Page 52 of Rune Assassin

“Would that person have to be proficient in magic to create more rune stones?” Tegan wondered.

She nodded. “They would’ve certainly gotten around. These things aren’t easy to make in the best of times. It took months for the order of stones to come in from Blutstein and some time for me to carve the runes just right.” She flexed the fingers on one hand and winced. “This Blackstone isn’t easy to peck at with even the hardest of chisels.”

“So vampires would know about them?” I asked her.

She rolled her eyes. “Of course. Some of them in that fool’s employ brought them here themselves from the mines to the southwest of Brunnen.”

“Do you recall who?” Tegan questioned her.

Clara cast a sideways scowl at him. “How should I know? Ask Miles, as soon as he’s up to it. That rascal knows all his master’s secrets, dirty and not.”

I swept my eyes over the stones. “So why were the stones placed here away from the road?”

Clara shuffled around the circle and studied each of the runes on the faces. “Originally, I wrote the runes and placed them along the road to levitate the many people between them. They could look down on the contestants who are supposed to cut the fields into designs to please the brainless crowd. Now it looks like the Blackstones are set up to focus their power on the person standing in the center.”

“What could someone do with that power?” Tegan wondered.

She wrinkled her nose. “I’m not sure. I could easily lift you two with hardly a thought. I suppose someone could focus that power on a single individual and throw them into the ocean.”

I looked up at Tegan. “Like Lusio.”

He had a grim expression on his face as he nodded. “And they would have been hidden in here to work the magic if we hadn’t escaped from the hut.”

I furrowed my brow. “So if they had to get these stones over here does that mean they’re not very magical? I mean, I guess they can’t just throw Lusio into the ocean without them.”

“That rules out Quinn,” Tegan mused.

“Whoever or whatever it means, it means more trouble for me,” Clara commented as she turned to face us. “These stones need to get back in their place or that old fool will throw one of his fits and then I’ll-” She stopped herself.

“Then you’ll what?” I asked her.

Clara’s sharp eyes rolled up to Tegan. “Take me back to the road. You’ll need help getting these into position before those fools watch the trial.”

Tegan nodded and strode toward the path with Clara at her heels. She passed me by with her gaze set straight ahead.

I spun around to follow her and set my hand on her shoulder. She stopped and turned her head to one side so a sharp eye stared at me. “What is it now?”

“You’re not really doing this just to save someone else from doing all this magic, are you?” I commented.

Her eye flickered over me in a quick study before she pursed her lips. “That doesn’t matter now.”

She shrugged off my hand and followed Tegan in the direction of the road. My heart fell but I tagged along behind them. I’d reached the end of the clearing when a strange sensation tingled the back of my mind. The sensation made me half-turn to the

“Kate?” Tegan called to me.

I turned back to him but I felt as if I was in some sort of dream. I was no longer in control but was a third party to the world around me. “Maybe I should stay here.” Panic rose within me. Those weren’t my words. I hadn’t spoken.

Tegan walked past Clara and back to me where he searched my face. “Are you sure?”

I smiled and nodded, only it wasn’t me in control. My real self was silently screaming inside my own head.Tegan! Tegan, something’s wrong!”

“Yeah. Maybe I’ll see who put these stones here.”

He pursed his lips. “I’m not sure that’s a good idea-”

“Are we going to stand around here arguing until the trial is over?” Clara snapped.

Tegan took a reluctant step toward the hag but paused and caught my eye again. “Be careful. Even if it is a vampire they may still be dangerous. Keep in the sunlight.”

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