He raised his hands in mock surrender before dropping them to his sides. He rested his head back on the boulder.
“I don’t know why.” I admitted. “But I sensed right away this arrow wasn’t going to hurt me like the last one.”
“You have to have some sort of idea,” Ace said.
“Rye said the magic involved has to be from a pureblood galeon or phaanon. I think I share the same bloodline as the person who created the poison.” I shrugged. “Maybe.”
“What does that mean?”
“Somehow my family is involved. Maybe my parents aren’t dead.” And maybe they were using my brother’s blood, or theirs or mine. My kind were systematically destroyed on sight for generations. The purge was so prolific and thorough, the means of how galeons killed immortal phaanons had been lost. How my brother and I existed was still a mystery I had yet to solve.
Ace nodded, seemingly taking in the information.
“You still didn’t explain how you have a place,” I said, breaking the silence.
He sighed and closed his eyes. “I used to hunt outlaws for the king. That brought me into town quite often, but because I often hunted rogue, unbonded mortals who were closely connected with the community, I had to keep to the shadows. My anonymity contributed to my success as an assassin. As for how I know of a place… Well, it is one of the places I lived. You always patrolled the forbidden forest. Human hunters and immortals alike spend time in the hunting grounds. This section of forest lies beyond your scouting range and is often overlooked and unpopulated by hunters due to its distance from Perga, Wast and Vitor.”
My mouth felt open. Had I been remiss in my coverage, too narrowminded that an assassin had slipped past me on a regular basis? Too focused to notice Ace lurking in the shadows?
Ace shrugged and kicked a rock. It bounced along the moss a few times before settling.
“Don’t feel too bad, Mouse,” he said. “I have no doubt you could’ve and would’ve tenaciously hunted me down if I had come anywhere close to the familiars.”
“I thought you said you didn’t believe any of the stories about me.”
“I lied.” His lips turning up at the corners. “But unlike you, I do it well.”
I pressed my lips together. “I noticed.”
He turned his head to study me. His hair had fallen in front of his face, but it couldn’t hide the glint in his mahogany gaze. “What are you going to do about it?”
My heart fluttered and I hated that it wasn’t out of anger. Ignoring the tightness circling my chest, I said, “Right now? I plan to close my eyes and take a nap.”
He chuckled, but if he said anything else I missed it because sleep had already taken over.
2
A large hand clamped on my upper arm and shook. Jostled awake, I fluttered my eyes open and found Ace crouched beside me. His tussled hair had fallen over his face, casting his chiselled features in shadows. His gaze softened as he studied me in silence. He looked ready to say something but then shook his head as if to banish the thoughts.
He backed away. “We need to go.”
I looked up at the sky and tracked the position of the sun. We couldn’t have napped for long.
“We can rest at the cabin,” he said.
I groaned softly as I pushed myself from the moss-draped ground. A gentle breeze whispered through the leaves. The sun filtered through the forest canopy, casting golden shards of light across the narrow path, and a white feather glinted in the patch of moss beside me.
Wait a minute.
I plucked the feather from its resting spot and twirled it between my finger and thumb. It shone with the colours of the rainbow. This feather belonged to the unicorn of the forbidden forest. I’d know it anywhere. I used these feathers for fletching.
I hadn’t spotted the feather earlier. Too exhausted, apparently.
Movement to my right pulled my attention away from the feather.
A few paces from where I rested, Nala waited—silent and watchful. Her soulful gaze met mine, and at once, her thick tail thumped on the ground in greeting.
“Nala,” I breathed, emotion catching in my throat.
