Nathan Roberts's Arc

Chapter 3 of 3

The owl still watched. Nathan had followed it north once and lost it in the hills. Now it perched in the ivy above his own gate, yellow eyes fixed on his door. Every night he left the manor, it lifted off and flew toward the ridge. Every plan he made to grow his network reached his rival before dawn. He could not build in the open while those eyes reported each move. So he stopped hunting the bird. He went to the woman who tied blood into rope. Deidra Arlan met him at a crumbling countryside manor beyond his walls. Cracked stone and a sagging roof, ivy through broken shutters. She had made the cord that reinstated Elara's pact. Nathan had never trusted her, and he did not now. She sat in the ruined hall like she owned it, turning a small charm between her fingers. "The vampire lord," she said. Her smile did not reach her green eyes. "You built a whole village on secrets. Now something keeps yours for you." She nodded toward the doorway. The owl had followed. It settled on a broken sill and stared in. "You bind things," Nathan said. "You called Elara off her path and held her at a threshold. I want that owl held. Not killed. Bound to me." Deidra tilted her head. "Binding costs. Blood, and a favor I name later." Nathan cut his palm on a shard of stone. He held the wound over the charm in her hand. His cold blood ran into the braid. "Take it. Name your favor when you dare." She worked fast. Her fingers threaded his blood through the cord's knot while she whispered under her breath. The owl shifted on the sill. It spread its wings to fly. Deidra pulled the knot tight. The bird froze mid-lift, claws locked to the wood, unable to cross. "It cannot leave," she said. "And it cannot send. The eyes are yours now." Nathan stepped to the sill. The owl glared but could not move. He understood at once what this bought him. His rival had watched him for weeks. Tonight the watching stopped, and the rival did not know it. Every report would simply cease. She would wait in her hidden room for news that never arrived. "Feed it false paths," Nathan told Deidra. "Let it seem to watch. Let it carry what I choose." Deidra's smile widened. "You want a lie with wings." "I want my rival blind while I move." Nathan lifted the bound bird onto his arm. Its glowing eyes met his without fear. For the first time since the cord appeared on his desk, he was not the one being read. He carried the owl back through his gate. Behind him, Deidra watched him go, still turning the charm. She held his blood in a knot now. The favor she had not named waited between them, unpaid.