New Short Story Available on Pre-Order: Stiletto's Luck
What's it About?
As a bodyguard, assassin, spy, and demon hunter, Stiletto walks the edge of an eternal war, refusing to ally with the most logical choice, but what happens when an angel saves his life? Is the debt ephemeral or eternal? And what are his choices?
How Does It Start?
Sheathed in a suit that shifted with the colors of a city night, Stiletto crouched in the shadows, looking very much like the other gargoyles on the roof line, but one set far too close to the casement. Those he’d arranged to meet in the room beyond had been on time. They’d come, as arranged, bringing no nasty surprises and no extras, but he wanted to learn something more about them before going inside.
Such as why four of the pairs hadn’t left as soon as they’d seen each other. And why their bodyguards had failed to check the window and make sure it was locked. Were they careless, or did they know he waited just outside?
And why did they stray so far from their principals, each guard moving to the outer perimeter of the room, leaving their masters close enough to do each other harm before they could intervene.
Three had hired him to protect them from one of the others. Two had hired him to investigate separate matters that now appeared linked. And he had approached one of the men acting as a guard, with a proposition.
Stiletto waited. The figures in the room grew restless. Finally, one of the three turned to another.
“A precision weapon, you said he was. I would have thought he’d have been on time.”
“Perhaps he scries,” another—Anderman—said and his guard gave a sigh, breathing in and sweeping his arms wide before drawing them in as he exhaled.
His principle watched as his protector settled into stillness. The others waited.
“No,” the guard said, after six heartbeats of concentration. He did not say what else he might have noticed with his heightened sensitivity, but he moved closer to Anderman’s side. “No one scries here.”
The men in the room did not seem to realize the significance of the guard’s movement. They relaxed.
“Then why did he invite us together, if he wasn’t going to meet with us?”
Huh, now they thought of it.
Stiletto watched as the bodyguards moved closer to their principles, before he shifted onto the narrow ledge alongside the casement and opened the window. Three crossbow bolts and two shards of magic parted the space he might have filled.
Where Do You Find It?
The stand-alone version of Stiletto's Luck can be found in ebook form on a number of platforms: Kobo, Amazon, DriveThruFiction and GooglePlay for a start, and other sites will follow. Check for a link to your preferred store at the following Books2Read link: https://books2read.com/u/bwRZG9
Or, if you'd rather more stories, you can find this short story in 2021's A Collection of Dragons, for which links can be found at the following Books2Read site: https://books2read.com/u/mV6zV6
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