Read Pursuit: An Urban Fantasy Novel (The Lillim Callina Chronicles Book 4) for Free Online

I’d have liked. Why? Because he’d sent me back in time to experience it firsthand.
    “Oh, I didn’t know. I’ve been gone since just before the siege. When I die, I’ll have to buy her a beer in hell.” He shrugged and took a sip of my root beer. His face scrunched up and he stared down into the drink. “Seems over-carbonated, no?”
    “You don’t need to do that either,” I replied, ignoring his comment.
    “Sure I do, she was my friend. If Manaka killed her that makes it partially my fault since… well… I let his army into Lot,” Kain said and downed the root beer in one gulp. He shrugged and stood up, raising his hand to silence me before I could say anything. “Don’t ask me why I helped him. It’s complicated, and I don’t want to go into it.”
    I glanced up at the sky and didn’t know how to respond to that statement. Clearly this guy either didn’t know anything about me or was playing dumb. I wasn’t exactly inclined to tell him I was Dirge Meilan reborn, anyway. That would open the floor to a whole bunch of questions I was not interested in answering.
    Mom had never talked about Kain, either, which was odd if they’d known each other. Then again, Mom never talked about the siege at all. The subject should have been analyzed to death by the Dioscuri, but I barely knew anything about it. What had happened during the siege had definitely not come up in any of my Dioscuri History classes.
    A Molotov cocktail smacked into the table we’d been sitting at and exploded in a flash of flame and debris. I threw myself backward, wrapping my magic around me like a shield, but I needn’t have bothered. The fire flared for a nothingth of a second before going out. Like instantly. And I didn’t have anything to do with it.
    Kain stood next to the table, one hand clenched around the handle of my mug. His brown eyes had taken on a strange shade of silver. Had he just turned the fire off? I knew Caleb could do that, but for whatever reason, I was pretty sure Kain didn’t have fire mastery like Caleb did. Hell, no one had fire mastery like Caleb did.
    “I know you’re there,” Kain said. “I can smell the stink of Lot on you. Just come out here already so I can kill you and go back to drinking.” He jerked his thumb at me. “She still owes me one more.”
    I whirled around as over a dozen Royal Guards emerged from their places in the shadows. I glanced down at my wrist. Yup. The marmot was dead. I should have tied a bell to its neck so I’d have known when it stopped moving. How long had it taken them to find me? The thing couldn’t have been dead long. I just saw it moving a few minutes ago.
    “It’s okay, Joe. These guys are here for me,” I said, purposely using his fake name as I reached down for Shirajirashii. My eyes went wide and my heart hammered in my chest because my swords weren’t there. They were still tucked into my Spirit Pouch. How could I have been so careless? I’d never get them out in time to take on all these guys. I curled my hands into fists and moved so that I was facing them. “I don’t want them to hurt you.”
    They hadn’t bothered to spread out and surround us. They were all standing together in a group. And why had they used a Molotov Cocktail… that didn’t make sense. Unless? Had the bartender thrown it? Was this a thing she had worked out with Kain beforehand? Had she been trying to warn us?
    “Tut, tut, Princess,” Kain said with a shrug. “What kinda guy would I be if I let fifteen guys take on a tiny girl by herself?” He waved the empty pitcher dismissively. “Whatever type of guy that is, I’m not him.”
    He took a step toward the closest Royal Guard and stumbled over his own feet. His arms shot out, windmilling wildly, and the mug flew through the air and smacked into one of the Guards. It shattered in a spray of glass as the guy collapsed to the ground.
    Kain crashed into another Royal Guard, knocking him onto his butt. Flailing, Kain reached