DOFAB#3

Chapter Five

*Please note there have been changes made to chapter four. For quick reference check out my profile to see the two main edits. I've never been so nervous to publish a chapter before. 

~ TRISTAN ~

Iron scrapes against a rocky shore, the Ferro bow of the gondola getting battered by the rolling castoff waves of merchant ships clogging the main artery of Nadora's supply chain. This dock isn't meant to harbor a vessel made to float in the calm waters of a lagoon. But we all must get a little bruised to acquire the things we want.

Tied up hair crest the slick, algae draped stones Izzy climbed earlier, her cloak traded for a sweatshirt with Nadora College written in letters that span too wide, drawing more attention to the tightness of the densely woven fabric trousers she wears. It's hard to tell what part she's trying to play—tourist mortal or wide-eyed fledgling who doesn't have the common sense to know how many points of entry a bite produces. Either way, there is something to be said for the simplicity of modern fashion. However less dignified it may be.

The boat shifts as if a sparrow landed onto the port side upon Izzy's re-entry.

"That was quick." I figured it would take ten minutes to cross from the northside of the island to the westside where Nadora's campus site A is stationed, breach the library, and find the pendant. Izzy's returned in five.

"I didn't find it. The book was missing."

"How can the book be missing?" I reply curtly.

"It wasn't there. I tried to look around, but a crash came from the storage closet. Someone else was up there. I bolted before they could see me."

"Damuck, Izzy." My jaw tightens, a corded rope keeping my temper anchored against the upsurge of Izzy's failure. "Why didn't you hide instead of running?"

I'm so close I can feel the beast that sits atop the hilt pressing into my palm, his open jowls salivating. He, too, starving to make rivers flow with blood and ashen snow rain upon those who sought our caging.

"If Nadora catches an unauthorized vampire on its grounds, I'll be brought before the board and questioned. What would I have said then, I'm here to steal a book? Rakasha made it clear. The Veiled Order might revoke their decision if they catch wind you're searching for your sword so soon upon release."

"I don't care what the Veiled Order thinks." Izzy stumbles, falling onto her rear of the gondola's bow. The rope keeping me in check has loosened, the chill flooding my veins manifesting in webs drudging my power to the surface. "They'd have to be able to prove it, and how are they going to do that when they don't know Rakasha has stashed a pendant of egret blood in a book about the Darkos lineage?"

"I-I didn't...I panicked. I can go—"

"No, I'll retrieve the pendant after I row you back and catch the next ferry into Nadora."

Izzy was supposed to be an asset. She's proved a liability. It's not worth the risk if she gets caught. She'll panic and end up saying the wrong thing as she did all those years ago to Lucian.

If my mother hadn't had to hide the pendant from our dearly deceased Prince of Darkness, it'd have been as simple as going to the cellar accessible from the Royal Library. Instead, she had to send it away to keep him from discovering it. The crowned parasite is still finding a way to inconvenienced me. His life's mission for my deplorable existence.

I should have told him to say hi to the red-haired cunt for me, but we aren't exactly on speaking terms. That's what happens when you usurp your maker and leave the snake for higher ground, tearing her realm in half. It's her own fault, she shouldn't have made me so greedy.