A COURT OF BLOOD AND BONES

CHAPTER NINE

I had no idea how but I just knew. The linking bond the Suriel gave me hummed with recognition that I had found my prey. Not that I needed it

I felt in my very bones that the Illyrian man I'd just seen was Nyx. And I hated him already, seethed watching him knowing all that I knew. The spawn of my father's enemies, now my enemy.

Though my eyes couldn't deny his beauty. How horrifyingly beautiful he was. A tall broad frame, his training leathers tailored to perfection that unsurprisingly revealed the hint at the warriors body beneath, honed impeccably - no doubt over years and years of training in this camp. Training that likely trumped mine - yes I was a competent warrior under Bellamy's tutelage but I had never seen true battle. Not like Illyrians. Creatures born purely for battle. It scared me but also enthralled me. The challenge electrified my bones.

His wings were imposing yet magnificent, those beautiful bat-like black wings that he kept high, not allowing them to touch the ground much like his comrades. To fly with them must be an amazing experience. Such perfect tendrils of hair waltzed in the wind, darker than any onyx gem, darker than anything I'd ever seen - it contrasted with his perfect skin, bronze and almost glowing with vitality. He was so full of life that it made me sick to my stomach.

He had no idea that I was here to end him.

Yet as I looked at him closer I noted a long scar that adorned his throat. It was horrific, impossible to ignore yet some part of me was drawn to it. And an odd sort of curiosity. It showed he was a survivor, that he could not be so easily undone, it emphasised the warrior I had no doubt that he was. I wondered how many battles he had been in, how many he had killed over his century and a half.

It made more nervous then I cared to admit. Nyx was older, stronger and no doubt had been training with all manner of weapons since childhood. Not to mention he had all the Illyrians loyal to both him and his parents all across Windhaven. I knew I was proficient with weaponry but I hadn't the experience. I recognised that. There was only one way to take down Nyx and that was to be smarter, to deceive him.

I felt a rush of fear go through me as I wondered whether to remove my glamour or not, whether he could sense it. But he hadn't so much as glanced in my direction so I decided to remain invisible. I only had the most basic Illyrian features after all, but was missing one vital point. Wings. I couldn't shapeshift into a true Illyrian because until mere minutes ago I had never seen their wings in person, only heard grotesque stories from her father. But my father had been wrong on that account, their wings were glorious and I was sure I could never do them justice. Or keep them from dragging on the floor which would mark me as an outsider. I couldn't risk it.

So I waited and continued to watch him.

He approached the group of Illyrians I had been tailing with a grim expression that betrayed nothing but slight annoyance at their tardiness which surprised me. I had half expected to hear the crack of a whip by now or the sound of bones breaking. Perhaps he wanted to run them ragged and then punish them. Who knows.

Still he only seemed to exchange a few firm words with them before the group started jogging in the direction of the training pits.

I was a huntress incarnate. There was naught to do in the Spring Court except hunt, train and watch. So as a rule I was very good at observing. So I put those skills to use, noting his every movement, the way he moved so seamlessly among the forest, as if he were a ghost, bound to no laws of Fae or man whilst simultaneously seducing everything surrounded him to his power. His will. I made sure to keep my distance as even the glamour that had moulded into my very being had its limits. He may very well be powerful enough to see through it, he too was a child of a High Lord he could likely produce a glamour of equal strength.