Page 117 of The Blackened Blade

I try to take a deep breath and pull myself back to the present, rubbing my palm against my chest and the pain promising to split me in half.

I had another chance.

In this life I could do more than just get my revenge. I could find Zrael.

I don't know how or where to look, but I had time.

I would find him. And when I do, I’ll never let him be taken from me again.

I take another breath, this one more steady as I slowly calm myself.

I remember one of his favourite songs; the sweet melody forming into a hum before falling from my lips, words soon following.

I hear his voice singing in my ears, joining me as I close my eyes in the dark room, surrounded only by his memory and my echoing voice.

CHAPTER 31

EZRA

The lights flicker above me as I head down the hallway, the silence a peaceful reprieve as I make my way past the empty classrooms and lockers.

All the other students had left as soon as their final classes ended, the corridors now void of any life or noise.Thankfully.

I drag a weary hand down my face. It had already been a tiring week, what with the attack on our operations out of town and some dumb lone shifter pack trying to take over our territory here. It was solved as it always is, a lot of broken bones and Annex bloodying up.

But it had been annoying nonetheless and an unwelcome trouble I didn’t want to deal with right now.

We had been kept so busy that we couldn’t even come to the academy or attend classes. And usually I’d be happy to escape it all, but lately it had been a bit different…a little fun even.

I push the unfamiliar thoughts away and head down the dimly lit corridor, thinking back over the past couple of days.

A disturbance that should have taken a day or two to handle became more meddlesome, pulling our attention away for far too long. And I could see it in Creed's face, that something else was up.

I’ll have to set my feelers out again tomorrow, slapping on my usual friendly facade and find out what information I can to relay it back to Creed. His mind worked on a different level, seeing some bigger picture. It's one of the reasons why we always turn to him, the grumpy leader of our little group. Our‘Patronising Prince’.

I chuckle remembering the face Creed made when Micai called him that. He wasn’t happy, but he wasn’t exactly angry either.

He didn’t know it yet, but he was already warming up to the little sea star.

Another chuckle leaves my lips with the memory of her little scrunched nose and drawn brows when I gave her the nickname. It had left my lips before I could think, fitting more naturally to her the more I thought about it.

A sea star; something so soft and pretty in appearance but with a thicker skin to protect itself from others. A creature bright and beautiful, but also strong and resilient.

There was something special about Micai. Something that kept drawing my attention back to wherever she was and always wondering what she was going to say or do next.

And she was also completely different from every other girl I’d met before.

She didn’t look at me with glossy or dazed eyes; the usual lust-filled look every girl and woman gives me when they see me. They want a taste of what they think I am; some Fae, Elf or halfling…little do they know.

Their carnal gazes twist my stomach into knots and make me feel like throwing up. Thankfully it's now something I’ve managed to master and hide behind the mask they see. But Micai, she doesn’t look at me like that.

My brows pull downward…whydidn’tshe want me like that?

Why was Micai any different? Why wasn’t she lured in like all the others by my appearance? Why did my fake facade and sweet smile not work with her?

I pass by another empty classroom, the dark sky flooding in through the open windows as the first few stars begin to flicker and wake.

How had she been without us? She clearly wasn’t well liked in her class.Or even in the years below her.

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