I swung open the doors to the Clucking Hen only to find it empty. I wanted to sit down, order a beer, and then go to sleep. Maybe I’d be able to sleep through the upcoming vote, through all of this business with demons and devils and souls, through everything. Even better, I could just walk out of the bar Hen and head for Xico’s place, where I could sleep and sleep until this all blew over. But I didn’t. Instead, I sat right down at the bar and waited. The bartender, a man I didn’t recognize, didn’t even acknowledge my existence. After a few minutes, Yvlan came upstairs, leading Lavin and Char behind her.

“Glad to see you got out okay,” I said, reaching over the bar to pour myself a pint of beer. “Unfortunately, Parliament calls. We got to get going.”

Lavin nodded, but I could tell she was scared. She looked pale and drops of sweat dotted her brow. I saw her steady her shaking hand on the bar.

“Will they even let me get to Parliament?” she asked, her voice unsteady. “I mean, what if they just stop us?”

I set my sword and rifle on the bar with a heavy thunk. “Then I’ll stop them,” I said.

—

In a bit of an anti-climax, I didn’t even so much as see a soldier, much less a Kurtadam, on the way to Parliament. We took side streets and were generally pretty stealthy about it, but still, it was strange that we got to our destination so easily.

The whole thing stunk to high hell. So I was being perhaps, a bit paranoid, as I stood watch outside Lavin’s office, while she got some papers ready inside. I didn’t have my sword or rifle, of course. I’d had to stash them before we’d went in—there was no way they’d have allowed them in.

Even though I hadn’t even had them again for a full day, I felt so naked without them. I hadn’t realized how comforting they were to me, especially when a rabid wolf-human could be lurking around any corner. So as I already said, I was being a bit, perhaps, overly cautious, as I eavesdropped on an MP’s conversation.

He was half around the corner of the hall, so I couldn’t see who he was talking to, but whoever it was, he was clearly outclassed. His posture was slumped, he kept trying to inch away from the conversation, and he kept glancing over his shoulder.

“Look,” he muttered, “I promised my constituents.”

“Since when do you care about them?” the woman he was talking to said. I froze. I knew that voice. It was Dominica Wellstone. “The reality is,” Dominica said, “we own you. And if you vote for the Constitution, you can say goodbye to everything.”

I could hear the man gulp from across the room. I suddenly got the feeling that the Pacifist Constitution might not be getting as much support in Parliament as Lavin thought.

Lavin stepped out of her office and we walked silently to the floor of the Parliament, which was packed. Every single MP was in their seat, which was a rare occasion, and the visitor’s section was completely full. Every single parliamentarian looked nervous and it didn’t take long to figure out why. I saw soldiers in the crowd, watching the vote. There weren’t more than four or five, but they were in their uniforms, not even trying to be subtle. I sighed. This vote wasn’t going to go well.

I glanced over my shoulder and caught sight of Dominica Wellstone stepping into the crowd. She looked exhausted. Her hair was immaculately combed back and her outfit was perfectly respectable, but there were deep bags underneath her eyes, which lacked any kind of shine. She looked as though she might drop at any second.

I glanced to the floor of parliament. MPs were milling about, preparing to vote. I turned my back to them and began to slowly push through the crowd, making my way to Dominica.

Pretty soon, I was right behind her. I took a pen I’d lifted from Lavin’s office and pressed it to the small of her back.

“Don’t move or scream,” I whispered, “you’ll be dead before anyone can help you.”

Domicia inhaled sharply and straightened her posture, but she didn’t say anything, instead, she just nodded.

“You remember me?” I asked.

“Of course I do,” she spat, hardly hiding her disdain. She glanced over her shoulder and the tiredness in her eyes was gone, replaced by burning anger. “You should have just kept this between us.”

I made a very loud and very dumb-sounding “Huh?” sound, which made some of the anger melt out of Dominica’s eyes.

I cleared my throat and asked, “What do you mean, ‘between us?’ This whole plot you’re doing isn’t exactly a small scale feud.”

“I know that,” Dominica said, “but to bring my daughter into it…I thought you an honorable man. I was wrong.”

Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.

“Woah woah,” I said. Io must have told her mother that we’d talked. “We just ran into each other and chatted, nothing—”

“Nothing serious?” Dominica hissed, turning around to look me dead in the eyes. Her pupils burned with fury and her expression was a mask of anger. “You had your friends at the Guild kidnap my daughter!”

I blinked in surprise and made another, very dumb-sounding, “Huh?” sound. The gears in my head began to turn and I started doing the math.

“Io was kidnapped? By the Guild?”

The anger melted from Dominica’s face. She nodded slowly. “Yes. Fixers, they came and grabbed her right in front of her flatmate. I’d thought you’d ordered it, but clearly not. Are you still going to kill me?”

I barely resisted going “Huh?” again before realizing what she was talking about. I took the pen I was pressing against her and raised it, showering her it. “I never was,” I said. “But maybe I should. You’re killing the Constitution.”

Dominica sighed. “If I didn’t,” she said, “someone else would have. You were a soldier, you know how it is. I’m a cog in a machine and a very replaceable one that.”

“You could have at least tried to do the right thing,” I growled.

“I’m not a hero,” Dominica said, her voice tired and strained, “I’m a coward. I’ll freely admit it. But I think you’ll find there are a lot more cowards in this world than heroes.”

I didn’t want to agree with her, but as I looked at the floor of parliament, I realized she might be right. Lavin sat, surrounded by a small group of Constitutional loyalists. They all looked terrified. No one was even looking their way. Maybe out of fear, shame, or some other emotion. I wasn’t sure. But it didn’t matter—the vote was going to fail. The dream of pacifism was dead, for now at least. The cowards had won.

“I know I may not deserve it,” Dominica started to say before choking on her words. She inhaled sharpy and closed her eyes for a second before continuing. “I’ve done terrible things. I know that. But my daughter hasn’t.

“Please, Jonas. Save her. Io…she always had a preoccupation with Hunters and the Guild. I’m worried she was caught asking the wrong people the wrong questions.”

I was more afraid that Io got asking the right people the right questions, but I kept my mouth shut. For as much as she made my skin crawl, Dominica was right. Her daughter was innocent and even beyond that, her kidnapping was partially my fault. I had no doubt that my little visit to her may have…reinvigorated…some of her more unorthodox research methods. Still, I had a lot on my plate. Io wasn’t my responsibility.

“What if I’m a coward too?” I asked Dominica.

“Then…” Dominica said, “then…I just have to be hope you can be a hero long enough to save my daughter.”

“Fine,” I muttered. “But don’t think we’re square. You’ll have to pay for what you’ve done here, today.”

“I know,” Dominica said solemnly. She closed her eyes and sighed. “I’m not so far gone that I don’t know that there will be consequences for my actions. I just hope that they won’t be painful.”

Gods above, help us all. I turned back to the Parliament floor and watched in silence as the vote failed. It was a bit like watching a house burn. It was slow at first, but quickly the fire spread, and the house collapsed so quickly you could have blinked and missed it. Within what felt like seconds, a house was reduced to ash and the Pacifist Constitution was dead.

I jumped down to the floor of Parliament, ignored the exclamations and protests from some MPs and their bodyguards, grabbed Lavin by the arm, and dragged her out of the building. She didn’t put up any resistance, she just followed along in a daze. We both had to get out and fast, I knew that. I just hoped I had enough time to do everything I needed to do.

Suddenly, I realized that I wasn’t watching a house burn; I was in the burning house. Flames were licking my heels and the structure was collapsing around me. I could see the way out, but smoke burned my lungs and clouded my vision.

I felt Lavin squeeze my hand and I turned to look at her. Tears were streaming down her face. I stopped in my tracks and looked around. The streets were empty and no one was following us. Not even the birds sang, the only sound was the trickling of the river in the distance.

I wiped the tears from her eyes with my sleeve and wrapped her in my arms.

“It’s not over yet,” I said. I wasn’t sure what I meant by that.

I heard a howl echo over the cobblestones. It sounded distant, but that didn’t mean much. Kurtadams were fast. Very fast. Maybe faster than me. But gods be damned if I wasn’t going to at least try—especially with a headstart.

I picked up Lavin and slung her over my shoulder. She squealed in surprise but quickly clamped her mouth shut as I broke into a dead sprint.

My legs pumped, my lungs burned, and my heart was like a cannon firing off in my chest. I vaulted over an overturned barrel and hit the ground running. If I could just make it to a populated area,

I felt a tingling sensation at the middle of my neck and turned just in time to see a Kurtadam’s unhinged jaw closing in, it’s sharpened teeth glinting. I swung my fist up and slammed it into the beast’s lower jaw. I didn’t wait to see the damage play out, I just turned back around and kept running.

“Where are we going?” Lavin squeaked.

“To a populated area,” I shouted, “they won’t be able to get us there. It’ll cause a scene and they won’t hurt civillians.”

“Won’t they?” she asked.

I thought about it for a second. Then, I swore and took a sharp right. I skidded to a stop and pulled Lavin into my arm. I tossed her onto a balcony, where she landed a bit ungracefully.

“What the fuck are you doing?!” she asked.

“Ending this problem here,” I said, before reaching for my sword, only to find I didn’t have it. I must have forgotten it at Parliament. Great.

The first Kurtadam rounded the corner and saw me. It bared it’s teeth and let out a howl, before crumpling to the ground, a knife sticking out of it’s skull.

I turned around and saw Red standing behind me, breathing hard, a belt of throwing knives looped around her chest. On her back were my gun and my sword.

“My lord,” she said between breaths, “I’ve brought your weaponry.”

She took of my gun and sword before tossing them to me. I caught them and a smile spread across my face.