Blood of the Watcher (The Dark Ability Book 4) Read Free Page A

what we’re dealing with.”
    Rsiran swallowed. It was as if Haern Read him, but that wouldn’t be possible, not from Haern. “I fear what I’ve become. And I fear what I’ll be forced to become.”
    “As you should,” Haern said softly. Rsiran turned to him and Haern shrugged. “You know where I studied. There’s a darkness to what I did, and what I had to do, but even as I learned, I never questioned whether what I was doing was right. I never wondered whether what I learned was right, only that it was necessary. You’re different. If you weren’t, I wouldn’t let Jessa stay with you.” Haern slipped his sword into his sheath. “Did you feel a thrill when you killed Shael?”
    Rsiran thought about the way the knife had torn through him. There had been no choice. Had he not, Jessa and he would have remained trapped. He remembered the sadness, and the fear, but there had been no thrill. “What do you mean by a thrill?”
    “Some feel it when they kill. Not you?”
    Rsiran shook his head.
    “Good. Even if you did, doesn’t mean you’re some sort of killer. Oh, maybe it means that you could be, but I think there’s a darkness within each of us, and we have to know when and how to control it. When you’re threatened, that darkness comes forward. It’s a natural survival instinct and you sometimes lose a little control. If it didn’t manifest, either you’d be dead, or someone you cared about would be dead. For Jessa’s sake, I think you need to have that part of you. But like I said, you need to control it.”
    Rsiran set the hammer back down on the anvil, wondering whether Haern was telling him what he thought he wanted to hear or whether it was the truth. “I don’t know that I can keep her safe, Haern,” he said softly. “With what I know is out there—the Forgotten and Venass…”
    “And the alchemists,” Haern reminded.
    “And the alchemists,” Rsiran agreed. He hadn’t forgotten about them, but the alchemists seemed less of a threat than the Forgotten and the scholars of Venass, especially since he hadn’t heard anything from them in the months since he had infiltrated the guild house. “All of that makes me a target, doesn’t it? As long as Jessa stays with me, then she’s a target too. I can’t be the reason that something happens to her.”
    Haern returned to the table at the back of the room and picked up one of Rsiran’s knives. He spun it in his hand, moving with a casual grace that did nothing to mask how deadly he would be with the knife. “That’s why I came to you today. You’ve got it right. You have a target on you. With what happened with Josun and what you’ve been forced to do, there’s no one else who’s in quite as much danger as you. I think it’s about time we do something to make sure you get the training you need to ensure that if someone comes after you again, you won’t be the reason others get hurt. It’s time we make sure that, if anything, you’re the reason we remain safe.”
    “I don’t know…”
    “What’s your hesitation? Do you think that if you don’t learn to control your abilities, you won’t have to use them?”
    “I know how to control them,” Rsiran said.
    “Right. You can travel from one place to the next, and you can push your knives at me. But is that control, or is that the most basic level of what’s possible? Seems to me that there are layers of ability. I’m guessing you haven’t done much more than scratch at the surface of yours.”
    Rsiran considered what Haern suggested. He had seen how deadly Haern could be. And the man moved with such a confident grace, how could learning such skills not be helpful? But, if he did, what other skills would he commit himself to learning? What would Haern force him to do in order to master his abilities?
    “And if I do this?” Rsiran asked.
    Haern frowned. “What’re you getting at?”
    Rsiran shook his head. “What’s the price?”
    Haern flipped one of the knives and spun