Page 61 of The Sorcerer's Thief
“He’ll see ya all right.” He thumbs toward the pier. “Go on down.”
I swallow and force my feet to carry me past the rickety lighthouse and plank by plank down the pier over the open ocean. A bad feeling churns in my gut as the waves churn beneath the boards. I finger the hilt of my dagger for comfort.
“Are you Lou?” asks another guard by the stairwell.
The way he says my fake name gives me pause, but I nod.
“Office is down here.” He jerks his thumb toward a familiar narrow staircase. “Boss is expecting you.”
“Thanks.” I flinch as a hint of foreign magic prickles at my skin. Before I can analyze it, the feeling is gone.
I dread the walk down the steps. Tauren had this room built below the decking so he could deposit histrashstraight through a hole in the floorboards to the gaping maw of the sea at his leisure. The place still gives me chills.
I stop at the door, gather my courage, and knock.
“Come in.” Hearing his voice is grating, even after all these years.
Fingering the dagger, I push open the door and step inside.
There he is—my ex-lover, my capture, my torturer, my nightmare—seated at his desk and looking as smug as ever. As if no time has passed at all.
“My, my, my.” Tauren whistles and leans back in his chair. He props his feet up on the desk and crosses one ankle over the other. “Who do we have here? Back after all this time.”
What?That’s recognition on his face! But he can’t possibly recognize me. My magic. My disguise. It’s never failed me.
“Julian.” Tauren’s smile contains the malice of ages.
My breath freezes in clenched lungs.
“The Gatekeeper’s spawn himself. You dare to show your face in my establishment again, Julie?” He tuts and stands abruptly. “Making things easy for me as always.”
Shocked, I shuffle backward—into the arms of a waiting guard.
Now or never. Theshingof steel whipping from its sheath screams as I draw my dagger and thrust it backward.
Please, please let the enchantment ring true.
A blade that never misses its mark. Surely, the Gatekeeper wouldn’t have lied about something so important.
The guard cries out, blade lodged in his gut because I couldn’t bring myself to aim for his heart.
I should have.
My mistake. A mistake I won’t make when I aim for Tauren. I vow it. A killing blow for Tauren.
I yank the dagger out of the guard’s flesh with a sickening squelch and try not to think about what I just did.
“Ooh.” Tauren purses his lips. “You’ve gotten feisty without my steadying hand.”
“How did you know it was me?”
He laughs, a wicked cackle I’d forgotten.
My lunch threatens to violently exit my stomach. I loathe that sound.
And I fear it.
“Did you really think I wouldn’t keep tabs on you? That Aurielle wouldn’t keep tabs on you? I know you to be naïve, but not stupid.” More laughter brings more nausea.
