I darted back, giving us both a few breaths to re-strategize. “What do you think you know?” I asked softly.
Montague had investigated after that ambush, but between my Skill and the chaos of the bombs my team set off, presumably they'd lost visual track of him.
No one witnessed his death, and when I'd retrieved his body, his people had already been routed from the wreckage of the safehouse.
It was partly why I believed his arrival unplanned and in stealth—why else an absence of personal guard? No one had planned for his presence. I still didn't know why he’d been there, and likely never would.
“Are you paying attention, Aerinne?” Baroun sprang to his feet and circled to my left. “I don’t want to kill you too easily.”
I pivoted with him and pressed my attack, but he was fast, always staying just outside my reach.
Damn. I needed to reserve my energy and he was toying with me.
“Still talking nonsense, Baroun? Is that all you are? Pretty words and pixie dust?” He feinted again, and this time I was ready for his counterattack.
I caught his blade on my dagger, knocking it aside with a clang. As he recovered his balance, I brought my sabre around in a wide arc and caught him on the shoulder.
He staggered backward a pace. “Se Eld ni etlehar,” he snarled.
I pressed my advantage, stepping forward and slashing again, frustrated. My Skill sparked as my blade unerringly found his—
Bright pain.
I cried out, my blade knocked from my hand at the last second. I released my power, stunned. No one had ever successfully blocked my Skill enhanced attack before.
“I prefer my cousin live,” the Prince said. “He will be useful to us, and I admit to the folly of affection.”
Baroun disengaged and leaped back, farther and faster than I'd ever seen a Fae warrior move. I stared at him. I forgot sometimes—he was High Fae, though the transition had been subtle and relatively recent.
He'd been toying with me if he could move like that—why? Why put me through my paces. . .unless he wanted to test new information. Forcing me to fight him full-tilt and use my Skills would confirm them if he'd gotten intel.
Someonehad led us into an ambush. We knew of a leak in Faronne.
Baroun lifted a hand and waved his fingers before disappearing into the melee.
Prince Renaud took his place, a blade in his hand. “You survived Baroun, Lady Aerinne—though he wasn't truly trying to kill you. Still. You are Skilled.”
I retreated.
He'd woken a little over a day ago, though it had been five years since we first felt him stirring. He shouldn't be this focused yet. Nora had been awake for years and couldn't manage the sharp focused intensity in the Prince's eyes.
“I'm not telling you anything,” I said.
This close to him it was hard to breathe the air. His power hoarded the molecules, setting them on fire. He was simplymorethan any other person on this field, a demigod come to life, his strength and beauty effortless, the press of age behind his eyes an uneasy reminder that this male was as above the 'average' High Fae as I was above a cricket.
I refused to be intimidated.
He tilted his head. “It's merely an academic interest.”
I winced at the word academic, reminding me of the male he didn't yet realize haunted me. Though he would soon enough, and then I'd be dead.
“I don't think so.”
A hint of shadowy wings rustled, his power icing the air for a moment. A warning. “Indulge me, please. Tell me what you know.”
Dry throat, couldn't swallow. “My strikes always find their mark. Or rather, I'm able to instantaneously calculate the perfect angle and timing each time. It's difficult for an opponent to counter me. Like playing chess with a computer, and I'm the computer.” No need to tell him about the invisibility, he'd learn firsthand soon enough.
“Computer,” he said.
