“I thought not.” He opens the door. “Now come.”
We backtrack through the doors and past Quinn, who waited dutifully. The hall is slightly noisier now; the chatter of multiple people echoes above the plucking of what sounds like a fiddle. Even though the mezzanine of the room is high above, I can almost make out every word spoken—something I’m certain I wouldn’t be able to do before becoming bloodsworn.
Yet another reminder of what I’ve done and how I’ve changed.It was the right decision, I try and remind myself. But my internal voice is weaker than before. Nothing feels right. My own skin is uncomfortable and my senses play tricks on me. A seed of loathing works its way into me for my own blood. For the power that has always been there but I never wanted, never asked for. At most, I wanted to keep my family safe and maybe see the ocean with my brother.
How did I end up here?
“They’re bolder than before,” a man grumbles.
“Bolder. Stronger. More stubborn time after time,” another man with a soft, dreamlike voice adds.
“At least we have their blood,” a woman says lightly. That’s when it hits me with an icy chill: they’re talking about Hunter’s Hamlet. My ears begin to ring to the point that I barely hear the rest of their conversations, as if my body is physically trying to block them out.
“Precious little given freely,” the second man laments. “We’ll have to purify the rest as we’re able.”
“Purify? Blood by force is rubbish,” the woman mutters.
“I’ll do my best,” the soft voice says.
The plucking pauses. “Will it be enough?” A second woman.
“It will have to be,” Ruvan says as we descend the staircase that wraps around the back of the hall, connecting the mezzanine to the meeting area below.
They’re all on their feet the instant they see me. I swallow thickly and focus on my feet to keep myself from tripping. I am a hunter right now, not the forge maiden; I will not allow myself to show my fear. We lock eyes with each other and the air goes thick, as it does right before a fight breaks out.
CHAPTER10
I clenchmy hands into fists. Even with this new strength, all it would take would be two of them,at most, to have me pinned. They could break me like a toy if they wanted.
Ruvan must be able to sense it, too, because he steps forward, physically placing himself between me and the rest of them. “This is the newest member of our covenant.”
“My lord…” the man with the deep gravelly voice starts, and then loses his words along the way. He’s as pale as the snow-capped mountains outside, and just as massive. All his dark brown hair left his head and has taken residence on his chin.
“Thatis a hunter,” a woman finishes, easing her fiddle to the table. Long strands of pale blonde hair slip over her shoulder with the motion. It’s almost the same color as her eyes—as all of their eyes.
“And she has become bloodsworn with me.” Ruvan folds his hands at the small of his back.
The woman I heard laughing before lets out an incredulous blurt. She pushes her long, dark brown bangs behind her ear. Her hair is short, like mine, on one side. The other half of her head is shaved and marred with scars that trace down her neck, ghostly tracks across the sepia hue of her skin. “You can’t be serious.”
“Deathly.”
So much for his fold not questioning him. I glance at the vampire lord from the corner of my eye. His jaw is clenched. Smugness floods me but I don’t let it show. Doing so would be foolish.
“You…are bloodsworn with ahuman?” The large man balks.
“And a hunter at that?” The man with the soft voice and dark skin adjusts his circular spectacles as if trying to see me better. His black hair has been tightly braided against his scalp, the remaining pulled into a plump bun at the back of his head.
“I did. She is going to help us break this curse, once and for all. It’s not as if we’re going to take her into the depths while she’s withering from simply existing in Midscape.”
“I admit, it’s logical,” the bespectacled man murmurs. “I just hadn’t calculated it.”
“You didn’t calculate something?” The blonde gasps.
The soft-spoken man rolls his eyes, glancing away and quickly back at her before away again.
“Hunters look out only for themselves.” The pale man with the gravelly voice glowers down at me. He might be built like a small mountain, muscles bulging, threatening to swallow his neck and ears whole, but I often find muscle like that is just for show. Then again, I don’t think I want to find out in this instance.
“She is looking out for herself.” Ruvan’s eyes dart back to me with almost an expectant look. Does he want me to say something? I smile thinly and leave him to flounder among his knights. Ruvan huffs. “I vowed that should she help me break the curse on our kind, we would never cross the Fade to hunt her people again after.”
