And then I saw her. Cael.
My heart seemed to stop.
“You haven’t lost me,” she said softly.
I don’t know how I ran to her as quickly as I did, not caring that Della and Lorst stood there watching. “I don’t understand. What are you doing here?”
She touched my face. My skin tingled where her finger trailed across it. “I asked them to find you, Galen.”
“You shouldn’t have done that,” I said. Without her telling me, I knew what it would cost her. She might as well be one of the Forgotten herself.
“Do you think I could remain in the palace after what they did?”
“That’s what you wanted.”
She smiled and leaned toward me, kissing my cheek. “That is what I wanted,” she agreed.
I took her hands and met her eyes. As I did, I felt a rush of emotion, of understanding, and felt connected to her in a way we had only shared briefly before.
“Something changed in me after my Saenr,” she said. “I don’t know that I ever told you what I saw then.” Her voice came out as a whisper, for my ears only. “I sat beside the Great Watcher. For that moment, I Read everything.” She smiled. “And then it was gone. After, I was different. No longer just a Reader. Other gifts manifested.” She inhaled slowly, squeezing my hands. “As they might have in you.”
“What gifts?”
Even as I asked, I understood. Smells had been more potent. Sounds louder than they should have been. Ever since traveling so close to the crystal.
She nodded. “It unlocked something in me. I’ve seen your reaction and think it’s done the same for you.”
Lorst Slid to a spot next to Cael. A hard frown tightened his mouth, though his eyes seemed even harder. “Which is why Josun must be found. He is skilled and has survived more times than I can count. But we will find it and take it from him.” He studied me, his eyes hard. “You haven’t held the crystal and it has that power. Think of what will happen to others who do hold it.”
I looked from Lorst to Della. “What will you do with it?”
It was Lorst who answered. It surprised me that it would be him and not Della. “That crystal belongs to Elaeavn. All of Elaeavn, not just the Elvraeth.”
Part of me knew that he was right, but that wasn’t my concern. After all these years, Elaeavn was no longer my home. But Cael…
“You understand what this means?” I asked, ignoring Lorst.
She smiled again. “That I’ll be with you?”
My heart fluttered. All I wanted was to hold her and keep her safe. “That you’ll be in danger. Never knowing when someone might attack, might try to take your life.”
“You describe everything I’ve known since meeting you.”
I laughed, only because I didn’t know what else to do.
As Cael squeezed my hand, Della moved to stand next to Lorst. She studied me with her deep green eyes. I suspected that Cael already knew Della’s deepest secret, though she hadn’t said anything to me about it. And now she resigned herself to a similar fate, one I knew Della regretted at times.
“We all have regret, Galen,” Della said. “But that doesn’t mean things don’t turn out as they should.”
I made the mental effort to push my barriers into place before realizing they already were. Had Della Read me even so?
Cael touched my arm and guided me toward the door. I hesitated, not knowing what we should do. If I stayed with Della, it meant working with Lorst, but maybe recovering the crystal as well. That was important to me when it mattered to Cael. Now… now I wasn’t certain.
“I know.”
“We can help. I’ve Read some of what Della intends. Lorst… he’s more difficult.”
I stared at the door to Della’s home. When I’d come with Lorst, it had been empty, and now it seemed as if she’d never left. What had I missed? The city had changed almost as much as I had while I was gone.
“Why should we help?” I asked.
She smiled and rested her hand on my chest. “This is your home. It might not feel like it now, but it is. And we have to protect it.”
“I wanted to protect you. That was it.”
“And I wanted to protect the crystal. Which we did.”
“And failed.”
“That doesn’t mean our work is done. We can help. Della senses that, though I don’t know how. Will you stay and help them?” She hesitated, a smile parting her lips. “Help me?”
I looked around Elaeavn in the bright sunlight. The city wasn’t my home, regardless of what Cael said. She might intend for it to be, and if she was willing to stay with me, maybe it could be.
What she offered was something else, and I suspected she knew it.
In Eban—really, anywhere but Elaeavn—I was an assassin. Leaving took that identity from me. I didn’t have to be a Reader to know how she hoped that by helping, I’d find a different identity. And maybe it was time.
“I’ll do this for you.”
She smiled. “Maybe for now. In time, I think you’ll do it for you.”
A cat yowled somewhere nearby. It had been so long, I no longer knew if that was good luck, or bad.
Watching Cael, knowing that she might actually care about me in spite of who I was, and knowing she wanted me to be better than I had been, I decided it was good luck.
Look for book 3, Assassin’s End, out in December.
Also check out The Dark Ability, set in the same world as the Sighted Assassin to see where Lorst first began.
About the Author
DK Holmberg currently lives in rural Minnesota where the winter cold and the summer mosquitoes keep him inside and writing.
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The Dark Ability
The Dark Ability
The Heartstone Blade
The Tower of Venass
Blood of the Watcher
The Shadowsteel Forge
The Guild Secret
Rise of the Elder
The Sighted Assassin
The Painted Girl
The Binder’s Game
The Forgotten
Assassin’s End (December 2016)
The Shadow Accords
Shadow Blessed
Shadow Cursed (October 2016)
Shadow Born (October 2016)
The Endless War
Journey of Fire and Night
Darkness Rising
Endless Night
Summoner’s Bond
The Cloud Warrior Saga
Chased by Fire
Bound by Fire
Changed by Fire
Forged in Fire
Serpent of Fire
Servant of Fire
Born of Fire
Broken of Fire
Light of Fire: November 2016
Others in the Cloud Warrior Series
Prelude to Fire
Chasing the Wind
Drowned by Water
Deceived by Water
Salvaged by Water
The Lost Garden
Keeper of the Forest
The Desolate Bond
Keeper of Light
The Painter Mage
Shifted Agony
Arcane Mark
Painter For Hire
Stolen Compass
mberg, The Forgotten (The Sighted Assassin Book 2)