I shook my head. “She was mortal.”
Kaden’s eyes narrowed, and he cocked his head to the side as if he were intrigued by me.
“Why do you want to know?” I demanded.
“I was just curious how you came to have such an item in your possession,” he said, still scrutinizing me with a mixture of curiosity and . . . something else. “Daggers like that are exceedingly rare. Many believe that the line of witches with the knowledge of how to forge those blades and scribe those runes died out long ago.”
I swallowed, uncomfortable with the idea that this strange fae male seemed to know more about my blade than I did.
“I don’t know where my father would have gotten it,” I said finally. “My mother never spoke about him, and she died when I was eight.”
“And yet you carry it with you — this blade you know nothing about.”
I opened my mouth to say something nasty, but Kadencut me off. “Fortunate you happened to have it — especially when there hasn’t been a demon sighting in the Quarter in more than fifty years.”
There was something off about his tone, though I couldn’t put my finger on it.
“Strange, don’t you think?” he murmured. “That those three showed uphere, of all places, with an apparent interest in you.”
My shoulders stiffened. I’d been thinking the exact same thing, but I hadn’t wanted to voice it out loud.
“Good evening, little huntress,” said Kaden, inclining his dark head. “I’m sure we’ll be seeing each other again very soon.”
I was just about to tell him that I had no intention of crossing paths with him ever again, but then he vanished in a wisp of night that smelled faintly of scorched cedar. A disembodied masculine chuckle rumbled through my chest before it, too, faded into the dark.
Chapter
Five
Istared at the spot where Kaden had disappeared, the muggy air settling over my skin and causing my leathers to stick uncomfortably. Now that the immediate threat of the demons was gone, a very real problem surfaced.
Julian had betrayed me, or he’d gone looking for the stone and stumbled upon a pack of demons instead. Either way, I didn’t have it. And without being able to conceal my magic, I’d be a supernatural beacon the moment I left the Quarter.
I’d been with Silas for five years, and in that time, I’d only known one other hunter who tried to leave him. She’d only been gone two and a half days before Vince and Bruno dragged her back, so beaten and bloody I’d barely recognized her. Silas had taken one look at the huntress and ordered Vince to lock her in the basement.
I couldn’t sleep for days after they brought her back — not with the screams that bled from the basement. I neversaw the huntress again, but the mortar between the bricks along the far wall was still stained black with her blood.
I couldn’t risk leaving the Quarter — not without any way to conceal my magic. And I couldn’t return to Silas empty-handed.
Taking a deep breath, I stepped over Julian’s prone body and peered into the shop. Smoke and ash filled my lungs, and I broke into a fit of coughs.
It was nearly a full minute before I was able to catch my breath. Once I did, I barreled into the smoke-blackened shop, where the burnt skeletons of tables and chairs loomed in the dark.
I staggered through the gloom to Julian’s office, which reeked of burned plastic. Only the metal filing cabinets had survived the fire unscathed. The wingback chairs lay in tatters, and the desk had been reduced to ash.
In the middle of the blackened debris was a hunk of melted plastic — all that remained of Silas’s duffel and the blood bags inside.
Staggering back into the alley, I turned and retched onto the pavement. Dread curdled in my gut, and the taste of ash on my tongue made me think of Silas.
I couldn’t go back —not without payment for the drop. I couldn’t tell Silas what had happened, because I wasn’t supposed to be seeing Julian at all tonight. I was supposed to take the blood to another buyer, and Silas would know I’d double-crossed him.
What would happen when Gorm realized that I wasn’t coming? How long did I have before he confronted Silas about the blood he’d promised and failed to deliver?
My panic mounted. Dawn was only a few hours away. By the time the sun rose, the streets would be empty, savefor a few witches and fae. I would be easy pickings for Silas’s hunters. Vince would be more than happy to hunt me down and drag me back to that basement.
Where would I go? I had no living relatives — no real friends. My old foster families lived in the human districts, and I knew none of them would welcome me back.
Closing my eyes, I drew in breaths of humid air until my racing heart settled.
