Page 5 of A Deception of Courts

And the flood of armoured men and women, each displaying the white-splashed symbol of the Hand across their chests as they ran through the main streetways from Lockinge, confirmed the plan was working.

My ears still rang with the explosive blast Althea had created once she threw her conjured flame toward the building we’d called home during the past weeks. No love was lost for the cold, mould-covered rooms and the rats that had attempted to evict us. Even as we passed through the middle sector of the city, keeping in the darkened side streets, I recognised the small inkling of guilt for the lives of the creatures that would now be burned meat back in the slums. Their deaths were the sacrifice that had to be made for saving the others.

Sacrifice, the harsh truth of the word, being something I was all too familiar with now.

There was only so much I could’ve prepared for. And even more steps ahead of us were out of my control. I couldn’t let the pessimistic worries cloud my judgement. There were only so many times I could’ve mapped out the precise route through the city toward the castle. My mind had reeled with my desire to free the fey from Aldrick’s capture. For weeks, it was all I could think of. From the moment Seraphine smuggled us back into Lockinge until now, my focus was on them.

Sometimes, when the winds changed, I could still smell the sewers upon my skin. Clambering through the thick, unknown substances begrudgingly flowing into the ocean through a series of cavern-like tunnels beneath the city. We came back into Lockinge, covered in shit with even more to deal with.

It would all be worth it. At least that’s what I convinced myself of over and over during the nights I lay sleepless beside Duncan on the roll-out mattress back in the now burning building.

First, I asked Elinor to secure means of travel for the countless number of fey we would save. Ships, and a lot of them at that. A way of returning the fey home. I’d believed it would have been the hardest challenge ahead, but I was wrong. Convincing Seraphine to give up the dwellings the Asps owned within the city took the most effort. I did it because there was no other option, but the cost was great. No matter how many times Althea asked, or Duncan raised a brow in inquiry, I didn’t reveal what I’d traded for their help. But as it was with the guild of assassins, nothing was free in life, only in death was money as useless as breath.

Seraphine had lost everything with her sister’s death. Aldrick had taken her twin from her and left her as one piece of a set of two. But coin still bled a darker red than the blood of family. I was a fool to even think the assassins would have helped out of the desire to do what was right. Just as Seraphine had said to me when I first requested her help, the words were still clear even now.

Saving the world from a demon god does not save us from poverty. That’s another war entirely.

Right and wrong were simply two sides of the same coin, and the Asps didn’t care which side it landed on, only that it landed in their palm.

I felt as though we’d been running for only a moment before we came to our agreed meeting place. Kayne pressed himself into the side of the merchant’s building before it gave way to the main street. It gave the best view of the main parade that led toward the castle. The same parade Duncan and I had been dragged up when we had first arrived in Lockinge. Back when I didn’t know the Hand’s true identity. Before he revealed himself as the very creature he’d petitioned his followers to hunt, capture and kill: a fey.

“How many do you see?” Duncan asked, hardly a hair out of place. He didn’t look as though he’d run up the harsh incline of a city, whereas I fought the urge to fold over to catch my breath.

Kayne was silent for a moment, craning his head around the corner of the apothecary shop that provided us shelter. This was the last place to hide before we had to begin the more tiresome fight toward the castle’s entrance. “Forty,” he replied, “maybe fifty, from what I can see. Not counting those surveying the walls or watching from within the bastard castle.”

“Fuck,” Duncan groaned. Reminiscent of another time and place when he had expelled the same word under different circumstances. “I thought more would be drawn by our distraction.”

I pressed up behind him, running a hand up his hard back and lacing it over his shoulder.

“We planned for more,” I whispered. “But that is what a contingency plan is for. Don’t worry, this isn’t going to halt our next step, just… make it slightly more difficult.”

Staying positive was the only option for success, I had to keep the morale up.

“And hoped for less,” Althea interjected, pulling down the covering of material from her mouth. “What are the chances we are up against powered-up humans? Because that is whatwillaffect our success rate.”

Duncan stiffened beneath my hand. I squeezed my fingers into his shoulder, hoping to provide him with some grounding comfort.

“Your guess is as good as mine,” Kayne replied. “I could get a better grasp of the number if you let me send Lucari to scout–”

“No,” I snapped, swallowing the urge to shout. “She is important to us, I can’t risk Lucari. The second someone spots your hawk, it will give us away. Lucari stays with you until we are so close to the guards that your sword has already pierced through the first chest you find. Only then can she be free to tear their faces off.”

If my hearing was as strong as Althea’s, I would have been certain to catch the sound the lump made in his throat as he swallowed. His silence spoke volumes. I could see the trepidation in his unblinking eyes as he wrestled with himself internally. Lucari meant a lot to Kayne, and to my cause.

“No one is forcing you to take part in this, Kayne,” I said, stepping closer to him. “I will not think less of you if you sit this one out.”

Kayne was facing the real possibility of fighting those he once fought besides. This was a big ask – I recognised that.

Kayne kept his chin raised, looking down the point of his freckled nose at me. “I’ve made my choice. And I’m here, aren’t I? If I didn’t struggle with the concept of killing innocent people, I wouldn’t be human.”

He used his words with intent, and I felt their stab.

“Innocent isn’t a word I would have used to describe them,” I replied.

“Regardless of that. I fight with you.”

Relief unfurled in me. “Will you feel the same if you face someone you once knew? If the person at the end of your blade is another Hunter you were close to? I need to know that you will slay anyone who stands in our way.”

My eyes flickered between his, trying to catch some hint of cowardice. If there was any of that emotion lurking, Kayne did well to keep it concealed.

---