“Being a newbie, you will go as fish. Don’t tell anybody anything about yourself. Keep your head down, stay close to me, and do what the guards tell you.” Aron was scared now, but I feared that as soon as he got a tiny bit calmer, his swaggering nature would start to show, which would not be good for him. “You want to live? You keep to yourself and follow the rules.” Unlike me. “You understand?”
“Yes,” he replied, flicking up his chin, a touch of the old Aron in his voice.
“Come on.” I twisted around, feeling Aron was some younger bratty brother I had to show around at a new school, let him know the rules and unspoken laws of the place. “Unless a guard tells you differently, you can come with me to work. There is no training, so observe everything; pick up everything as fast as you can. Don’t assume other humans are on your side here, because they are not. Whatever decrees we go by on the outside do not apply here. They will be the first ones to slit your throat. Demons are in red, fae in yellow, half-breeds blue, humans in gray.”
“Then who is the guy in black?”
I stopped so fast Aron slammed into the back of me. My stomach plunged into my boots as I stared forward, feeling the side of my face burning.
Warwick stood in the doorway. No one moved behind him, waiting for the king to decide what he was doing.
“Who the fuck is he?” Aron sounded arrogant.
“Shut up,” I muttered, keeping my head straight.
“Why? Who is he?” Aron’s male insecurities were rising to the surface, the only person clueless to the power billowing off the man in black.
“Listen to her, fish.” Filled with disgust and threat, Warwick’s deep voice rumbled through the space, plucking the air from my lungs and running shivers down my arms. Sauntering to us, his long legs ate up the gap in a blink, gliding right up to Aron. Towering far above him, he leaned down into his ear, taking over his personal space. “Shut. The. Fuck. Up.”
Aron stilled, finally sensing the dominance emanating from him.
“You just put a target on your back.” Warwick sneered in Aron’s face, his gaze snapping to mine. “And hers.”
Air tore through my nose, my lungs tripping over the gush of oxygen. His threat felt like lead weights were dropped on my back.
I stared back at the man, not showing any emotion. His blue-green eyes rolled like a storm crashing through me. He tilted his head, watching me for a long time as if I were a science experiment until he stepped up to me, sending my pulse tapping wildly against my neck.
As his gaze rolled over me, his nose flared, the heat from his body colliding into mine. My head spun. Arms folded, he tipped closer.
“Watch your back now, princess.” Rough and deep, his voice felt like it poured through my veins and down my throat. “Everything’s changed now.” His mouth grazed my cheek. “Kovacs,” he whispered before brushing past me, his arm knocking into me purposefully as he strolled on, leaving me rooted to my spot, wheezing for air.
His departure sent the horde pouring out of the mess hall. Figures bumped and brushed by, whispers, snarls, and glares of death all centered on me.
“Who was that?” Aron grabbed my arm, snapping me out of the bubble Warwick seemed to always put around me when he was near.
“Remember on nights Sergeant Freeman got a little tipsy and would tell us old battle stories of the Wolf?”
“Yeah. That Farkas dude.” Aron’s forehead wrinkled. “The legend of the guy who came back from the dead after being killed in the Fae War, becoming neither human nor fae. It was said he could move like a ghost and hunt like a wolf, killing hundreds in minutes all by himself with his bare hands. But he’s just a myth. He’s not actually real. Bakos said he was made up to scare people.”
“Bakos was wrong. He’s very real. The legend and myth are true.” I bit down on my lip. “The man who just threatened you? The man in black…” My gaze went to Aron’s, feeling the power of saying his name. “Is Warwick Farkas.”
Aron stumbled after me, trying to refute what I had just confessed to him, but the more he tried to deny it, the less sure he sounded. So many stories about the fae our parents or grandparents