Page 44 of Wicked Enemy

I slid my gaze to my runner-turned-lookout. Dread and sorrow shone in her green eyes as she met my gaze while wringing her hands.

“He just… came out of nowhere,” she said, flicking her gaze over the dead men and women who now littered the street. “Last night. They were returning from doing a sweep around the area, and that man just… appeared out of thin air. He slit their throats, one after the other, by just disappearing and then appearing behind them. They didn’t even stand a chance.”

Rage tore through me. Squeezing my hand into a fist, I ground my teeth together to stop myself from erupting into a fit of violence. It wasn’t Anna’s fault. Or Shinji’s. This was what fighting a worldwalker was like. Fucking impossible.

“Why are they still lying here on the street if the attack happened hours ago?” I forced out instead.

“Because that man, the worldwalker…” Anna began, her voice shaking slightly. “Before he disappeared, he yelled up at the windows that if we moved the bodies before you got back, he would return and slaughter even more people.”

“And I’m not powerful enough to protect everyone in here against a worldwalker if he were to return,” Shinji said, his dark eyes calm. “So I made the decision to follow his orders and leave them there. It was my choice, and I take full responsibility for it, sir.”

Fear flickered across Anna’s face as her gaze darted between me and Shinji. Next to her, Shinji only raised his chin while letting his arms fall back down by his sides, ready for whatever punishment I saw fit to give him.

Part of me wanted to beat him within an inch of his life, but that was just because I desperately needed to take out my frustrations on someone. But the truth was that he was right. And he had made the right choice.

So instead of succumbing to my violent impulses and the madness that always seemed to swirl much closer to the surface these days, I dragged in a long breath and crushed the piece of paper in my hand.

Christian White had come back here last night while I was with Eve, and slaughtered my people. I was already under attack from the white boots and the other three Houses. And now, I had a fucking worldwalker to deal with too.

And he was going to keep killing my people until I gave him Gemma, which I would never do. Three people. Every day. Which meant that he would be back again tomorrow.

I had to figure something out before then.

Chapter18

It was already noon by the time I reached our offices after I had made a quick stop at home to shower, eat, and change clothes. Some of my colleagues gave me strange looks when I walked through the door and into our corridor, but before anyone could say anything, Captain Smith came striding towards me.

“Sterling,” he said with a smile on his face, as if I hadn’t just been gone without explanation or permission for the past three days. “I’m so glad you’ve finally recovered from your food poisoning.”

Confusion blew through me. Food poisoning? But then he shot me a pointed look, so I managed to press out, “Thanks, Captain. Yeah, it was a rough one.”

He nodded. “Come with me. I have some things you need to take a look at.”

“Of course.”

A few eyes tracked us as we moved down the white-painted hallway and towards the captain’s office, but most of my colleagues seemed to have gone back to their own work. I snuck a glance at Ulric while we walked.

He was wearing his white leather pants and boots but, as we all did while indoors, had taken off his jacket so that he was only wearing the long-sleeved shirt that went underneath the armor. His brown eyes were fixed on the corridor ahead, and his face was a neutral mask, which made it very difficult to read his mood.

The door to his office swung open silently as he held it up for me and motioned for me to step inside. I gave him a nod as I moved across the threshold.

Sunlight streamed in through the windows on the other side of the room, bathing his pale wooden desk in bright light. As usual, it was a complete mess of folders and pens and reports and stacks of documents with various papers sticking out at odd angles. I turned away from it and instead faced the captain as he closed the door behind him.

“I can’t keep covering for you, kiddo,” he said, looking at me with sad eyes.

The words took me so off guard that, for a moment, all I could do was stare at him. Cover for me? What did he mean, cover for me?

Raking a hand through his hair, he blew out a long sigh. “Look, I know what Chief said doesn’t sit right with you. And to be honest, I do still have some reservations about it too. But you can’t just disappear like that.”

My mind spun as I tried to make sense of his words. What Chief said? What did Chief say? So much had happened in the past three days that I couldn’t for the life of me remember what office politics had been circling before all that.

Then realization hit me like a punch in the face.

Chief’s order not to warn Gemma.

It took everything I had to stop my jaw from dropping to the floor.

Ulric thought that I had disappeared for three days because Chief Anderson had shut me down at that meeting and ordered me not to warn Levi’s healer.