Page 7 of Fate Unchained

“Oh,” he shrugged, “since you sent me the article your friend wrote.” He smiled. “It wasn’t as bad as I thought it’d be.”

Lilah laughed. “Her stuff is better before her editor gets hold of it.” Her closest friend, Brooke Pemberley, wrote for the Chronicle, and a few months ago, had done a piece on royal huntsmen. Lilah’s father was Hershel the Hunter, once the famed huntsman for the king of Rohant before he’d married her mother and moved to Eroica. Brooke insisted on including Lilah’s papa in the article.

Her father tossed another log onto the fire. “Have you had any more fainting spells?”

“No.”

He turned to her, his gaze sharp. “Really?”

“I haven’t passed out again, but I’ve gotten swept away.” She’d only told him about collapsing in her office because she hoped he might be able to help. Her father had the same sort of ability she did. A power he called, a “special skill.” While she saw runes, and could speak to them so they reacted, her father could channel his power into his bow, making his arrow never miss its mark. But every time she tried to ask him about it, he changed the subject.

“It drains me sometimes, and I can’t control it. That doesn’t happen to you?” She held her breath. This was normally when he would dodge her questions.

Her father picked up his pipe and ran his fingers over the bowl. “I feel it take from me when I shoot my bow, but it doesn’t last long.” He shifted to face her more squarely and raised his hand. His fingertips glowed. “I don’t hold the power long, just enough to make sure my arrow goes true. You need to learn to do the same.”

Lilah nodded. She believed their power had the same root, even if their skills with it were quite different. In her research, she’d learned there was an ancient people called the zorzye—lightwielders—linked to wielding light at night. Her father was adopted, and he didn’t know anything about his birth parents, and anytime she brought up their skill and wondered where it came from, he either ignored her questions completely or walked away.

“Some of my runes are like that. I give them a whisper of power, and they activate. But others …” She shrugged. “They draw me in because they need more, and then I get lost in their power. It’s wild and untamed, and I must find the right way to tap into it. But then they demand too much from me.” She wrapped her arms around herself.

Her father leaned forward. “Stop using it. I don’t want you hurt. My skill let me buy this house and build a career. Yours … you don’t need it to survive.”

He’d said this before, but she couldn’t stop. Her power was a part of her. “I want to understand it. I want to know why we can do this.”

Her father grunted. “You’ve always wanted to know why things work the way they do. Remember the water wheel? It doesn’t always turn out well.”

Lilah groaned. “You always tell that story.” The town mill sat on the river with a massive waterwheel churning along its side. A boy in town told Lilah a water ogre lived under the waves and made the wheel move. She’d fallen into the river trying to see. “Maybe if I understand our power, I’ll understand how to use it.”

Her father put his pipe back in his mouth and sat back in his chair. Lilah’s shoulders relaxed a fraction. This was the most they’d ever discussed their skills, but he was proud enough of her abilities to tell his friends, and at some point, Boris must have overheard since he’d come to her to unlock rune-sealed books.

“We need to talk about this vulk business,” her father said.

Lilah stared into the now blazing fire. “Right.”

“I’ll capture the vulk. You stay out of it. I don’t want you dealing with Boris.”

She sat forward with a jerk. This was exactly what she’d expected him to say. “You deal with him?”

“I have to if I want to get a drink or purchase supplies in this town. But you’ve heard the rumors.”

She nodded. People in town whispered about the boats that slipped up to Boris’s warehouse in the middle of the night with stolen goods. And about bodies floating in the river.

She put her hand on her chest, where the single piece of paper Boris had given her lay folded in her bodice. “There’s only one way to capture a vulk, and Boris told me how. I must be the one to do it. Only my skill can make it work.”

She wasn’t going to tell him about her debt and how Boris had bought it. Papa would sell the house, sell everything he owned, which may still not be enough. This was for her to take care of. Her hands fisted. And she would.

Her father shook his head and stood up. “I tracked a vulk to the cave in the woods, and I can set up a cage to get him when he comes out. If a cage works for a bear, it will work for another beast of the woods, even an immortal one. You understand?” He glared down at her and suddenly seemed ten feet tall and twenty years younger. “You aren’t a hunter. I am. I’ll handle this for Boris.”

“You can’t catch a vulk using normal methods. They’re immortals. You can only use a rune.” Well, that was what the instructions Boris gave her said, anyway.

Her father’s mouth set into a stubborn expression. “We’ll discuss this in the morning.” He glanced out the window. “A storm’s setting in any way. The vulk will hole up in the cave to wait out the weather. When it blows over, I’ll go and trap him. That gives us a little time to sort this out.” He stalked into the kitchen and opened a cabinet. When he turned, he had a bottle of whiskey in his hand. “I’m going to my room.” He stomped up the wooden stairs, the clunk of his steps echoing through the living room.

Soon he’d be snoring in his bedroom. Normally she’d take out a book by the fire, but not tonight. Tonight, there was only one thing to do.

She would capture the vulk herself before her father woke up.

4

Lilah buttoned the top button on her father’s wool coat and fastened its hood more firmly around her face. She hadn’t packed much, so she’d borrowed her father’s extra coat and oilskin pants. Her aunt would roll over in her grave to see her in pants, and it was definitely not Coromesto fashion, but Lilah liked wearing them.

---