Niyx Samantha Kroese (i am malala young readers edition .TXT) 📖

You will never find the calm perfection you need to access the light if you cannot control your emotions.”

The girl batted his hand away and stood on her own. She stormed over to retrieve her helmet and her sword. “There are many things that could be my undoing, Commander. Being the first female Templar, being your daughter-“

The older knight stiffened and scowled at her. “Bite your tongue. The walls have eyes and ears here.”

Callistra slammed her helmet on to hide her feminine features once more. She sheathed her sword then sketched a hasty salute. “Yes, Commander Raijin. What is your command?”

Raijin started casting his gaze around the area. Onyx barely managed to duck back through the doorway before the Templar looked his way. “Go. I must see to something.”

“What is it?” Callistra asked, her tone changing to one of concern.

Raijin put his helmet on, then turned to the stairs that led up to the balcony. “There is an intruder in the Temple. A Night Creature.”

Shit. Onyx didn’t stay to hear the girl’s response. He couldn’t be caught here. Had Raijin really sensed him? If so, the man’s light magic was very sensitive and would be difficult to work around. Onyx made sure no one was out on the ledge he had come in on before he bolted out, used his supernatural strength to leap from the railing, and landed on the roof of the farthest noble manor he could jump to. He ducked around a corner. He could still see the Templar balcony, but they would not be able to see him from this angle. He pressed into the shadows of the building anyway.

Raijin came to the balcony and leaned on the metal railing, staring the way Onyx had gone. It felt like forever before the Templar finally pulled away from the balcony and retreated into the Temple.

Onyx crouched there for a while longer just to be safe, realizing his heart was racing and his hands were shaking. He clenched his fists to still them and narrowed his eyes. Not even The Divide had rattled him that way. The pure, uncontrollable terror that had raced through his being when Raijin was searching for him was something he wasn’t used to. Was it a side effect of Raijin’s strange light magic? Onyx noticed movement at the doorway to the temple. He recognized Callistra by the way she stalked out of the temple and into the street. He did not sense the same odd light magic in her, but maybe that’s what Raijin was trying to teach her.

Interesting. Templars were traditionally always men that were not allowed to have families. It seemed as though Raijin had been a Templar for a long time. Callistra appeared to be Onyx’s age but they were elves so it was difficult to determine just by looks. He tilted his head and moved forward on the roofs to follow her through the city. Most Templars came from noble families and lived within the Temple. So where was Callistra going?

He followed her for almost a half of an hour as she wound through the streets below him. A few times she seemed to stop and look behind her, as though she knew she was being followed, but she never looked up. People in Aderaan rarely did, which was why traveling by rooftop was safer than the shadowed alleyways below.

Onyx crouched by a low wall around a roof as he watched her approach a gate. He recognized that house. It was House R’trayn. He often went there for parties. That was why Callistra looked so familiar. He saw her at parties quite often and she always caught his eye. He had thought she was a visiting noble from one of the other cities. And maybe she was. She looked too much like Raijin to be Lord R’trayn’s daughter. Maybe she was adopted by them to maintain appearances? After all Templars were not supposed to have children.

Onyx hissed in displeasure. He didn’t like it when Aderaan’s politics got messy. House R’trayn was actually one of his biggest clients. He’d been helping them rise through the ranks of the city for a few years now. It was time to visit.

He leapt across to the rooftop once Callistra was out of sight and ran around to the back of the house. He visited here so often that Lord R’trayn had set up a private window in a small broom closet on the top story for Onyx to come and go. Onyx slid the window open and ducked inside. He cautiously opened the door to the hall, and seeing no one but staff, slipped out and strode boldly into the hall. Lord R’trayn’s servants were used to seeing Onyx there, so they ignored him as he passed as if he were no more than a shadow.

When he got to the Lord’s office, he found Lord R’trayn there. Isakael sat at his desk concentrating on the papers before him. Isakael had the common elven noble look to him. Thin and fit, pale skin, dark hair and eyes, and handsome features. He was one of the few Lords that Onyx actually enjoyed talking with. If their business association was not one of assassin and Lord, they might even have been friends. Onyx cleared his throat from the doorway and spoke, “Lord R’trayn.”

Isakael jumped at the intrusion, then a slight frown crossed his lips and his brows furrowed. “I don’t think I owe you money, and I know I didn’t summon you today.”

Onyx looked around then slipped into the office and closed the door behind him. He stalked over to the desk, and leaned across it so he was closer to Isakael’s face.

The Lord recoiled as far as he could in his chair, his hand reflectively going to his neck. “No one paid you to kill me today, did they? If they did, I will triple their price! We’re friends, aren’t we?”

“You wouldn’t have even known I was here if I were going to kill you.”