Blackbird Crowned (The Witch King's Crown #3) - Keri Arthur Page 0,5

a body fell to the floor. I rebalanced and watched as the shadows unraveled around my attacker.

She didn’t get up. There was blood on her face, a deep cut on her left arm, and part of her hand was gone. I glanced down and saw the missing digits still wrapped around the sword’s grip.

An odd whistling had my head snapping around. The mutant man-mountain now stood in the doorway, and the energy whip lit the air as it cracked toward me.

I cursed and dropped low. The blow that would have taken off my head sheered instead through the shelf behind me, destroying the long line of potions stacked there and sending glass and liquid flying.

As the whip recoiled, I leapt up and followed it, Nex and Vita gripped tight in readiness. Lightning rolled down their sides and filled the darkness with their eagerness to kill.

The man-mountain turned and ran.

My footsteps were loud on the old flagstones as I chased after him. Both blades were afire, the lightning deadly snakes ready to strike.

I dashed out onto the pavement and skidded to a halt. The man-mountain was a dozen buildings away already. For a big man, he was fast.

But not fast enough.

I crossed the knives and smoked his ass.

As his ashes washed down the drain, I went back into our store and locked the door behind me. I had no idea if there were more Durants or demons out there, but it never hurt to be careful.

The stairs creaked, and I glanced up, my grip briefly tightening on Nex’s hilt.

It was Mo, not more bad guys.

“What happened up there?” I sheathed the knives and walked across the room. The Durant’s breathing was rapid and thready, but her eyelids fluttered, suggesting she was on the cusp of consciousness. Which was good, because we definitely needed to question the bitch.

“A couple of minor demons attempted to get through, but it was nothing I couldn’t handle.” Mo followed me through the room. “Who’s this?”

“The Durant who was attempting to install a gateway in your magic so a man-mountain with an energy whip could enter.”

She frowned. “Most Durants aren’t capable of magic—”

“Luc and two of his sisters are, and they surely can’t be the only ones.” I squatted next to my captive and started going through her pockets. They contained her car keys but nothing else of importance.

“Yes, but Luc is also a knight of the round table.”

I frowned up at her. “Becoming one of the twelve gives them magic?”

“In a sense, yes. When they’re matched with the soul blade, they gain the knowledge and power of the witch within. And his sisters inherited their magic from their Lancaster grandmother, did they not?”

“Yes, but that only adds weight to my initial comment.”

She grunted—though whether that meant she agreed or not I couldn’t say—then knelt beside me and lightly pressed her hands either side of the woman’s temple. Her fingers lit with a golden glow as she probed the woman’s injuries and then began the healing process. After several minutes, both the cut on the woman’s arm and the skin where her fingers had been severed healed over. Which I suspected wouldn’t please our captive, but missing fingers were a small price to pay for working with Darkside.

Despite Mo’s healing touch, the woman didn’t wake. In fact, she seemed to slip into deeper unconsciousness. I frowned at Mo as she withdrew her touch. “You’re not going to wake her so we can question her?”

“No, I’m not. As I said, I’m a little peeved over these constant attacks. Besides, she’s a Durant. They don’t crack easily.”

“Speaking from experience, I take it?”

I unzipped the woman’s jacket and patted her down, but there was no ID or anything else that might provide a clue as to who she was. I guess that wasn’t really surprising; she obviously knew the danger of attacking us and had no doubt divested herself of any means of identification beforehand.

“I came across a couple of them back in the day when I was working as an interrogator for the High Council,” Mo was saying, “Not all Durants followed legal lines.”

“Which I guess could be expected given their skill set. They’d make excellent thieves.”

“It was more the assassination business that called them to our attention.” She frowned. “It’s rather an odd move for Darkside to send a Durant here, though.”

“Not really. Not if their goal was simply to kill you and capture me.”

“But in failing, they’ve very much revealed the depth of their infiltration into witch