to push me, and know that the neutrality I present to you is exactly what I give to them."
On that note, he had made a vow to Elan and Xcor not to reveal their identities, and he was going to keep it - not because he believed the group would e'er return the favor to him, but rather for the simple fact that, depending upon who won this tussle, a confidant to either side would be viewed either as a whistle-blower to be eradicated or a hero to be lauded. The problem was, one wouldn't know which until the end, and he was uninterested in such a gamble.
"So you have been approached," Rehv stated.
"I received a copy of the letter they sent in the spring of this year, yes."
"Is that the only contact you've had?"
"Yes."
"You're lying to me."
Assail stopped at a traffic light. "There is naught you may say or do to pull me into this, dear leahdyre."
With menace in abundance, the male on the other end growled, "Don't count on that, Assail."
With that, Rehvenge hung up.
Cursing, Assail tossed his phone onto the passenger seat. Then he made two fists and banged them on the steering wheel.
If there was one thing he could not abide, it was being sucked into the vortex of other people's arguments. He didn't give a pence who sat on the throne, or who was in charge of the glymera. He just wanted to be left alone to make his money off the backs of rats without tails.
Was that so fucking hard to understand?
When the light turned green, he stomped on the accelerator, even though he had no real destination in mind. He just drove in a random direction...and about fifteen minutes later, he found himself going over the river on one of the bridges.
Ah, so his Range Rover had decided to take him home.
As he emerged onto the opposite shore, his phone let off a chiming sound, and he nearly ignored it. But the twins had gone out to move Benloise's newest shipment, and he wanted to know if those petty dealers had shown up for their quotas after all.
It was not a phone call or a text.
That black Audi was on the move again.
Assail stomped on the brake, cut in front of semi that blew its horn like the f-word, and plowed up and over the snow-covered median.
He positively flew back over the inbound bridge.
From his vantage point at a rather distant periphery, Xcor required his binoculars to properly sight his Chosen.
The car that she had been traveling in, that vast black sedan, had continued onward after the bridge, going about five or six miles before getting off on a rural road that took it north. After another number of miles, and with little warning, it had turned onto a dirt lane that was choked on either side with hardy all-season undergrowth. Finally, it came to rest before a low-slung concrete building that was lacking not just pretense of any kind, but windows and, seemingly, a door.
He tightened up the focus as two males got out from the front. He recognized one instantly - the hair was a dead giveaway: Phury, son of Ahgony - who, according to the gossip, had been made Primale of the Chosen.
Xcor's black heart began beating hard.
Especially as he recognized the second figure: It was the fighter with the mismatched eyes whom he had battled at Assail's as the king was spirited away.
Both males took out guns and surveyed the landscape.
As Xcor was downwind, and there appeared to be no one else around, he figured there was a reasonable expectation, barring the revelation of his position by his Chosen, that the pair would proceed with whatever they had planned for his female.
In fact, it appeared as if she were being delivered unto a prison.
Over. His. Dead. Body.
She was an innocent in this war, one used for nefarious purposes through no fault of her own - but clearly she was going to be executed or locked within a cell here for the rest of her time upon the earth.
Or not.
He palmed one of his guns.
It was a good night to take care of this business. Indeed, now was his chance to have her as his own, to save her from whatever punishment had been doled out on account of her having unwittingly aided and abetted the enemy. And mayhap the circumstances around her unjust condemnation would make her favorably predisposed toward her enemy and savior.
His eyes closed briefly as he