Wicked Hunt

Chapter Thirteen, Part II

Victoria: Gritty Encounters

Another three days passed before they saw a small convoy making its way through the battered field toward Cascade Castle. Victoria was up moving about, still much slower than she would have liked. The prospect of seeing people and seeking a fix to the darkness lingering upstairs had her eagerly making her way into the main hall though. She jerked back the curtains and peered below. A group of ten men approached on horseback, scrambling along the rocky terrain. They rode with purpose, as if they knew exactly where they were going.

Victoria squinted. "That's not the Denizen coven, nor is it the Streamling one." She let the curtain drop and began moving back through the castle. "Theo!" she called for the captain of the guard. The man hurried from his post at the entrance door, a pike in his gloved hands.

"Mistress," he said as he came before her. He looked down at her with clear blue eyes set inside a worn face made of lines and pockmarked skin. His scraggily beard hid his numerous scars well.

"Get a patrol together," Victoria told him. "That is no coven that approaches."

Theo inclined his head to her. "You wish for us to ride out and intercept them?"

"I do."

"Very well, Mistress." Theo turned to do her bidding, but Victoria was not done. A dark shape flickering across the wall made her call out to him. The shadows had been showing themselves to her ever since the night her mirror shattered.

"Theo!" Victoria said in a high tone. Alarmed, he spun back around and hurried back to her side.

"Yes, Mistress?"

"Bring me Fang." Her dagger had been kept hidden away in a false door in the kitchen wall. The tip of it was stained black, but otherwise it had been miraculously unharmed by the recent events.

Yet, you have not gone to touch it since, she remined herself. She had been afraid of what would happen if her fingers connected with the cool steel. Victoria raised her chin defiantly. Today, I remedy that.

"Yes, Mistress." Theo nodded and began walking away again. This time, he made it to the end of the hall and slipped into the corridor that would take him to the side yard of the castle. She paced back and forth several times before going back to the window. She squinted, trying to discern who the intruders were. She watched them for several more minutes before sighing heavily in exasperation. When she turned around at someone entering the room, Theo stood before her, extending Fang. She swallowed, watching the flickering candlelight reflect in its cool steel. The black blemish at the tip was jagged. It seemed to drip down the rest of it like some malevolent liquid.

Perhaps it's blood. But whose?

She held her hand out. The other one was clamped tightly to her side. Theo turned Fang so the hilt slid between her fingers, politely ignoring how her hand seemed to tremble. He stepped away but paused before exiting, a look of concern passed across his face, wrinkling his bushy brows.

Suddenly, Victoria snapped out of her reverie. The dagger was thrust upon the table by the window. She tugged her sleeves down so that her hands were engulfed in fabric. She met Theo's eyes with her own. She pursed her lips sardonically. He immediately straightened.

"Will there be anything more?"

"No." She stared coolly at him, daring words of warning or caution to spill from his lips. Instead he bowed his head and fled. She glanced down at Fang, lying inconspicuously. It did not look so menacing now. She licked her lips and put some of her long hair off her shoulders as she bent to examine it closer. Slowly, she brought her index finger to rest on the unblemished end. The closer she got to the stain at the tip, the more energy seemed to hum from the blade. The sound grew louder, a distressing buzz that made her jaw twitch.