Page 5 of Heartless Enemy

Maybe the option to stay here with him was no longer there, but I knew that the option to stay on the south side always would be at least.

Striding across the floor, I grabbed Levi by the collar of his shirt and crushed my lips against his. He jerked in surprise and stiffened for a second. Then he slid his hands through my hair and kissed me back so deeply that my toes curled in my boots.

My heart lurched with hope. Did that mean that he still wanted to share a home with me? I couldn’t know for sure. So I took the coward’s way out and focused on the one thing that I at least knew that I would be welcomed back to.

“It means I’m in.” With a grin on my lips, I spread my arms and motioned at the area around us. “You want the south side? Then let’s go get it.”

His eyes lit up in a way that made warmth spread through my chest. But then a guarded expression blew across his features.

“You’re truly willing to switch sides completely? Not just for revenge, but to actually stay here with…” It sounded like he had been about to sayme. Or maybe that was just my own wishful thinking, because what he finished with was, “Dark mages?”

“I’ve been fighting my own nature for far too long now. This is what my father wanted. What he believed in and secretly worked for. Freedom from suffocating rules and regulations. So yes, I’m in. Fully. Let’s take the south side.”

For a moment, it looked like Levi was going to ask something else. But then he closed his mouth and cleared his throat before instead saying, “How do we do it?”

Running a hand along my jaw, I paced a few steps while considering. “We need to make the Parliament of Malgrave formally cede the south side to you.”

“I’ve been considering that for a while now, but what I can’t really figure out is if they would actually abide by that or if they would just sign something and then attack anyway.”

“They’ll abide by it.”

“You sure?”

“Yes. The parliament is many things, but they do honor official declarations. That principle is what the whole north side is built on, after all.”

He nodded. “Alright. Then how do we get them to do that? My plans have always involved threatening either them or their family members until they agree to do what I want.”

“That would probably work.” I stopped pacing. Turning back to face him fully, I met his gaze and blew out a sigh. “But there is another problem we need to solve first.”

“The planned invasion.”

“The planned invasion,” I echoed with a nod. “Since you now control the entire south side, I don’t think they will try to attack right away. But we still need eyes inside the constables’ department.”

“And you were demoted to archives duty,” he filled in, repeating what I had told him last night when I had explained everything in more detail.

“Yes. And down in the archives, I won’t know what they’re planning. I need to get back into the South Side Department.”

Regret washed over Levi’s face as he looked back at me. I had already explained everything that Captain Wright had done, so Levi knew exactly what kind of person our new captain was. I could tell from just the look in his eyes that he didn’t want me to do this.

To be fair, I didn’t particularly relish the thought of it either. But there really was no other choice. I needed to get back to the South Side Department. For multiple reasons. And there was only one way to do that.

“Which means that I need to grovel my way back into Wright’s favor,” I finished.

Chapter3

My entire throne room was packed with dark mages. Sitting atop my massive throne of metal, I swept a commanding stare over all of them. My original battle mages looked back at me with calm expressions on their faces. The ones who had only joined me after I wiped out the other gang leaders, on the other hand, looked up at me with a hint of worry. As if they feared that I might change my mind and instead decide to slaughter them all for supporting a rival House.

“According to my sources,” I began, my voice echoing between the dark metal walls, “The white boots have postponed the invasion now that the entire south side is united under my House.”

No murmur swept through the hall. They were all too well trained for that. But relief did blow across several faces.

“But make no mistake,” I continued while leveling a hard stare on them all. “Theyarestill coming. We’ve bought ourselves some room to breathe, but they will still try to take back the south side. Which means that we must be ready.”

Practically all parts of the crowd nodded while determined expressions descended on their features. We might have been on different sides in the gang war earlier, but on this one thing we had always seen eye to eye. The south side should not be subjected to the laws of the parliament. We made our own rules and served our own justice when those rules were broken.

“Those of you who used to belong to the House of Lightning and the House of Stone.” Several people stiffened as the words left my mouth, and worry yet again flickered in some eyes. But all I said was, “I want you on watch along the shores of the River of Souls, since you know those areas best.”

The tension disappeared from their shoulders, and they dipped their chins in acknowledgement. “Yes, sir.”