Dregian Ivan's Arc

Chapter 1 of 1

Dregian crouched at the tree line and watched the woman hang laundry behind her cottage. He had been sent to kill her. Instead, he was learning the shape of her days, waiting for a lie good enough to earn her trust before the blade at his back ever had to be named. He pulled a small silver locket from his coat. He had taken it from her windowsill the night he arrived, meaning it as proof of the kill. He could send it now. His handler would believe her dead for a week, maybe two. It would buy him time. Then he saw the marker at the edge of the woods. A weathered stone post, arrows pointing toward the cottage, fresh mud smeared on the base. Someone had passed it recently. Someone moving fast. The handler had not waited. An enforcer was already on the road. Dregian closed his fist around the locket and stood. He would not send proof. He would meet what was coming first. He walked toward the cottage door, and for the second time in his life, he moved toward something instead of away.