Shaedes of Gray: A Shaede Assassin Novel

“I think he’s discovered a truth I’d never bothered to find. I think he’s ambitious and mad for power. He’ll kill me if he gets the chance. Then what will become of my kingdom? My people? What power will the Lyhtans have over our kind if he’s allied with them? Innocents would be steeped in war and death. He’s calculating. Formidable. Azriel has been biding his time, and I think he’s spent his years in exile doing what I should have been doing for all those years.”

“I saw him two nights ago,” I said. “He came to my apartment.”

Xander nodded, momentarily lost in thought.

“Would you care to tell me what he’s been doing that you should have been?” I asked.

Xander sighed, and the phrase heavy hangs the head that wears the crown came into my head. He looked at me. “He’s been learning all about you.”

Something in that simple and yet unthinkable statement sent me into a rage the likes of which I had never felt. I stormed from Xander’s room, back down the stairs to the main floor, and past two Shaedes standing watch at the doorway. From there, I ran down into the bowels of the house, past Raif, who stood gaping, and into the council room. I stepped inside, coming to rest at the clawlike foot of the Lyhtan still secured to the chair, cackling wildly in the empty space. I grabbed it by its lanky hair that felt remarkably like corn silk, elastic and fragile but at the same time not. Fighting the urge to cringe, I jerked its head back so it would look me straight in the face, and I snarled the words, “Who is your master?”

The Lyhtan continued to laugh, the sound crawling up and down my spine like a thousand tiny insects. It spit and coughed, spewing a fowl-smelling gunk on my shirt. “I will walk proud in the light of day and laugh as we wipe your kind from the face of the earth!”

The time for talk had long passed, in my opinion. I felt the setting sun with a clarity that I had not recognized before. Every facet of my being tingled with the approach. Twilight was upon us, and, particularly, the gray hour that I longed for. I released the Lyhtan, who laughed hysterically again, drooling all over itself, rocking back and forth against its shackles. I pulled back and waited until I felt the sun pass below the horizon, as if I had plunged to the other side of the earth. With all my strength, I cut down with the blade. The Lyhtan’s laughter stopped. Its head rolled toward the door, where Raif stopped it with his foot.

“I take it we’re done with him?” he asked.

“Him?” I snorted. “How could you tell?”

Raif graced me with a humorless laugh. He rested an awkward hand on my shoulder. “What did he tell you?”

Of course, he meant his deceitful, high-handed brother. “Nothing worth a damn,” I said, leaving the Lyhtan’s body and the council room. “We’re in deep shit, Raif. This is bad.”

“Tell me,” he said, low and dangerous.

I didn’t have much to offer, save a few threads of thought I could not weave together. I relayed everything I knew, starting with my supposed making and ending at Xander’s revelation that I was neither made nor born, but a creature of my own creation. Raif already knew almost everything else, and the things he did not know didn’t garner much surprise. He was a pragmatic man, a skilled warrior, and one of the few I counted as a friend. I didn’t leave out a single detail, and I spared no one’s feelings, least of all his in offering my opinion of his brother. The corners of Raif’s mouth twitched and he shook his head.

“It’s hard, Darian, to rule. Xander protects his people the best way he knows how. If he must lie and cover things up to do so, then so be it. I am sorry that much of it was at your expense, but you’ve got to accept these things, get over them, and focus.”

“On what?” I asked.

Raif’s eyes glowed with bloodlust. “Battle.”

Chapter 24

“I’ll be there in fifteen minutes.”

“No, you won’t,” I said into my cell.

“Bullshit. You’re going to need me. I’m coming.”

I wondered what it would take to keep him at my apartment. I couldn’t focus on protecting my own neck if I was too worried about protecting his. I was officially in deep shit, and there was no way in hell I would risk Tyler’s safety. If anything happened to him—especially in the course of protecting me—I’d never forgive myself. Eternally gallant described Tyler to a tee. I didn’t want to do it, but perhaps another wish was in order. “Tyler, please . . . do as I ask.”

“Dar—” He started to argue back, but the next thing I heard turned my warm blood to ice. A scuffle, shouting, and several loud crashes. I held the air in my lungs and didn’t dare breathe as I listened to sounds of Tyler’s assault, followed by a furious roar that could only have come from an animal. Raif peeked around the corner from the next room and froze, watching with suspicion. I returned his regard with my own expression of urgency, and he left his comrade in midconversation. He stood at my shoulder—and waited.

I heard the sickly rasping of breath before it actually spoke. The same wave of terror raced down my spine. The war had begun.

“We have your pet, Shaede,” the voice said. “If you want him back . . . unsullied, you must turn yourself over to my master.”

“How do I know you won’t kill him anyway?”

The creature laughed—a sound I had come to hate—and said, “How, indeed?”

“Tell Azriel and your Enphigmale I’m not afraid of them,” I said with as much defiance as I could spare. I’d almost reached my quota for one night, and I needed to save a little for later.

Again the creature laughed. I’d begun to think it was the only sound their race could make. “You’ll come, Shaede. Because if you don’t, the Jinn will die.”

Could I wish Tyler out of this very dangerous situation? It might work. He was my genie. If I made a wish, he had to grant it. Right?

“Well,” I said aloud, as if I were actually contemplating letting them have Ty, “I’m not sure that’s a fair trade. A magic-wish granter in exchange for a girl? Seems like you’re getting the shitty end of that deal.”

More laughter. The first thing I planned to do when I got my hands on this particular Lyhtan was rip out its vocal cords. I’d see if it found that funny.

“Come and trade yourself for him, or he dies.”

I sighed. “Do you know what I wish—?”

“Don’t say it,” the Lyhtan hissed. “Make a single wish, and we tear the Jinn’s throat open.”

They wanted me. Period. And to get me, they’d taken the only thing on this planet I cared about. Shit, how could I have been so stupid? I should have handcuffed Tyler to me, begged him to come with me, rather than wish him confined to my apartment for the day. I couldn’t lose him. I refused to let him die in my place. Azriel was a shrewd sonofabitch. Leave it him to know my Achilles’ heel: affection.

“Fine.” The word sounded as final as death. I put my finger to my lips as Raif opened his mouth to protest. “Where and when?”

“Dawn. At the domed fountain.”

The domed fountain. I knew of only one in the city that matched the description. “I’ll be there,” I said, and the call disconnected.

“Where are you going?” Raif demanded.

“The Seattle Center. They want to make a trade.”

Raif glared and shook his head as if he felt sorry for my simple stupidity. “The Jinn for you—am I right?”

I nodded. Tyler’s smile, his homey smell, the warmth that blossomed within me every time I saw him . . . The growing lump in my throat would undoubtedly betray my bravado if I spoke.

“They’ll more than likely kill him anyway. You know that, don’t you?” Raif was as cool and detached as anyone could get. I envied him that.

Laughter bubbled up from my chest. I thought of the insectlike creature holding Tyler’s phone up to its . . . ear hole? I couldn’t help myself. The sound sputtered from my closed lips and quickly turned into an all-out guffaw. Raif looked at me like I’d finally lost my mind, and for a moment I would have agreed with him. Tears rolled down