Page 43 of Heartless Enemy

Chapter17

It had been over a decade since I last set foot in this shithole of a village, but it somehow still looked exactly the same. The same muddy dirt path that led away from the main road and towards the village. The same dreary buildings made of age-darkened wood and stone. The same smell of smoke and iron and hopeless futures that hung over the entire settlement.

The only thing that was different was that they had added a new smithy. Even though the building that had housed the old one still stood.

Bile, along with rage that would never be satisfied, crawled up my throat as I looked at that awful building, but I still kept us riding towards it.

Next to me, Eve rode silently. She had gone quiet the moment I took us off the main road, and was now just watching our surroundings with sharp eyes.

The few people who were outside cast curious glances at us, but none of them appeared to recognize me. Either they had moved here after I left, or they had been too young back then to remember me now.

Once we reached the old smithy, I pulled my horse to a stop and dismounted. Eve did too. Her boots hit the muddy ground with a wet squelching sound. The rest of the world went unnaturally quiet as I stood there and stared at the stone building in front of me.

Both rage and nausea rolled through me.

The madness in my soul cracked open an eye.

Fuck. I shouldn’t have come back here. Or maybe I should have come sooner. I should have slaughtered everyone here and razed this whole fucking village to the ground. Maybe I should do that now. If I—

A warm steady hand slid into mine. Eve, now standing beside me, kept her eyes on the door in front of us as she asked, “What is this place?”

I sucked in a rattling breath.

And reality surged back around me, time hurrying to catch up with those seconds I had stood frozen.

Eve’s voice, and the feeling of her warm hand in mine, pulled me back from the edge and at last shattered the final barrier I had built to keep her and everyone else out of this part of my life. I gave her hand a grateful squeeze. And then I told her. Told her the story, thefullstory, that I had never shared with anyone else before.

“Do you remember that I told you that my parents sold me?”

She held my hand tightly. “Yes.”

Cold winds whirled across the brown grass and between the soot-stained buildings, biting my cheeks. But I wasn’t ready to go inside the building yet. I kept my eyes on the door ahead, but I focused on the feeling of Eve’s hand in mine.

“I was born in a dirt-poor village north of the Gray Peaks. My parents had seven children and never enough food. I was the second youngest, so I was basically just insurance in case too many of the others suddenly died.” I dragged in a deep breath. “But then my magic manifested.”

Metallic clanking came from a short distance away. Or maybe it came from inside my own head. I blocked it out and continued.

“Since I had so many other siblings, I wasn’t really needed. And I suppose my parents decided that the cost of keeping me alive until I could learn how to use my magic was too high compared to whatever gain my metal manipulation could potentially bring to the farm, because when a blacksmith who had heard about my powers showed up and offered them money, they sold me straight away. I was seven years old.”

“Fucking assholes,” Eve growled under her breath.

“Yeah.” I heaved a deep sigh and nodded towards the deserted building before us. “And the blacksmith brought me here.” Memories washed through my mind again. “The first year was okay. He mostly treated me well while he tried to get me to develop my magic as fast as possible so that I could summon metal for him and save him the cost of buying raw material. Then he realized that, just like all other summoned substances, the metal I called up eventually faded back into nothingness. And that’s when everything started to change.”

Another biting wind swept through the village.

Gritting my teeth, I reached out and gripped the metal handle. It was cold against my skin. After drawing in a bracing breath, I pushed it down and then pulled the door open. The hinges creaked horribly.

I glanced at Eve.

And then walked inside.

My whole soul rebelled at the thought of being back in this building, but I forced down the swirling madness that was rippling much closer to the surface now.

With my heart pounding in my chest, I moved into the main workshop area. It looked exactly like it had the day I had left. Tools and equipment, warped and flung in all directions. Tables overturned. And bloodstains on the walls.

Those were almost black now.

Eve swept her gaze over the room, noting everything but saying nothing.

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