FOREVER KNIGHTS: #2 Rise of the King of Assassins
Evil Magic?

Everyone in Grier Country knew of the dark magic of the Dreads. Magic disobeying all laws of Ardae. Known to be dangerous…

But I’ve never seen anything half here, half somewhere else.

Looking at her made him swallow. Soul-deep pain searing through him. Pain he could not explain.

Her soulful eyes damp with unshed emotion, pleading for understanding. She lifted a quaking hand and pointed to a high shelf.

He swallowed hard.

The visions of last night haunted his mind’s eye. Great black wings splaying from her petite form. She is mesmerizing. Tiny and beautiful.

What a lovely being she must have been as a woman.Men would have fallen at her feet.

What crime could she have committed that would doom her to an eternity of aimless whispering, able to see but never touch this life.

He realized he could not recall the last time he had taken a breath. He stared at her as she met his long study and then slowly lifted a hazy finger toward a top shelf.

Compulsively, he reached for the book she directed him to.

He lifted the skin volume from the shelf and found it shockingly heavy. As he folded open the binding, he found the worn parchment stating it was the lore of the revenants. The Original Immortals.

Pulling it down slowly he twisted to ask her but found only black silence.

“Come back…” He whispered.

He sensed her presence reaching for him. But a full turn in the library revealed nothing.

“Don’t go…”

It’s too late.

Moments later, Raese caught another flash of movement but when he glanced up, he saw only what looked like a black whip vanishing behind the aisles.

The book slipped and when it landed, he saw a bit of ribbon slip to peer from the top. Gripping it in his fingertips he followed to its pages and found a particularly intriguing story.

An orange-eyed creature peered from around the bottom of one bookshelf, watching quietly as Raese lifted the book. Viewing the page which had opened for him. Speaking of a tale of a particular immortal.

Someone people in the UpperLands called Merlin.

Someone…whose stories felt hauntingly familiar to Raese Whiting.

Raese, my brother, if you are out there, I understand why you may have stayed away from us all this time. Why you might have chosen a different life for yourself.

I can see all the reasons you could turn your back on us…

But how could you ever turn your back on her? She searches for you. Every moment of every day…Even now…

From the Journal of Sebastian Bodane.