Shaedes of Gray: A Shaede Assassin Novel

“You have made yourself yet again. How did it happen?”

I sighed. The last thing I wanted to do was satisfy Xander’s sick curiosity. His ambition knew no limit. “Would you lock me up and try to discover my secrets?” I asked, my voice broken and weary. “Do you share your enemy’s desire to be both light and dark, free to roam unseen in the night or day? Would you take the gray as well and make it your own at my expense?”

“I would take you and keep you safe,” he said, bending to lay his cheek against the top of my head. “I would take you and make you mine if you would only let me.”

“That’s not going to happen,” I said, refusing to turn and look at him.

“Maybe not now,” he said, confident as he ever was, “but someday.”

“Raif said Tyler would be taken to your house,” I said, ignoring his romance-novel spiel. “If you don’t want him there, I understand.”

Xander turned, and as he walked away his voice carried to me. “The Jinn is welcome. He saved the woman I love.”

If anyone loved dramatics more than me, it was Xander.

Chapter 29

A mournful air hung heavy throughout Xander’s house. Lives and friends had been lost on the island. Enemies as well had slipped through our grasp. Tyler had been cleaned, his wounds tended, though they refused to heal, and his care knew no limits.

Curious stares and whispers followed me wherever I went. An oddity, something to be pointed at and talked about but never to. Some avoided me altogether after tales of the clearing became more widespread. No one dared speak about it in the presence of the king, as it was well-known I was far and above his favorite. Alienation took on an entirely new meaning as I wandered the halls of Xander’s house, looking for any diversion to take my mind off Tyler, who still hadn’t regained consciousness.

Hours passed to days and days to weeks. Raif had formed reconnaissance parties whose sole mission was to flush Azriel and Delilah from hiding. They’d been unsuccessful.

I’d been given my own suite of rooms; I hadn’t even stepped foot in my own studio since our trip across the lake, and I was comfortable enough. Though the house lacked the privacy I craved, it held Tyler, and he held my heart.

I’d been alone for a century and then found and cherished. But now I was alone again, the only one of my kind, sticking out rather than belonging. Time marched on, and I felt every second of its passing deep in my soul. The sun rose and set, and the moon inevitably came to take its place. I felt all of it, my form ever changing from light to gray to dark and back to gray again.

I stood on my balcony, listening to the sounds of the city mingle with the sounds of nature in the strange area where all manner of lives and lifestyles converged. The comfort I gleaned from the never-changing bustle of Seattle was the only thing I had in a life that felt too full and too empty all at once.

“How’ve you been?” A cool voice asked out of nowhere.

Past shock of any kind, I merely smiled, remembering Raif’s words: Be patient, and your prey will come to you. “What are you doing here?” I asked. “Shouldn’t you be running from Raif?”

“I should,” Azriel said in a very cavalier, very him manner. “But I wanted to see you before I leave for good.”

“For good—or for a while?” I asked.

Azriel’s laughter lent to the chill of the night air. “Maybe a little of both,” he said. “I doubt I’ll stay away for too long.”

“You’ve always needed to be in the spotlight. I can’t imagine this worked out the way you expected it to.”

“We wouldn’t have killed you,” he offered, as if I cared.

“No,” I said. “You would have just thrown my scraps to your Lyhtan dogs.”

“A ruse,” he scoffed. “We needed their help, nothing else. No one but Delilah and I know your true purpose. But it will come out”—he laughed as if sharing a private joke—“in time.”

“Oh yeah?” I said, sarcastic as ever. “Sounds like this had less to do with me and more to do with revenge. For Delilah, at least.”

Azriel shrugged. “True. Delilah has a score to settle. And she’s not particularly fond of Shaedes. Well”—he smirked—“one in particular. But wouldn’t you seek revenge if someone dear to you had died needlessly?”

I gave him a you’ve-got-to-be-fucking-kidding-me look. Azriel had more balls than sense to say that to me. The only person I’d ever truly loved was about to die needlessly. And you could bet someone was going to pay for it.

“So you can hardly blame her for her actions,” Azriel said. “She’s actually quite brilliant. And an Oracle is always handy to have around. She put all of this together, you know. With a little help . . .”

“From you?” I asked.

“Wouldn’t you like to know?” Azriel laughed. “She sent me to you in the first place. Told me that through you, I’d gain my father’s crown. I imagine she sent your Jinn to you as well. Or at the very least, pointed him in the right direction. The way I see it, Darian, you owe her a debt of thanks. She did set the two of you up, after all.”

“Jealous?” I asked.

“You have no idea,” Azriel said, and for a moment, he almost sounded sincere. “But the Enphigmale would have never awakened without your little romance. The odds were one in a million that you’d wake them. Curses are funny things, Darian. To break one, you need all the elements that made it to begin with. In this case, it took an act of deep, abiding love to break the curse. Well”—Azriel flashed a secretive smile—“love, and the blood of a fated protector.”

My heart ached. Swelled to bursting with love for Tyler. And Azriel was right: I would have done anything to protect him, though I don’t know that made me a fated protector. Could it have been that simple, though? What made me valuable to Azriel and Delilah was the fact that I’d fallen in love? “What about the eclipse? I suppose my new and improved physical state was just a happy accident? A side effect from being in the right place at the right time?”

Azriel laughed in earnest. I guess I was a regular fucking comedian. “You could have been asleep in your bed, ignorant as ever, and the change would have occurred. The eclipse was just the catalyst. That eclipse—with a little help from Fate—made you stronger. And for the trials you’ve yet to face . . . you’re going to need it.”

What a load of bullshit. Azriel was nothing more than a liar. I couldn’t trust a single word that came out of his mouth. All he was doing was buying time, cleaving to every extra minute he had on this earth. He’d told me one too many tall tales for me to believe anything he said.

“Instead of trying to pass off more of your stories as truth, shouldn’t you be worried that I might kill you right now? I could do it, you know.”

“I have no doubt,” Azriel said. “But you won’t kill me, just like I didn’t kill you. You’re too special for a paltry death.”

“Give me a break.” The effect of his dramatic flair had definitely worn off. “I can’t let you go. Not after what you’ve done.”

“I was afraid you’d say that. And after everything we’ve been through . . .”

I looked at him incredulously. “Exactly.”

“Aren’t you scared of me?” His arrogance was laughable. “It’s the gray hour, and I was once Raif’s best student.”

“What do I care about that?” I could be arrogant too. I had a right to be. “I have no more restraints, and you’re not the only one who’s spent quality time with Raif. Surrender now, and I’ll go easy on you.”

He looked to his feet, his expression contemplative. But I knew his little act was just that. Lunging toward me with immeasurable speed, he struck, his fist catching me high on my cheekbone. I spun from the impact and he used the opportunity, flinging himself from the balcony. He landed soft and soundless on the grass below.

Blood trickled from the split on my face, the skin tightening and healing instantaneously. I leapt over the railing, landed on Azriel’s back, and sent him sprawling face-first to the lawn. A low growl rumbled deep in his chest and he rolled, spinning his legs in a scissor kick, and knocked my legs out from under me. In a misty cloud of gray, I