1. Chapter One

A small smirk pulled at his thin lips, obviously amused at my flustered state.

“Where’s Jarek?”

“Not here.” Even I was surprised at my bluntness and curt tone.

“I can bloody see that darlin’. Where is he?”

“If you were meant to know that, he’d of told you.”

My words were met with an angry glare, and after a few seconds of looking into those smouldering dark depths I was almost ready to give in. Thankfully though, he spoke again before I did.

“Here’s how it usually works. I speak. People do what I say. Does your tiny little brain comprehend?”

The words were uttered through clenched teeth, the air carefully drawn in through his nose as he struggled to control his temper but not enough to stop his fist from slamming down atop the oversized book between us.

It seems that I was having some sort of effect on him, though perhaps not one I would of liked. Making his type angry can’t be a good thing. But still, I couldn’t seem to help myself. I wasn’t about to be bullied into divulging information on my employers where-abouts. No doubt he had in mind something entirely sinister.

“Idiot.” The word comes out as a hiss past his lips as he glances over his right shoulder, past the fletched tops of the arrows in his quiver and towards the cobbled street outside.

Something seen causes him to take action and before I could object, he scoops up the immense leather bound book in one hand and captures my wrist with the other. The strength of his grip wasn’t something I could argue with and I was soon being dragged around the counter only to stumble along with him out the door.

The small golden bell that hadn’t announced his presence a few minutes ago, chiming merrily from above the door, as he drags me out onto Gate Street.

“You haven’t paid for that!” I declared uselessly as we made our way down the street, a few curious eyes of passers-by drawn our way. Though of course, no one would of dared to step-in. Even aside from the general deadly aura he gave off, people rarely gave a damn. The fact that he was armed just made the likely hood of any saviour coming to my rescue, drop to almost nil.

My feet stumbled. The shoes too big for running at the pace he attempted to haul me along at. The coat too long, catching on my shoes. Me, way to clumsy. It was unavoidable.

“Fuck.”

The word came from his lips, not mine and I was about to offer a retort when his body slammed down atop of mine. The air was forced from my lungs, leaving me dazed. So much so that I almost didn’t believe what I saw next.

A coil of black smoke moved as no smoke should from a darkened alley across the street. Snaking quickly across the cobbled street, spiralling forward and wrapping around the small stone building I had just been dragged from. The fact that it was solid stone and had stood in that very spot for several hundred years did little to stop it from crumbling under the influence of the black mist.



Over the last century, Kha crystals had become an every day part of our lives. Providing the energy we needed to light our homes. Driving the large metal carriages we traipsed across town in. Making our lives that little bit easier and protecting us from the darkness and demons.

But very few people in this world could wield pure Kha in such a manner. And no one I had heard of could manipulate the dark Kha. Many, many years ago, it used to be as common place as the mythical creatures that roamed Aagos. Now, with each year that passed, more Kha wielders died and less were born. Many feared that soon they would be all gone. Some welcomed it.

I wasn’t left to dwell on such things for long, my body hefted with ease into the air and across my assailant’s shoulder like a sack of potatoes. He took off at a fast pace, boots hitting the cobblestone and my body jarring against his with each footfall.

Facing backwards instead of forward, I caught a glimpse of something in the shadows just before we rounded the corner: three heavily cloaked men in black, all three of their ivory faces turned to watch the destruction of the place I had called my ’second home’.