A Discovery of Secrets and Fate (Chronicles of the Stone Veil #2) - Sawyer Bennett Page 0,17
to her knees. Finley had said she’d never felt such evil in her life. While none had definitive proof the nature of her feelings matched up to whether a fae was light or dark. They’d seen enough correlation over the last few weeks to believe it was a reasonable assumption.
Joining Carrick to his left was Zaid, his longtime trusted and loyal friend. Zaid was a daemon, the offspring of a union between a Light and Dark Fae. His mother was light, a gentle and timid soul, but his father was as dark as pitch and as malevolent as they come. Daemons tend to take after one parent or the other, but Zaid had often straddled the line.
To Carrick’s right was another friend, this one entirely human. Titus was an annihilator, a well-trained brand of warrior who hunted the fae and daemons that were acting on their evil impulses. He lived primarily in an alternate dimension called Semper Terra, but traveled the world helping to protect an unsuspecting society against the danger of dark daemons and fae. He had come to Seattle almost a month ago to train Finley how to appropriately defend herself or launch an aggressive physical attack, if need be.
This was important because once word got out that Finely—a mere human—had abilities to see beneath the glamours that concealed the very existence of fae and daemon alike, she would become a target. The Light Fae would want to use her to help hunt Dark Fae, because same as annihilators, they couldn’t abide the evil creatures that had slipped through small tears in the veil that separated earth from the Underworld. They didn’t do this out of any loyalty to humans, but rather to protect their own realm of Faere. The Dark Fae would merely like to kill her because she could identify them. They were the main threat she faced.
Now, it might just be her biggest threat is her sister Fallon.
For now, things were stacking up to be problematic. The Council of five gods announced there was a prophecy of doom coming that would put earth at great peril. It was vague as all prophecies are, but Carrick became embroiled when the god Rune offered him a chance to gain Ascension if he helped thwart the prophecy.
But Ascension wasn’t something Carrick was focused on at this point. His concerns were how to get Finley on board with accepting her fate, that she is an integral part in stopping the coming darkness. He’d worry about his reward later.
Carrick wasn’t bothered by her reaction when she left. Her denial was fueled by fear and mistrust. He let her walk out of his condo, knowing she probably needed some time to process everything.
“Have you spoken to Finley?” Titus asked, his deep voice rumbling with concern. Titus and Finely had gotten tight over the last several weeks while he’d been training her to hone her already-impressive fighting skills from her years of MMA training.
Carrick shook his head, drumming his fingers on the table. “I stopped by One Bean yesterday and asked for her. The day manager said she was sick with the flu and working from home.”
Titus nodded, understanding full well that Finley’s only way to cope at this point was to apparently hide and hope things would just go away. Titus was a hundred and twenty-nine years old—the benefit of living in Semper Terra where people didn’t age because of the magic there—and had seen many trainees come through the academy where annihilators were trained. It was often one thing to train and learn about the dark forces out there, but it was a far different thing when actually confronted with extinguishing it. Based on his training so far, Titus knew Finley was brave and had what it took deep down inside to step up to her destiny, but there was no shame in needing a bit of time and space to truly accept it.
The question was how much time, because no one had a clue as to when this dark calamity would be unleashed.
“She needs to get with it,” Zaid grumbled irritably. “She’s being selfish and immature.”
Based on his tone, one might think Zaid didn’t like Finley, but, in truth, he didn’t really like anyone. Carrick had become used to this churlish attitude.
“How much time are you going to give her?” Titus queried. “The longer we leave her alone, the harder it would be to pull her back in.”
“We can’t force her if she’s not willing,” Carrick replied.