The Stone Wolf (The Chain Breaker Book 4) by D.K. Holmberg (digital book reader TXT) 📕

had dragged down here long ago was pushed against the wall. It wasn’t nearly as comfortable as the beds in the Dragon, and the sheets weren’t as clean as Jessica managed to keep them, but he settled into it. He missed Jessica’s fragrant perfume, but he knew that staying here kept her and everyone else in the Dragon safe.

It also gave him an opportunity to have his own space.

Alone.

This was one of the lessons Gavin had mastered above all—or at least he had until he’d started to work with Wrenlow, then Gaspar, and now even the constables.

He stared up at the ceiling. His mind raced, working through everything he had encountered, everything he had dealt with so far today. Despite trying to figure it out, Gavin still didn’t feel as if he could come to terms with all of it.

There were no answers. How could there be when he had no idea what more he might have to face?

He had to slow his breathing, calm his mind, and settle into sleep. Gradually, he managed to do so, but it was not restive.

Dreams came to him. They were the same sort of troubled dreams he’d had ever since coming to Yoran—ones that filled him with memories of his youth, that left him knowing he’d been guided toward something, forced to serve in a way he hadn’t chosen. Gavin stirred while he was sleeping and struggled through those dreams, trying to make sense of what filled his mind.

But he managed to curl up and relax, feeling warmth flow through him. It started deep in his belly, working from someplace buried within and making its way up, washing over him.

Gavin understood that to be magic. At least, that’s what he understood now. The power connected him, guiding him to who and what he had once been. When he was younger, he had known about the power and connection he had, but he hadn’t known why Tristan wanted him to be the Chain Breaker.

Tristan appeared in this dream.

Gavin had been almost fifteen. He had come into his skill and powers and had already acquired the nickname of the Chain Breaker. He’d been driven away from the other students he had trained with, making it difficult for him to feel as if he belonged anywhere. Tristan had forced him to take on increasingly challenging jobs—jobs that actually had meaning to Tristan and were no longer simple tests.

There had been dozens of them around this time. Gavin had been sent to take out targets, acquire items, and disappear. He was meant to be little more than the shadows, and in all those jobs, he had never struggled.

Until this one.

The dream settled around Gavin. He was aware that it was not real, as if there was some power within him that enabled him to know this was a dream but not to be able to act within it.

He would much rather have other dreams, even if they were of Jessica. Though, if Gavin were able to control his dreams, he would prefer to think of Anna—her golden hair, her soft and gentle smile, the connection he felt when he was with her.

He couldn’t do anything about it, though. It felt as if he were determined to have this dream, as if the magic were forcing him along the path of seeing this and knowing what was here.

Before him was a dark house set in the forest just beyond the borders of Nelar, the city where he and Tristan had traveled to for part of his training. Gavin had been forced to engage in several street fights, each of them with an increasing number of thugs that Tristan had managed to coordinate to come after him. None of them had been altogether challenging. Still, Gavin’s fists were bruised and bloodied, and he thought he’d broken a bone in his leg. It hurt every time he took a step, but Tristan had not given him any opportunity to recover.

This job was too important to waste that kind of time.

When Tristan had assigned him the job, Gavin had asked why he had to take it, why he needed to attack when he was still so injured. Tristan had dismissed his concern, the way he often did.

“You think all jobs will go easily?” Tristan asked, standing in the shadows of a tree, his gaze lingering on the small home nestled within a clearing in the forest outskirts. Tristan had on a dark gray cloak with the hood covering his black hair, only his flinty gray eyes gleaming from underneath it and a hint of the lines on the corners of his eyes visible.

“I don’t know if I can get through this quietly,” Gavin said.

The home wasn’t large, but it was isolated. His foot throbbed with a steady pain, but not enough that Gavin thought he had to pay too much attention to it. But it was there, and he was all too aware that it would limit him. Tristan had taught him to ignore pain, saying it was merely a mental barrier. Though it wasn’t anything he truly struggled with, sometimes even mental barriers posed real challenges.

Still, he knew that Tristan wouldn’t permit him to show any weakness. Which meant that Gavin would have to take the job and complete it successfully.

It was possible the job was a test, though typically when Tristan sent him after items, they were actual assignments. Knowing Tristan, though, all assignments were tests in some way, as if he wanted to gauge whether Gavin would be able to complete all of his tasks regardless of what was placed upon him.

Gavin looked around the clearing, and there was nothing that posed a challenge to him or said he couldn’t complete the job. So, he hobbled across the clearing to the home and moved to one of the windows so that he could look inside for any sign of activity.

There was none.

He resisted the urge to look behind him and see whether Tristan was there, but he knew