Marcus’s eyes met mine and then fastened on the hilt. The leather binding was old, but still supple.
“Should we cut it?” Sid asked.
“No. I know how to unwrap a hilt.” Marcus’s fingers trembled as he braced the scabbard between his knees and expertly unbound it.
I caught the glimmer of gold, and his breath left him when he raised the hilt up for us all to see.
Shining in the overhead lights, as though they breathed fire, were two intricately carved creatures that appeared to be a combination of many things.
Chimeras.
When Marcus seemed to stop breathing, Breana stepped closer. “Is it the original?”
He didn’t answer right away. Instead, he rebound the hilt. The leather hid the carvings and made the sword appear old, although nothing could disguise that it was a quality blade.
Breana wasn’t easily discouraged. “Marcus, what does Iskar say?”
Marcus triggered the elevator doors to open. As the class bell rang and students raced for their seats, he took a deep breath.
“He says it’s Caledfwich.” His eyes met mine. “And Fate, my friend, has something very monumental in store for you.”
20
Tez
Nemi sat on my shoulder as I looked out my small, grimy window.
The evening sunlight cast long shadows over the city. Slade had planned another grueling night of “tuning up the locals”, so I’d forced myself to catch a few hours of sleep in my new quarters—a tiny room off the main corridor of the fourth floor. Simply a bed and a bathroom, but it was all mine. And once I’d braced the door, I was able to sleep like a baby.
I left it now and took the stairs down a couple of levels, aware of the hostile looks and the way others left a substantial bubble around me. I’d be a fool to consider it simply due to respect. More like abandoning the sick herd member to its fate.
I entered the mess hall with my usual arrogant swagger in place, as if I were oblivious to what hovered over my head. The reality was that I remained hyperaware of everyone that came within six feet of me. My forearm itched to drop the blade into my hand, and even Nemi seemed on edge, alternately fluffing and smoothing her feathers.
Clearly, nobody was interested in creating a fucking bloodbath in the mess hall. They left me alone while I ate. Very alone. No one would even sit at the tables on each side of me.
I watched the little cliques of shifters and men. Did they really think of those little groups as family? That any of their cohorts would help them out in a bind? If you lived like this for any length of time, you discovered it was all a lie. That your so-calledamigoswould stab you in the back in a moment, if it suited them to do so.
The only one I’d ever trusted was gone. I would trust no one else.
Nemi twittered from my shoulder. Okay, maybe one. She’d earned it.
So I ate my supper, wiped my mouth on my sleeve, and left. When Nemi chittered at me and pecked my cheek, I knew I wasn’t alone.
They thought they were being subtle, showing themselves in an effort to move me along a chosen route. But I was more like a cat than cattle.
I swung right, and when the one standing in that hall stepped forward, I met his eyes. He lasted a few seconds before lowering his. I saw him swallow convulsively.
I stepped close and glared. “Get out of my fucking way.”
He read the promise of death in my eyes, and stepped aside.
I was halfway down the hall when I heard him grunt. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw his body crumple. His so-called accomplice pulled the knife free, and continued toward me. In his wake, came the others.
I counted eight of them. Eight idiots determined that I wouldn’t see another sunrise.
The hall I’d chosen led outside, and I walked out the exit and along the beaten path as though out for an evening stroll. And then, between one stride and the next, I stepped off the path and into the morass that was the swamp.
If they’d possessed more than a few brain cells between them, they would have conceded defeat and retreated to fightanother day. But the fact they persisted in coming after me was a pretty clear sign that these were nothing more than bottom feeders. Because they were afraid to quit.
