by Cherie Marks
Maverick rested his forehead against the cool glass of the window, remembering the last time he’d spoken with the King. Just two nights before he had been killed, he had pulled Mav aside and expressed genuine fear for his life. He’d insisted that Maverick needed to find the princess. She needed to come home.
Of course, Maverick had thought he was protecting the King by reluctantly leaving to find Gemma. When he’d heard of the King’s death, he’d been devastated. If only he’d been there to protect him.
Yet, what stuck with him more than anything were the King’s final words to him.
He’d said, “She’s out there, lost and alone.” His eyes had met Mav’s, and he’d known the King was talking about the princess. “You know what that feels like, don’t you?”
Maverick hadn’t answered. Even if it were true, it was in his past.
“She needs to come home. She needs you to find her and bring her home. I want you to be the one to do it. Promise me, no matter what happens, you’ll find her and bring her back where she belongs.”
Without understanding exactly what he was agreeing to, Maverick had promised. He regretted so much about that day, and he would never get it back.
In an instant, his focus returned to the apartment across the street. A small flash of light had crossed the window, pulling him from his melancholy memory.
Maverick turned and headed toward the door, the sound of his boots like hammers hitting wood as he crossed the hard floor. “She’s back. It’s time for answers.”
Chapter 3
Moving around in the dark came natural to Gemma. It had been a significant part of her training, and she had spent hours in the dark. As a young child, she had hated those times, and now that she could use the smallest amount of light as she quickly grabbed weapons and other needed materials, she moved the low light around the room.
For the slightest second, she worried that someone outside of the house would see the light, but the benefits of the efficiency it allowed were enough to outweigh the possibility that someone was watching. Besides, she was really itching for a fight, and she hoped the hunter would accomodate.
With quick movements, Gemma packed her bag, grabbing only the essentials—a change of clothes, a few toiletries, the necklace her mother gifted her on her tenth birthday. She sat heavily on the bed and paused as she held it in her hand under the low light for a few extra seconds, thinking back to the time before her life careened away from the idyllic early childhood to which she’d grown accustomed. She could never bear to wear the necklace. There were too many memories associated with it. But she could never let it go either. Her mother told her never to lose it, so even as she ran for her life, it was an essential that she couldn’t leave without.
A noise from the other side of the small apartment caught her attention. It was a slight snick, like a window releasing pressure as it slid open, and it pushed her out of her revelry in an instant. She shut off the light and stood swiftly. Forgetting everything else, Gemma slipped the necklace into the hidden pocket deep inside her backpack and threw the bag over her shoulder. She palmed the leather handle of her curved dagger and slid silently across the bedroom. Her back against the door, she peeked around the doorframe and waited for movement.
As a tall shadow crossed the kitchen, she jerked her head back in recognition. It was him. The hunter from the antique shop was moving around her apartment, clearly here for her. She had wanted a fight, and he had brought it right to her, but she needed answers first. For now, the smartest move was not to make one. Not yet.
With sure steps, Gemma backed up toward the sliding glass door leading to the balcony. She gave up the pretense of staying quiet, unlocking and opening the door with one swift motion. As she pulled a nylon rope from her utility belt, she ran toward the railing, hooking the belt as she dove over, gripping the rope and bracing her feet, knees bent, legs loose to take the impact as she swung under the balcony and into the outer siding of the building.
She bounced outward and with a controlled slide, let gravity take over as she bounded her way down three stories. Once her feet hit the ground, she gave a quick flick of her wrist and looked upward to catch the dull metal hook that had secured the rope. She caught it easily and saluted the dark figure watching her from the balcony she’d just vacated. She couldn’t help the small grin that planted itself on her face as she turned and ran for the parking lot on the other side of the building. It felt rather amazing to outsmart someone, especially a hunter.
Yet, as she turned the corner and ran across the parking lot, her front door opened, and the hunter charged out.
Damn! He could move quickly.
She sprinted forward, heading for the natural area stretching behind the apartment complex. The terrain was overgrown and wild, and she could lose him there. As she passed Kylie’s building, her chest constricted, and now that she’d lived among the emotional humans, she knew that she was feeling sadness and regret. Kylie had been an amazing person, and Gemma would miss her presence in her life. As Kylie had explained it, they were best friends. Gemma had experienced something like a friendship at the assassin’s academy, but she had never known that one could have such a strong tie to another person. She hadn’t liked much about the human world, but the bonds between the humans was a difference that she had liked.
As she lowered her chin, though, and ran on, she accepted that in order to protect her best friend, she had to leave her behind.
The line of trees came into view as she rounded the building. A quick look over her shoulder showed that the hunter was still a good distance behind her. Yet, he seemed to be holding back, observing, and that made her nervous. What did he know that she didn’t?
She wasted no more thought on him though as she swiveled back around and darted through the trees. It was time to disappear once more.
A familiar path stretched out before her. She had jogged through these woods daily, and she knew that once she reached the summit of the small hill, with a run along the ridge to the right, she would come out above the Guyandotte River. Waiting for her on the other side of the hill, tied up on a small, wooden dock, she had a boat that she would use to make a quick and quiet getaway. Sadly, she would leave Assjacket, West Virginia far behind.
It wasn’t until she was just a few yards from the top of the hill that she noticed the tall, shadowy figure immense and standing directly above her.
Stopping suddenly, she stared at the hunter, confused about how he’d beaten her to the top. Completely stupefied, she shifted her gaze between the bottom and top of the hill.
“How...How did you do that?”
“Gemma Marolinia of the kingdom of Linwyn, I am here to take you to meet the justice you deserve.”
“Well, see, here’s the thing. That doesn’t play into my current, or future, plans. So, I’m going to take a hard pass on that.”
“No, Gemma. Hard, soft, or otherwise, there is no way to pass on this. You must return to the Kingdom of Linwyn with me to stand trial.”
He stepped toward her as she reached for her dagger. “Again, I don’t see a need for that. I am more than happy to abdicate my position as heir to the throne, and my father can go on ruling in his heavy-handed way without worrying about my opinion.”
The silence between them stretched into an uncomfortable few seconds, only broken by the sounds of the forest around them. The hunter made a scoffing sound as he said, “Your ability to lie is nothing short of talented. I almost believed you.”
“Lie? Why wouldn’t you believe me? I have no reason to lie about something like this.”
“What of your father? Don’t you care about him?”
“Care about him? What did that ever get me, hunter? I’ll tell you what. It got me sent away to a school I hated, and it forced me to leave Linwyn forever. Even if I did care about him, I don’t want anything more to do with him until I find what I am searching for. Then, and only then, I will face him once more.”
The hunter stepped in her d
irection again, a slice of moonlight illuminated his face. It was like seeing an angel in person—a fallen angel, but an angel, nonetheless. Yet, Gemma was dumbfounded at the look on his face. He looked genuinely perplexed by her words, like she was speaking a language he didn’t understand. Perhaps she’d picked up more from the humans in the past five years than she’d realized.
She was finished talking. With the slightest of hand gestures, Gemma flicked her wrist and set off a few colorful explosions behind the hunter, to his right. The moment he turned toward the earsplitting sounds, she took off in the direction of the river. She knew he would be right on her trail, but she also had something up her sleeve that she hoped he didn’t know about.
With a few words mumbled under her breath, she cast a spell of camouflage. In an instant, she blended into the night as if she’d never even been there. It only worked in the forest, but she was pleased she had a reason to use it. She smiled when she heard his expletive, but she didn’t dare slow down to see the look on his face, though she could imagine it would show his brow furrowed in frustration.
However, he continued to pursue her, even as she zig-zagged back and forth, trying without success to lose him. When she realized the problem, she muttered another incantation and cancelled the noise her feet made as she ran. Finally, with a final curse word, he slowed to a stop, and she picked up her pace.
As she began to pull away from him, she couldn’t help but stop when he said, “You can run from me, Gemma. But, you can’t run from the truth. Deny what you did as much as you want. I know the truth.”
Like her feet had suddenly grown heavy, she couldn’t move farther, feeling like his words were about to push her over a cliff.
She waited, and just as she turned to begin her progress once more he shouted, “Your father is dead. And, you are the one who murdered him, Gemma.”
Her heart stopped as her eyesight blurred and her hearing slipped away. Her knees buckled as her strength abandoned her, and she dropped to the ground. The air around her grew heavy as a forceful wind began to fill the forest, spinning debris up from the ground, even as the limbs of the trees above her swayed recklessly.
A loud, high-pitched scream went on and on around her, as if the very earth were crying out like a child left abandoned. In an instant the world disappeared as she felt the wind lift her high into the night, carrying her away. It was only when the screaming followed that she realized it had been her own voice all along.
The dark sky was broken only by the small twinkle of stars above and the half-moon making its way across the expanse. She stared until her eyes burned with the unshed tears.
She had failed. Her father was dead, and she had failed.
The tears washed over her eyelids in a fountain of misery. As the swirling twister carried her over the tops of the trees, she knew the hunter followed below. She would lose him tonight, but now that he thought she had murdered the King, he would never give up until he had taken her back to Linwyn to face the consequences she’d set in motion so long ago.
Like taxes, pandemics, and bad breath in the morning, it had been inevitable. It was her fate.
Chapter 4
Gemma woke slowly, rising to a sitting position on a bed of soft moss. She rubbed her burning eyes and looked around and took in the panoramic view surrounding her. After letting the wind carry her far away, she’d cried herself to sleep and come to rest halfway up a hillside that looked down on a low, green valley with a large barn that dwarfed the dot of a home below, making it quite clear what the family that lived there prioritized. They took care of what mattered most for the livelihood of the entire unit.
It was exactly what her father and she had argued about the last time they’d spoken. With the future in mind, she had tried to convince the King that they needed to forge a peace treaty and trade agreements with the kingdom of Havelan. He had argued that they couldn’t be trusted, and that he would never sign a treaty with the rulers. Gemma hadn’t pushed any further. She hadn’t questioned his wisdom.
So, the senseless cold war had continued, and Gemma had been sent on missions to assassinate key political opponents. She had been good at her job, and she had killed witches and warlocks for her father, dying a little inside each time until one particular mission was too much.
She had been asked to kill the child of a high-level official close to Queen Dorna of Havelan. Gemma couldn’t do it. She’d been in place, spell at the ready, and when she saw the target, she’d frozen, unable to believe that her father had sent her to kill a child. It was the final time she would ever follow orders again.
That night, she’d gone to her father, determined to make this stop by any means necessary, but as she’d stood over his sleeping form, she hadn’t been able to reconcile the man who had raised her with honor would have sent her to kill a child. It was unfathomable, and she’d wanted to confront him and get the answers she needed.
But she’d run instead.
She’d run away, and she’d known it was just a matter of time until they found her, so she hadn’t stopped until she’d reached the dimensional portal hidden in the Mountain of Souls. Before she’d disappeared mysteriously, her mother had shown her the portal and explained its use. With only the slightest hesitation, Gemma had crossed the portal and ended up in Assjacket, West Virginia.
Now her father was dead, and she would never get the answers she wanted—unless she found the book.
Her tears had dried up, and it was time to step up her search. More than ever before, the urgent need for the spell book she’d been pursuing was undeniable. If she could find that book, she could go back in time. The question was whether she went back to the night she’d run away or to the night the King had been murdered to try to save him and identify the real killer.
It was time to finish what she’d started. Decided on her plan of action, Gemma stood and dusted the forest debris from her clothes. She reached for her backpack on the ground where her head had lain. She had used it as a makeshift pillow. Now, she needed to pool all her resources and do what needed to be done.
She started down the hill on alert. This wouldn’t be easy, especially not now that she had a hunter on her trail. She had to stay vigilant, and she needed to act quickly. And if things got too problematic, she knew how to run.
She was just so tired of running.
* * *
He’d lost her.
She’d gotten away without a trace and left him confused. He hadn’t expected her reaction to the news of her father’s death. She had seemed genuinely upset. It wasn’t how he expected a murderer to react. Either her acting skills were highly evolved, or she really hadn’t known her father was dead. If she’d killed him, how could that be possible?
He needed answers, and if he couldn’t get them from her, he needed to get them from someone close to her.
Mav approached the petite woman whom he’d last seen with Gemma. He hoped she could tell him where the princess could have gone.
He’d run after the miniature tornado, spanning large distances with his spells as quickly as he could, until he could no longer see her above the clouds. Once she was out of sight, he could no longer span beneath her.
Spanning was a useful spell that Mav had learned during his training as a hunter. It had taken him a while to get used to the disorientation it produced, and it had its limits. Before spanning, a hunter had to be able to see the destination, either the actual visual location or an image in the mind as a result of visiting before, but as he’d found out, it wasn’t a perfect way to chase after a witch in the air.
Now, he had to rely on finding her through his other honed hunter skills, including using those who were close to the target.
“Excuse me. Kylie, is it? Can we talk?”
She turned quickly and faced him, eyes wide, lips slightly parted. He’d surprised her, but he knew how to put her at ease, to get her on his side.
He saw her tense, ready to run, but he needed to stop her before she tried to get a
way. “I don’t want to hurt you, and I don’t want to hurt Gemma.”
Then, she surprised him. She didn’t run. Instead, she took a step toward him and pushed her finger into his chest as she made her points. “What did you do with her? Did you hurt her already? Where is she?”
Instinctively, he put his hands up in a gesture to show he meant no harm. “I don’t know where she is. I was hoping you could tell me.”
She stepped back and crossed her arms. “I’m not telling you shit, you jerk.”
“Look, I know this will be hard to understand, but Gemma is not who you think she is. She’s dangerous, and I need to find her before someone else gets hurt.”
“I don’t believe you. I know Gemma, and she wouldn’t hurt anyone.”
“Kylie, she murdered her own father. She’s a trained assassin and won’t hesitate to kill anyone who gets in her way.”
He was encouraged by her silence as she absorbed the information. She hadn’t immediately dismissed him. Obviously, she’d had her own doubts about Gemma. He needed to capitalize on the opportunity.
“Now, I’ve been sent to bring her back to the dimension from which she came so that she can stand trial for the murder of her father, King Zolunder.”
“Even if what you say is true, why should I help you?”
He almost had her, and frankly, he was a little surprised she wasn’t more skeptical. Maybe she had ties to magic somehow. “Look, I won’t be the only hunter sent to retrieve her, but I was sent by her father himself before I received the news that he’d been murdered. He had wanted her returned to Linwyn, the kingdom in the realm from which we come. I will treat her with respect and give her the benefit of the doubt. I can’t promise that others will do the same.”
“I have lived in Assjacket all my life. I’ve seen some crazy things here, but I have no doubt that Gemma can handle herself with you and anyone else that comes her way. Sorry, but you’re on you own, sport. I wouldn’t help you even if you promised to treat her with kid gloves. As her best friend, I’m rooting for her to beat your ass and anyone else’s who comes along.”
