Read Online Dark Game (Merikh Book 1) by C L Walker - Free Book Online Page A

of what might happen if his usefulness was questioned. “Perhaps your deal with Walter DeLacy transfers in stages, and the young man saw some of the benefit before leaving.”
    “It would be the first time.”
    “But it is possible?”
    “Perhaps. I will have to wait for him to be removed from the world to perform an analysis.” Ahn examined the manicured nails of its host, preparing to depart.
    “You believe he will die here?”
    “Of course,” Ahn replied. “He faces the machinations of a priest of Wrath. No matter the mysterious advantages he has, he cannot face something of that power.”
    “But—”
    “Enough.” Ahn left the room and the woman. She looked up at the knight without seeing him, momentarily confused.
    “Good luck,” the knight said before the chain pulled taut.
     
     

Chapter 6
    “I don't understand how you're doing so well,” Mouse said. She was sitting on the end of my bed and biting at the skin around her nails.
    “Then why am I not in a hospital?” I was propped up with a pillow supporting me, and every muscle in my body gave off a dull ache. Better than I should be, and getting better by the minute, but still in a bit of distress.
    “I was on the way there when the call went out on the police radio. Someone found deputy 'roid-rage and called the sheriff, and I didn't think turning up at a hospital with gunshot residue and all the signs of having a cop try to beat you to death was a good idea.”
    “Fair enough.”
    “And now you're healing, somehow. Any thoughts on that?”
    “Maybe,” I replied. Mouse had seen at least one broken rib poking through the skin and I’d left a bloody mess on the bed that no amount of cleaning was going to resolve. We were not getting back the extra deposit we’d put down on arrival.
    Now I was achy and a little light-headed, but otherwise I was doing fine. I’d felt worse getting the flu as a kid, and it had taken longer to get better.
    “I drank some of the ambrosia,” I said. “I threw it up again half a second later, but maybe some of it stayed in my system.”
    “So you've got magic healing powers now?” She was joking but there was an edge to it, an undercurrent of concern.
    “Temporarily, yeah. Maybe.”
    “Why temporarily?”
    “The cop, Bill, said he tried it at a party once and it worked for the night, but he was back to normal afterward. I think it works its way through your body and the effects go away after time.”
    “He wasn't throwing it all back up?”
    “No.”
    “So something about your ability to see magic makes it less effective on you. You drank the stuff and instead of turning into officer short-fuse you got a little contact healing-factor.”
    “Seems so.”
    “You don't sound convinced.”
    I wasn't. I’d seen someone healing thanks to the ambrosia – Bill and the bones moving after our fall – but I’d also seen someone healing more slowly. The assassins of the clan healed the way I had and our leader, Walter, regularly showed the ability to his students as a carrot for them to work toward.
    “I think I was further along the path to mastery at the clan than I thought.”
    “You're a good fighter, I'll grant you that, and a stone cold psycho when the situation calls for it, but you're not magic.” She'd never believed my stories of the clan. She thought they were just a school for killers and no amount of my explaining would change her mind. “I have to believe in magic because it keeps pissing in my soup, but you'll have to show me something concrete if you want me to believe your clan are part crouching tiger and part hidden dragon.”
    “I assume that's a movie reference?”
    “Culture, Merikh. Get some.”
    “I don't think this was the ambrosia,” I tried again.
    “I've seen you get hurt. I've even seen you hurt by magic and you healed at the same speed we did. You handled the pain better, perhaps, but you healed slow and natural.”
    “True.”
    I needed to get out of bed. Sitting around