Unhallowed (Rath and Rune #1) - Jordan L. Hawk Page 0,60

instead of their attackers.

No use imagining that horror. The past was done, fixed. The only thing that mattered was what he’d do next.

He couldn’t go back to the library. His half-formed plan of stealing Dromgoole’s original architectural drawings and trading them for Noct was ended before it had begun. In Boston, he might have walked back in and pretended Sebastian was a lunatic, but Mr. Quinn seemed as though he would certainly believe Ves was a monstrous thing. Miss Endicott knew sorcery; she’d understand such hybrid creatures as himself were possible. And of course, Waite must suspect something, since he hadn’t dropped dead of poison.

His best bet was to finish his half-done sketch of the library layout, tell Fagerlie it was complete, and pray he actually intended to turn Ves and Noct fully human. Perhaps they’d get away before Fagerlie realized he’d made up half the floor plan. He could send a telegram from the next stop on the railroad warning Mr. Quinn someone had designs on his precious library.

Whatever happened, he’d never see Sebastian again. The knowledge sat in his chest like a stone. If everything had been different, if Ves had only been fully human…

The light in his room came on.

Ves froze, staring in shock at the boarding house window that belonged to his room. He glimpsed the landlady—what was she doing in there?

Then Sebastian’s face appeared in the window, and all the air left Ves’s lungs.

Sebastian peered out the window that Ves had left open to let the breeze in. He frowned into the darkness, then leaned closer.

Surely he couldn’t spot Ves. Sebastian’s eyesight was merely human; he couldn’t see in the dark the way Ves and Noct could.

Why was he even here? Surely he hadn’t come to kill Ves.

But Ves had held the baby, smiled at the children, and been in the same house as Sebastian’s sister. He’d trespassed, crossed every boundary. Sebastian had every motive to want him dead.

The archivist spoke with the landlady for a few seconds, then smiled, appearing to thank her. A moment later the light went out.

Ves stayed frozen in the tree. All he had to do was remain still, and the danger would pass. Sebastian would never spot him. He’d leave, and Ves would take the risk and enter the house, get his things, and…

Oh gods, he didn’t want to run. He’d known all this was only temporary, but leaving hurt more than he’d ever imagined it would.

A shadow slipped around the side of the house into the backyard. After a moment, it turned on a pocket flashlight and aimed it at the tree. “Ves?” Sebastian called. “Vesper? Are you there?”

Ves’s heart stuttered. Sebastian didn’t sound murderous, but…

But he wouldn’t hide here like a coward. To hell with it. He was so damned tired of hiding.

“Have you come to kill me?” Ves asked, and surprised himself with how calm he sounded.

Sebastian’s eyes widened. “Kill you?” he asked, as though shocked. Then he took a deep breath. “God, no. Of course not.”

Anger snapped through Ves’s veins. Sebastian spoke as though Ves was being absurd, as though the thought had never crossed his mind. “Really?” he asked. “Why not?”

And climbed down from the tree.

Not using his arms, or his feet, though in truth they would have made it easier. He lowered himself branch to branch, the flashlight tracking his movement, clearly outlining his black tentacles, his orange goat eyes. He’d give Sebastian no excuse, no way of writing off what he’d seen earlier as a trick of the light.

“I am a thing of destruction,” he said, refusing to show himself any mercy. “I was born to sow ruin wherever I go. Why wouldn’t you want to see me ended?”

Sebastian’s lips parted slightly, and he swallowed. “The same reasons I don’t ordinarily go around murdering people?”

Ves’s feet touched the ground. “I’m not a person, though, am I?”

He flung out the challenge, waiting for a flinch. Instead, Sebastian lost his slightly dazed expression and frowned. “The devil you aren’t! Who told you otherwise?” The hand not holding the flashlight curled into a fist. “Damn it, Ves, I’m sorry. I won’t pretend to imagine what you’ve been through, but I’m not your enemy. You don’t have to run, or lurk in trees, or…or anything.”

It was a trap. It had to be. The one constant certainty of Ves’s life had been that anyone outside of the family, the cult, would kill him or Noct on sight. He’d learned his lesson the day the boys came to