Page 71 of Heartless Enemy

Warmth spread through my chest. Yes, she really was home now.

After she had stayed for a drink that everyone wanted to buy her, we at last made our way back to my Court. Eve walked with such light steps that it almost looked like she was floating across the stone streets. Colorful lights from the oil lamps above shifted across her features as we walked. They made her eyes glitter. Or perhaps that was the joy I could feel radiating from her.

By all hell, I wanted to see her like thiseveryday. Happy. Free. Fierce. Wild. That was my little spitfire to her core, and I swore that once we had dealt with Christian White and the entire north side, I was going to make sure that nothing and no one ever dampened her spirit again.

As we rounded the final corner and started down the street towards my front gates, I could sense that something had happened. It was like a charge in the air. A tension vibrating through it, pressing in from all sides.

I let my hands drift closer together as I scanned the road. It was empty of guards, just as I had instructed.

Next to me, Eve was on the alert as well. Her gaze flicked back and forth.

But the street remained silent as we closed the final distance to the red-painted doors.

A surge went through me.

There.

On one of the doors was a single folded-up piece of paper. I ripped it down and flipped it open.

Christian White’s messy handwriting stared back at me. The words were scrawled so hard that the pen had almost sheared through the paper. Furious. He had been furious when he wrote this.

I held the note out so that Eve and I could read it at the same time.

As opposed to his previous letters, which had been long-winded and taunting almost to the point of being chatty, this one contained only three sentences.

Big mistake. I once told you that I would bring my army down from the north and wipe your entire fucking city from the map if you disrespected me. Now, that is exactly what I will do.

Chapter28

The house was dark and silent around me. We had to be careful now. With White and his army finally on the move, we were reaching the end of our grand schemes. Taking unnecessary risks now was stupid, so Levi had stayed behind on the south side, getting things ready there, while I broke into Captain Ulric Smith’s house.

I carefully slipped the papers into the folder before returning it to one of the lower shelves in Ulric’s office. Moving on to the desk, I gently picked up the documents strewn over the tabletop instead and quickly scanned their contents.

Since I had lost my direct line of communication with the South Side Department, I had to resort to stealthier tactics in order to find out exactly when the invasion was scheduled to begin.

We didn’t know exactly when White would arrive with his army either, so we had to keep an eye on both fronts to make sure that the invasion from the north side didn’t happen before the worldwalker showed up.

I put down the document and picked up another one. Ulric often took his work home, hence this messy office, but so far I hadn’t been able to find any papers that contained information that I didn’t already know.

Only the moonlight filtering in through the window provided light inside the room, so I had to hold the paper close to my face and squint in order to read it. Once I had determined that it was useless, I put it down and continued with the next one.

A quick but thorough search revealed nothing of importance. I scowled at the dark room around me before slipping back out into the hallway again.

Well, at least the entire break-in hadn’t been a waste of time. Though I did wish that I could have found some new information about the exact date for the invasion.

My gaze slid to the darkened staircase.

Maybe Ulric had brought those papers up to his bedroom. To read before he went to sleep. It was worth a shot.

After quickly scanning the area around me, I snuck over to the stairs. Since they were made of wood, I stayed close to the edge of each step to minimize the risk of any creaking.

Three steps away from the landing above, my luck ran out.

The wood let out an annoyed groan as I placed my weight on it.

I froze.

My heart pounded in my chest.