Feint and Doublecross by Tilly Wallace

Author:Tilly Wallace
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Ribbonwood Press

Thirteen

By the end of the week, the remembrance spell had waned and washed away with the autumn rains. The number of people trudging through fallen leaves to have their memories written down had dwindled to only one or two. The Mage Council recalled the scribes, and the remaining notes were bundled up and delivered to Sera’s doorstep. Each afternoon, she spent an hour or two reading the tightly written pages. Each one was an entry from someone’s life as they recalled an event that, to them at least, seemed eerily familiar to the gruesome murder.

Sera refused to give up hope that she might stumble upon the assailant in this way. Every night she roamed the south bank of the Thames, on the alert for a shifter on the prowl. Either Elliot or Hugh accompanied her, and Sera used her gifts where needed. So far she had encountered nothing except the usual criminality that occurred under cover of darkness. Among the lower classes, the stories spread of Nyx wandering the streets at night to protect the vulnerable. Sera considered that alone worth giving up her evenings.

That afternoon, she took the last box of papers and set it down beside what she considered Hugh’s armchair. She had learned one lesson from her afternoon reading: at times London was plagued by roaming packs of hungry dogs. As gruesome as the reports were, they were easily discarded due to either the person’s seeing the mangy mutts responsible, or the injuries were either too superficial or inconsistent with those of her victim.

She dipped into the box and pulled out the topmost sheet, being the account of someone who had what sounded like an encounter with a pitchfork. Holding the page on her outstretched palm, with a puff of magic, she made it fly to the sideboard and settle on the discard pile. Another wave summoned the next page into her hand.

The upper right corner gave the date of five years earlier, and a location not far from Vauxhall Gardens. As she read, a shiver ran down her spine. Sera clutched the paper more tightly and sat up in the armchair. In the fatal attack, the unfortunate victim suffered long gashes to his right arm and body and lost a large amount of flesh from the right side of his torso. She pressed the page to her chest while she digested the contents.

Then she scanned the account narrated to the scribe and re-read the details to ensure she hadn’t made a mistake.

My father encountered a fearsome beast that tore at his body, ate his flesh, and stole his life. I saw it with my own eyes. I was with him that night. Pa shoved me out of the way as the demon dropped on him from above with a piercing cry.

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