Queen of Skye and Shadow complete box set : Queen of Skye and Shadow Omnibus books 1-3

by Thea Atkinson

  I shook my head.

  "I don't think I can manage that thing," I said. It wasn't that I couldn't, rather I didn't want to pick it up again so soon.

  I sank down on the nearest fallen tree and put my head between my knees. His voice drifted over me.

  "It's not yours," he said.

  I craned my head to look up at him. He had thoughtfully put the light to the side so that it sent the glow over his face but avoided the dire wolf.

  "What's that?" I said.

  "The sword isn't for you," he said. "It's my sword," he said. "I was looking for you. And only a fool goes out at dark without a weapon."

  I nodded mutely. I knew that. I always carried a blade of some sort. But I'd left mine back at the library. It was why I'd gone to see Lance in the first place.

  "So you are looking for me to tell me that you don't like to go out at night without a sword?"

  He stepped closer and crouched in front of me. I could hear his knees pop.

  "Not exactly," he said. "This is the best weapon I can make," he said. "The katanas you ordered those are simple. This is heavy and it's sharp and if you put the right thrust into it, as you can see, it will do its job perfectly."

  I avoided looking in the direction of the wolf. "So?"

  "So I was wrong to think you would be better off with a couple of katanas. I've seen Hunter's Blood Blade. I can't make anything to match it. This is my best."

  "It went straight through the wolf," I said.

  "Indeed. And you handled it well."

  "This was a test," I said.

  He fell back onto his haunches. "No. A happy happenstance."

  "You call me almost dying at the mouth of a huge direwolf happy?"

  "You didn't die."

  "No shit," I said. "But it wasn't for lack of the thing's trying."

  "What sent you here?"

  "Sent me?" he said. "No one sent me. I was on my way home when I heard you screaming."

  I pushed to my feet, annoyed and more than a bit angry.

  "I did not scream." I shoved him to the side and plucked his lamp from the stone it was on. I fully intended to use it to pick the rest of my way home in a well lit stream. I'd had enough risk for one day.

  I was on my way to the path when he stopped me.

  His hand fell on my shoulder and I swung around so fast, I was able to knock him backward.

  "Don't touch me," I said.

  "Don't worry," he said. He had slid the sword back into its sheath on his back.

  "My lamp," he said. "Like I said, only a fool goes out at night without a weapon, and light is part of my arsenal."

  I swallowed down and passed it to him.

  "I'll walk you home," he said.

  "I don't need you."

  "Well you're pretty irresistible at the moment, but not to a man."

  "That's pretty mean," I said.

  He reached for my face and I flinched as his thumb ran along my chin. He held his hand up in the light to show me.

  "Blood," I said, and I realized he hadn't been insulting me.

  "All over you."

  Right. Of course. You can't kill a beast that size and not get bloody.

  "All that blood will make you irresistible and you're, how shall I say, weaponless."

  "Or a fool," I said.

  He shrugged.

  I knew he was right, but I resisted the thought that I might need some man to accompany me to my own home just because he had a light and the sword. I wasn't a fool by any stretch, but I wasn't weak either. And he needed to know that.

  "You can walk with me," I said. "But you'll need to do what I say without question, understand?"

  He shrugged again. I had the feeling he was indulging me, but I didn't want him falling prey to one of my booby-traps.

  I was hyper-aware of the smell of blood, and now that I knew I was covered in it, I felt the fluids grow sticky on my body.

  "Hold on," I said.

  I couldn't keep going like this. The wolf pack's howls had grown closer.

  I peeled off my jacket and thrust it into the bushes. Next came my shirt and my pants. I couldn't do anything about my hair, but I used the discarded T-shirt to wipe my face, neck, and hands clean before I threw it into the bushes. It wouldn't be long before the smell turned rancid and stopped luring predators, and it would keep annoying pests away until then.

  I noticed Lance trying to avert his gaze, but once or twice I saw it land on my chest. I couldn't help myself. I thrust my out chest ever so slightly, giving him a good view not because I wanted him to look, but because he was having such a hard time not looking.

  When we got to the first of my booby-traps, a series of small holes covered over by general detritus, I was about to warn him when he skirted sideways.

  So he had a keen eye.

  "Nicely done," I said grudgingly. "How did you know there was something there?"

  He looked at me sideways. "I didn't," he said. "I just watched your body language. You looked at me. And your eyes went to the ground."

  Clever, I thought. So he wasn't just aware of the things around him. He was also aware of way people acted and reacted. It might be useful if the town decided to stand against Hunter.

  "Maybe you should let someone know about that," I said.

  "What about your booby-traps?"

  "No," I said. "About your ability to read people. The townsfolk are going to need that."

  "Maybe you might need it," he said.

  "Not me," I said. "There's no way that Hunter and I can be in the same town together and it not end badly. I said I'd stay a couple of days, make sure you found your magician."

  "Maybe it will end badly for Hunter," he said.

  "People like Hunter never have things end badly for them."

  "You don't know that," he said.

  "I know Hunter. Don't ask me more than that."

  "There's no hope of defeating him. Not alone anyway. It will take the entire town to get rid of him. And even then he'll come back. He's committed and dedicated to his cause."

  "You say that as though you believe it's true."

  "I do believe it's true. I don't have what it takes to defeat him. In fact, I'm a liability. That's why I'm leaving."

  "You said you'd stay," he said.

  "Just till we located your magic man," I said. "I found him. He's with Dallas."

  "I wouldn't have taken you for a coward," he said.

  I spun on my heel and faced him in the light of his lamp. I knew he could see my face clearly even though his was in shadow.

  "Nice try," I said. "But I am a liability. If Hunter knows you're helping me at all no matter what the reason, he'll annihilate you."

  "I think he'll have a fight on his hands," he said and his fingers went to the grip on his sword.

  While I admired his moxy, I also knew it wouldn't be enough. Most of the townsfolk weren't fighters, and even the ones who were, like Sadie and Myste, they were imports, not real locals.

  "Look," I said. "I'll see what I can do about getting Dallas to scope out Hunter's plans. Where he's staying. What kind of weakness his sword has, but I can't stay. He'll find me eventually, and he'll make you all pay."

  "We already know where he's staying," Lance said. "He's staying with Colton Musk. In the big house. No one in town would put him up."

  I laughed deep in my throat. "Bully for the townsfolk," I said but there was a bit of a nagging thought that nibbled away at my mnd.

  "I'm supposed to meet Colton before I leave town. He has a job for me and I was going to use it as cover to leave without raising suspicion. No one will think twice about me creeping onto the property. I do have an appointment after all."

  I thought it through. I could easily use the opportunity to spy on them both. Get some information that might actually help me in terms of my leaving. And maybe the town too

  It wasn't much, but it was a start.

  "Colton hasn't told Hunter I'm here yet," I said. "In fact, he's using it as bl
ackmail to get me to do something he wants. But that kind of information cuts both ways."

  I put my hand on the doorknob and gave it a twist.

  "It might be just as useful for me to know what Hunter is planning as it is for the town."

  I looked over my shoulder at Lance.

  "I'll be by to pick up that sword," I said.

  The night was a sleepless one, and I wasn't sure whether I was restless because I was excited about the prospect of having handy a couple of really good weapons, or whether I was anxious about spying on Hunter and Colton. A lot was riding on my willingness to put myself at that sort of risk. Not the least of which was my own safety. But Sadie and her wife Sam, the widow and the tailor that I'd grown friendly with. I wasn't sure if I still felt prickly and anxious after the dire wolf attack or if the adrenaline was keeping me awake. All I knew was that every time I closed my eyes, I saw the look of Lance's gaze on my bare torso and the feel of his hand when it planted on my shoulder.

  All in all, I was far too sleep deprived to be spying on Hunter and Colton the next day, but that's exactly what I planned.

  -10-

  I got up in the morning and washed my face and hair in the sink with cold water. I hadn't realized how much of the dire wolf's blood had got on me the night before, but it had made mats of my hair and left streaks of dried red speckles down my throat and across my clavicle. I'd been lucky Lance had been there. What would I have done if he hadn't shown up with that sword? I didn't want to think. Because it made me consider much more than just those few moments when my life had been at risk. It made me think of more than my plan to run from town and from Hunter and his law.

  Lance had been willing to put himself at risk for me. He had tossed his only weapon in my path so that I might save myself. He could have continued on in the darkness, content to let a dire wolf seek its prey and leave him alone to find his way home in safety. It made me think of all those townsfolk back at the bazaar who had stepped in front of me to keep me from Hunter's view. It made me think of Sadie and her wife Sam.

  It made me realize that Lance had been right. While the town might have been different when I'd left it: full of brigands and selfish people looking to keep themselves safe without worrying about concern for others, it was different now. It was small, but there was a subtle sense of community. Maybe it wasn't full-blown, and maybe it was only a potential, hopeful thing. The fact that people could choose to hide me instead of giving me up for ransom. That had to mean something. It had to mean that it was a community and not just a place filled with people living their lives and out to get only things that could benefit them.

  It made me wonder if perhaps we could push this further.

  I knew I wasn't some sort of saviour as the magician seemed to believe. Whoever had the visions of me leading people to a peaceful future, they were delusions and no more. But that didn't mean that I couldn't help these people to bring themselves to some sort of peace.

  I owed them that at least.

  So I pulled on a pair of pants and a shirt that might blend in better than jeans or a bright yellow T-shirt. I braided my hair down my back and painted my face with ochre to cover the scar in the middle. Then I pulled on a cap, yanking it down far past my ears, covering the worst of the scar that ran up into my hairline.

  I'd got the scar as a child, and as a kid, I pretended to be Harry Potter and that I was a great hero in waiting. It was the only thing that helped me forget about how I cracked my skull open to begin with. I told myself it was a war wound. A battle-scar. A remnant of a man who should never be named, and even if it was self-inflicted, I would never forget the reason I won it.

  It was a thin line, but in the cold, it stood out against my skin in a red tracing that went from the middle of my eyebrows to the V in my hairline. I disguised it sometimes when I camouflaged all my bare skin to go hunting. Most times, I let it alone, choosing to remind folks that my past might have entailed some nasty shit that gave me an edge.

  Even so, I hated it. I'd never managed the same trick as Dallas to use it as a measuring stick. It made me stand out, and in this world, you didn't want to be remembered.

  I pulled on my pair of old world sneakers bartered back in the days when I'd still been rogue and had to do a fair bit of walking.

  I was going to town. And then I was going to Lance's shop to pick up my sword. I'd deliver anything I uncovered from my surveillance that might be useful, then I would slip out of town quietly.

  I left Gentry behind as the sun came up behind me over the hogbacks. Surveillance required subtlety, and the horse was persnickety enough when roused, let alone before at dawn. I was in town before most of the barter stalls had set up for the day. The local brothel was expelling the last of its nightly patrons into the street even as it was taking in its regular day drinkers.

  Myste Vandrahan nodded silently to me as she pushed open the door and went inside. I wouldn't have taken her for a day drinker, but she was a bit of an anomaly at best. I stood over the bit of asphalt that Hunter had scuffed up the day before, staring down at the dime I'd embedded into the tar.

  Old Denver was a relic of the past. New Denver needed to find its way to homeostasis. I thought of the books abandoned in the old city, felt a remorse for the ones that might never be read again and realized that if anyone was to ever take up culture again, it had to be with open arms.

  It's hard to embrace peace when you're holding a weapon.

  I took a deep, bracing breath and headed toward Colton Musk's estate. It was on the fringes of town, on the opposite side from Myste's spread and it was a double wide stone building with a wooden roof instead of sod. It had windows with glass panes of various sizes and shapes, depending on what he'd scrounged or bartered for that others had scrounged over the years.

  In short, it was magnificent in comparison to the soddies that rested at the feet of the hogbacks or that lined the streets of the town, and because it was so luxurious, Musk hired out burly men to guard the place.

  I'd acted as a guard now and then, but more often than not, he had me turning those skills outward to other towns. He always ordered some sort of threat to get to the barter he wanted from them, confident that I would do what I was asked and that if the threat wasn't enough, I'd find a way to use violence in a way that would skirt the law or just get rid of the defendant if it came to that. I always brought him want he wanted, but I used every method other than violence that I could. Most times, it cost me in future barter, and I owed quite a few people in the townships around New Denver.

  This specific invitation courtesy of Musk himself allowed me to get close, but I wasn't foolish enough to think it wasn't in itself a trap.

  I needed to get close but stay out of sight of Musk.

  Before I got within yards of the street that led to the mayoral estate, I caught sight of three men striding toward me. The first one, the one in the front, I recognized as one of Musk's burly protectors. Behind him, deep in some serious dialog with a Ruby Skull was Musk.

  And Hunter.

  I froze in the street. That's when Hunter saw me. He had the look of that dire wolf when his head swung toward me. Even from across the distance, I could tell his eyes had landed on me, that his face shifted from engrossed conversation to surprise and then anger.

  I watched his posture go rigid and he let go a howl that to my mind, sounded exactly like that of the dire wolf but could easily have just been my name.

  "Double fuck," I said and spun on my heel. I couldn't very well duck into one of the soddies and bring down the wrath of Hunter on the place.

  No. I had to get the hell out of town.

  So I ran. And I knew as I bolted that he was on my heels. Just like I had when I'd run from Marlin at the library, I felt Hunter's presence as it closed in on me.

  I could only think one thing: Get him to my property and my booby traps. Let him get caught in one of the nets or drop into one of the holes or break his damn ankle in one of the potholes.

 
Then I'd double back. Head to Lance's. Pick up the swords and flee before he could rain justice down on anyone he thought had harbored me. Like: the entire town.

  If it wasn't already too late, that was.

  I ran all those scenarios through my mind as I pelted up the path to the hogbacks and toward my crooked chimney. There were at least three small bends in the path before my soddie came into view. I ran around the first one, and didn't turn when I heard Hunter call my name.

  He knew it was me then. I wasn't just some guilty party running on the worry that I'd got caught at something.

  The second curve marked a place where you could see my paddock and Gentry's lazy forage. It was also close to the spot where the dire wolf had caught me unaware.

  My Tshirt dangled from a tree branch. I grabbed it as I ran past and ducked into the woods. I knew Hunter was a fast runner. There was no doubt in my mind that he'd keep in shape. Justice needed fast feet and a fleet mind.

  I ran for that bend, knowing the dire wolf's carcass was still there, that my jeans were also dropped along the path. I knew the place where I'd fallen through the branches was very close to that bend.

  I also knew that until he rounded that first bend, he'd not see me but he'd see the long and winding grassy path to my soddie.

  I counted on his belief that I'd be running to my paddock so that I could hop on that horse and outdistance him.

  An awful stink clawed its way toward me, alerting me that the wolf was near and that he'd already started to rot. I prayed animals hadn't got to it yet and was relieved when I spotted its matted fur and bloody ground.

  I ran for it without balking.

  There was no time to feel the revulsion that curled my lip. I skidded to a halt, sliding onto my hip along the ground next to it. I sucked in a breath and kicked at the beast to roll it off the ground.

  I was pulling the stinking carcass back over me, using the edge of my T-shirt to ball up and stuff in my mouth to dampen the sound of my breathing.

  And then I waited.

  But not long. It took mere heartbeats before I caught the sound of his footfalls grinding the dirt in his effort to out-pace me.