Deadwater Kings • Part I ✓

02. THOU SHALT NOT SUFFER A WITCH TO LIVE

Lin worked the knife back and forth. Witches were... difficult to keep down. Her knife wobbled and bent as it met the witch's spine the long way. Lin finally spat out her hair and snapped what was left of the witch's neck.

She was soaked in red by the time she finished. Even her dark clothes were tinted the bright color of witches. She dropped the corpse with two distinct thuds.

Lin exhaled, her sigils finally quieting enough to think for a moment. The burns that had littered her bared arms were already gone, the tingle of healing leaving her skin tight. Lin stepped over the witch's body and kept walking.

The books around her were in ruins. She considered picking them up, to help the Librarians with repair and reshelving. No, she had transcribers to talk to. How could they have let a witch into the Library? She wasn't outwardly hiding her appearance.

Lin kept walking through the empty Library, her footsteps echoing eerily down the circular halls.

"Impressive." Or she'd thought it was empty. The person wasn't a witch, that much was certain. Lin's sigils were still sensitive from use, they would have jumped at the chance to slaughter someone else.

She leaned back onto her heels when she turned, sticking and unsticking her fingers from the soaked hilt of her knife.

It was the woman in blue. The cut of her dress suggested she was from farther south, but it wasn't unreasonable for the heat. Black braids swung past her hips, laced with gold bands.

"Do I know you?" Lin kept her face in a tight frown, scanning the woman over several times. Her skin was slightly gold-tinted, smears of metallic shimmer running across her face and arms. It reminded Lin of that minute during sunset, when the sky was black and the clouds red. The woman held herself like a King, round lips hinting at a smile.

"No, we haven't met before today," the woman punctuated this with a soft chuckle. "My name is Shabina, I'd heard of your work but I never thought I'd see it. I'd like to thank you for saving my wife."

Lin sighed through her teeth and looked down at her own boots. Wife. Damn. "You wouldn't happen to know how that witch got in, would you?"

Shabina was silent for a moment, then the shuffle of her skirts as she stepped closer to Lin.

"Do you think I'm involved?"

"Question for a question. Never a good sign."

"You're not answering my question. That's not a good sign either."

"Maybe I'm just not a good conversationalist."

"Maybe." Shabina was close. Lin's sigils hummed a gentle warning, enough to make her look up. And up.

Shabina was tall. She stood a good head over Lin, making Lin's eye level land at her chest. It was more distracting than Lin thought it would be.

Lin blinked hard and craned her neck to look at Shabina's face. Her high cheekbones shimmered in the sunlight and flames as she smiled.

"So?" Lin asked.

"No, I didn't know anything about the witch."

"You sure?"

"Of course." Shabina shrugged like it was nothing.

Lin huffed and cast a charred bit of hair away from her face. "Then I've got some Librarians to mess up. Goodbye."

"Wait," the woman stepped forward and grabbed Lin's arm. Her hand wrapped all the way around Lin's wrist, where the blood was still wet, and did not let go.