by S. M. Boyce
“Then there is no mistake. You have four more chests available to you. Would you like to see them?”
“Fuck, yes,” she said, grinning.
More muffled clinks and whirs bled through the wall. Victoria waited, her smile broadening with every second. Sure enough, the four chests slid out of the wall and opened for her. Aside from a blank journal, a diamond amulet, and two more empty pouches, every chest was filled with crystals.
Victoria set her hands on her head, speechless as she stared at the chests. Holy shit. Rich in both worlds.
She emptied about half of what she had brought with her into one of the chests, but her smile began to fade as the crystals clinked against each other. Her parents had hidden so much. They had lied to her, blackmailed wizards, and lived secret lives.
Did she really know them?
A knot formed again her throat, and she didn't try to push it back. She desperately wanted to cry. Grief would be welcome at this point, but every time she tried the delve into her sorrow, her fearsome anger bubbled forth instead. She grimaced at the surge of hatred for Luak, glaring at the nearest chest without even seeing it.
Her mother and father had always cared for her and loved her. Whatever mistakes they had made in life, they had not deserved to die the way they did.
She grabbed her much lighter pouch and tucked the diamond amulet inside. With her anger fresh and hot once more, she was determined not to spend the entire day shopping. This afternoon she would once more stand in the training cave so that she could continue to learn to defeat Luak. The elvish bastard would pay with his life for what he had done to her, and now Victoria had the riches of a small country to help her beat him.
He didn't stand a chance.
CHAPTER 24
It only took twelve hours to buy a new house.
Alone in the massive dwelling, Audrey threw a jab at a handmade punching bag in the basement gym. She now shared a four-story townhouse with Victoria in what Bertha assured them was Fairhaven's safest district. She couldn't lie—she had been impressed that they were able to close on a house so quickly. It helped that Bertha seemed to know everyone and had a few favors to cash in, and it probably hadn’t hurt that Victoria now had the wealth of an oil baron. Jingling crystals had exchanged hands, and before much time had passed she and Victoria had been given keys.
Audrey paused, wiping the sweat from her forehead as she took a quick break. At least her bestie was sharing the wealth.
The first game of the Berserk season was coming up, so Edgar had helped her set up the makeshift gym in the basement. They would add more equipment soon. In fact, the entire Berserk team might come over and do their weight training here if she decked it out enough, and the thought made her happy. It didn’t offer much in the way of natural lighting, though, so she would need to find some gas lamps or candles for her nighttime workouts. For now, thin rays of light poured through the small windows that ran along the walls close to the ceiling. There wasn't much in the house yet, and even her little punching bag had been handmade with some sawdust and a feed satchel she had borrowed from Bertha. But now that she didn't have to work, she needed to occupy herself somehow.
Thus, she would practice until she couldn’t hold her arms up anymore.
A bit of her energy back now, Audrey threw a cross, and her homemade punching bag sailed backward on the metal chain that suspended it from a support beam. She coiled her body as she launched a roundhouse kick, and her ankle smacked against the bag, knocking it backward once again.
Bertha had promised more sword training later, and if Audrey learned that skill, they would also practice with daggers. Hell, maybe she should leave early and help Bertha with the store, just for old time’s sake. She actually missed it a little.
She threw a combo at the bag, frowning as she focused all her strength, attention, and—if she were being honest with herself—jealousy into every blow.
***
A blast of green light assaulted Victoria, and it took everything in her, every ounce of focus, to maintain her massive shield. She gritted her teeth, straining every muscle in her body to hold the shield up, but it was so damn heavy.
She and Fyrn fought once more in the training tunnel, and every day they visited, she improved in spades. She could now keep the shield going long enough to protect herself and summon a sword long enough to use it. Not at the same time, of course, but she would get there.
She could taste revenge. It was so close.
“Good!” Fyrn shouted.
The blast of light stopped, and she peeked over her shield to find Fyrn smirking a bit as he watched her. Styx applauded, squeaking loudly as he clapped.
She stood up straight, silently commanding the shield in her hand to get a little smaller so that she could hold it. It obeyed, shrinking ever so slightly, and her shoulder relaxed a bit in relief. She grinned. “How long until you think I'm ready?”
Fyrn shook his head. “Don't get cocky. Luak is much better than you.”
“For now,” she said, grinning.
He clicked his tongue, pinching the bridge of his nose. “You have way too much to learn to be thinking about revenge, Victoria. Focus on your studies, and revenge will come.”
Her smile faded. Patience wasn't one of her strengths.
“Wait, what’s that around your neck?” Fyrn pointed his staff at Victoria’s chest.
She looked down to see the diamond amulet her parents had left her. “Oh, something I discovered at the bank. My parents left it for me.”
“May I examine it?”
With a slight limp to her step from the training, Victoria crossed the distance between them and set it in his palm. He examined it, eyes crossing a little as he inspected the gemstone.
“Victoria, this is no trinket. It’s a powerful object.”
Her brows shot up her forehead. “Is it?”
He nodded and pointed to the dagger in her arm. “That is a Rhazdon Artifact, obviously, but there are other magical artifacts as well. Not all are filled with dark magic. Most are created for a single purpose, but they need to be powered by something. Think of artifacts as flashlights—they need batteries to work. In Oriceran, those batteries are called relics. Do you follow?”
“I think so,” she said hesitantly.
“This diamond is both artifact and relic, meaning they’re packaged together. You will never have to power this with your own magic. It will simply work for you, always.”
“What does it do?”
“Ordinarily, I couldn’t tell you what an artifact does without intense study and research. This one, however, I’ve seen before. It warns its owner of danger. You must wear it for it to work, but if you do, it will begin to glow if there’s someone nearby who wishes to hurt you. I have no idea how your parents found it, though. Last I heard, it was lost.”
Victoria chuckled. “That sounds like something they’d go after, no question.”
He handed it back to her. “Keep that close. It’s priceless.”
Victoria smiled, studying the necklace with newfound admiration.
“Now, back to work. Again!” he said, lifting his staff and pointing the crystal toward her.
She hefted her shield to cover her face, willing it larger as she prepared for another onslaught. She didn’t care what Fyrn said—she was getting better every day, learning to control her gifts more quickly than she had ever learned anything in her life. It was natural, like breathing.
She wouldn’t have to wait long.
CHAPTER 25
As Victoria emerged from the training cave, the light from the crystals above dimmed to twilight, casting shadows across the ground. Fyrn still led the way, his staff tapping the ground as he led them back to his cottage to plan the next day’s strategy.
Somewhere nearby, a soft and familiar sound tugged on Victoria's ear. She paused, craning her neck as she listened. It grew louder and louder, until she could finally recognize it.
Crying.
“Fyrn, wa
it,” she said, taking a few steps toward the sound. She craned her ears again, and the noise became clearer. It sounded like a little girl sobbing.
“Victoria, what—”
She bolted toward the sound, not caring if Fyrn told her to ignore it. She ran through an immaculate street lined with lavish homes, and the crying grew louder with every step. As she passed the mansions’ elaborate gardens filled with colorful succulents and mosses, her eyes scanned every yard as she tried to find the little girl who was crying.
Victoria rounded a corner in the road only to find a little goblin girl hunched over a body. The child cried, her ears flapping like wings, her hands covering her eyes. Between sobs, she mumbled something unintelligible.
Victoria knelt beside her, glancing fleetingly at the corpse on the ground. She did a double take when she recognized him—it was the grouchy goblin who sometimes visited Bertha’s shop. She lifted the girl’s chin, and sure enough, this was the little goblin who had given Victoria the flower all those weeks ago. With a flare of recognition in the girl’s eyes, the little goblin wrapped her tiny arms as far as they would go around Victoria's waist.
The girl said something again, but it wasn't in a language Victoria could understand. She held the goblin close, studying the corpse on the ground. She didn't even know where to look for a pulse.
Green blood oozed from large gashes in his shoulder. From the crescent-moon pattern, it looked like the bite of a massive animal. The marks curved around his torso, his arm, his neck, even his face. His nose had been flattened, and his ears were still. From the looks of it, he wasn't breathing.
Victoria held the girl tighter and looked around, desperate to get her to safety and simultaneously in a panic to figure out what could have done something like this. It took a moment, but her eyes eventually settled on the entrance to a tunnel not unlike the one she and Fyrn used to get to their training cave.
She had a flashback to the slithering tail in the tunnels below, and her heart beat faster.
“This is bad,” Fyrn said, kneeling beside her. In her panic, she hadn't even heard him approach.
“We have to get her to safety, and we have to tell the king about this attack,” Victoria said, holding the girl in her arms as she stood.
“You're right,” Fyrn said, frowning as he studied the entrance to the tunnel.
“What could do something like this?”
“I don’t know.” He studied her, pausing for a moment as their gazes met. His jaw tensed, and he stood a little taller.
Unbelievable. He was scared.
Victoria kept her eyes on the entrance to the tunnel as she slowly backed away. She cradled the girl’s head against her shoulder, doing her best to block the child’s view of the dead body.
“It's going to be okay,” she lied.
***
Audrey sat at one of the chairs in Bertha's kitchen, staring at her fingers as she tapped the wooden surface of the table. Victoria sat across from her, and Bertha stood in the corner. No one spoke. No one knew what to say.
Bertha began to pace, the floor creaking with every thump of her heavy feet. “Could it have been an attack by a fellow citizen?”
“Not unless that person has swords for teeth and a jaw as wide as a door.” Victoria tugged the ends of her hair, wrapping the locks around her fingers, a dead giveaway that she was nervous.
“Who was the victim?” Audrey asked.
Bertha wiped away a tear. “A prominent investor in the city. He might've been grumpy and unpleasant, but he changed hundreds of lives for the better by developing previously uninhabitable areas and creating homes for citizens who didn't have one. He was loved, and there will be hell to pay when we discover who did this.”
“What about the girl?” Victoria asked softly.
“Last I heard, she was with her mother.”
“Good,” Victoria said softly.
Audrey rubbed her temples. She couldn’t imagine what it was like to find someone’s corpse. For the moment, she didn’t envy Victoria at all.
“We have to find and kill whatever did this,” Victoria said, eyes locking with Audrey's.
Audrey shook her head. “Victoria, we have enough on our plates. Don't make this our problem.”
“Of course it’s our problem!”
Audrey gritted her teeth. She frowned and narrowed her eyes, saying everything she needed to without uttering a word. Stop playing hero.
Victoria huffed and crossed her arms, leaning back. I’m not!
Audrey rolled her eyes and tapped on her left index finger against her right wrist. You can’t even control the Rhazdon Artifact. Don’t expose yourself.
“Yes, I can!” Victoria snapped, hitting her fist on the table.
Bertha jumped. “What?”
“I can control it,” Victoria said, ignoring Bertha as she glared at Audrey.
“You’re going to go gallivanting off into the wilderness with a few powers you are only just beginning to understand to kill something the size of a house? Are you insane?”
“Powers?” Bertha quirked an eyebrow.
“You haven’t been watching my training. You haven’t seen what I’m capable of.”
“This isn’t our problem!”
Victoria pointed to the back of the house, through the glass doors that led to Bertha’s little yard. “If the city is in danger, we all are! Fairhaven isn’t that big, Audrey. Besides, if we can help, it’s our job to try!”
Audrey set her palms on the table, sighing as something clicked for her. This would hurt to say, but Victoria needed to hear it. “Playing hero won’t bring your parents back. It won’t make them proud. It won’t make everything you’ve endured so far worth it.”
“How dare you—”
“I’m serious,” Audrey interrupted. “You’ll expose yourself. One swing, and everyone in this town will know what you are.”
Bertha crossed her arms. “For goodness sake, what the hell are you two talking about?”
Victoria backed away from the table, running her hands through her hair as she paced the kitchen. For several minutes, no one spoke. Audrey watched Victoria’s every step, waiting for her friend to make a stupid decision or run into the street, swinging a sword made of dark magic and brass for all to see.
And Bertha, bless her, seemed to be waiting for something to make sense.
“It’s risky,” Victoria eventually said.
“It’s stupid,” Audrey corrected.
“It’s not.” Victoria glared at her, and Audrey looked away. She couldn’t hold Victoria’s eye when she scowled like that.
“That’s it? Your life for the city?” Audrey asked softly.
“We should at least look for the creature. Find its cave. Identify its weaknesses.”
“I know you better than that. You’ll go after it.”
“We would be in the caves. Who cares? No one goes down there.”
“Plenty of people go down there. And if someone sees you fighting it?” Audrey dragged her finger over her throat in the universal sign for dead meat.
“We don’t know they’ll think that way.”
Audrey scoffed. “Don’t be ridiculous. It’s a death sentence.”
“I’ve had about enough of this cryptic bullshit,” Bertha snapped.
Audrey didn’t flinch, and to her credit neither did Victoria. Bertha fumed. Her cheeks had turned red, almost black, and her glowering eyes shifted from Audrey to Victoria and back.
“I’m sure they have an army, V. They don’t need us,” Audrey said.
“Maybe not, but if I have to choose between saving myself and someone else, you know what choice I’ll make.” Victoria pushed away from the table and stormed into the shop, most likely to cool off in the street outside.
Bertha turned the full force of her frustration on Audrey. “Little one, you had better—”
“I’m sorry, Bertha. The moment I can, I’ll explain everything. Thank you for the drink.” She drained the last of her cup and
offered a subtle bow of respect to her mentor and friend before following Victoria outside.
Audrey knew full well what choice her friend would make, and it would probably end in blood.
CHAPTER 26
Luak sat in the king’s private office, his feet on the monarch’s desk even though he sat in the guest chair. The king, coward that he was, didn't say a thing. He merely leaned against the window, staring through the glass at the magnificent city below.