The King of Hearts 1 by Savannah Skye

Author:Savannah Skye [Skye, Savannah]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2019-01-26T16:00:00+00:00

Over the next few days, shit started happening at an alarming rate.

First up, the identities of the two dead vampires at the Circus were discovered – not easy with vampires as there’s no body for anyone to identify. They turned out to be bodyguards of Lord Gaunt, one of the King of Hearts’ closest advisors, although recently the pair had been at odds over policy.

Obviously, this information was for Guards’ eyes only, and, just as obviously, it was front page news the next day. Not only that, but the papers linked the deaths to the explosion at the pumping station and tied both to the arrival in town of a spy from the Court of Clubs. Damn reporters knew almost as much as the Guards did and proceeded to tell the public, who reacted as you would expect. Animosity towards Lundercity and the Court of Clubs peaked, there were angry calls for bloody retribution, and anyone with a British accent was forced to keep an extremely low profile.

Responding to all this, and to the continued danger of the spy, Connery, still being at large, the King of Hearts declared martial law. All Old Guard leave was cancelled and squads patrolled the streets, particularly in vulnerable areas, around the clock, while personal security for members of the Court of Hearts was increased. Almost overnight, Undercity was turned into a police state; you could barely go for a pee without someone asking what you’d had to drink.

A lot of people thought all this represented a pretty reasonable reaction to a clear and present threat. Personally, I thought it was nuts. If finding Connery had been difficult beforehand then now he was going to burrow so deeply underground that only the moles were going to see his ass.

Not that that was a problem that Ryder and I had to worry about.

“You’re taking me off the case?” I asked.

Athos met my gaze with a steely one of his own. “Not me, Cassandra. Old Guard Central. But I agree. Perhaps I pushed you too far, too fast. It was a big case to have as your first. It seemed to me that you had the necessary skills but perhaps…”

“Hey, I have the skills!” I interrupted. “You know I do.”

Athos just kept that grim, stony expression. “Yes. Yes, I suppose you do have the skills. You don’t have discipline. I wasn’t able to drum it into you. Perhaps I even encouraged your insubordinate side…”

“You didn’t.”

“And that flouting of the rules may have cost the city dear.”

“I didn’t lose Connery because I didn’t follow the rules,” I argued, but inside I wondered if he was right. I’d let him down and my heart was damn near breaking at the thought. I’d never felt like this before. I didn’t like it. Athos had treated me like a daughter – well, not exactly like a daughter – and I had failed him.

Ryder suffered the same ignominious fall from grace. We had been moved out of our cozy apartment, though we were, for now, still working together.

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