Chapter One - Kain
The bounty wasn’t supposed to talk back. They told him that this bounty was supposed to be an easy find. That they wouldn’t fight back.
They were right about the easy-to-find part. Not that the bounty would not fight back.
Kain crouched on the edge of a crumbling bluff, one boot planted against a slab of fractured stone while the other balanced easily on the narrow ledge. Wind tugged at the ends of his dark cloak, carrying with it the scent of pine, damp earth, and the faint smoke of someone’s long-dead campfire.
He ignored all of it.
His attention remained fixed on the lone figure moving through the clearing below.
There she was.
Again.
Three sightings in five days. She was getting bolder. Or more desperate.
Neither was good.
The woman trudged through the forest with a stubborn determination that bordered on ridiculous, one hand wrapped around the lead rope of a mule that looked equally unimpressed with the journey. The poor beast stopped every few steps to protest, earning itself a colorful stream of curses that drifted faintly up the hillside.
Kain’s mouth twitched. The reports hadn’t mentioned the swearing. At least she was entertaining.
She wore a threadbare brown cloak that had seen far better seasons, the hood pulled low enough to shadow most of her face. Mud stained the hem nearly to her knees, and fresh tears marked the fabric where briars had caught it.
A convincing disguise. One that would have anyone else just see a simple commoner. Someone only traveling.
Until you looked closer.
Her boots were handcrafted leather, expensive enough to feed a village for weeks. Her posture was all wrong for a common traveler. Even exhausted, she carried herself like someone who’d spent her life commanding rooms instead of asking permission to enter them. And despite the dirt smudged across her cheek... She walked with her chin lifted.
Defiant.
Proud.
Impossible.
Kain knew right when he came across this woman that he had found his bounty. Lady Saphira of House Thorne.
Runaway noble.
Political bargaining piece.
Bride-to-be of Lord Varyn.
And currently the most expensive bounty Kain had ever been hired to retrieve.
He rested his forearms across one bent knee. “You really don’t know how to disappear,” he muttered. If he had found her this easily... Others would too. Others that wouldn’t care about her well-being. Others who would take advantage of a woman being alone in the wild.
That thought settled heavily in his chest.
He’d tracked thieves across kingdoms. Mercenaries through mountain storms. Assassins who knew every trick he’d ever learned.
Saphira wasn’t any of those things. She was simply running. Running without proper supplies. Running without enough food. Running without understanding how hunters thought. She ran without making a plan. She covered her tracks well enough for an amateur... But every choice she’d made screamed noble upbringing.
The stubborn ass mule. The roads she’d chosen. The camps she’d abandoned too recently. The streams she’d crossed in straight lines instead of doubling back.
It was almost painful to watch.
He sighed. This should have been easy. Track. Capture. Collect payment. Move on. Instead, he’d spent the last five days quietly redirecting another pair of bounty hunters away from her trail.
He wasn’t entirely sure why.
Maybe because the men her Lord Varyn had hired after him were butchers. Maybe because he’d overheard enough rumors about Lord Varyn to know exactly what awaited her if she went back. Or maybe... Maybe because every report describing Lady Saphira as obedient, elegant, and perfectly suited to court life had forgotten to mention the woman currently threatening to murder a mule because it refused to climb a hill.
The mule brayed loudly as it pulled back on its reins.
“I swear,” Saphira snapped, planting both hands on her hips, “if you throw me again, I’m turning you into stew.”
The mule blinked as if it understood every word that she uttered. Then deliberately took another step backward.
Kain barked out a quiet laugh before he could stop himself. The sound echoed farther than he’d intended.
His eyes widened as he watched Saphira freeze. Slowly, very slowly, she turned. Her gray eyes swept the ridge. Sharp. Searching. Too observant.
Interesting, he thought to himself. Kain ducked lower behind the rocks. Not because she had seen him. She hadn’t. But because he’d learned long ago never to underestimate anyone who survived three weeks with half the continent looking for them.
She stared another moment before apparently deciding the forest itself was mocking her. “Wonderful,” she muttered. “Now the trees are laughing at me.”
Kain shook his head. Definitely not what he’d expected.
She returned to tightening the mule’s saddle, muttering under her breath about stubborn animals, pompous nobles, and someone named Varyn who apparently deserved to be fed to wolves.
At least that’s who he thought she named.
The more she spoke, the harder it became to picture her standing quietly beside an altar, smiling through an arranged ceremony. No. She would’ve set the altar on fire.
He almost respected it. Almost. Duty won in the end. It always did.
With practiced silence, Kain slipped down the rocky slope, every movement controlled, boots finding stable footing where others would’ve sent half the hillside tumbling. The forest swallowed him. He circled behind her, keeping the wind in his favor.
Twenty feet.
Fifteen.
Ten.
The mule noticed him first. Its ears shot upright. Damn, traitor.
“Oh, don’t start-” she began when the animal let out a deafening shriek. Saphira spun in the direction the mule was looking. Steel flashed. The dagger appeared in her hand so quickly Kain almost didn’t see her draw it.
Well, he thought. That was new. He didn’t know she had any weapons on her. She hid that dagger extremely well.
He lifted both hands as he stepped out from underneath the shadow of a tree. “Easy.”
“You have exactly three seconds,” she said coolly, “before I decide you’re not worth questioning.”
Kain blinked. “...Three?”
She narrowed her eyes. “You’re already wasting one.”
He couldn’t help it. He smiled. Just a little. “I’ve been threatened by professionals.”
“So have I.”
“I believe you.”
The admission caught her off guard. Only for a heartbeat. He saw it flash across her face for a moment before her glare returned. Then the dagger settled into a perfect guard position.
Definitely trained. Definitely dangerous. Interesting.
“You’ve been following me.”
“Yes.”
“For how long?”
“Five days.”
She stared. “You could’ve just...asked for directions.”
Did she not know why he was here? Why he was following her? He almost laughed again. Instead, he reached slowly into the satchel at his hip.
Her dagger lifted another inch. “Careful.”
“I’m pulling out paper.”
“I’ve stabbed people over less.”
“I believe that too,” he responded with a smirk. He continued to reach into the satchel slowly, so as not to spook her anymore. He had no doubt that she would stab him and leave him to die out here if he moved too quickly. He withdrew the folded bounty notice and let it drift onto the ground between them.
It landed face-up. Her own face stared back.
Saphira didn’t even glance at it. She already knew. “So,” she said quietly. “You’re here to collect me.”
Kain studied her. She wasn’t afraid. Not really. She was tired. Hungry. Ready to fight. But not afraid. “No,” he said. “I came to warn you.”
Silence. Even the mule stopped chewing and seemed to eye him suspiciously. Finally she frowned. “You tracked me across half the frost line...” She looked him up and down skeptically. “...just to warn me?”
“The next hunters won’t.” He knew he was going to have to gain her trust to convince her to come back with him. He wasn’t about to force a noble gargoyle woman to do anything against her will. Although, if he really thought about it, he would be forcing her to get married to the man she was running from. But he pushed that thought out of his head.
She searched his face for the lie. He let her. “There are four more parties looking for you.” His head nodded back to where he had passed a small bounty hunter party.
Her expression shifted. Just enough. “Bounty hunters?”
He nodded. “And I know one of them works for Lord Varyn directly.”
That finally reached her. Color drained from her face. Barely. But just enough that he noticed. She looked away toward the trees. Calculating. Measuring distances. Escape routes. Kain recognized the instinct. He’d lived by it for years.
“I’m not going back,” she said. The words came quietly. Not defiant. Certain.
“I didn’t say you had to.”
Her head snapped toward him. “What?”
“I’m heading south.”
“Why?”
“Because everyone else is heading north,” he answered with a shrug.
She blinked, her dagger lowering slightly. “...That’s your plan?”
“It usually works when I want to avoid certain people.”
She laughed. An honest laugh. Short. Disbelieving. “You are either incredibly clever or unbelievably stupid.”
“I’ve been called both.” He smiled at her, trying to make himself seem friendly. He knew his features weren’t exactly friendly-looking. He had scars and had been out in the wild by himself for too long; it felt weird to smile.
She lowered the dagger even more. Not completely. But enough. “I don’t know you.”
“No.”
“I don’t trust you.”
“I wouldn’t.”
“You could be lying.”
“I could.”
Another long silence settled between them. Finally she sighed. “I don’t even know your name.”
“Kain.”
She repeated it quietly, testing it. “Kain.” Then, after another moment, she slid the dagger back into its sheath. “All right, Kain.” Her eyes remained wary. “But if you try to sell me back to the council...” She smiled, and it wasn’t pleasant. “I’ll make sure they never identify your body.”
Kain looked at her for a long moment. Then nodded once. “Fair.” He reached for the mule’s lead rope. The animal immediately tried to bite him. Kain stared at it. “I don’t like your mule.”
Saphira folded her arms. “He doesn’t like anyone.”
The mule brayed triumphantly. For the first time in weeks, Kain found himself smiling without meaning to. This mission was already becoming far more complicated than it had any right to be.
