Page 76 of Heartless Enemy

Drawing my eyebrows down, I cast another glance at the white boot silhouettes we could just barely see through the windows. They had been planning an attack, but it shouldn’t have been this. And it shouldn’t have been now.

“What does this mean?” I said, shifting my attention back to Eve.

She heaved a deep sigh. “It means that the war has started early.”

Chapter30

Here on the north side, among the brightly lit white buildings and quiet streets, it was almost hard to believe that war had raged inside the city of Malgrave for over a day now.

After the failed ambush in the tavern, the constables hadn’t withdrawn as we had hoped against hope that they would. Instead, they had attacked with their full force.

The south side was now a battlefield. Wave after wave of white boots had crashed against Levi and his dark mages, trying to force the King of Metal to surrender. Or to get him into a position where they could capture or kill him.

Even now, in the middle of the night, Levi was working tirelessly to shore up their defenses, move the civilians out of the areas that were most likely to become a battlefield again once the sun rose, and to figure out how to withstand these attacks without losing any of his people.

Christian White was still coming, and we would need every mage we had to win that battle, so we couldn’t risk losing any to these damn attacks.

I squeezed my hand into a fist and ground my teeth as I slunk around another corner and then continued down the next street.

Why couldn’t Chief Anderson have waited just another few days? The worldwalker would be here soon with his army, and then this invasion would cease to matter entirely. So why did they have to attackbeforehe showed up? Now, we had to waste energy and risk lives that we would sorely need when the real battle began. Having exhausted battle mages face off against White would put us at an awful disadvantage.

In order to throw the constable force off balance, and hopefully stall their attacks until White arrived to threaten the whole city instead, we needed to do something that hadn’t been part of our original plans. Or rather,Ineeded to do something.

It would’ve been far too risky for Levi to sneak through the north side right now. The constables had shut down the Bridge of Life and set up a siege blockade along almost the entire River of Souls. Just gettingmethrough had been almost impossible. And Ferry, the water mage who had been helping us cross the river all this time, had told us in no uncertain terms that tonight would be the last time until the blockade was lifted. It was becoming too dangerous to sneak through, and she didn’t want to risk getting caught, regardless of how much money Levi offered her.

I understood her, though. After all, what use is money if you’re locked in a cell? Or worse, executed?

So I would have to make tonight count, because tonight was all I had.

Slowing down, I drew myself up along the white stone wall and then stole a glance around the corner. The wide street ahead was silent and still. Given that it was the middle of the night, and on the north side, it shouldn’t have been a surprise. But after the chaos I had left behind on the south side, the stillness was almost jarring.

I drew in a deep breath. I needed to focus. This mission would be good for both angles of our schemes, but it was a risky one. There were a lot of things that could go wrong. More than I wanted to admit. But at least Levi had Gemma on standby right by the shoreline on the south side, in case I needed urgent healing when I returned. He hadn’t been happy about letting me go alone, but I had very pointedly reminded him that he didn’tlet medo anything. I did what I wanted. And I wanted to do this.

After checking again to make sure that the street was deserted, I slipped around the corner and snuck up to the fourth house on the left side. The buildings here weren’t attached, like most of the houses were on the south side. Instead, these had generous gardens that separated the buildings from one another, providing quite a lot of privacy.

Thin branches rustled in annoyance as I jumped the hedge at the side of the property and then darted up to the building.

As opposed to Ulric’s house, I couldn’t just knock on the door and waltz inside or slip in through a window that I knew was always unlocked. This particular house was a lot more secure.

However, I still skulked around it, checking every window and door just in case I might get lucky and find one unlocked.

I didn’t.

Keeping close to the walls, I made my way towards the back of the house. The garden there ended at a tall hedge full of thick bushes that blocked the view from the neighboring houses. And there was a backdoor there, along with several windows. For what I was about to do, I would need as much privacy as possible.

After scouting out the best locations, I moved so that I was standing in front of one of the windows.

Then I summoned a blast of wind and shattered the window to Chief Eric Anderson’s living room.

Glass exploded, raining down on the wooden floor inside with a clinking sound that rippled through the cold night air.

I immediately darted to the spot I had picked out right by the back door. Whipping my head from side to side, I checked if any neighbors had heard the crash.

No sounds came from inside the closest houses, and no lights bloomed in the windows. Relief washed through me. One less complication at least.

Inside Chief Anderson’s house, however, there was both light and sound.

Firelight immediately flared to life in an upstairs window, and through the broken glass, I could hear cursing. The light moved closer to the window. I pressed myself against the wall even though I knew that he wouldn’t be able to see me from up there.