Page 9 of Temple of Magic and Bone

Where the fuck were his ghosts? They should have still been about from all the energy he had been feeding them when theywere dancing. They were nowhere to be seen, which meant they were scared too.

Vanth opened the door to the kitchen and found a fae female going through his fridge. She had wavy hair the color of blood that fell to her shoulders and was braided on one side to show off her pointed ear.

Inferno was a place that had a lot of eccentrics, but this one would have stood out in any crowd. She wore a leather suit that he had only ever seen superheroes or assassins use. Over it was a sleeveless, hooded robe that fell to her ankles. It was a silvery gray color with designs stitched into it with black thread. Definitely enchanted somehow. Just fucking great.

"Let me guess, the fae are having a superhero convention, and you're the Black Widow?" he asked.

The female turned from the fridge. "Funny. Where is all your food?"

"I have been too busy to grocery shop. Also, what the fuck are you doing in my house?" He didn't ask how the fuck she had gotten through his wards. That was a problem for later; right now, he was laser-focused on the threat in front of him.

The female turned, and he tried not to do the cliché male thing and get stunned at how pretty she was. All the fae were attractive. This one was no different. She had full lips and strong cheekbones, but it was her eyes that really made him pause. They were dark gray and full to bursting with death magic. The smell of sweet pine and cinnamon was in the air, as well as incense and blood. He didn't know how much of it was hers.

"I'm here because I need your help," the stranger said.

Vanth smiled. "Sure. I'll help you right the fuck out of my door."

"I'm serious," she growled, showing a flicker of fae aggression.

Vanth's hand tightened on his dagger, that same territorial part of him ready to throw down.

"So am I, darling. You can book an appointment. I think I have free time next year."

The female eyed the dagger before reaching under her cloak and bringing out two black batons. At least, Vanth thought they were batons right up until the moment two silvery blades flicked out to reveal that they were combat sickles. They pulsed with a death power he had never felt before. It made his own rise up in self-defense and curiosity.

"You don't want to go down this road, darling," he said, his feet sliding into position. "Leave peacefully. I really don't have time to train another ghoul right now, even a pretty one."

She actually smirked at him. "I'm not leaving until you agree to help me. I know you've had a long night, but that's no reason to be rude to strangers."

"Me? Rude? You're the one that broke into my house."

Again, that maddening smirk. "It wasn't all that hard."

"Ghoul it is," he replied. He lashed out with his magic instead of his blade, but she was ready for it. She shifted, moving like a ghost, and swiped at him with her sickles.

Vanth blocked her with his dagger, and the impact rattled through his arm. She had more than a little training behind her. Vanth aimed a kick for her knee, but she moved with the same eerie speed, blocking him and bringing up that same knee aimed straight at his balls. He turned and absorbed the blow with his hip.

"Straight for the nuts? Are you flirting with me?" he teased and then gasped as she drove the butt of one of her sickles up into his sternum.

Vanth stumbled back, and she used his temporary disorientation to hit him with a spell. He didn't have time to counter it, and it sent him smashing into the tiles. She was onhim in a blink, disarming him and pinning one of his biceps with her knees. A blade pressed into his throat, the other resting cool on his unpinned arm.

"So youareflirting with me," he said, looking up from between her thighs at her furious face. "If you wanted a date, you should have just asked."

A silver necklace slipped free from her suit and pulled down towards him. Metal shifted against his own skin, and the pendant his mother had given him hours before flew out from under his shirt and collided with hers like magnets.

The fight was forgotten as they stared at the matching pendants straining towards each other. The female leaned closer, and the pendants collided. They slid together like they were two halves of the same necklace. Magic, strong and dark, pulsed between them before a song started to play. It was a sweet tune despite the death magic that was powering it. Vanth's mouth went dry. His mother used to hum that song when he was a child and couldn't sleep.

"Where did you get that? What the actual fuck is going on?" he said, staring up at the murderous female on top of him.

"As I was trying to say, I need your help, Tarael," she said. Her eyes darkened with leashed power. "It's got to do with your father."

Vanth couldn't breathe, and it wasn't because of the female on top of him.

"As much as I enjoy this position, can you let me up? I'm going to need coffee before I make you explain yourself," he said, still trying to fathom what she had just said. His father. What the fuck was going on?

"You promise to talk to me like an adult if I let you go? Because you are in danger, and I've risked my own skin coming here," she said, the edge in her voice as sharp as the blade at his throat.

"I promise. I'd even cross my heart if I weren't too scared to move right now," he replied with a grin.

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