Faery (The Faery Chronicles Book 3)
Page 16
I knew that better than anyone else. Sunday could lecture me about the blood on my own hands all she wanted; I knew it would drip from my fingertips until the day I died and probably flood my grave. If there was a hell separate from the ones we created for ourselves and each other in this world, I’d be sent straight there, do not pass GO. It was where I belonged.
A fucking Horseman of the Apocalypse.
I knew from my time in the Order that there had been other apocalyptic close calls—the world had almost ended half a dozen times according to the Order’s records. But none of those times had involved a Horseman.
If the end of the world was really nigh this time, taking Faith and running again might not work. If something happened to her, I’d never forgive myself. If something happened to me, what would happen to Faith?
“How do you intend to find Death?” I asked.
“You don’t want to help me, I don’t need to tell you.” She dropped her gaze from my face to the scoop neck of my T-shirt, where the pendant she’d given me hung on its delicate silver chain. “You still have it.”
The silver hourglass, a symbol of what I’d been and what I’d become. I had been death itself, and I had died to that life. Now, I had a second chance that I’d sworn never to waste. A new beginning. “I’ve never taken it off.”
She met my gaze. “Even if you won’t help me, do you really want me to stay away?”
I looked into her eyes, and at her mouth. I dreamed about the shape of her mouth sometimes, the way it celebrated all her moods. Part of me wanted to kiss her and taste the fire of the life inside her and the espresso I knew she’d have sipped on waking. Part of me wanted to drown in her, for things to be like they’d been before.
“It’s probably better if you do,” I said.
“C’mon, Night. Reconsider.”
“Thanks, but no thanks,” I said with more determination than I felt.
“I hear so much as a whisper about any of the Order in town,” she said, “you’ll be the first to know. Same if things get out of hand with the Horseman of Death.”
“Thanks,” I said again.
Faith and I would have to start the motions of getting the hell out of Dodge and be gone by day after tomorrow, tops. If I could get us gone by tomorrow morning, that wouldn’t be soon enough for me. But my girl wasn’t ten anymore. She didn’t do what I told her just because I said so. She would need a reason. I didn’t want to have to tell her that I’d somehow screwed up and our cover was blown here.
“Thanks for not killing me,” Sunday said.
My lips twitched into a half-smile. “You, too.”
She took a hesitant step toward me, then crossed the distance in a couple of quick strides. She wrapped her arms around me and hugged me tight. Her body felt familiar, like second skin. Her strength, the amber scent in her hair, the brush of her breasts against mine. She pulled back just enough to plant a kiss on my forehead, and then one full on my lips, soft and mesmerizing.
I tasted the espresso and felt the line of the scar that ran across her bottom lip, the one that lipstick camouflaged so well. My heartbeat quickened. My arms wanted to move of their own accord, to draw her closer. I did not.
She pulled away, a question in her eyes that she asked a moment later. “Did you meet someone else? New woman? New man?”
I shook my head. “No time for love.”
How could I find anything real when I had to hide my past? When I had to hide my real name? Like Faith, I’d taken a new one—Night, because I’d gone dark, inside and out. Whoever I’d been before my parents had given me to the Order, whoever I’d become under the life-or-death training the Order had given me—that girl, that woman, were dead and buried.
I’d never be able to stop running.
Sunday studied my face. Whatever she read there, she kept to herself. “Take care, Night. I’m glad you’re safe,” she said.
She turned away and walked out of the gym, the electronic chime announcing her departure. My heart thumped hard in my chest as she turned left into the neighborhood, disappearing from view, as the last traces of her perfume faded.
I breathed deep, making my exhales longer than my inhales, slowing my heart and recalibrating my nervous system until I felt absolutely calm, until I could think more clearly. Sunday hadn’t used her magic on me, but I still felt as if I’d been run over by a forest fire.
Ten minutes until I had charge of half-awake kids here to learn how strong they could be.
Faith should’ve shown by now. We should’ve already been through the show. Her apologizing, me telling her what she could or couldn’t do, her throwing back in my face that I wasn’t her mother and couldn’t order her around. She’d had a mother, and just because the woman had died bloody and I’d taken Faith in didn’t mean I owned her. I’d heard the speech a hundred times.
Thank God Faith hadn’t walked in while Sunday was here. On the heels of that thought, another.
Armageddon: coming to my backyard. As much as I couldn’t take a word Sunday said as gospel, who would lie about something like that?
I stared at the door, wondering who would walk in next. The Order? The Horseman of Death?
I didn’t trust Sunday as far as I could throw her.
And where in the name of everything holy was Faith
ALSO BY LESLIE CLAIRE WALKER
HUNT UNIVERSE
The Faerie Chronicles
Novels
Hunt
Demon
Faery
Collections
Faery Tales: Volume 1
Faery Tales: Volume 2
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Leslie Claire Walker grew up among the lush bayous of southeast Texas and now lives in the rain-drenched Pacific Northwest with a cast of spectacular characters, including cats, harps, and too many fantasy novels to count. She takes her inspiration from the dark beauty of the city, the power of myth, and music ranging from Celtic harp to heavy metal. Her short fiction has appeared in many magazines and anthologies.
Catch up with Leslie at http://leslieclairewalker.com.
COPYRIGHT INFORMATION
FAERY
Copyright © 2015 Leslie Claire Walker
Published 2015 by Secret Fire Press
Cover and Layout Copyright © 2015 by Secret Fire Press
Cover Design by Dayle Dermatis
Cover Art Copyright © Rolffimages / Dreamstime.com
This book is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. All rights reserved. This is a work of fiction. All characters and events portrayed in this book are fictional, and any resemblance to real people or incidents is purely coincidental. This book, or parts thereof, may not be reproduced in any form without permission.
Table of Contents
Dedication
PROLOGUE
CHAPTER ONE
CHAPTER TWO
CHAPTER THREE
CHAPTER FOUR
CHAPTER FIVE
CHAPTER SIX
CHAPTER SEVEN
EPILOGUE
Night Awakens Teaser
ALSO BY LESLIE CLAIRE WALKER
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
COPYRIGHT INFORMATION