✵ ✵ ✵
The four stood there, waiting for a second, as if counting down the droplets that fell. The seconds stretched on. Nia and Acelius turned around the corner and disappeared, their boots splashing in puddles.
They grinned at each other, pulling out knives and daggers from within.
"Tempus pueros venatum," said one of them. Time to hunt, boys.
They stood for another second.
And then they chased.
✵ ✵ ✵
Nia hadn't been hunted for a while, at least not this way. It had been years. Sometimes she found herself missing the pump of adrenaline, the fight of breath, the slick slides of her feet. The danger that came with, but that sense of danger had belonged to circles constructed of sand and chalk, with healers at hand and old and agile men watching you with keen eyes. Those weren't fights with strangers each battling for life. Those were fights of honor and pride and practice with friends and foes as familiar as the lines in her palm. Those were the fights of Ayrinth, of soldiers never been to war. And these were the fights of Esterham, conniving Auctors and shadows and daggered words.
They swerved another corner and a quick glance behind her back told her that the four shadows were not far behind. Luckily, Acelius kept up speed with her, his hand threatening to fall out of hers with each drop of slick rain between their skins.
Her heart thundered in her throat as her thoughts reassembled themselves trying to find a way out of this unwinnable fight. It was four of them against the two of them, and though Nia had her knives with her, she suspected Acelius had none.
They turned again, almost falling, and into an open street lined with houses, their doors and windows tightly closed. Nia looked around for crowds to melt into, but found none, the street was empty.
Thunder boomed. Overhead, banners for the ball swayed in the storm breeze.
Clutching his hand tighter, they ran to the end of the street. A tavern stood, its door swinging open and closed in the wind. As if their minds were one, they ran into it, closing the door behind as if it would do much good. As soon as they were up the first flight of stairs, the door slammed open. And eight repeating footsteps thumped their way to them. Acelius opened the door on the last landing and let go of her hand.
Rain pelted on them again. They stood out on an open roof, lined by a fall to the street on all sides. On the other side of the street, stood terraces of nearby buildings. They raced to one edge, just as the four shadows filed in through the door, making their way to them like lithe panthers.
As a kid, Nia had often read tales about heroes and people with powers who soared skies and could break cement walls with a single thrust. She'd never truly liked those tales. They were far too ... good. So, she'd made up her own. Tales of convicts running through streets, fighting with daggers. People who got stabbed in the heart or got their eyes plucked out of their heads. Somewhere inside her thrumming mind, she wondered if she were somehow an Oracle. If she had known the person she would become. Because right before her eyes, her tales came into fruition, words unfurling into seconds, sentences into moments. But never in her tales, had her convicts jumped roofs.
It was a good thing, then, that she didn't see her life as a story.
The shadows walked across the floor. She heard the schlink of steel and dodged her head as a blade whipped past her face, grazing her cheek. It clattered onto the street below.
They advanced.
Nia looked at Acelius.
His eyes widened.
Nia leaped, and for a moment she was in flight, soaring above the street. And then came the sense of falling, gravity greedily grabbing onto her, each raindrop seemed to weigh a pound as she landed on hard ground in a roll. Her heart seemed to beat its way out of her chest as she lay there for a second, rain falling directly onto her face. She heard a distant grunt and the rumple of clothes as Acelius landed nearby.
And then she heard laughing, a hollow sound but louder than the thunder above. She sat up to see Acelius clutching his chest, giggling. The nerve.
Nia turned around to see the four shadows standing yet on the tavern's roof.
She saw them leap, but by the time they reached the other roof, she'd already taken Acelius and jumped onto the next one.
✵ ✵ ✵
Author's Note: yes i am somewhat living out my dark academia fantasies through them but isn't that what story telling is for? to live out your fantasies and wildest dreams? anyways, i will see you soon in the next part. Et votum comment and thanks for reading.
Love,
Cora. ✮
YOU ARE READING
unraveled
Fantasia"I've seen rats with better attention spans than you," she said onto his face. And then the boy was there pulling her onto her feet and off of him. "But have you seen them with such beautiful faces?" he asked, standing up, brushing off th...
