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

take all of my time to make my preparations.” She offered a hint of a sad smile and regarded Gavin with it.

Why would she do that?

“I have put it off long enough, and unfortunately, it seems that the time for my preparation has drawn near.” Before he had a chance to question what she alluded to, she glanced past him, and her gaze took in the stone wolf. “Interesting creature you have with you.”

“Friends of mine provided it for me. Transportation.” He seemed like more than that, though Gavin had to remind himself that the wolf was only an enchantment. That was it.

“I imagine it’s easier to travel with that than it is to travel by horse.”

“Maybe easier and faster, but not more pleasant. My backside…” He grinned, shaking his head. “You don’t want to know about how my backside aches from the journey.”

Anna chuckled. “I thought your name was the Chain Breaker, not the Saddle Breaker.”

Gavin snorted, and he looked over to the house. “You knew.”

“Stories of the Chain Breaker have spread even to Yoran.”

There was something about the way she said it that suggested more to him. “It’s about more than me being the Chain Breaker. What is it?”

She eyed him for a moment. “Hopefully, you never have to know.” She forced a smile. “Why this place?”

What was she keeping from him? He wondered, though he knew that he wouldn’t be able to force her to share.

He realized the bodies had all been cleaned up. “This was the first time I failed him,” Gavin said.

“The first time?”

He shrugged. “I suppose it was the only time I failed Tristan. It was how I knew exactly where to find this place.”

“Indeed?”

Gavin turned, crossing his arms as he stared at the building. “He reminded me of my failure from time to time. I think Tristan wanted to make sure I knew I would not be permitted to fail again.”

“And you did not,” she said.

He shook his head. “I didn’t. I feared failing him.” It was how he had known Tristan had called him here. It was a message he’d sent. Gavin had gotten that message loud and clear, unlike the enchantment he shared with Wrenlow. “He abducted a friend of mine. Along with somebody special to him.”

“I see. And the great Gavin Lorren, the Chain Breaker, came on a job in search of a friend.” She cocked her head as she regarded him. “You have changed more than I would’ve expected.”

“I didn’t realize you’d expected anything from me.”

She smiled again. “Perhaps I misspoke. You have changed.”

“You knew I changed. When I was last in Yoran, I couldn’t leave because of my commitment to the city.”

“And is that different now?”

Gavin shook his head. “Not yet. I’m hopeful I won’t be needed there indefinitely…”

Now that he had Davel Chan, the enchanters, and even Gaspar working on behalf of the city, there was an element of protection there he didn’t need to provide like he had before. And with that, Gavin had to hope that his friends and the people who had once relied on him would be able to manage without him going forward. Unfortunately, he didn’t know if such a thing would even be possible until he removed the threat of Tristan and the Fates.

Though he could leave the dark egg in Yoran. There might be others who could use that to push back the Fates. He’d have to consider that, especially given what he’d learned about the egg from the Keeper.

“I’ve been struggling with what Tristan might want from me,” Gavin said.

“Have you come up with any answers?”

“Not yet. And yet I can’t shake the feeling there’s something he’s after, but it’s more than what I’ve seen so far.”

“Perhaps you must ask him.”

Gavin grunted. “I’ve been trying. He tested me in the city. He attacked me, wanting to uncover how much power I had and whether or not I’d be able to fight past the staff masters of Jind.”

“That is a very specific test.”

Gavin shrugged. “It’s because I had not always been successful with their fighting style. He knew it, and he knew I would have needed to work on that without him.”

“And he wanted to see whether you have increased your skill in the time you’ve been away from him.”

Gavin nodded. “That’s my suspicion.”

“Interesting. He has been difficult for us to find.”

“What are you trying to do with him?”

“We are trying to determine what he might do next. When we learned he was alive, he had not posed any threat, but that has evolved—much like many things that deal with him have evolved over time.”

Gavin pursed his lips. “I think I might be the only one who’ll be able to stop him.”

“Probably,” she said. “But it still raises the question of why he trained you the way he did. Unless he thought he could control you.”

“He thought to use me. Isn’t that what you said?”

“I’m not so sure I said it or that someone else said it to you. Either way, it fits, does it not?”

Gavin nodded. It did, but it still didn’t make complete sense to him. Why would Tristan have trained him all those years to become the fighter and the assassin he had, if Gavin would ultimately be skilled enough to defeat him?

Unless that was never going to be the case.

Until he captured Tristan and had that conversation, he doubted he would know.

“This has been particularly difficult,” Gavin said, gesturing to the house. “I think Wrenlow and Olivia were here, but we were too slow. We were caught by a Toral and another woman. A sorceress, or something along that line.” He still didn’t know what to make of the dark-haired woman, only that she had a strange type of magic that he had never seen before, which had challenged Imogen.

“You faced one of the Toral?” she said, turning to him.

“We did.”

“That is odd.”

“I think it was more of Tristan’s message,” he said. “That was part of this job, after all. I was supposed to recover a