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The Wu family manor was supposed to be a fortress of calm authority, but tonight Wade paced his study like a caged animal. Back and forth, back and forth, his expensive leather shoes wearing a track in the Persian rug. Every shadow could be an assassin returning with good news. Every creak of the old house could signal his problems were finally over.
"Screee... CRUNCH."
The sound was so unexpected, so utterly wrong for the moment, that Wade nearly jumped out of his skin. He spun around to find Kai lounging in his father's favorite chair, boots propped up on the antique desk, casually demolishing an apple he'd apparently helped himself to from somewhere.
When the hell did he get here?
"Mr. Kai," Wade's voice cracked with desperate hope, his hands clasping together like he was praying. "Has the mission been completed? Is Russell—is he dead?"
Kai took one last obnoxiously loud bite before tossing the apple core onto the priceless rug. The casual disrespect would have infuriated Wade on any other day, but right now he had bigger concerns.
"The situation..." Kai scratched the back of his neck, looking almost sheepish. "It's a bit complicated. Where's your father? I really need to talk to him in person about this."
Wade's stomach dropped. Complicated was never good. Complicated meant problems. Complicated meant Russell might still be breathing.
"Father just left to meet with the other family heads," Wade said, trying to keep the tremor out of his voice. "Some kind of emergency meeting about the commotion at Blake Whitmore's place earlier. He won't be back for hours." He stepped closer, unable to hide his desperation. "Just tell me what happened. Please."
Kai's expression shifted, understanding dawning in his eyes. Of course—the explosion he'd set off at Russell's manor would have every aristocratic family in Northgate scrambling for information. They'd all want to know what had happened, who was responsible, whether it meant war between the major powers.
A smile spread across Kai's face. Not a pleasant smile—the kind of smile a cat might give a mouse it was about to play with.
"Come here," he said, crooking one finger. "I'll tell you exactly what happened. But it's... sensitive. Can't have the servants overhearing."
Wade felt a prickle of unease crawl up his spine. Something about Kai's demeanor had changed. The professional assassin who'd taken their money with businesslike efficiency was gone, replaced by something else. Something dangerous.
But Wade was desperate for answers, and desperation made people stupid. He walked over, leaning in as Kai beckoned him closer.
Kai's breath was warm against his ear as he whispered slowly, savoring each word:
"Lord Six sends his regards."
"What? What does that even—"
The pain came from nowhere and everywhere at once. Sharp, cold agony erupted from his chest as pitch-black claws burst from the shadows on the floor, wrapping around his limbs like living chains. He tried to scream but a pale, impossibly strong hand clamped over his face, fingers pressing into his cheeks hard enough to bruise.
This isn't happening. This can't be happening.
"Damn it," Kai hissed, his face inches from Wade's terrified eyes. "Do you have any idea what you've done to me? If it weren't for you and your stupid vendetta, I'd still be a respectable watchmaker. I had a good cover, a comfortable life, and then YOU had to go and hire me to kill my own fucking boss!"
The words didn't make sense. Boss? What boss? Wade tried to speak, to question, to beg, but Kai's iron grip made it impossible. All that came out were muffled, pathetic sounds.
"I can't hate Lord Six," Kai continued, almost conversationally, like they were discussing the weather instead of Wade's imminent death. "And I sure as hell can't hate Misty—she'd skin me alive. So that just leaves you, doesn't it? You get to be the outlet for all my frustration about offending my immediate superior on my very first day working for him."
He laughed bitterly. "Do you know how bad that looks? The Spirit Begging Society isn't exactly known for its forgiving HR department. Black-hearted company doesn't even begin to cover it."
"Mmmph! MMMPH!" Wade's protests grew more frantic as the claws dug deeper, as his vision started to blur around the edges. The pain was constant now, radiating from a dozen wounds. His expensive clothes were soaked with blood—his blood. This wasn't a nightmare he could wake up from.
Why was Kai doing this? They'd paid him. They'd had a deal. None of this made sense unless...
Unless Russell had somehow...
The pressure on his face increased as those pale fingers squeezed tighter, and Wade's last coherent thought before darkness claimed him was that he'd been played. Completely, utterly played.
Kai looked down at Wade's unconscious form, blood pooling on the study's imported carpet. His first instinct was to crush the man's skull like a grape, end it cleanly. But then he paused, a new thought occurring to him.
Lord Six might appreciate a gift.
Yes, that made sense. Bring the half-dead Wade to Russell as an offering. Show that Kai understood the hierarchy, that he could be useful. The Society's internal politics were lethal—literally. Better to be overly cautious than end up as tomorrow's corpse.
"Oh, what a sin," he sighed dramatically, though there was no real remorse in his voice. "I just wanted to live quietly and make watches. Is that too much to ask?"
He grabbed Wade's limp form by the collar, the younger man's head lolling sickeningly. With barely a thought, both of them melted into the shadows, leaving only blood and apple seeds as evidence they'd ever been there.
It was well past midnight when Russell felt the Spirit Begging Society's contract pulse gently in his mind—the sensation like a spider web trembling when something touched its edge. Kai was back.
Russell frowned, setting down the book he'd been pretending to read. Why is he coming here?
Whether Wade was dead or alive, there was no good reason for Kai to return. Not tonight. Not when everything was so precarious.
He extended his senses carefully, checking the manor. The guardian card Hazel had left was exactly where it should be—a simple protection spell that would alert her to danger but wasn't sophisticated enough to track his movements. Good. He couldn't afford to have her asking questions about a late-night visitor.
With practiced ease, Russell summoned one of his Shadowkhan. The bronze-level servant emerged from the darkness without a sound, its red eyes glowing faintly in the moonlight streaming through his bedroom window. Russell stepped into its embrace, feeling the familiar sensation of sinking into liquid shadow, and let it carry him outside.
He emerged on the roadside near his estate, the night air cool against his skin.
Kai was there, poorly hidden behind a tree, peering at the manor like a teenager trying to see if his crush was home. When he noticed no signs of Hazel's overwhelming presence, his shoulders visibly relaxed.
"Oh good," Kai muttered to himself. "That terrifying woman isn't here. Maybe I won't die tonight after all."
"What else are you doing here?"
The cold voice came from directly behind him. Kai's entire body went rigid, his spine straightening like someone had shoved a steel rod up his back. He turned slowly, his face already morphing into that fawning expression Russell was beginning to find genuinely disturbing.
"Lord Six!" Kai's smile was so wide it had to be painful. "I brought you a gift!"
As he spoke, something rose from the darkness at his feet. A head—bloody, battered, but unmistakably Wade's head—emerged from the shadows like some grotesque flower blooming in reverse.
"Wade?" Russell stared, genuinely caught off guard. He hadn't expected Kai to actually drag the man here. Not to his home. Not where anyone could potentially see.
The surprise quickly morphed into irritation.
"Why didn't you just kill him directly?" Russell's voice was flat, dangerous. "Are you actively trying to expose me? Did you think bringing a Wu family heir to my doorstep was somehow a good idea!?"
Kai's eager expression crumbled like a sandcastle hit by a wave. The proud gold-level cardmaker looked like a puppy that had brought its owner a dead bird, only to be scolded for making a mess.
Oh shit. I fucked up.
"Ah, this..."
Russell pinched the bridge of his nose, feeling a headache building behind his eyes. "Are all the Society members in Northgate this incompetent? Or is it just you?"
The silence stretched uncomfortably. Finally, Russell sighed, the sound carrying all the exhaustion of someone dealing with idiots while trying to maintain multiple secret identities.
"Forget it. He's here now." Russell gestured impatiently. "Get him out. And for the love of—be careful. If anyone sees this..."
Kai practically tripped over himself in his eagerness to comply. He dragged Wade from the shadows like pulling a fish from water, the younger man's body hitting the ground with a wet thud.
"Don't worry, Lord Six!" Kai said quickly, desperate to salvage the situation. "My card can silence the surrounding area. We could set off fireworks out here and no one would hear a thing. Whatever noise you want to make, however you want to handle this—completely private."
Wade came to consciousness the way drowning men break the surface—desperate, gasping, clawing for life. Every nerve in his body screamed in agony. He could feel his mental power hemorrhaging out of him, his carefully cultivated energy dissipating into the night air like blood from a severed artery.
His eyes wouldn't focus properly. The world was a blur of shadows and pain until finally, finally, a face swam into view.
A familiar face. A hated face.
"Russell!?"
The name tore from his throat, part accusation, part disbelief. His nemesis stood there casual as could be, looking down at him like he was something unpleasant stuck to the bottom of a shoe.
Beside Russell stood a female figure Wade didn't recognize—tall, imposing, with golden hair that seemed to glow in the moonlight and eyes that promised violence. She was smiling, showing teeth that looked a little too sharp to be entirely human.
Kiss-Shot was enjoying this immensely.
"Hello again, Wade." Russell's voice was conversational, almost friendly. "Funny how things work out, isn't it?"
Wade tried to speak, but his throat was raw from screaming he didn't remember doing.
"I had this whole speech planned," Russell continued, crouching down so they were at eye level. "Something dramatic about karma, maybe a monologue about how you brought this on yourself. But you know what?" He shrugged. "The villain always dies because they talk too much. And since you already recognize me, and I've gotten my bit of satisfaction from seeing your face right now..."
He stood back up, brushing imaginary dust from his pants.
"Just die here in peace."
"No!" Wade's voice cracked, breaking on the word. He tried to move but his body wouldn't respond properly, muscles spasming uselessly. "No, no, no! Russell, I was wrong! This is all my fault, I admit it!"
The words poured out in a desperate rush. "The Wu family's property—it's yours! All of it! Every penny, every asset, the entire fortune! Just let me live!"
His eyes darted wildly, landing on Kai who was trying very hard to become invisible despite being six feet tall.
"Mr. Kai! Russell's joined your Spirit Begging Society, hasn't he? I can join too!" Wade's voice rose to nearly a shriek. "I'm useful! I have connections, money, influence! The Wu family fortune—you can have a share! A big share! Just please, please don't—"
He still thought Kai was in charge. Even now, bleeding out on the dirt, Wade couldn't conceive of Russell being anything more than another pawn. In his mind, the gold-level assassin had to be the one calling the shots.
Which made it all the more shocking when Kai walked over to Russell, bowed his head like a servant, and asked in the most obsequious tone imaginable:
"Lord Six, do you need me to help you? I could make it quick. Or slow, if you prefer. Whatever would please you."
Wade's brain short-circuited.
"Lord... Six?" The words came out as barely a whisper. "Mr. Kai, what are you talking about? What's happening?"
He didn't understand the Society's hierarchy, didn't know that 'Lord Six' meant Russell was essentially royalty in an organization of killers and terrorists. All he knew was that this gold-level cardmaker—this powerful assassin who'd taken their money with such confidence—was now acting like Russell's lapdog.
Am I not as good as Russell, even as a villain!?
The thought burned through him like acid. Even here, even in this world of criminals and murderers, Russell was somehow better than him. The jealousy was so intense it actually distracted him from the pain for a moment, his body trembling with rage as much as injury.
Russell waved off Kai's offer with casual indifference. "No need."
Something changed in the air around them. A pressure, ancient and terrible, emanated from Russell's body. Kiss-Shot's form began to shift and flow, transforming into something that belonged in nightmares. Black and red tentacles erupted from Russell's shadow, wrapping around Wade and lifting him into the air like a broken doll.
When Russell spoke again, his voice seemed to come from somewhere much deeper and darker than his throat. It was the sound of judgment, of inevitability, of the grave.
"Refuge? Joining the Society?" A cold smile played at his lips. "Tell me, Wade—is there a possibility, even the slightest chance, that it occurs to you... that I was a member of the Spirit Begging Society all along?"
The words hit Wade like physical blows. His eyes went wide, pupils dilating as the full implications crashed over him.
"You—!"
The word never finished.
Wade's head exploded like a watermelon hit with a sledgehammer. Gore splattered in every direction, but Kiss-Shot's tentacles had already formed a shield around Russell, the bloody rain sliding harmlessly off the barrier.
Russell looked at the headless corpse with the same expression someone might wear while taking out the trash—mild distaste but no real emotion.
"Take care of it," he said to Kai, his voice returning to its normal tone.
"Yes, Lord Six."
The shadows at Kai's feet began to spread, crawling across the ground like living things. They consumed Wade's remains with disturbing efficiency—blood, bone, even the smallest drops were pulled into the darkness until nothing remained but disturbed earth.
"Starting today, don't show up," Russell continued, not even watching the cleanup. "Lay low. Disappear. I'll handle the explanation to the Society."
Kai paused in his work, something like gratitude flickering across his face. "Yes," he replied quietly. "Understood."
As the last traces of Wade Wu vanished into shadow, Russell stood in the darkness, Kiss-Shot reforming beside him in her humanoid shape. The night was quiet again, peaceful even, as if a murder hadn't just taken place.
He sighed, running a hand through his hair. The sound carried a weight of resignation, of acknowledgment.
"I always feel that I will never be able to turn back from this road of being a villain."
(End of this chapter)
Plz throw powerstones.