Read Dawnbreaker: Legends of the Duskwalker - Book 3 for Free Online

held himself still, but in that moment the vague sense of familiarity snapped into focus. It wasn’t a single feature or trait about the man that reminded him of Three, but rather the sum of many ethereal qualities taken together; the man’s utter stillness, the fluidity of his few movements, the almost surgical gaze.
    The man glanced around at the ring of men that had him surrounded and took a deep breath, then nodded seemingly to himself. He looked back to Wren and leaned forward, as if sharing a secret.
    “My name is Haiku,” he said. “Of House Eight.”
    He said it as though it should have more meaning to Wren than it did. He must have read Wren’s face, though, because after a moment he leaned a little closer and said something that hit Wren with a fresh storm of emotion.
    “Three was my brother.”

THREE
    C ass focused her attention back to her immediate surroundings. The moon carved a channel of soft light through the darkened room, stark as it spilled across the dusty floor and over the scattered piles of debris. It was odd to see such clutter; much of the area surrounding Morningside had been so thoroughly scavenged over the years as to be almost clean. She wondered just how far out from the city she was now. Or if perhaps there was something about this particular building that had marked it off-limits. Cass tried not to think about what that might mean.
    The Weir were still near and active, though their calls to one another were trailing off, coming less frequently. They hadn’t seemed to be searching in any organized way, but after a minute or two Cass decided to move out of the front room. If she could get higher up in the building, she might be able to get a better sense of what was going on out there.
    There was a door in the back wall, flat grey, slightly recessed. As quietly as she was able, she edged her way to it and found it led to a narrow passage that ended in a stairwell. Cass moved in cautiously and after a moment’s consideration, pushed the door nearly shut. There was a handle on this side of it, but she didn’t feel quite confident enough to close it all the way.
    When Cass reached the base of the stairs, she was relieved to find they were concrete. A cheap, rough cast, they were uneven, chipped, and cracked. But they weren’t likely to creak when she put her weight on them. She ascended. The second floor appeared to be laid out much like the one below it. There were slit windows here though, and the gloom lay less heavy. The slant of the ceiling above the steps suggested another staircase. A quick glance through the nearest window revealed little more than the faces of the surrounding buildings, so Cass climbed the next flight.
    The third floor didn’t deviate from the established floorplan, except that there were no stairs leading further up. A thin metal railing ran around the top of the stairwell; a rusting mesh clung to it with haphazard welds. With each passing minute, Cass became more confident that the building wasn’t harboring any Weir, and after a brief search of the upper rooms, she allowed herself to relax ever so slightly. For the first time since she’d entered the building, she lowered her weapon and let it dangle from its sling. She kept one hand on it.
    As on the floor below, slit windows perforated the thick outer wall at even intervals. Cass moved to one at the front right corner, close to the stairs, where she could keep her back to the adjacent wall while she tried to get her bearings. She didn’t have much of a vantage from the narrow window, and she’d gotten so turned around she wasn’t even exactly sure where she should be looking anyway. It took her almost a minute of scanning to find the building where she’d left Wick and Able. When she did locate it, the distance surprised her. It seemed farther away than it should have been. But even from this far out, she could see the flickering moonlight glow dancing within the hole in the front of the