By the time our targets had returned home, it was already dark. I only remembered where two of them had lived all those years ago, but they were fortunately still there. Those two buildings were also located on the same street, so Audrey and I had split up so that we could hit them at the same time.
I watched through the window as two young men, one blond and one with brown hair, turned the corner and wandered onto this street. They were deep in conversation as they closed in on their homes, and they stopped outside the first door to finish whatever discussion they were having.
Streetlamps were few and far between in this part of town, so I couldn’t make out their features in the dark. But it didn’t matter. At this point, I knew exactly what they looked like.
Johnson and Kane, whose first names I still couldn’t remember, or rather whose first names I probably hadn’t bothered learning in the first place, stood outside Kane’s door and talked for another couple of minutes. I studied the way Johnson gestured wildly with his arms, and how Kane dragged a hand through his hair, as if he was considering the words before replying.
Part of me felt a bit bad. They had every reason to hate my guts. And if they had just kept hating me in the privacy of their homes, we wouldn’t be here right now. But they hadn’t. Instead of doing the smart thing and cursing me to the depths of hell while getting drunk in their living room, they had decided to track me down and try to kill me. So even though I did understand their reasoning, I was not in the habit of letting threats and attacks against me go unchallenged.
At last, Johnson clapped Kane on the shoulder, and they broke apart. I squinted towards the dark windows of Kane’s home. Audrey was waiting somewhere in there to ambush him, but there was no hint of it from the outside. Though, that was to be expected. She was a sneaky one, that brilliant poison mage.
As Johnson drew closer to his own front door, I stepped back from the window and instead made my way into his living room. I positioned myself by the wall where the doorway was, so that I would end up behind him when he walked into the room.
The lock clicked open. Since I didn’t know how to pick locks, I had broken a window on the other side of the building to get in. Audrey had done the same. Or rather, I had broken the window with my force magic and then helped her climb up into Kane’s living room before I went over to Johnson’s house. She was still terrible at climbing like that, but I did very much enjoy the view of her ass wiggling in the air, so I had only teased her a little bit.
Two faint squeaks sounded from the front door as Johnson presumably opened and then closed it. The soft snick a moment later informed me that I was right.
With the door now closed, Johnson started into the kitchen. His footsteps echoed into the otherwise quiet building for a couple of seconds before they fell silent, still inside the kitchen. Light bloomed, as if he had lit one of the oil lamps in the ceiling. Then a clinking sound drifted through the air. It was followed by the sloshing of water.
Annoyance rippled through me. Would he hurry it up already? If I took too long, I would never hear the end of it from Audrey. Hell knew she would never stop smirking about how much more efficient she was and how much better she was at sneaking and ambushing and whatever other activity she felt like throwing around.
At last, the water stopped, and the footsteps started up again.
I couldn’t attack him in the kitchen since it would be too easy for him to just run out the door, so I waited for him to move into the living room where I would have the advantage.
A shadow fell across the threshold. Anticipation thrummed inside me.
From my position by the wall, I watched as Johnson strolled into the living room while holding a glass of water. He sipped from it before reaching up and lighting the oil lamp hanging from a hook in the ceiling. Warm yellow light washed over the room.
With the space now illuminated, I could see that all of the furniture in the room was of great quality. Despite what I had done to fuck up his life, he looked to have done well for himself. The dark blue couch was stylish and clean, and the low wooden table before it was polished to perfection. Books filled the shelves along the opposite wall while an intricate map of the continent of Valda had been mounted beside them.
Johnson set course for the plush armchair in the corner when I finally took a step away from the wall.
“For someone hell-bent on revenge, you’re not very perceptive, are you?” I said.
Glass shattered and shards bounced across the wooden floorboards as he dropped the glass and whirled towards me while slamming his palms together. I had already called up a force wall, but I hadn’t thrown it yet.
“Really?” I said as orange flames whooshed to life in Johnson’s palms. With my free hand, I gestured towards the living room around us. “You gonna throw that? And set your home on fire?”
Hesitation pushed past some of the panic and hatred in his eyes, and he flicked a quick glance around the room.
“Everything in here is highly flammable,” I continued. “And that really is the problem with being a fire mage. You might be fireproof, but the rest of your possessions aren’t.” A cruel smile slid across my lips. “So you can’t throw that fireball without destroying this precious home of yours. But I can do this.”
Before I had even finished that final sentence, I shot my force wall at him. He hesitated. Just for a second. His instincts were most likely telling him to block it with a blast of flames, but that would set his house on fire. And that second of hesitation was all I needed. When he had made up his mind to try to dodge my attack instead, it was already too late.
The flames coating his palms vanished as he dove for cover. But before he reached it, my attack slammed into him. Still airborne, he flew backwards and crashed into the wooden wall behind him. I summoned another blast and hurled it at him as he slid down the wall to land on the floor. The attack was perfectly timed and hit him right as he began pushing himself off the ground.
A grunt of pain tore from his throat as the blast took him in the chest and flipped him over on his back. I timed another one with his movements and knocked him back down as he tried to rise again. That blast sent him sliding the final bit to the wall, smacking his shoulder against the hard surface.
I almost rolled my eyes. He was making this far too easy.
“Not so tough when you don’t have your friends for back-up, huh?” I taunted as I hit him with another attack while I sauntered towards him.
Another groan of pain ripped from his chest as the back of his head connected with the wall. He blinked furiously as he tried to get his hands firmly on the ground for support. Just when he began pushing himself up, I shot a small blast at his elbows.
His chin slammed back into the ground with a thud.
“What?” I said as I came to a halt in front of him. “No snide remarks? No threats? Nothing?”
“I hate you,” he pressed out after drawing in a ragged breath.
“Yeah, I got that. But hate is meaningless if you don’t have the power to do something about it.”
“I hope your corpse will rot in the street for the birds to feed on.”
“You and half of your city. And all of mine.”
Brushing my palms together, I called up a force blade before I leaned down and grabbed the front of Johnson’s now rumpled shirt. Another groan slipped past his lips as I hauled him into a kneeling position and then leveled the vibrating sword at his throat. His gray eyes were glassy with pain as he tipped his head back to meet my gaze.
“But hope won’t feed the crows,” I finished.
Johnson worked his jaw a couple of times and coughed before he spoke up again. “How can you live with yourself?”
“You mistake me for someone with remorse.”
He scoffed, which made him wince slightly. Then he said in a mocking tone while glaring up at me, “Coldblooded Callan through and through, huh?”
“And you know what I’m capable of, so why the hell did you think you could manage to kill me with just eight people? And only four of them with actual combat magic.”
For a while, he just glowered at me with those rage-filled eyes. Then he ground out, “I didn’t expect the poison mage.”
“The first time outside the bakery, no. But what about the second time?”
“We ambushed you in the perfect spot.”
“And you still lost.” Shifting the force blade, I lifted it higher up under his chin, making him tilt his head back farther and expose his throat to me. With a mocking expression on my face, I let out an amused huff. “Amateur. You’d need a hell of a lot more than eight people to kill me.”
“I could find a thousand people who hate you just as much as I do,” he spat back at me.
“I don’t doubt it.”
His chest heaved as I slid the thrumming sword back down to rest right above his heart. Fear fought against fury in his eyes. I cocked my head, studying him as he waited for the moment I would push the blade through his chest and end his pitiful existence.
“Just fucking do it!” he snapped at last, his eyes wild. “Just fucking kill me already!”
“Why would I do that?” I let a wolfish smile spread across my mouth. “When we’re having so much fun?”
He sucked in rapid breaths between clenched teeth, as if he thought that meant that I planned to torture him before I finally allowed him to die.
“Tell you what…” I clicked my tongue. “If you beg me for your life, I’ll give you one more chance at revenge.”
Hope flared in his eyes. He immediately banked it and instead narrowed his eyes in suspicion. “I don’t believe you.”
“I don’t give a fuck.”
Tense silence descended on the neatly decorated living room. For quite a while, Johnson just continued watching me warily as if trying to figure out whether I really spoke the truth or if I was just tormenting him. I only watched him with a smirk on my face, giving nothing away.
Since he had no idea what I would do, he would have to gamble. Gamble with his pride. If I was telling the truth, he would live. But if I was lying, he would die while begging his most hated enemy for mercy. And there was no way for him to know what would happen unless he tried, so he would have to decide what he valued more. His pride. Or another shot at revenge.
Hatred burned like flames in his eyes as he held my gaze. I raised my eyebrows expectantly.
A snarl ripped from his throat.
Then he dropped his gaze.
While bowing his head as much as he could with my blade against his heart, he forced out a slow breath and then pressed out, “Please, Mr. Blackwell. I’m begging you to spare my life.”
So, revenge won, huh?
I said nothing for a while. Just kept him like that, hovering between hope and despair. A muscle ticked in his jaw, but he kept his gaze firmly on the floor before my feet.
When I had let the silence stretch long enough, I let out a dark chuckle while releasing my grip on the force blade and immediately summoning a small blast instead.
“Next time, I’d suggest bringing more people,” I said.
His head snapped up, but he barely had time to meet my gaze again before my blast struck him right in the solar plexus. A grunt made it past his lips. Then his body convulsed and he collapsed on the floor. Unconscious.
I flicked a dismissive glance up and down his limp body before turning around and striding towards the front door.
Warm night air met me as I threw it open and continued out onto the street.
When I was halfway to Kane’s house, his front door opened and Audrey sauntered across the threshold. She flicked her hair behind her shoulder and flashed me a satisfied smirk.
“Well, that was fun,” she said as she waited for me to close the final distance.
I chuckled. “Yeah, it was. I think I got all of my frustrations out.”
“Same.” She pursed her lips slightly as she fell in beside me while we continued down the street and back towards the Entertainment District. “Too bad we couldn’t kill them.”
Another laugh rumbled from my chest. Draping my arm over her shoulders, I pulled her closer to me and leaned down to kiss the top of her head.
“Yeah, too bad we couldn’t kill them.”
