Heart of Ash (The Dark Arcane Series: Book 1)

Chapter Forty Eight

Kade shoved his scarred hands into his pockets.

From beside him, Temas pinched him tight enough to draw blood and he quickly brought his hands out again, holding them behind his back.

Whether the Captain saw the movement or not as he strode before the line, he didn't mention it.

He fought the urge to wipe the sweat off his brow.

There was a line of nine of them in the courtyard of the bloody castle, standing shoulder to shoulder, dressed in light armour and swords by their sides.

The pressure they emanated, the noise from their souls, was deafening.

"One," the Captain commanded, and they moved in response into the first position, drawing their swords in a single smooth motion.

Most Elites were faulty; their speech impeded beyond recognition, their movements clunky or fatigued, or their features disproportionate. He'd talked to them several times but he quickly found they lacked the particular ingredient that made a person, a person. They listened only to the Captain. Without his guidance they were...empty.

But these nine, they were the best of them. They were more evolved, closer to the blueprints the Captain had made when he designed them. They could understand, and make decisions and unfortunately for them, could feel.

"Two."

They lunged forwards, blades pointed. Their arms didn't wobble and the feet didn't stumble. They wouldn't be The Nine if they did.

They were all Elites, but these nine were The Nine. They were deadly like vipers and stronger than oxes. Their ability to think for themselves and judge situations elevated their status, and outcompeted the other Elites. While the other Elites were failures, they were not.

"Three."

Their swords arced through the air, with lethal accuracy. They were all mirror images of each other in the way they fought.

They looked like humans, talked and walked like them, but they were as much threat as witches were. Wolves lay beneath their skin.

He could smile at the shopkeeper down the street or kill political advisors, but little would anyone know of the circular rune that was etched into the skin above his heart with scarring black ink.

It was a brand and a curse. It made him who he was and yet he despised it with every fibre of his being.

Kade submerged himself deeper within the role of the protégé, apprentice to the Captain, one of the Nine.

The Tegye San was fake and destroyed, the Ender was dead, and the Shadows resistance was without a leader. Everything they'd set out to do had failed.

He'd tried to escape the Captain but ended up right back where he started. His only chance at escape lay with an impossible woman he'd have to kill and he didn't know how much he could take before he'd be forced—out of survival instinct—to hunt her down.

They had lost far more than they'd gained. He regretted it all more than he could comprehend.