The Blessed Curse (The Elder Blood Chronicles, #4)(63)

“This is my project, Yasny. Don’t waste your time attempting to decipher what I have in mind. This girl isn’t a tool for the sunlit world. She is mine and that is all you need to know.” Seth’s voice had grown cold with the words.

“I can help you, Seth. Don’t be so hasty,” Yasny pressed.

“I have never needed anyone’s help. Not now. Not ever,” Seth replied stubbornly.

“Fine. Be that way,” Yasny sniffed indignantly. Her voice was much closer now. A hand brushed across Zoelyn’s face, moving her hair back and the faint smell of roses mingled with Seth’s spicy scent. “She will be a pretty little thing when you get her fixed. I thought you said she was from Glis, though. She doesn’t look Shifter at all.”

“She has about as much Glis blood as I do,” Seth replied and Zoelyn could hear the smirk in his voice. “I don’t know where she is from, but I will find out,” he added as he shifted her once more in his arms.

Zoelyn didn’t struggle at all in his arms. She didn’t think they realized she was still awake. If she remained limp and silent they might continue to talk. The more she learned of Seth’s plans, the better chance she had of pleading with Finn later.

Seth balanced her for a moment with one arm and the faint click of a key turning in a lock sounded clearly in the hall. “Goodnight, Yasny,” Seth murmured and Zoelyn wondered if he had read her thoughts. It seemed too much of a coincidence that he had ended the conversation at the exact moment she had been hoping he would continue it.

“We will talk tomorrow,” Yasny said in a tone that suggested the words were closer to an order than a request.

“Most likely,” Seth replied nonchalantly. The air grew warmer around them as he stepped into the room and closed the door. He shifted her once more in his arms and chuckled faintly. “Give up little Undrae. Give in to the Dreamsweet and admit I’ve won. I know you can still hear me, no matter how hard you try to pretend. If I wanted to hurt you, I wouldn’t have used Dreamsweet. That particular poison is a royal pain in the ass to gather. All I want from you is sleep and you have my word you won’t be harmed.”

“Bastard…liar,” Zoelyn mumbled as he lowered her to a chair. The soft velvet seemed to cradle her and her body screamed for her to listen to Seth and give in to rest. Sleep crept closer as she slumped farther into the cushions.

A faint rustle of feathers sounded to her right and she could feel Seth crouched beside. He lifted her hand from her lap and slowly pulled her glove off. The sensation of warm skin against her own flesh was almost enough to pull her back from sleep. His fingers traced a gentle path across her palm and her breath caught in her throat for a moment. It was the first time she had ever felt flesh against her own without her wretched curse killing someone.

“I am a bastard in every sense of the word. At the moment, however, I am your best hope for survival. Jala is talented with magic, but she has limits on what she can or will do. I don’t, little Undrae. Remember that.” His voice was as gentle as his touch as he lowered her hand back to her lap and slowly removed her other glove. “We are each other’s salvation,” he added softly as he stood and moved away from her chair.





Chapter 9





Sanctuary





Everywhere Hemlock looked, his city was changing. For centuries, he had been a power player in Sanctuary, and now the Fionaveir and their wretched Empress were destroying it all. More screams erupted from the street below and he leaned forward on his roof top perch for a better look. The Copper Penny was as good as gone. For years, the Tavern had functioned as a safe haven for thieves and cut-throats and now the Fionaveir were cleansing it. Three members of the Ravens guild already stood in manacles while the Fionaveir still fought inside to bring more of the rogues out. It was the third district of the city that had been purged in less than a week. It wouldn’t be long before Empress Symphony was looking in the direction of his own guild.

With the Justicars, Hemlock had known everything. That organization had been so corrupt that infiltrating their ranks was child’s play. The Fionaveir, on the other hand, were impossible for him to infiltrate. Everyone knew everyone among their ranks and the damned tattoos they wore couldn’t be duplicated. He was just as clueless about what was going on in his city as the average citizen, and he hated it. The only advantage he had over the commoners was his talent with Time magic. That was chancy at best, though. The future was constantly changing and while he could look forward to see the possibilities, he had to guess which future was most likely. It had been days since he had even bothered to use his magic, though. The last three visions he had called had been unsettling, to say the least. In two of the three he had died; in the third he had been stripped of his powers. So he was stuck gathering information the old fashioned way, by sitting on roof tops and watching.

With half a night wasted watching petty thieves suffer, the only truly useful information he could say he had gathered was the fact that certain key people were missing. Hemlock made it a point to know the power players of every organization. It was simply good business when you never knew who you might have to kill. The Fionaveir had several people that were on his list to be wary of, and several of them had been missing from the city for weeks. Vaze being the foremost of his concerns, and Charm a sharp second. Both men were dangerous, and both seemed to have vanished from the city entirely. There were others as well: Isador, Remedy, and Lex. The last two could have been incredibly useful if the gossip that was circulating was correct. By the rumors, Lex was, in fact, the younger brother of the Empress and Symphony was apparently in love with Remedy. Either would have made an excellent bargaining chip, if he could manage to find them.