I whirl so fast that he nearly runs me over. I glare up at his shadowy face and jab him in the chest. “Threaten me all you like but if you breathe one word against my father, and you will never make it out of these woods.”
“You seem like you are very family oriented,” Evengi says sounding amused. It’s frustrating, I meant every word of my threat.
I turn around, crossing my arms. “So, what if I am?”
“You mentioned a twin, are you and she close?”
“Close enough,” I reply.
“And your other sister is a sorceress like you, but not a necromancer. She is, however, a vampire.”
I whirl again. “Where are you getting your information?”
Evengi raises his shoulder, rubbing it against his ear. “I have my sources.”
I turn around again, but I can’t shake the unsettled feeling that has settled over me to hear Evengi speak of my family. My family is my own. I have no idea how he could have gotten this information, but we obviously have some security breach.
No one should know this much about the Eels save for us ourselves.
So how could Evengi? Just who is this priest and how does he know me better than anyone else outside of my family ever has?
Chapter Eighteen
Evengi
The ghost of Natasya’s father is useful in one way, he is an endless fount of information when it comes to his daughter. It seems as though he has been haunting her since he died, and she began resurrecting his bones.
And now he has decided to unburden his soul by telling me everything he has witnessed. Perhaps he thinks that it will make me more likely to accomplish his dark purpose of killing his daughter.
I think the details he shares with me of her father’s criminal dealings and how vampirism has tainted her family is supposed to make feel disgusted toward her. Disgusted enough to do whatany proper priest of Neltruna would and kill the necromancer and kill her entire family of undead, criminal, heretics.
But in fact, it only serves to help me better understand this girl who has been an enigma since I came into Sunder Hollow.
She’s just a lost soul who has been shaped into a heretic by her family. Not because she is evil but because she does not know any better.
Is it not my place a priest to try to lead her to the light? To save her from herself and the person her family made her.
The woman that Elwis the Eel created.
I ignore the fact that I serve a goddess of darkness. It isn’t my duty to lead people to the light. It’s my duty to hunt monsters.
But is Natasya truly a monster just because she is a necromancer? I know that she hasn’t killed anyone, her father admitted it in one of his tirades. She’s just a victim of her circumstances.
“And her summers she spends in the company of even more vampires,” her father continues oblivious to the fact that I’m only half listening. “Even worse, the uncle of this closest friend is the most vile and powerful necromancer in all the land. I cannot believe my own flesh and blood would grow up to be such a creature.” Her father sneers as he stares after her as Natasya makes her way through the woods. “It’s why you must end her, think of the innocents you will save, and I will not have this guilt on my head.”
“No, you’d rather I have the guilt of her life onmyhead,” I say. I grimace as soon as the words leave my lips as I realize that I spoke aloud.
Natasya whirls on me. It’s dark, but not dark enough to hide the determined set to her shoulders. “Who is here?” she demands as she steps toward me. “You say you can see ghosts, hunter, so tell me. Who is here with us? Who is giving away all my secrets?”
I pull my lip in between my teeth as I shift from foot to foot.
She stalks back towards me. I can feel the heat of her glare even if I cannot see it.
“Who, Evengi?” she demands.
“It doesn’t matter,” I reply as I try to step around her. “We need to find Brom and locate your father’s remains. And then we need to figure out what we are going to do about this headless horseman.”
She braces her hand on my arm, and I go still. “It matters to me,” she says in a low tone. “Please, show me that I can trust you. My life already depends on your ability to keep a secret. Show me I’m not wrong to leave you capable of destroying me. I want to trust you. I want to be able to leave my fate in your hands. I don’t want to take drastic measures…” she trails off as her tone becomes tinted with emotion.
