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SORCHA REMEMBERED A magic user she’d recently come into contact with. She wondered if he was the man the fortune teller had spoken about. While she hadn’t talked to him directly, she’d sensed the elf was powerful. Wondering if the tracking spell she’d placed on him was still working, she sent her senses out and picked up on it. He was far to the west, somewhere in the Vampire District if she wasn’t mistaken.
The assassin’s brow furrowed. “That’s strange,” she murmured as she put down her empty cup of tea. “What would an elf be doing in the Vampire District?”
Directly after that thought, she sensed her tracking spell move somewhere to the north. It seemed he’d just teleported to the Fae District. The fact that he could teleport meant he had far more strength than most magic users possessed. “He could be the one,” she said, but her tone was doubtful. He’d seemed mean and petty when he’d ordered Kade Sinclair to take a package to someone. He’d ignored her as if she wasn’t worthy of his notice.
She stood and stretched, then decided to investigate him. A letter wormed its way beneath her door as she headed for her bedroom to get changed. “Nice timing,” she said ruefully as it fluttered over to her. She always seemed to receive a new assassination order when she was trying to focus on her personal goals.
Tearing the envelope open, she read the order and the spell that linked her to her target sank into her mind. The tracking spell she’d placed on the elf almost vanished, but then solidified again. She’d never placed a tracking spell on anyone before, so didn’t know if that was normal or not. Her private mission would have to wait until after she’d taken care of her assassination.
Sorcha got changed, then headed outside. She ducked into a secluded alley, then teleported to the Fae District. A sinking feeling hit her when both her tracking spell and the assassination spell strengthened. “Surely, my luck can’t be that bad,” she murmured as she walked the rest of the way to her destination.
Sure enough, when she reached the mansion where her mark lived, her tracking spell indicated that the elf was inside. She sent her senses out to find he was the only person in the house. “Fantastic,” the sorceress said in heavy annoyance. The man she’d hoped would be able to free her had just become her latest target.
The elf was somewhere in the center of his house, so she wasn’t going to have easy access to him. She was desperate enough that she decided to try a different tactic this time. Wearing an illusion of an ordinary looking witch, she strode down the path to the door and knocked. Both her tracking spell and the assassination spell grew more intense as the elf came closer. She dispelled the tracking enchantment, but the oily spell in the back of her head started hammering at her to kill the mark when he opened the door.
“Yes?” the handsome elf asked in a dazed tone. His eyes were glazed and she could sense that he was under a spell. Her nose wrinkled in distaste when she sensed vampire charisma all over him.
“Can I come in?” she asked.
“I suppose so,” he replied, then turned and shuffled away.
Sorcha stepped inside the mansion and closed the door, then followed him to a library. A fire was burning in the fireplace. She could see traces of ash and white specks from a page that had been burned recently. “Are you one of the rebels?” she asked.
He made a vague gesture with his hand. “Only when it suits me,” he replied. Pure blood fae already couldn’t lie, but he’d been heavily bamboozled and it seemed he would tell her anything she wanted to know.
“Are you allies with the Immortal Triumvirate?” she asked next.
His answer was the same. “Only when it suits me.”
“Are you a good man?”
He grinned woodenly for a few moments before his face turned blank again. “No. I’m selfish, greedy and will stab my allies in the back if I can benefit from it.”
Clearly, he wasn’t the man who would free her. He was just another jerk who only looked out for himself and no one else. “Why would one of the Immortal Triumvirate want you dead?” she asked.
“They know I’m not trustworthy,” he figured with a shrug, then went still again.
It was pointless to question him further, so she refrained from asking him anything else. “A spell was placed on me when I was a baby,” she said and crossed to stand in front of him. “Can you dispel it?”
His gaze shifted to her face and a brief look of concentration appeared as he probed her mind. Her hopes fell when he shook his head. “It’s too strong and it has some kind of black magic mixed in with it. You’ll need someone who can use black magic to get rid of it for you.”
Sorcha blew out a sigh. She was back to square one again, it seemed. The elf wasn’t the kind of man she could trust. He’d already admitted he would turn on her if he felt he could gain something from it. “Close your eyes,” she ordered and he obeyed her. She put her hand on his head and unleashed her magic. Instead of fire or air, ice blasted his skull apart. She leaped back as frozen chunks of flesh, bone and brain matter became scattered all over the rug. “Oops,” she said guiltily. His death had been instantaneous, but it had been far messier than usual. Her undine magic was fighting to break through the bond that kept it chained. It kept flaring up whenever she was upset or angry and she had no control over it.
The ice would melt soon and the mess would become far worse. Someone would have to clean it up and she felt a bit sorry for them. Conjuring up a container made of air, it formed around the body and scooped up all the remains. She blasted it with fire until only ash remained, then shrank the container of air down and dumped the ashes in the fireplace. They smothered the flecks of the note he’d burned.
“There,” the assassin said in satisfaction. She dusted her hands together briskly even though she hadn’t actually touched the ashes. Now that her job was done, she teleported away. The elf had been the only man she’d noticed lately who was powerful. If he wasn’t the man the seer had told her about, then who was?
She was going to have to review all of the male magic users she’d met, which was going to take time to sort through. In the meantime, she would continue to search the Vampire District for a master called Sebastian.
