The Soulstoy Inheritance (24 page)

It took me too long to regain the use of my wits, and by the time I did, I knew that he was seconds away from laughing at me again.

“Yeah,” I croaked. “I can’t wait to wipe that stupid smile off your face.”

Cale and Rose caught up to us on our way to the training yard, and by the time we got there, Quick had also found me.

“Bea! I heard you attacked Ayleth again.” He brandished his noticeboard. “That’s the third time now.” He was grinning, as if I had done something to be proud of.

“Third time?” Hazen asked.

“Yeah,” Quick turned to him with the lack of formality that I had always liked. “The first time…”

“He doesn’t need to know,” I interrupted. “We’re going to fight—want to keep score?”

“Naturally.”

The training yard cleared for us in seconds, and those who had been using it gathered to watch as Hazen and I stood in the center, eyeing each other, but initiating no prelude to take up arms. Rose and Cale walked to the stand and climbed to the top tier, arguing about something quietly.

“You better not be making bets!” I yelled after them, causing Cale to flash me a grin over his shoulder.

As Quick perched himself atop the arms wagon, and shouted for us to begin, I switched my attention quickly back to Hazen. He had rolled up his sleeves, and looked about as calm and contained as he always did. I flew at him without preemption, knowing that the key to beating him would be to not plan my moves. He dodged too easily, and I increased the constant stream of energy that usually leaked out of me, causing the dirt to kick up around us in small whirlwinds and hopefully clouding my mind. The next time I ran at him, he was slower to react, but still managed to evade me just in time.

“Fight back!” I goaded him.

He grinned, and stepped casually in my direction, shadowing each step that I made to evade him, until his hands were on my neck and he was flinging me backward. I should have hit the ground, but I grabbed at his shirt, feeling the material rip as I used the momentum of my own fall to pull him down and regain my balance. He ducked instead of falling and anchored one arm around the back of my knees, knocking my legs out from beneath me. My back slammed into the dirt hard and cheers erupted from the onlookers. I grumbled and let him help me to my feet, and then I latched onto his other arm and twisted behind him, bringing his wrist with me and anchoring my free arm around his neck from behind. His arm should have been in too much pain for him to move, but the hand that I had anchored between his back and my stomach grabbed onto the side of my waist and managed to tear me off.

Once again, I used the momentum of his own strength to whip him back instead of me, and this time he was propelled into the onlookers, knocking several of them over. Another round of cheers—this time louder—thundered around us, and I wondered if more people had gathered. I could have sworn I spotted a human face or two within the golden sea. Whether they were vampires, Renegades or Hazen’s own, I couldn’t tell.

Hazen jumped back up and stalked toward me again, no longer looking so collected, with his shirt torn halfway down the middle and dirt coating his face. I grinned, and he smiled in response, flashing a row of white teeth to contrast against the dirt. It was a small distraction for me, to see the brightness taking over his face and shining through his uncharacteristic grin. He dove toward me and I couldn’t evade him, so I only did what I could to brace myself against the attack, and ended up somehow smashing my shoulder into his face. He dropped me, and we both stumbled back, him bleeding and me unhurt.

Another point to me
,
albeit an accidental one
.

“One more and I win,” I said to him, as we started to circle each other again.

He began to close the space between us, but didn’t attack again, and when he was within reach, he whispered, “Is this what our marriage would have been like, you beating me up all the time?”

He had meant the question to throw me off balance, and it did. He grabbed my arms and hauled them behind my spine, pulling me back into him and anchoring an arm around my collarbone.

“At least it wouldn’t be boring, huh?” His lips were against my ear, his heartbeat thudding against my back. I wondered if it were simply that loud, or if I had been looking for it with my Force for some reason.

The crowd began to count, and I knew that I had only five seconds to break from his hold before he would be awarded another point, except I couldn’t quite manage it. His whispered words were distracting me too much from the fight. I felt him laugh rather than heard it, and when he was awarded his point, he let go of me immediately. I tried to shake out my arms, and then did something truly horrible. I whispered his name in my head.

He had been right; I did play dirty.

Does that mean you’re considering it? How will Kaylee feel about that?
I referred to his Academy girlfriend.

I saw the surprise in his eyes, but didn’t give myself a chance to savour it. Instead, I threw myself beneath his arms, pushing myself up to get a good anchor against the ground, and then heaved him onto his back. It was hard, because he was much heavier than he looked, and as he fell, he grabbed onto my wrist so that I ended up sprawled beside him. That was a no point.

The dirt was still blowing up with my increased Force, and I had to push it away so that it didn’t get into my eyes, and then I threw myself across his torso, preventing him from rising. I drove my knees into his arms when they made to throw me off, and he laughed. I didn’t have to wonder why, as he merely continued to raise his arms, and me with them. I yelped, and my knees slipped down and slammed into the ground, and then I was on my back and his hand was around my neck. Nothing existed beyond him; his dirt-smeared face blocked even the sun, and his weight had settled over me, pressing me into the ground. His eyes seemed blue now. Dark, midnight blue, velvet and warm, the pupils were so wide that they almost swallowed the irises. 

“I win, you snake.” His voice was rough.

The moment lasted forever and ended much too soon. His eyes flicked over my face, settling on my lips, and then he was moving off me. The sun blurred back into existence and he became a dark silhouette, hand outstretched to me.

With a deep breath, I took it.

Chapter Seventeen

Drinking with Vampires

We all sat in one of the huge dining rooms that I habitually avoided. There were numerous long benches stretching from one wall to the other, but Hazen, Dom, Louis and I—along with those who were considered parts of our respective ‘royal cortèges’—sat at our own bench, separated from the others by the huge buffet table. Miriam was here, along with Cale and Rose, sitting around Hazen; while Dom had brought his Owl; and Louis was flanked on either side by two men, both pale, and both staring distastefully at their plates. Ashen sat with me, and I supposed that it was fitting, as he was Nareon’s brother.

The men with Louis were supposed to be his two younger cousins, Carmen and Sym, though I couldn’t tell one from the other. There was something universal about their pale skin, hallowed cheeks and red-rimmed eyes. I wondered if they thought the same about the Synfees. The first half of the dinner, I managed to successfully avoid Ashen, trying to really get my point across that I wasn’t happy with him. But he kept refilling my glass when I wasn’t looking, and by the end of the second course, I began to warm to him again.

“Where’s Leif right now?” I whispered to him conspiratorially.

He glanced down at me and his lips twisted with amusement. “I’ll give you a clue, girl. He’s on this half of the room.”

I slapped my hands over my eyes. “Wait, don’t tell me any more! Is he in the corner?”

“How can I comply with your request and answer your question all at once, Lady Queen? You ask too much of me.”

“He’s in the corner, isn’t he?”

“Not anymore.”

“He moved!”

Ashen laughed, and I removed my hand from my eyes, squinting at each corner of the room, or at least those that I could see from where I sat. Leif was nowhere.

“Unfair,” I muttered.

“I heard that you and Hazen had a bit of a tumble in the grass after our meeting,” he whispered.

“It was the dirt, not the grass,” I replied flippantly.

“Did you enjoy yourself?”

“It was—wait, dammit Ashen—“

I turned, intending to hit him across the arm, but ended up spilling half my glass of wine onto his lap. He looked down, and so did I.

“That works too.” I grinned, and then shrugged, returning to my meal.

“Oh you’ve done it now, girl,” he whispered, before turning to Hazen, who was watching us silently while talking to Cale.

“King Hazen!” Ashen’s voice carried. “You will of course consent to pair with our lovely Queen throughout the games this week, won’t you? You are, after all, the only suitable suitor in attendance. No offense, Louis—” he flicked a look to the vampire—“but I doubt she’d survive past the first night with you.”

The tables around us erupted into laughter, and I got the feeling that Louis would have actually blushed, except that there was no colour to draw into his cheeks to begin with. Miriam shook her head, and Cale choked on a mouthful of wine. Hazen put his cup down carefully, and then seemed to consider me.

“I couldn’t very well deny your subtle request, Ashen, though I might have enjoyed seeing her competitive streak kicked into action again.”

“I’m sure you can exploit it to your advantage,” Ashen offered.

“Ashen!” I held my cup up threateningly, and this time he jumped up, as the people around us laughed again.

“I must go and change, so that my Lady Queen can soil my clothes again,” he announced with a quick bow.

I glared after him, and then spent the rest of the meal watching the vampires, whom I had noticed drinking out of silver flasks when they thought that none were watching. When Ashen returned, he was with a harried looking Sweet, who must have just returned from Flintwood.

I excused myself from the table, and called for Leif in my mind, having no idea whether he was even in the room again. When he appeared at my side, I almost jumped, but grabbed onto his arm so that I wouldn’t lose him again, and led him out of the room after Sweet and Ashen. We had to move to the other side of the castle, where all of the offices would be empty, and then we slipped into the first unlocked room.

“I saw something last night. I didn’t want to entrust it with a messenger, so I left this morning,” Sweet said, as soon as the door closed behind him.

“What is it?”

“One of Grenlow’s men, he gave Daggar a note, and I managed to swipe it… here.” He shoved the piece of parchment to me, and I let go of Leif to take it.

Ashen moved over my other shoulder, and I stared down in confusion.

Never wheedle nautical wrongdoers into soulful worldliness.

“I don’t understand.”

“It’s a code we use often to give directions. The first letter of the word indicates direction, such as north, for never, and the amount of letters indicates an average span of measurement. Occasionally it will hint at a theme, for example this one refers to pirates.”

“Nautical wrongdoers?”

“Exactly.”

“What about the measurements?”

“The only way to really tell what kind of measurements they’re working with is to test them. Each word should lead to a new landmark, that tells you you’re going in the right direction, like a tree, or a burnt out fire.”

“I take it you followed the directions?”

“Yes, and you’ll never believe what I found. It was a tiny inlet from the Raven River leading between a mostly abandoned marsh isle and Flintwood, which explains the pirate reference. There was a canoe there, and three bodies beneath a tarp. They were human, and still alive, though in the case of one… well, he didn’t have a whole lot of time left.”

“What did you do with them?”

“Untied them and sent them back out to sea. I told one of Ashen’s ships about them on my way back through Ravenport—they should be able to intercept the boat and take them back to the shore on the other side of the Read Empire, though it will take them as long as a week.”

“One of Grenlow’s men?” I asked, my hand beginning to shake. “Are you sure?”

“I’m sure, but it doesn’t necessarily mean he was acting under Grenlow’s orders.”

I nodded. “I’m going to find Harbringer. I want him to go back with you tonight, if you’re up to the trip. I sent Teddy past the border with Nareon tonight, and I need Quick here, so pick out whom you trust, and get them ready. However many you need.”

“What do you expect them to do exactly?” Ashen asked, as I strode for the door.

“Make their presence known. I want Daggar to know that we’re onto him.”

I pulled open the door and hurried back to the dining hall, scouting the walls as people watched me. It wasn’t easy to pass unnoticed, but thankfully Harbringer found me before I had gone too far.

“I’m here,” he stated plainly.

“Something’s come up. How do you feel about going to Flintwood?”

I gave him a moment to sort through my thoughts and then he nodded. “Go back to your table; you don’t want to raise Grenlow’s notice. I’ll send Ashen back in too. Leave everything else up to me.”

“Thank you, Harbringer.”

I watched him walk away and then returned to my table, slipping into my seat. A moment later, Ashen slid back into the seat beside mine, and the rest of the night passed as smoothly as could be expected.

The next day, we started off the treasure hunt with a group of four, but Ashen swooped in on us, and insisted that we couldn’t hunt with more than three people. As a result, Cale would naturally have to hunt with Rose, and I would have to hunt with Hazen.

Cale watched the man walk away, shaking his head.

“You two are going to be married before the week is out if he has anything to do with it.”

At my sour look, Rose tried to choke down her giggle.

“I’ll be uncle Cale in no time!” he yelled, drawing Rose away before I could attack either one of them.