WitchHunter ✔️

Paper Skin

Ace

Ice. A pocket of ice encases us just as the flames do. It's thick, keeping the heat away. I remove the dagger from the lochri's throat, leaning back on my elbows. "Kindre Fie." I murmur, tracing a circle on my forehead. The lochri lets out a breath, dropping back and resting his head on my chest. I squirm at his positioning.

"I'm saving your life by keeping this up, girl. The least you can do is allow me to rest so I don't slip."

"Why are you saving my life?"

"You had a knife to my throat." He chuckles. "If I had cut you in half and left the top of you to burn, you probably would have cut me, and if that didn't kill me, I'd be stuck in here for hours with half of a body. Keeping you alive is purely for my benefit."

"You think we'll be in here for hours?"

"The forest is burning around us, Sweetheart. No water lochri to put it out. We just have to hope it burns itself out before we run out of moisture I can make ice with." he chuckles. "Better in here than out there though."

"What do you mean?"

"Cal exploded. I'll bet the entire forest is alight by now. Your friends didnt make it."

All the air leaves my body. That can't be. "You're wrong. They wouldn't die so easily. They cant.

"You chose opponents who were too strong for you."

Hale is dead. The twins. Cozen. Cozen, who was so badly burned as a child. How cruel that he would eventually succumb to the flames.

"You are strong. Not many aquaous can make ice like this."

"And not many cinderous lochri can explode like a bomb. You all just got unlucky."

I shut my eyes. I let Hale die. I let the twins die, and now I'm all that's left. What will Velius say when I give him the news? I will be locked in Vjengardta for sure, maybe forever. I can't go back now. I can't go back to him. He'll just have to believe we all perished in the flames.

A rush of sadness runs through me. I have to leave. I have to allow them all to believe I'm dead. Calla, and Graham. All of them. My life in the Ridge is over.

I take a breath. On the other hand, however, this means I'm free. I have no one telling me what to do. I'm not bound to Velius. I'm not bound to Hale. Just me, on my own, for the first time in my life.

What do I do now? I have no one, no purpose. I've always dreamed of this freedom, but now that I have it, I have no one to share it with, nothing to do. This freedom is daunting. I'm all alone.

"Four WitchHunters travelling together. You must have known we were a big deal."

"I'm not a Hunter. I'm..." What? An assassin? That's my official title, but I've never been used in that context. I'm really just a glorified bodyguard.

"You're the demon, aren't you?" The lochri cranes his neck back to look at my face. His blue eyes are glowing, the only evidence that he is the one creating the ice around us. "The Demon Raven of Kindleridge? I've heard a lot of rumors about you, though none involving your being a girl. It's an honor to meet someone so legendary." He's mocking me. I can read it on his tongue.

"Becoming a rumor wasn't my goal. That happened on its own. I'm merely doing the job I was purchased to do."

"Purchased?"

"I'm a raven, an animal to show off. I have few more rights than a lochri." A bead of sweat runs down my forehead and over my browline.

"It's getting warm in here." he says, and I watch as the warbling ball of moisture picks itself up from my skin and attaches itself to the ice. "I'm going to have to sap the moisture from our own bodies in order to keep the ice up." He relaxes against me once again. "I assume you're okay with that."