Her Dark Hunt by Hawke Jamie

Author:Hawke, Jamie
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Double Down Press
Published: 2020-11-16T00:00:00+00:00

18

Arthur

Arthur had known Reannon wasn’t comfortable returning to her father’s manor. What he hadn’t been prepared for was the sense of apprehension he felt upon seeing the building. Something about it was too familiar. He wasn’t sure what it was about this place, with its brown stone walls and tall windows. It looked impressive, but much like any number of manors in the surrounding lands. One window on the east side caught his attention because he noticed the symbol of the skull with wings. Perhaps the same skull he had seen before, and now knew he had a connection with?

The sensation that he knew this place combined with the fact that he recognized that symbol meant this couldn’t be a coincidence.

“When was I here?” he asked, almost to himself.

“I don’t understand,” Reannon said, sitting stiffly on her horse.

“This place… I know it.”

He pulled Llamrai to a stop at the edge of the road that would lead them down and to the manor. “Reannon, do you remember me?”

“No.”

The others stopped with them, now. Arthur eyed her, brow furrowing as his anger grew. “If you’re lying—”

“I wouldn’t.”

“Ceri, what do you see?”

Reannon’s eyes flared red, her fangs showing as she hissed. “Is that how you want to play it, Arthur? You ask me to come here, knowing what this place means to me, then accuse me of lying to the extent that you want her to read my mind?”

Arthur turned to Ceri, waiting. When she didn’t respond, he said, “We don’t have time for this.”

“She’s telling the truth,” Ceri replied with nearly as much vitriol as Reannon.

“It’s not that I don’t trust you,” he told Reannon. “But I’ve been here before, and wonder if your mind might have been altered, for whatever reason.” Arthur eyed the window with the skull symbol again. A flood of images filled his mind—him sitting in that room and looking out through that window, a note in his hand. People were there, laughing and talking but mostly leaving him alone. All but one boy with blonde hair and that symbol on his belt.

Who was that boy? The memory of him brought an onslaught of more images. Riding out during the day to hunt. Practicing with swords. Both of them had been young at the time, likely in their early teens. A gaping hole formed inside of him at the realization that he’d lost out on a great friendship.

“Sire,” Taliesin said, and Arthur snapped out of it, realizing it was only him and the winged knight now, with Mordred and Kay standing back a bit. Ceri, Guinevere, and Reannon rode on ahead.

“Thank you,” Arthur said. “Stay here, you three. But be ready if there’s trouble.”

“Understood.”

Arthur rode forward to catch the two ladies. He came to a trot alongside Reannon. “I’m sorry. That was uncalled for. None of this is making sense to me, and it’s driving me mad.”

“Luckily for you, we’re here because Nyres needs our help,” Reannon replied, eyes forward. “Otherwise, I’d be halfway back to…” She frowned, clearly not sure where she would go.

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