Perwolf The Touch of Death

1. Auflage 2025
ISBN: 978-3-6951-8180-3
Verlag: BoD - Books on Demand
Format: EPUB
Kopierschutz: 6 - ePub Watermark

E-Book, Englisch, Band 1, 432 Seiten

Reihe: Evergreen

A hero. A villain. The impending downfall of their shared world. Can the hero and the villain work together to save their world from certain destruction, or will they themselves be the downfall of Evergreen? Nic has everything he ever wanted in life, yet he doubts it all. On top of that, he has to team up with Evergreen's most dangerous murderer to save his world from the curse of the Dark Mage. But at every step of this journey, Nic realises that right and wrong are not always as they seem, and that a villain may just as easily be a fallen hero. When Benji is forced to work with a guard, he sees this as his chance to escape perpetual imprisonment and resume his compulsion to murder, because after all, that's what the villain is renowned for. But as Benji spends more time with Nic, he realises that there's something about Nic that he just cannot resist. Nic and Benji are drawn to each other, falling deeper and deeper under each other's spell. Ultimately, though, they're on opposite sides, and at the end of the story, the hero always defeats the villain. Or does he?

Hi! It's nice to meet you. My name is Nina and I'm 25 years old. I was born into a family of book lovers and quickly fell in love with reading. I started writing when I was very young, making books out of paper on which I wrote my own little stories. When I was older, I started writing Harry Potter fan fiction on Wattpad. This was the start of a lifelong passion. Apart from writing, I love good music - I'm a huge metal fan - as well as coffee, my two cats (Merlin and Loki), my girlfriend, and Polaroid photos. I hope you enjoy my books as much as I enjoy writing them!

Autoren/Hrsg.

Perwolf, Nina

Leseproben

9

NIC

Hey! Look who’s finally back again!”

I only have a moment to let my rucksack and jacket drop to the ground with a loud thud before my best friend Finlay runs up and throws himself at me with all his strength, squeezing me tightly. This almost sends both of us crashing to the hard marble floor, but we just about manage to keep our balance.

“Hey, mate,” I say to him when we stand safely with both feet on the ground again. Smiling, I pat his back as a greeting.

I am very happy to finally see Finlay again. We’ve been apart for the last couple of weeks as I’ve been on an important mission back home in Cambridge while Finlay has been on assignment here in Evergreen. I mean, we’ve been talking on the phone pretty much every day, but as we’ve been together constantly since we were children and Finlay is more like a brother to me, it’s quite hard for me to be away from him for a longer period of time.

After another moment, we break our embrace and look at each other. Finlay has the biggest grin on his face that I’ve ever seen.

“So, when are you going to tell me how it went with Holly?”

As he talks, Finlay raises his eyebrows so high that they almost disappear under his dark brown Afro curls which stick out from his head in all directions.

From one second to the next, the smile on my face disappears again and the joy of seeing him is gone. All I can do is stare at him intently before rolling my eyes and wordlessly pushing him aside with both hands to get past him.

“I have to put my things away,” I mumble quickly before I disappear completely out of Finlay’s earshot. Nevertheless, I can still hear him laughing and shouting after me.

“You can’t avoid telling me what happened forever, you know that damn well!”

, I think to myself as I keep walking without turning back to him.

After the door to my flat slams shut, I sigh and set my things down before taking quick steps across the living room to my balcony.

This is my favourite place in the entire ministry. I’m so high up here that I can see far beyond the village. I can see the mountains and the forest far beyond the fields, the cliffs where the waves break and the wide blue sea. On calm days I can hear the splashing of the water and on windy days I can almost taste the salty smell of the ocean.

When I’m in Evergreen, I spend practically the entire evening after work out here.

If it’s been a good day, I often enjoy sitting on my lounger and round off the day with a good drink.

If it’s been a bad day, I also sit on my lounger, but smoke so many cigarettes that I can no longer stand up straight and my vision and thoughts are completely clouded. It helps me to forget everything for a moment.

I prefer to be alone here because I enjoy the silence. Even when I’m alone, I’m never lonely on this balcony. This is my safe place, and I wouldn’t do anything to risk losing it. Apart from Finlay and Aurelia, I’ve never brought anyone here, not even Holly.

I linger for a few more moments by the railing, looking out over the village as I enjoy the cool breeze on my face and try to let all the stress of the last few days drift away on the breeze.

Faster than I’d like though, I’m jolted back to reality and decide to head back inside to quickly unpack the rest of my stuff. As I’ve only taken a few things with me from Cambridge, that doesn’t take long.

After a quick glance at the time, I decide to put on some fresh clothes, as I’m still wearing yesterday’s and they smell rather strongly of cigarette smoke, pizza, and bad supermarket deodorant.

I rummage through my wardrobe and find some suitable clothes. Dark band shirt, black leather jacket, blue ripped jeans, and black Doc Martens. .

Aurelia always claims that someone needs to show me what colours actually are, but I ignore this because black is the only colour I need.

After a quick glance in the mirror, I nod my head in satisfaction and make my way to the White Hall so that I won’t be late for the speech.

Outside the White Hall, Finlay – – and Aurelia – – are already waiting for me. Smiling, I walk straight up to Aurelia and throw my arms around her. I press her against me with such force that I almost crush her and bury my face so deep in her long hair that I can smell her shampoo – it smells like coconut. After bobbing back and forth briefly, we break our embrace and smile at each other for a moment.

“So, how was it back in Cambridge?” she asks as she ties her light blonde, almost silver, curly hair up in a ponytail.

“It was all right, a bit boring without you, but the mission was successful,” I answer with a smile.

“Unlike your love life,” Finlay throws in with a giggle.

Aurelia punches him in the side with considerable force, causing Finlay to groan briefly before calming down again and glaring at Aurelia.

“It was pretty boring without you, too. Finlay kept on and on at me saying he missed you so much. I couldn’t really concentrate on work.”

I snort softly and look at Finlay. He rubs his hand over his aching side and just shrugs his shoulders.

“Another question. Aurelia, why did you want to enrol the newbies today? Isn’t that normally job?”

Aurelia grins mischievously before answering me.

“Fear, Nic. Fear.”

I raise my eyebrows with interest and continue to listen to her.

“Our world is pretty fucked up at the moment and the we need right now is recruits who don’t take this threat seriously enough. I know that most newbies are scared of you because you seem frightening to them. I mean, look at you. You’re tall, your whole body is covered in tattoos, you’re always dressed like the worst thug, and you snarl at everyone when you’re in a bad mood. You have no problem picking on people when they’ve fucked up and you just look like you could kill anyone in the room within a minute. That’s why I want you to do it.”

I grin mischievously at Aurelia and fold my arms in front of my chest. “So you want me to do it because I’m utterly ruthless and without mercy?”

Aurelia looks me up and down once before smiling gently and stroking my arm.

“No, honey, you’re a softy, but the newbies don’t know that,” she says with a wink before turning away.

My jaw automatically drops, does Aurelia really have to scratch my ego like that? What’s more, out of the corner of my eye I can see Finlay trying to hide his laughter. Just as I’m about to turn to him to say something or to smack him, a decision I would have made on the spur of the moment, Justus Camper comes quickly towards us.

“Ah, there you are. Mr Palermo, I’ve heard that you’ll be taking over the enrolment today instead of Miss Shaw, correct?” Justus looks at me expectantly and somewhat frantically. I nod.

“Then you can go in, the recruits are waiting for you.”

I give Aurelia and Finlay another quick look and together we enter the White Hall. Many nervous young men and women are already waiting for us. With narrowed eyes, I let my gaze wander over the crowd and see the many faces of the newly trained guards, all looking at me eagerly. None of them are older than twenty. They have all just finished school and are now starting their first job here at the ministry.

I can still remember exactly how nervous I was when I stood in their place all those years ago. Finlay and I’d had a couple of shots and I’d also smoked a couple of cigarettes shortly before so as not to appear too nervous. In the end, however, this only led to Finlay and I almost throwing up during the speech. Aurelia had noticed this and had moved several steps away from us. She’d acted as if she didn’t know us – what a traitor.

Once again, I let my gaze wander over the recruits before I place myself in the centre of the room, standing with my legs slightly apart and my arms crossed in front of my chest.

I take a deep breath and put on a scowl. .

“You’re all nothing more than fragile little fawns. Do you know why? Because at the moment, out there can kill you without much effort.”

There is an oppressive silence in the room, but I have everyone’s attention. Everyone is waiting spellbound to hear what I’m going to say next.

“You are no longer surrounded by the protective walls of your school. You are in the real world now and that is not on your side is trying to kill you here.”

I pause for breath and look into many frightened eyes.

“There’s no more trial and error here. Any of you who make a mistake now could pay for it with their life. You’re on your own now and you need to know what you’re doing out there. If you’re not out on a job, then you have to work on yourself, train and get stronger. Only those who constantly improve and give their all every day will progress further and experience the next day. So that you know what is important, there are some rules that you have to strictly follow. These will make your...