Though not an Executioner, as Malik's pet, Clara wanted to have her say. This story takes place in 1761 in The Guild's den in New York, six years after Byrn's story.
***
Clara pressed her ear to the thick door. She could hear the voices inside: Malick and Ark. One of the Enforcers, Ark was a tall immortal with a slender frame. His long chestnut hair caught the candle light to shimmer with a million highlights, and his green eyes were ringed in darker emerald. Whenever she saw him, she thought of a fairy prince from a storybook.
Now, though, closeted with his master, his voice was rough, angry. "It was only my quick thinking that stopped all of us from dying. To be afraid is one thing, but to be a coward another."
Malick laughed, a low, heavy rumble, like summer thunder. "And why did yo
