People bowed their heads as the King of Metal strode across Old Square. Sunlight glinted in the shoulder plates and bracers he wore over his black shirt. How he could stand it in this heat was beyond me, but I had to admit that he did cut an imposing figure in that attire.
I stayed hidden behind the corner of a side alley as Levi took a seat on the grand chair located at one end of the square. He usually met with petitioners in his Court, but he also kept a seat here in the heart of the Entertainment District that he used when he wanted to pretend that he was a benevolent king. When he held court out here in the open, anyone could approach him with requests or questions.
And because it was so open and anyone was allowed to approach, security around Levi was tight. All of his top guards were located around the square. Some visible, and some blending into the crowd.
It was the perfect distraction. Gale and David and all of their people would confidently be able to ascertain that Levi was nowhere near the safe house and that it wasn’t a trap.
The back of my neck prickled, and I suppressed the urge to turn around and look behind me. I could feel two of Gale’s guards lurking behind my back like shadows. They had been following me since the moment I left the building, probably sent by David to make sure that my report would be accurate. They really were a paranoid bunch.
But now that they had followed me here and seen that Levi and all his battle mages would be occupied for at least the next couple of hours, it was finally time for the next part of the plan.
I snuck around the corner and started back towards the safe house.
My two shadows didn’t follow.
Before I rounded the next corner, I cast a quick glance over my shoulder and found them standing in the mouth of the alley that I had just left. Their faces were turned away from me and towards the square. I had no doubt that they were counting all of Levi’s people, making sure that everyone was truly there.
Leaving them to their task, I made my way towards the river before I started back in the direction of the safe house. There were fewer people on the streets there. And besides, the winds that blew in off the water were much cooler, which I desperately needed in this heat. I pulled at the collar of my leather armor as I jogged along the mostly empty streets. Sweat slid down my back.
When I reached a small residential courtyard, I stopped to catch my breath. In the middle of it was a fountain shaped like a woman pouring water out of a jug. I drew in a couple of deep breaths while wandering over to it. Holding out my hands, I let the water pool in my palms before splashing it across my face. A small sigh escaped my lips as the water cooled my heated skin.
Fuck. I needed to have my wits about me for what was to come.
Filling my hands with more water, I splashed it over my face and then drew my wet hands through my hair. I blew out another long sigh. My head felt clearer. Less like my brain was being boiled inside my skull and more just uncomfortably hot. Reaching forward, I did the same thing a third time.
I had barely gotten my hands down from my face when fire roared behind me.
Slapping my palms together, I threw up a force wall right before orange flames crashed into it. A wave of heat washed over me. While still holding up the shield, I leaped sideways to avoid the lightning bolt that sped towards my chest.
It slammed into the white stone fountain, breaking off half of the woman’s leg. It tumbled down and hit the water below with a splash that spilled water onto the ground before it.
As the flames died out, the view before me became clear.
Johnson, Kane, Jens Carlsen, and the other five people who had already attacked us twice now were standing on the other side of the courtyard. And so were others. Many others.
An involuntary flash of panic shot up my spine.
Where the hell had Johnson found all these people? There had to be at least forty of them.
“Your past sins have come back to haunt you, Coldblooded Callan,” Johnson called across the pale stone courtyard.
Flames licked his hands while lightning danced in Kane’s palm. In fact, magic was pointed at me from the entire half-circle of angry people.
I kept the force wall I had summoned up before me as I replied, “That right?”
“Yes.” He spread his arms wide, making the orange flames flutter in the air. “Every single person here has had a loved one die by your hand. And now, the time for vengeance has come.”
Flicking my gaze along the semi-circle that had formed before me, I assessed which of their magic strikes would reach me first and what I could do to block them. While buying myself time to do that, I said, “Look, you really need to let this revenge thing go. Haven’t you heard that saying about how you need to dig two graves when you start down the path of vengeance because revenge will only get you killed as well?”
The sheer hypocrisy in that statement coming out of my mouth was absolutely astounding given that I had just devoted five years of my life to trying to kill Audrey just because she had stolen a bit of land from me. But they didn’t know that, of course.
“The only person who will be dying today is you,” Jens Carlsen snarled as he pointed his sword towards me.
“And before you do,” Johnson picked up, “you’re going to kneel in front of every single person here, speak the name of the loved one you took from them, and apologize.”
I snorted. “You really think that’s gonna happen?”
“We outnumber you forty-two to one. Do you really think that you’ll—”
I bolted.
While throwing the force wall towards where I had calculated the fastest attacks to be, I whipped around and sprinted into the small alley between the houses behind me. Lightning slammed into my shield with a crack, but the whoosh of fire and wind magic echoed behind me as well. I dove forward and rolled into the alley right as flames and wind slammed into the stone wall where my chest had been a second ago.
“After him!” Johnson bellowed while I leaped to my feet behind the temporary cover of the wall and raced towards the other side of the alley.
Feet thudded against the ground behind me.
Shit. I had to get through the mouth of the alley before they could line up a clean shot. My heart pounded against my ribs as I realized that I wouldn’t make it in time.
Slapping my palms together, I threw a massive force wall towards my pursuers. Shouts rang out, and a wham sounded as someone raised magic to block it. But I couldn’t spare the time to look what had happened because I leaped up onto the nearest windowsill and dove through the window.
Glass shattered and rained down around me as I flew into someone’s living room. I let out a huff as I crashed into the back of a purple couch and slid down to the floor. Rolling sideways, I jumped to my feet and darted towards where I assumed the front door would be.
“He jumped through the window!” someone yelled from the alley.
Side tables wobbled in alarm as I shoved my way through the living room and into the hallway. The plants on top of them slid towards the edge, their leaves flapping in fear. Something crashed behind me, informing me that at least one of the potted plants had indeed taken a dive off the table. A cry of surprise came from upstairs, but I left the toppled plants and their outraged owner behind and yanked open the front door.
Warm summer winds washed over me as I sprinted across the threshold and took off down the street.
Crashing sounds came from inside the house, which meant that some of Johnson’s people had followed me into the building, but there were also far too many feet currently pounding against the stones in the alley.
Lightning crackled through the air, and I zigzagged across the street to avoid the white bolts that flew towards me. They zapped into the building a mere couple of steps from me. My blood pounded in my ears. Fire roared behind me.
While blindly throwing a force wall over my shoulder, I grabbed the edge of the nearest building and swung myself onto another road.
Orange flames and embers shot past the opening behind me. I kept running.
“Left!” someone screamed. “He went left!”
I hurtled down the road and barely managed to make it around the corner before the sound of my pursuers informed me that they had also reached it. With my heart slamming against my ribs, I raced through the streets with Johnson and his gang snapping at my heels.
A low fence appeared on my left. I threw another force wall at my attackers as I leaped over it and cut through the small vegetable garden inside it.
Angry cursing told me that I had either managed to hit someone, or almost hit someone.
My boots left deep imprints in the soil as I ran across the garden and towards the next road.
Wind slammed into my shoulder.
It was hard enough to send me spinning around before I slammed into the building. Pain pulsed through my arm, but the involuntary spin had also given me a quick glance at what was following me.
Johnson, his face red with either rage or exertion, tore through the streets like his ass was on fire. And behind him, Kane and Jens and the rest of his massive army were racing towards me as well.
Why the hell did they have to be so damn fast?
I pushed myself off the wall and shot a force shield to block the next wave of attacks before I sprinted around the other corner.
A large building appeared up ahead.
Pushing myself, I ran for it with everything I had. The thundering boots behind me were so close now. My breath sawed through my chest.
There was a plain wooden door set into the building. I yanked it open and sprinted inside right as my hunters skidded around the corner.
Without breaking stride, I ran straight for a sitting room on my left. I had been inside this building before, so I knew the layout like the back of my hand, and I knew exactly where to lose my pursuers.
Dropping to my knees, I lifted the thick red carpet to reveal a trapdoor. It opened silently as I yanked on the handle. With my pulse still thrumming in my ears I slid down into the small tunnel underneath, positioned the carpet so that it would fall back into place, and then pulled the trapdoor shut.
Two seconds afterwards, the sound of footsteps came from inside the house.
“Where did he go?” someone snapped.
“He’s still in the building.”
“How do you know?”
“Because if he had opened a door or a window to the outside, I would have felt the change in the air.”
While I crawled through the escape tunnel that would take me to a small garden nearby, I wondered what kind of mage that second person was, who could feel the change in the air. Since the end of this trapdoor was technically in another building, I hoped that she wouldn’t be able to feel it when I opened that one.
“So he’s still in here somewhere,” Johnson said above me. “Hiding like the rat he is.”
I would have scoffed if I hadn’t been busy crawling on my stomach through a dirt tunnel.
“Spread out,” he continued. “Find him. But be careful and quiet about it. He could be waiting to ambush us.”
Their voices grew fainter as I made my way towards the other side of the tunnel. My heart still beat hard against my ribs.
That had been far too fucking close.
Closer than I would ever admit to Audrey.
