Hanako Tepes's Arc

Chapter 2 of 8

The spymaster chose the arena for their meeting. Hanako came anyway. Empty now, the tiers loomed dark above the training floor. Alexis Tomar waited near the center, in a black suit, hands loose at her sides. Dracula's spymaster ran his eyes across every court in the world. If anyone had planted the knife in Hanako's marriage, this woman could have. Hanako kept her diamond-edged blade sheathed and stopped ten steps away. "You watch me," Alexis said. No greeting. "I want to know why before you do something we both regret." "Someone in this court wants my marriage broken." Hanako watched her face. "You move through every throne. You answer to no one. Convince me it isn't you." Alexis did not flinch. She reached slowly into her coat. Hanako's hand went to her hilt. But Alexis pulled out a folded paper and tossed it to the floor between them. Then she dragged something from the shadows behind her. A dead vampire in a courier's cloak, throat torn open. "A Nordic courier," Alexis said. "I killed him three nights ago. His orders name his contact inside your rites." She nudged the paper forward. "Read the name." Hanako did not move for it. A trap could look exactly like this. "You could have written that yourself." "I could have." Alexis stepped closer. "But I hunt the same traitor you do. I found him first. Your steward. The Nordic Clan placed him inside your marriage." The steward. Her own man, at her side through every ceremony. Rage rose in Hanako, cold and clean. Something new answered it. Her red eyes flared white. Frost bloomed across the stone under her boots. The air turned bitter. She had never felt this before. Alexis stepped back fast. "What is that?" Hanako drew her blade. It came out sheathed in ice, the edge sharper than diamond. She was not aiming at Alexis. The proof was real. The courier was real. This woman had done what she claimed. Hanako lowered the frost-covered sword. A shape dropped from the dark tiers. Pale skin, black wings, fangs bared. A strigoi mort, the steward's last defense, sent to silence them both. It dove at Alexis's back. Hanako threw out her hand. Ice erupted from the floor in a jagged wall, a wave of blue crystal rising like a small mountain. The creature slammed into it. Hanako swung her frozen blade. The strigoi mort shattered into snow and dust. Silence returned. Frost coated the whole training floor. Alexis stared at her, then at the melting ice. "They will call you the ice queen for this." Hanako sheathed her blade. "Let them." She looked down at the courier's orders, now certain. "You are not the traitor. My steward is. And he knows we know." She had her proof and a new gift. She had also lost the element of surprise. The spy inside her marriage was warned, and he would run tonight.