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

“I don’t think either of us wants him to be turned into me. Teaching him how to fight is helping him learn how to protect himself, nothing more than that.”

“He’s been spending quite a bit of time with Olivia.”

“I know,” Gavin said.

“Really? Seeing as how you haven’t been coming around the Dragon, I wasn’t sure if you were paying much attention to what he’s been doing.”

“I pay attention,” he said. “Sometimes he lets me pay attention a bit too much, if you know what I mean.” Gavin tapped the enchantment on his chest.

Jessica wrinkled her brow. “That’s… unfortunate.”

“You’re telling me. I have to take it out so that I don’t have to hear.”

“Maybe they want you to listen.” She winked at him. “Anyway, it is nice to see you, Gavin.”

“The only way I can keep you—and the Dragon—safe is by staying away.”

“It’s isolating you,” she said. “Is that your intent?”

He frowned. It hadn’t been, but maybe that was Tristan’s plan all along.

That bastard.

Gavin wouldn’t put it past him to do that, to sever the connections he’d made in the city and break him away from not only Gaspar and his ability to help but also Wrenlow, Imogen, and now even Jessica.

And Gavin had let him do it.

“Damn,” he whispered. “I’m sorry.”

“There you are,” she said, smiling and shaking her head. “It seems as if the great Gavin Lorren has decided to return.”

“The great Gavin Lorren never left,” he said. “But I think I’d started to let myself get manipulated.”

“If you’re worried about him, your best bet is to use the resources you’ve accumulated here. It’s because of you that the city is safer and that the constables and the enchanters have decided to work together again. It’s because of you that the Fates left.”

“For now,” he said. “The problem is that they’ll return.”

He had the dark egg. The semarrl. That was his deterrent.

They wouldn’t come so long as they knew he had that.

But if he lost it…

Then the Fates might return. The city would suffer. Gavin didn’t think even he was strong enough to handle the three Fates at one time.

“You don’t know that.”

“I don’t, but I remember what they said when they left, the warning they gave me. They aren’t done with Yoran.”

“But you gave us time to ensure they can’t keep targeting us,” Jessica said.

Hopefully, it was time well spent. It was difficult to know, though. Were the constables training, or were they simply acquiring enchantments? But even if it was just about the enchantments, that was still a level of preparation.

“I’ll come back tonight,” Gavin said. “Is that good enough?”

“It is,” she said.

He smiled at her and turned away, thankful she’d stopped glaring at him midway through the conversation.

He tapped on the enchantment, listening for a moment. “If you’re there, Wrenlow, I would love to have a conversation with you.”

There was no answer and nothing to suggest Wrenlow had his enchantment on. Maybe he was busy with Olivia.

Gavin meandered through the streets. He was in no hurry, but he needed to prepare.

There were specific types of preparations he needed, and some he could do now. He headed through the city, and he slowed as he neared the constables’ building.

There was a distinct energy; a type of power that suggested magic use nearby. Gavin had grown accustomed to that magic here and the way they pulled on the power. The enchanters within this place drew on that magic, but he found that the power was used more openly than he had expected. There had to be others in the city who could detect the use of magic. It had to be more than just him who was aware of it, but it didn’t seem as if anyone else cared.

He paused at the entrance to the constable barracks. The crowds that he’d seen elsewhere in the city weren’t here. He lingered, holding his hand on the door, and then pushed it open.

The barracks had a different feel to them than when he’d first come here. With the enchanters now working with the constables—and, in many cases, serving as constables themselves—the barracks had become a place where magic existed more openly than it did in any other spot within the city. Gavin found that amusing, though he noticed an occasional side-eyed glance from some of the constables and understood that old grievances would take time to resolve. Just because Davel Chan said a thing didn’t make it so.

The inside of the building was awash with activity. Several constables looked up when he entered, but none of them reacted. He was a common enough sight these days. He recognized a man sitting at a desk near the door and headed over to him.

“Enrath,” Gavin said to the man with long hair parted down the middle. “I’m looking for Davel. Is he in?”

Enrath nodded to the stairs at the back of the building. “Down. You know what he’s doing.”

Gavin grunted. “Still?”

“Most of the time. He has us making as many as we can,” Enrath said, looking down at the stacks of wood piled on the desk.

Gavin shook his head. Enrath was an enchanter-turned-constable, a man he had come to know and interact with a few times. He suspected that Enrath was probably closer to forty than he was to twenty, despite how young he looked.

“He doesn’t have you patrolling?” Gavin asked.

“Oh, he has us do that from time to time, but he’s much more concerned about making sure we’re all prepared.” Enrath shrugged. “I eventually get tired and can’t make any more, so he lets us go out again.”

Gavin chuckled. “Keep at it, I guess.”

“Do I have much choice?”

Gavin laughed and made his way down the stairs. The farther he descended, the more he felt the walls pressing in on him. The stairs narrowed, and he could feel magic swirling around him, leaving the hairs on his arms standing on end.

He reached the lowest level. The magic here felt more potent than anywhere else in the constables’ building; powerful enough