you to expect it?”
“The Maker of Chains.”
Gavin took a step back, staring at her. The choice of words couldn’t be coincidental.
What did she know?
“Who is the Maker of Chains?”
Could it be Tristan?
He’d trained Gavin to be the Chain Breaker, so it would make sense, but Tristan wouldn’t come after him like this.
She smiled. “Where is she?” she asked.
Gavin shook his head. “I need to know who sent you.”
Somebody knew about him and what he was capable of doing.
Was it one of the El’aras?
He didn’t think that Anna or any of the people with her would have betrayed him. He stared at Erica, uncertainty filling him in a way it hadn’t in a while.
It wasn’t that he was afraid of this sorceress—or enchantress, he had to acknowledge. The bindings of power around him were different than what he’d seen from sorcerers, although he suspected that they were all on the same spectrum of power. She could have some strange enchantment that allowed her to use her magic in this way. If he could find it, he could disarm it and keep her from using it on him.
“You will bring me to her.”
“I don’t think so,” Gavin said.
“You will. She is far too dangerous for you. If you don’t, everyone you care about in that filthy tavern will suffer.”
Magic started to swirl away from her hand again, and Gavin darted forward, anger surging up within him. He jabbed the dagger into her other shoulder and then spun, kicking behind her knees. She dropped to the ground.
When she was down, he brought the dagger up and slipped it underneath her neck. “You aren’t the first person to make a threat to my friends, but I warn you it will be the last time that you make one.”
She watched him, unconcerned. The lack of concern in her eyes was the most troubling thing about her. He’d expected some response, and Gavin didn’t even know how to react.
He had
