Free Between the Bleeding Willows (The Demon Hunters Series Book 1) by D.A. Roach Page A

could and then set it back down. Next, I wrung the long tresses into the bucket. My fingers ran through her locks over and over again to undo any knots. Leaning closer, I whispered, “You can do this Cassidy, you just have to fight.” I kissed her forehead one last time before returning everything where it belonged and heading to my room.
     
    ***
     
    The next morning, I stirred awake when my daylight lamp turned on and illuminated the room. Being so far under the ground, our only sense of daytime were the lamps. Casters had always been able to reflect and bring sunlight from the Human Realm into our subterranean home, but Angeline had created the more efficient lamps. It wasn’t enough to tan us—we were all still pale white—but the light gave us a sense of time and kept us physically and mentally healthy.
    Today was the day before the Harvest. We needed to run extra patrols at the gates and binding chamber, check and prep the carts, stock provisions for the journey, and rest.
    When I returned from rounding with patrols, I informed Angeline that the binding chamber spells seemed thin and she should reinforce it.
    In the halls, I ran into Sam, the Master Harvester that usually reported at our meetings. He told me that they were ready for tomorrow, though all the Harvesters were worried. They were not trained for combat, and they were afraid of the unknown. I reassured him that we did not intend for them to fight—we had multiple soldiers guarding each Harvester so their focus would not need to stray from harvesting. This seemed to give him some relief, but worry was still evident on his face.
    “Sam, I don’t know when we’ll have another necromancer in our Clan. I want you to take half the current Vinka supply and use the seed to plant more trees within our land.”
    “Yes, we will do that, Sir.”
    “Thank you, see you in the morning.” I left Sam and checked on the carts.
    I was surprised to see a familiar face inspecting the cart wheels. “Casper, they have you on cart duty?” The tall, skinny warrior stood and wiped his hands on his pants.
    “Yes, Sir. Tarrin and I cleaned each of the carts.”
    The pixie of a girl with bright eyes and brownish red hair extended her hand for me to shake. “Hello, Sir, the name’s Tarrin.” The Clan was large enough that there were still people I hardly knew.
    “You can just call me Killian,” I returned. “Keep up the good work.” I grabbed a daylight lamp and walked past the carts into the tunnels we would travel in tomorrow. Angeline’s magic was our usual method of transportation, but we needed the carts to haul the fruit, and those could not be crossed over easily.
    Long ago, the tunnels were the original way of getting in and out of our mountain base. It took years of our ancestors carving paths in the rocky walls. After the Incident with the Krevarians, we’d boarded up and abandoned their work. Would we come across more Krevarians? Had their hive regrown? What else might we meet? Tomorrow would be…I hoped it would be easy.
    I walked back to Tarrin and Casper. “Casper, I’ll see you in the medical unit in a few hours.”
    Casper waved at me.
    “Bye,” Tarrin seemed to sing in a sweet voice.
    I waved in return.
    My patrol gathered in the dining hall to grab some food. The Harvesters always set out an extra-large platter of dried meats the day before our battles. Anchor, Jet, and Sean sat around me, plates spilling over with meat. They would be my team along with one of the trainees for the Harvest.
    “Boss, everything ready for tomorrow?” Anchor cracked his knuckles, tattooed and scarred like every other inch of his body, while waiting for my answer.
    “As ready as we can be. Anchor, I know you’ve been out past the boundary before…”
    “That’s ’cause he’s crazy and wants to get killed,” Jet teased and ducked a smack in the back of the head from Anchor’s massive hand.
    “How about you guys? Have you been out past there?” I asked,