Against the Dawn Read Free Page A

lifted in a half-smile. Truth be told, I’d missed the little shit as well. And though I knew that he and Tyler didn’t exactly pal around or anything, I guess some part of me had wished that Ty had kept contact, checking in with Raif perhaps, in the hopes I’d been in touch with him. That maybe, Ash would have mentioned something about him, no matter how small.
    “Have you seen any action lately? You know, besides your housesitting gig.” I’d come a long way in the past couple of years, but I’m not going to lie, emotions were still pretty tough for me. It was best to stick to light small talk.
    “Nada. Well, that’s not exactly true,” Asher said as he settled himself down on the couch and propped his feet up on the coffee table. I had a feeling Xander would blow a gasket if he was standing here right now and I couldn’t help but smile at the thought. “There’s something coming down the pipes but I’m not high enough on the ladder to know what it is quite yet. An envoy arrived last week. Sent by his majesty’s regent. There have been a lot of closed door meetings.”
    Just my luck that I’d decide to come home at the moment trouble began to brew. I’d never given Xander’s actual kingdom much consideration before. Of course I knew the heart of his kingdom was nowhere near Seattle, but I’d never asked where. And it served to reason that he’d appoint a regent to hold down the fort while he was away. “You think it’s something big?” I asked, taking a seat across from Asher in an overstuffed chair. Somehow, it made me feel better to pretend like it was business as usual, and I hadn’t just shown up from being scarce for half a year.
    Asher cocked his head to the side as if considering the options. “With issues of a political nature, it could be anything,” he replied. “I mean it could be as minor as a burst pipe in the king’s palace, or as major as a coup.”
    I doubted closed door meetings and so much secrecy were for the benefit of something like Xander’s plumbing. “It’s definitely not the pipes.”
    “Probably not,” Asher said, fixing me with a stare. “Why don’t you go over there and find out what’s going on?”
    Nothing like a little political intrigue to distract a girl from her problems. But there were still a few things I needed to do. When I’d left for O Anel , I’d said goodbye to Raif and even to Xander. I hadn’t seen Tyler since the night he’d killed Kade. And no matter how much I wanted to say hi to Raif, and maybe even nose around a little, I needed to see Ty first. “I’ve got a few things to knock off my to-do list, but after, I think I’ll see what’s up.”
    “Who knows,” Asher mused, “maybe it’ll give us an excuse to get the gang back together.”
    The gang he was referring to was the group of Shaedes I’d assembled to help me hunt down Kade. I wasn’t sure I was ready for something quite so hardcore, yet. “Maybe,” I said as I stood and headed for the elevator, “But to be honest, Ash, I hope I get a break before shit hits the fan again.”
    “With you around?” Asher’s tone was incredulous as he followed me into the elevator. “Now that you’re back, Darian, shit is guaranteed to hit the fan.”
    That’s what I was afraid of.

Chapter Two
    Before Ash took off to do whatever it was Xander had laid out for him for the rest of the day, he convinced me to head to Xander’s before I did anything else. I agreed because I didn’t want any distractions when I came face to face with Tyler and if trouble was brewing in the Shaede kingdom, I’d need to get the low-down from Raif so I wouldn’t be too worried about him. I traveled from Belltown to Capitol Hill as my ethereal self, gliding over the streets with the fading rays of sun that cast swaths of light on the sidewalks. As sluggish as the encroaching afternoon, I couldn’t help but wish I owned at least a motorcycle right about now. My fatigue from leaving my body behind and