Of course, my magic would only activate if he actually tried to kill me. So maybe this wasn’t the smartest idea.
In the end, he merely bared his teeth at me in an impressive mimicry of my own sneer. “I have better things to do than deal with a lowly hybrid like you,” he said haughtily. I stifled a snicker as he turned on his heel and walked off with his nose in the air. These mages all walked around with sticks up their asses, and all it took was a little poke for them to go rigid.
With a shake of my head, I closed the door behind me, and continued my search for a weapon.
Six hours later, I wearily trudged back down to the kitchens in search of food. I’d trained until I’d exhausted myself, then dragged my butt back to my tower room to try and sleep, but between the crushing sense of loss that filled me whenever I was left alone with my thoughts and the hunger pangs that gnawed at my stomach, getting shut-eye was impossible. So I waited until I was sure that dinner had been served and cleaned up, then crept back downstairs so I could sneak some food from the larder that wasn’t rock bread and fuzzy cheese.
As I expected, the kitchen was deserted, not even a mouse hanging around to observe my theft. There was no food sitting on the countertops, so I broke into the pantry in search of something palatable. It didn’t take me long to strike gold – a loaf of relatively fresh bread on one of the shelves, and a piece of smoked salmon wrapped in butcher’s paper.
“Who knew fish and bread could make someone so happy,” I muttered as I alternated between stuffing mouthfuls of food into my mouth and into a paper bag I’d found. I could have stayed there all night scarfing down food, but even my damaged sense of self-preservation told me it would be unwise to linger.
I crammed as much food into the bag as it could possibly hold, and walked out of the pantry with a spring in my step and a smile on my face. Sure, this wasn’t a five-star meal, but it was better than stale bread and cheese, and I was looking forward to hightailing it back to my room so I could enjoy it.
Unfortunately, someone was waiting for me in the kitchen.
“Just what do you think you’re doing?” the guard leaning against one of the countertops asked. He was the human one who’d escorted me to the audience chamber earlier along with the others, and from his cocky stance and the gleam in his eye, it was clear he was looking for some payback.
“Getting some food.” I pulled the loaf of bread out of the bag so he could see it. “A little bread, a little meat. Why, you want some?”
He narrowed his eyes. “I don’t know,” he drawled, drawing his short sword from its sheath. “Seems like you’re stealing to me. I’m gonna have to teach you a lesson for that.”
He charged me, raising the sword up with both hands as he moved in with a slashing strike, obviously thinking he had the upper hand since I was unarmed. But I’d prepared for this. I pulled the brass drawer handles I’d pilfered from one of the broken dressers from my jacket pocket and slipped them around my knuckles as I dodged the blow. He whirled around, tracking my motion, his shoes scuffing loudly against the stone floor, and attempted another slashing strike.
This time, instead of moving away I moved in, bringing up my knuckles so I could catch the blow with my drawer handles, just as I would have done with my crescent knives. Unfortunately the handles didn’t cover my hands as well as the knives did, and I winced inwardly as the blade grazed my fingers, sharp pain slicing into my flesh.
“What the fu–” he began, his eyes wide with confusion, and I wasted no time, pulling one of my makeshift stakes out and stabbing him in the joint where his arm connected to his torso. He fell back screaming as he crashed into one of the counters, his hand flying to the bloody stake embedded in his flesh, and I smirked. Even if he pulled that thing out right now – which wasn’t a good idea – he wouldn’t be able to use his sword arm again to fight me.
“What’s going on down there?” a male voice shouted, and I winced. The sound of footsteps thundering down the stairs outside had me looking around frantically for an escape route, but there wasn’t one, and before I knew it three more guards had filed into the kitchen, their swords drawn.
“So much for showing mercy,” I muttered, glaring at the now-whimpering guard slumped against the counter. If I’d killed him he wouldn’t have screamed, and I wouldn’t be in this mess right now. Served me right.
“You!” the guard in the lead shouted, jabbing the point of his sword at me. “You tried to kill Harry!”
“Are you kidding?” I threw my hands up in the air, fully prepared to argue for my life, but the guards simply rushed me, in no mood to talk. I flung my second stake in their direction to distract them and leapt over the counter where Whiny – or was it Harry? – was still sobbing his delicate little heart out, making a beeline for the exit.
The sound of metal sang through the air, and the tip of a short sword plunged into my upper back. Blood poured from my searing shoulder, and I cried out as one of the guards slammed me into the wall, a dark-haired guy with cold eyes and cruel lips.
“Well, well, well,” the assassin-guard mocked, his cruel lips curving into an even crueler smile as he pressed his body against mine. “Cat got your tongue?”
I bared my teeth at him, which was less intimidating than it sounds because I didn’t even have enough energy to elongate my fangs. I was tapped out in every way possible, and the guard knew it as he pressed his hard chest against mine, wrapping his hand around the blade of his sword. The scent of his coppery blood mingled with mine as the blade cut into his hand, and I swallowed at the manic gleam in his eye. This guy was nuts, and should never have been hired by Privacy Guard, let alone the Chief Mage. I was almost certain that the Chief Mage himself would never have allowed this guy on his payroll if he knew the guy carried around this kind of bloodlust.