Chapter 18
Davien is fast.The Butcher is faster. She’s a blur of motion, raising a short sword to block Davien’s dagger. They move so fast that my eyes couldn’t even keep up to see where he drew the dagger from.
“Davien!” Vena calls. He’s already moving again, darting back and lunging with his other hand and a different dagger. The Butcher deflects a second time. “Stop this.” Vena rushes over. “This is Allor, and she is an ally to the Acolytes.”
“She looks like a Butcher to me.” Davien continues to put pressure on Allor’s blade. The woman wears a lazy smirk. I can almost see her holding herself back from carving Davien to bits.
“And you look like a spoiled prince to me, so let’s not get into the name-calling, hmm?” Allor says. Her voice is as soft as her shadow cloak.
“Enough.” Vena grabs both of their shoulders, physically trying to push them apart. It’s about as successful as trying to move two mountains. “I asked Allor to come. She’s going to help us figure out the ritual to get your power.”
“You’re trusting a Butcher?” Davien glances to Vena.
“You trusted a Butcher.”
“Shaye had already left well before she joined us. This monster—”
“Again with the name-calling.” Allor rolls her eyes.
“Will both of you just put down your weapons?” Vena acts like she’s speaking to two children.
“Him first.” Allor sneers.
“Why you—”
“On my count.” Vena sighs. “One. Two. Three.”
The two slowly ease apart. Davien returns his daggers back to sheathes hidden in the wide belt around his waist. Allor returns the sword to a scabbard on her hip. But her hand doesn’t leave the hilt. Which is far more unnerving when her eyes dart over to me.
“The rumors are true, then. You do have a human here.”
“I’m Katria.” It feels much better to be called by my name than “human.”
The woman’s grin widens and she nods her head. “Allor. But I suppose you already figured that out.”
Wispy strands of short black hair are pulled back at the nape of her neck. A long white streak cuts a wedge out of her hairline along her brow toward her right temple. She’s about my height, but twice as muscled as I am…which says something since I’ve never considered myself to be a particularly frail person.
“Care to explain yourself?” Davien says to Vena.
“Allor is one of our key informants to the inner workings of the High Court. Without her, we would be very much in the dark about what the Boltovs are doing. She was the one who helped get the information for the restoration of the king’s magic—the one who told us about the relic we needed in the Natural World to complete it,” Vena says.
Davien considers this, eyes darting between Vena and Allor. He’s clearly still skeptical. Even if I can’t see his face, I can feel it off the man.
“Is this true?” Davien looks to Allor.
“Could she lie even if she wanted to? Better question would be why you doubt her.” Allor inspects the pommel of her sword, flicking imaginary dust from it.
The muscles in Davien’s cheek twitch but he keeps his voice level when he says, “Then I am in your debt. When I am king you shall be—”
“Spare me.” Allor holds up a hand. “I’m helping you because it suits me. Let’s not make more of a fuss than we need. Though I know that’s hard for you kingly types.” She still wears a little smile, like the world is some big joke and she’s the one laughing. It’s the look Helen would get when she knew I was in trouble but I didn’t know how yet.
I know better than to trust a look like that.
“What are you getting for all this generosity?” I ask.
“I get to sleep better at night knowing I helped my people.” The words sound scripted to me and do little to calm my nerves.
“What are you really getting?”
