WitchHunter ✔️

Cleansing Day

Ace

My hands shake violently. That's four more. Four more lives. I holster my weapons hastily making my way rooftop over rooftop to the bodies. Logically, I know it was the right thing. They would have killed everyone. It's my job to protect Hale and the others. Even so, these four will make their way onto my skin, just like all the others.

Contrary to popular belief, it's difficult to burn a body, even that of a Cinderous lochri. Once dead, they no longer produce flame, so the singed bodies are all but burnt out by the time I drop down from the rooftops next to them.

The smell of cooking meat blends with the other smells of the festival, and the grilled mutton I had snagged earlier threatens to resurface. I slip my pistol from my holster and lay it flat on the cobbles. The stable boy told me there were five. He wouldn't get something like that wrong.

"Ace!" Hale's startled cry comes from across the circle. As if I don't already know.

I rise slowly, hands empty, and turn to face the cloaked lochri, just inches from me.

"Hello there." I say calmly.

"Hello, Raven of Kindleridge." His voice is inhumanly low and I can't help the fear that rises up in my stomach. Inhuman. A monster. "Don't resist. I'm sure you've already noticed the ice blades."

I have. Three blades of razor sharp ice press lightly against me, so sharp that even the feather light pressure has cut through my clothing and now digs into the skin at the small of my back.

"Very good. Now walk with me."

Good. Of course he'd want a show. We pace slowly toward the center of the city circle, where the Hunters have all gathered, weapons ready, in front of the carts. Candor's bow is nocked, but an arrow won't hit him fast enough . He will see it coming and put an ice blade through my spine. As if reading my mind, the lochri speaks in a booming voice. "Put it down. The girl will be dead before your arrow leaves its string."

Hale steps forward. "Let's not be hasty. What do you want with her?"

"Oh, it's not her I'm after. It's all of you. The Demon Raven of Kindleridge is nothing compared to the Ridge's Hunters."

I can't help the look that crosses my face. Nothing? Someone has some odd priorities. I'm more deadly than any of them.

"Then let's make a deal. Let her go, and you can have me. I'm Hale Arsen, the next WitchMaster of this town. I'm far more valuable that any of them."

It's a good plan. He knows that if I can get free for even a second I can get a shot off.

"I know exactly who you are, Hale Arsen. There's no need to negotiate. I'll be killing the lot of you, this girl included. Don't think I don't know she's just as much of a threat as the rest of you."

At least he can recognize that.

"The Hunters and the Ace aren't the only threats in this town." A voice comes from behind me, and a wide grin breaks out on my face.

"I knew it."

The lochri spins around just as a shot from my discarded pistol echoes off the buildings around us. The ice blades drop away, and in the same instant, my dagger drops into my hand and I spin rapidly, plunging it into his back and ripping down with all my bodyweight. I kick his knees out as he lets out a scream, then look back. The stable boy lowers my pistol to his side, and I give him a smile. That was quite the gamble. I knew he was nearby. I had seen him skulking about earlier. When only four lochri caught themselves on fire, I knew acting as bait would be the only way to draw out the fifth. The stable boy wouldn't let me down. He even managed to aim well enough to hit him and not me.