Page 13 of Rune Assassin

I looked up quizzically at Tegan. “Why are we staying out here after the others are gone?”

His glowing eyes scanned the area and stopped at the dune closest to our position. “Because the others aren’t gone. Not all of them.”

“Admirable hearing,” a voice spoke up and Morrigan stepped out from behind the pile of sand. She crossed her arms over her chest and lifted her chin slightly. “A pity you didn’t take us up on our kind offer.”

CHAPTEREIGHT

A crooked smileslipped onto Tegan’s lips as he shook his head. “If you had offered us one we might have taken it. As for your assumption, I didn’t hear anything but I could smell your odor from here.”

The corners of her lips twitched downward. “Yes, well, it seems nothing can be done to remedy that little mistake until the games are finished.”

I snorted. “I think we’re planning on making sure it’s a little bit longer than that.”

She sauntered around us like a cat toying with its prey. “Do you truly believe you can escape us for long?”

“We’re willing to try,” Tegan quipped.

“And we’ve been pretty lucky so far,” I added.

She smiled. “Luck is all you have because the time will soon come when you will have to make a choice.” She stopped in front of the house and her eyes twinkled with a malevolence that made me shudder. “To join us or suffer the consequences. Just think about my proposal, will you?”

And with that, she turned back to the house and soon disappeared out of sight.

I stepped closer to Tegan and looked up to find his tense face focused on where she had gone. “We have been pretty lucky so far, haven’t we? Or hiding in Glistnia.”

He stared ahead as he sighed. “A bliss that couldn’t last forever. Not when our blood contract demands our being elsewhere.”

I lifted one hand and studied the palm. “How long do you think we’ll be stuck with being Domini’s dogs?”

He shook his head. “I’m not sure but this: I can promise you: the terms in the fine print won’t be to our benefit.”

My shoulders slumped and my face fell. “Remind me not to sign another blood contract again even under a life and imprisonment situation.”

Tegan looped an arm around my waist and drew me against his side. “I’ll be sure to keep you out of such a situation again, especially since I have my heightened firepower.”

I smiled up at him. “And my broom skills. I could sweep anybody under the rug now.”

He grinned. “That would be interesting to see you use your light and broom together, but I would warn against using them in Morrigan and the others’ presence. We don’t want to show all our cards when we don’t need to.”

I wrapped my arm around him and squeezed. “And we don’t want to annoy our host by using our magic,” I added. “Only for practice and tournament.”

Tegan chuckled as he led me toward the house. “Right now I think some sleep is in order.”

“But I’m not-” A yawn interrupted my protest. I covered my mouth while it lasted and looked over my fingers to see Tegan’s eyes twinkling. I clapped my mouth shut and glared at him. “I’m not sleepy, just tired.”

“One will come not long after the other,” he assured me as we climbed the steps onto the terrace.

A tingling in the back of my mind made me pause. I turned toward the beach and the rightward direction where we had taken our ill-fated walk earlier. All was still and silent.

“What’s the matter?” Tegan asked me.

I shook my head. “I don’t know. I can’t shake the feeling that there’s something out there.”

Tegan narrowed his eyes as he, too, studied the empty beach. He tightened his grip around my waist. “Then we had better get inside.”

I lifted an eyebrow as we strode across the terrace. “We’re not going to go check it out?”

“Do you remember how many angry vampires were on the road?”

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