Accidental Surrogate

Sinclair

I growl down at the man before me, who is younger than I thought he would be, for one with

such power. He has thick black hair and a day’s worth of stubble on his thin cheeks. The man

glares up at me with dark, angry eyes and opens his mouth to speak but before he can, I slap him

– hard with an open palm.

–

The man gasps with surprise and pain, his eyes going wide as he stares down at the floor, and I

smirk. I doubt this man has been slapped anytime recently, if ever. He has the smug look of

someone used to being in charge.

But he’s in my house now.

“You’ll speak when we tell you to speak,” I growl, and then I turn to the head of my

–

reconnaissance team, who is standing against the wall, his hands on his knees, panting a little.

Craig isn’t a small man to see him so undone by the efforts suggests that this diminutive priest

is, indeed, powerful in other ways.

“How did you catch him?” I snap. Craig looks up at me and does his best to straighten up.

“We followed the leads, sir,” he replies, looking me in the eyes, “that we gleaned from the

conversation with the other priest, who wished to remain anonymous. They were…fruitful. We

found this one’s lair, for lack of a better word. It was actually in a sewer -in an abandoned

maintenance room. He was living there doing…” Craig hesitates and then shrugs. “Forgive me, Sir,

for the dramatic language, but ‘arcane magics‘ are the only words coming to my mind now. Lizard

skins…and and snail shells, in jars – he had a cauldron –”

“Thank you,” I say, interrupting and nodding towards the head of my investigative team. “You.

will give your details to Alastair, as soon as you can. For now, though I want everyone here for

the interrogation.” I lean forward towards the priest, who watches me with wary eyes and a

clenched jaw.

voice and slowing

need

priest proves himself a brave man, then, by baring his teeth at me

faulter. And then I step away, secretly grateful for it, because

man’s head off. Roger steps in to

his arms crossed as he looks down at the man strapped

your people want with my

grins at Roger, a too–wide expression that

now. Roger stares at him

reconnaissance team standing behind the priest who whips forward a

against the priest’s neck.

him shriek and twist in pain, but my

goes

leg of the chair to get the

people want with my nephew.”

as the priest looks up at Roger again and just huffs a

matter,” the priest says, shaking his head and holding his gaze. “Because,” he

his

laugh – really, truly laugh, as a crash of glass sounds and

upstairs –

I recognize it,

Ella

was just sitting here, tense, in my rocking chair by Rafe’s

quietly as

–

a little tapping sound at the

it curiously, expecting a little bird

me when I saw a black–masked face calmly tapping on

gasped, my body turning to ice as I froze, as he quietly pointed

for

–

so fast – the man pulled back his arm, and made a fist, and

the window

it should have

hole he made with his fist, the

of the window cracking and shattering around

–

only half an instant later, my instincts came back to me,

child’s rolling basinet behind me and screamed

away and back into the corner now, Rafe in his cradle

man gets to his feet at the foot of the window. As he stands, my heart jumps when I see

–

–

working their way up to the window and through

fast

the lead is on his feet now, grinning at me, starting