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EDEN’S PLAN TO TRAVEL to the Night Cursed District had to be put on hold when she rose the following night. A blizzard was raging and it had caused a total whiteout. Carriages wouldn’t be able to traverse through the streets tonight. Businesses would be closed and everyone would be huddled in their houses to wait out the storm.
On nights like this, the Assassin Guildmembers tended to gather together in the living room downstairs. The Immortal Triumvirate wouldn’t be sending them kill orders tonight. They didn’t know about Sorcha’s ability to teleport, or her teleporting potions.
Eden cooked herself some dinner, then headed downstairs after she finished her meal. Sorcha stepped out of her apartment as the succubus reached her floor. They heard Malachi’s door open beneath them and descended to the first floor together. The incubus’ short black hair looked messier than usual, as if he’d been running his hands through it. “Lovely night, isn’t it?” he said sourly as a gust of wind rattled the windows.
“It’s Christmas tonight,” Sorcha said as they entered the living room.
“Is it?” Eden asked as she sank down onto the couch. Three glasses of eggnog appeared on the coffee table once they were all settled. “That answers that question,” she said with a grin.
While there were no Christmas decorations, or gifts to be exchanged, plates of cookies shaped like Christmas trees, snowflakes, reindeer and other items appeared. They dug in, enjoying the rush the sugar gave them. The trio had never celebrated Christmas, their birthdays, or any other events when they’d been growing up. None of them even knew when their birthdays were. Wort had become their trainer when they’d been four and their only memories were of the satyr and his harsh training methods.
For a few hours, they could pretend to be normal young adults rather than highly trained death dealers. Sorcha was the one who eventually called an end to their revelry. “I have a spell I need to practice,” she said as she stood up. “Merry Christmas, lunkheads.”
“Merry Christmas, feeble one,” Malachi said with a smirk. The sorceress rolled her eyes at him while Eden snickered at them both. She was full from the cookies and sweets she’d indulged in. There were still a few hours before dawn and the storm had lulled. She headed upstairs long enough to change into a different outfit, then she slipped back downstairs as quietly as she could and left through the back door.
Dressed in black from head to toe, Eden had left her umbrella behind for once. She wore a formfitting dress as usual, but her boots had flat heels to make it easier for her to walk through the snow. Her coat would protect her from the weather if the storm kicked in again. She wore the hood down for now as she forged her way along the snow clogged path to the back gate.
Eden had to walk down the middle of the cobbled street where the snow was shallowest. Drifts of white were piled up against the buildings as she made her way to the City Square. She was the only person braving the elements. Her boots crunched noisily with each step she took.
Just as she’d figured, the carriages weren’t operating now that the city had become blanketed in snow. The skeletons would have to shovel the roads clear before they could return to their usual jobs. It could take a few nights for them to clear all of the main streets.
It would take a couple of hours for Eden to make it to the Night Cursed District at this pace. Waiting until she was deep in the shadows of one of the buildings a couple of streets away from the City Square, she took off at a sprint that rapidly ate up the ground. Her eyes blurred from the icy wind that blasted her from her sheer speed. After twenty minutes or so, she raced across a stone bridge and entered the Night Cursed District.
Apart from the time Sorcha had teleported them to the rooftop of the asylum, Eden hadn’t been to this District before. She had no idea where the holy folk were housed. She raced through an industrial area that was silent and devoid of workers. Ten story tall brick apartment buildings were scattered among the factories and warehouses. Lights shone from windows here and there, but they were few and far between.
Completely lost after an hour or so, Eden saw a couple strolling along the middle of the road. “Excuse me!” she called out. They were Night Cursed shifters, but they were too distant for her to see exactly what type of breeds they were. One had wings and both were hulking in size.
The pair halted, exchanged looks, then turned to face her. “Yes?” one of them asked in a distinctly feminine voice. Eden had assumed they were both male, since they were so large.
“Could you tell me where I can find some holy people?” Eden asked. She kept her distance so they hopefully wouldn’t be able to tell she wasn’t one of them. The couple murmured to each other, but the succubus could hear them clearly.
“Who the hell is she?” the female asked. Eden could make out that she was a furry werebear of some kind. She seemed to have white and black patches all over her face and body.
“I don’t think she’s Night Cursed,” the werebear’s companion said in a thick accent and a gravelly voice. His outline looked a bit like a demon, but he was different somehow. He seemed to be gray and was possibly made from stone.
“What the hell is an uncursed being doing in our District?” the werebear whispered. “What do you want with the holy folk?” she called out before her boyfriend could respond.
“I need to ask them how to find someone with healing powers,” Eden replied. They were cursed, so their memories of this conversation would be wiped clean. Neither of them would remember her when they woke up tomorrow night.
Her question seemed to alarm the couple, because they dropped their voices so she could no longer hear them. They had a short argument before the stone creature responded. “You’ll find a compound where the holy folk are imprisoned a few miles to the south of here,” he called out.
“What did you tell her that for, Ivan?” his companion hissed. “We don’t even know who she is!”
“They won’t be able to tell her what she wants to know, Amanda,” he said soothingly. “Their memories will be as drained as their energy.”
Eden’s suspicions that some of the Night Cursed were different from the others deepened at overhearing their whispers. She’d heard Xiara Evora speaking to cursed cop with a name a few weeks ago. These two shifters had names as well and from what she’d just heard, they remembered things the drained cursed didn’t. She wondered if Ivan and Amanda were two of the ‘others’ the Guardian of Nox had spoken about. She would have to puzzle about what this meant later. For now, she had a compound to find. “Thanks for the information,” she called out, then headed southward.
