Gavin limped toward the door. He hadn’t heard anything, and he tried to ignore the pain shooting through his ankle and the agony that screamed within him, but he couldn’t. He winced and cried out.
It would be something Tristan would chastise him about later, but Gavin didn’t care. For now, he just had to finish this job.
He pulled the door open, and something blasted at him. He dropped and rolled forward, driving out with a Sudo-style chop that connected with an older man. He brought his knee up as he spun and landed on his injured ankle, biting back the anguish that shrieked through him. The man tried to hold his hand out toward him again, but Gavin forced himself forward.
Something like a magical rope looped around him, and Gavin ignored it, trying to use his connection to the core reserves to blast past what was holding him and to destroy the energy that controlled him—and as it did, he struggled to fight past it. Gavin focused on the core reserves the way Tristan had taught him, and he exploded with an outward force. Whatever band of power this person held around him shattered. Gavin spun and drove his fist down on the old man, chopping through him.
Then the man stopped moving.
Gavin scrambled to his feet. Tristan had told him to fetch a small stone ring. He hurried and searched through the house. The inside was simple, sparsely decorated with a row of cabinets and a cookstove, along with a table and chairs. Gavin rushed through the cabinets, but he didn’t find anything. The table was empty, and there was nothing along the flooring.
Finally, he staggered toward the back bedroom and leaned on the doorframe. There was a bed and a table but nothing else.
Where was the ring?
This had to be part of Tristan’s test that Gavin had to complete.
But how?
He’d found nothing. Just the man who had attacked him.
The man.
Gavin hadn’t checked him over.
He returned to the man, who was still lying motionless. His chest rose and fell, and Gavin wondered if Tristan wanted him to kill this person. He doubted it, though, because if Tristan wanted somebody dead, he typically told Gavin.
He crouched down and started sorting through the man’s pockets, but there was still no luck. Gavin looked over his body, and then he found it. The man wore the ring on the third finger of his left hand. Gavin pulled it off and examined it. The pale white stone was warm to the touch, though not hot, and it was without any writing or symbols. Strange that Tristan would find that valuable.
Of course, some of the jobs Tristan had him do seemed strange, as if Tristan needed something but didn’t want to reveal information in its entirety. Gavin tucked the ring into his pocket and nearly stumbled as he jumped to his feet. He staggered out of the house, closed the door, and then hurried across the clearing to find Tristan.
Gavin stumbled, his body aching, but he had succeeded. This wasn’t the most complicated task Tristan had assigned, but it was odd enough that he thought there had to be some significance to what Tristan had wanted him to claim.
He hadn’t gone far in the trees when something struck him from behind.
Gavin went sprawling forward. He tried to roll over but couldn’t as a heavy weight pressed down on him, as if some massive boulder rested on his back. Then someone grabbed at him, tearing at him.
They left Gavin’s knives. They left his coin. They took the ring.
The weight continued to bear down on him, long enough that Gavin could no longer breathe. He had trained to hold his breath, one more torment in a series of them, and he had learned to withstand this pain.
Now he fought, but not for long.
Gavin didn’t have the strength to do so. At some point, he blacked out.
When he came around, it had started to grow dark. He gathered himself off the forest floor and stumbled through the trees, sweeping his gaze around for his assailant but saw no sign of them. He checked his pockets to make certain the ring was gone. He looked back toward the small house, but he knew he wouldn’t find any information there.
He had failed.
Already he feared how Tristan would react. Gavin had never failed him so completely before. He had always managed to fulfill the assigned task or remove the target.
He staggered back toward the house and shook his head. He was in no shape to fight, and it was getting late. Time for him to return. Tristan would have to understand.
The walk back to the city took a long time. With the pain in his ankle, Gavin struggled to make it. The sun had fully set by the time he finally reached the city, and it was much after dark when he reached the tavern where they were staying. When he entered, Tristan sat at a table, drinking a mug of ale.
Gavin sat down across from him, and Tristan looked over to him. His eyes were unreadable and his dark hair neatly combed, as if he’d been relaxing the entire time Gavin had been working.
“Did you succeed?” Tristan asked.
Gavin wanted to snap at him, but fatigue and his own natural hesitation around Tristan gave him a moment to pause. Had Tristan been there, he wouldn’t have lost the ring. “Why didn’t you wait?”
Tristan glowered at him and looked like he wanted to strike Gavin. “You didn’t need me to wait.”
“You knew I was injured.”
Tristan leaned forward, shaking his head. “Injury is not an excuse.”
“I’m not making an excuse. You wanted me to pull the job while I was injured. That’s what I did.”
Tristan cocked his head to the side. “Then you got it.”
“You didn’t think I would?”
Tristan shrugged. “I wasn’t sure.”
“What is it?” Gavin asked.
“A trinket.”
“The ring is just a trinket?”
Tristan shrugged again and took a sip of the ale. “A test, if that’s what you need
