“Suki?” Genevieve called. She heard the shower running a second ago.
Maybe she is getting dressed? I should come back later.
Genevieve called Suki’s name once more, stopping herself from knocking again.
She turned the knob and was met with a dagger inches from her eyes.
“S-Suki?” She blinked. Her heart pounded in her chest so hard she was afraid it would burn out.
“Sorry.” Suki said curtly, placing her Magi back on the bed. It shrank down to a palm sized clock hand. “What are you doing here?”
“I came to see how you are settling in. There’s been an accident. You might not be able to stay here.”
“Huh? I just got here.”
“Sheehan is dead.”
“What?”
“The school may be forced to close when he is buried.”
“When did this happen?”
“Yesterday. Before you arrived.”
“Hold up!” Suki said, waving her hands. “Are you blaming me? I’ve never met the guy.”
“I know. I know. But…to the others, it won’t look that way.”
“Why would they suspect me?”
“Everyone saw you arrive. The students were transitioning between classes.”
“So they decided to watch us? It’s not every day they see hooded figures approach the castle. Then they’d know I didn’t have time to kill Sheehan. It’d take more than one man to kill him. He’s a hero.”
“Was.” Genevieve corrected.
“How did he die?”
“He was hexed, with non-lethal spells, but he bled out. From more than one injury.”
“That’s cold.” Suki winced. “If I killed him, I would’ve killed him fast. So he didn’t have the chance to retaliate. By Cancer’s name, who knows what he would have been capable of doing to his attackers.”
“He wasn’t armed.”
Genevieve watched Suki take a step back with a look of disbelief.
“Let me get this straight. They made an unarmed man look like the nozzle of a watering can?”
“Yes.” Genevieve nodded. “That’s the short of it.”
132Please respect copyright.PENANAlqEGidAW1k
Suki sat down on the foot of the bed.
“Do you think our father got sick of waiting for us to kill him and did it himself?”
“I don’t think so.” Genevieve shook her head, sitting beside her sister. “You inherited our father’s skill with mana.”
“True.” Genevieve always was better than her in every way. If Suki wanted to kill anyone, it would be her sister. “Our father is a coward. He’d hire someone else. He trained us to do it.”
There were some things that the two of them agreed on.
“What do I do now Gen? Do I run? You let me into the castle. Now he is dead. The next few days are going to be chaotic. If they need someone to blame, it might as well be me.”
“Don’t say that. We’re not alone. I have friends who are willing to fight. This castle is their home too.”
“I never thought I’d be here again, Gen. I’ve missed you.” You have no idea.
“I missed you too.” Why do you think I stayed? I could have left to find you, but no, I stayed.
“Who are these friends?”
“Two silver tongues, an angel and a human.”
“Three’s a crowd, four is a…I don’t know.”
“And then there is Eden.”
“Five. Will that be enough?”
“I don’t know.” Genevieve admitted, shrugging her shoulders. “First, we keep this school open. This isn’t just our home anymore. Then, we find who killed Sheehan and kill them.”
Suki whistled in astonishment. Genevieve had never spoken that way in front of her.
“Did you find the champions?” Genevieve asked.
“Not all of them, but I have a pretty good idea where the rest are.”
“Good. We can find them and send them here. If it’s a war Fomorian wants, it’s a war they’ll get.”
How could Suki say no to that? Their father was one of the three founders of Fomorian. It was her father who gave the order to seal Eden under the foundations. It was her father who trained her sister to be a prince’s slave. To cook, clean and make heirs. It was her father who sent Suki away in the hope that she would be killed by bandits. She wanted to see Elliot’s head on a spike. She wanted to kick his body into a mangled corpse. It was him who favoured Genevieve over her. Genevieve could fight, sure, but her sister also cooked and cleaned. Genevieve was a poster girl for traditionalists. She happened to kick ass while wearing the mask of a woman. An undercover assassin trained to lure her target in with her body before shanking them in the neck with a knife.
Suki preferred to walk in like a man and pile her target’s bodies at her feet. She wanted them to know that the person who killed them was a woman, only on their dying breath. They admired her raw strength and skill. Suki did not want to cook or clean. Whichever side she chose would reign victorious while she sat upon a Queen’s throne. No King.
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“What is that?” Suki asked.
“This is Grommet.” Genevieve smiled. The stallion followed her without coaxing.
“We can’t take that. It’s got one ear. Half an ear. It’s useless. We have enough Nightmares.”
“We’re taking him.”
“No, we’re not.”
“He belonged to Sheehan.”
“So?”
“He carried his master all the way back here.”
“It’s got no ears.”
“Only because someone shot them off.”
“It stays here.”
“I’ll ride him.”
“You wouldn’t know how to saddle a-”
Suki was cut short as Genevieve pulled a pair of gloves from her bra, picked up a saddle blanket, placing it on Grommet’s back. He stood still for her while she followed up with a saddle, fastening and adjusting the girth. Once that was done, she made a halter from a piece of rope and slipped it over the black stallion’s head. To reward him, the brunette stroked his muzzle and neck. He blinked his pupil less eyes and swished his tail. He could hear just fine out of the half ear that he had left.
“How did you do that?”
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