“Perhaps we will take the time to seek them out, if you wish.”
Amma’s eyes went wide, but before either of them could acknowledge the cordiality in that offer, Kaz began to complain about additional detours, and Damien grumbled back at him about who makes the decisions.
When Kaz was admonished and Damien went back to his book, Amma grit her teeth, the scroll jumping right back into her mind. How would she get that stupid roll of enchanted parchment without him noticing? He didn’t carry much on him, so it had to be in one of his pockets, but how would she get close enough to pick it?
Get herself in trouble, that would almost certainly put her in position. Damien was nothing if not protective—of the talisman, of course, but that was inseparable from her body at the moment. If she were involved in some scuffle, there also might be just enough distraction that he wouldn’t notice her lifting it off of him.
Yes, that could work, but it relied on an outside source, and it meant she had to put herself in harm’s way. Enough of that happened on its own, but when she really needed it, she wasn’t sure she could manifest another supposed abductor.
Therewasanother way, though.
Amma slid her gaze over to Damien again, as covertly as possible. He had his head bent but back straight, a large hand turning another page, throat bobbing with a swallow, eyebrow arching in thought as those violet eyes took in the words of the book. Damien might have been a blood mage, and he might have had the upper hand in just about every instance with her, but he was still a man—the succubi had done nothing if not proven that—and even if Amma weren’t as well endowed as those infernal creatures or capable of possession, she was still a woman.
She let her gaze travel down his long form sitting atop the horse, the rigid leather armor over a well-built body, one he didn’t really need what with the power of his magic but still generously maintained, then back up to his face, black hair like a raven’s wing brushed away so he could read. It really was an extraordinarily pleasant face, even with, or perhaps enhanced by, that scar, especially when it wasn’t pinched in anger.
She could start by running her fingers through that hair and then down the back of his neck, tickle over his broad shoulders, undo the straps of his armor. It wouldn’t even be a burden, really. In fact, she might even like it. And of course, at some point, she supposed, she would have to slip into a pocket and grab the scroll. But she’d have fun figuring out just which one it was in.
Violet and piercing, Damien’s eyes found her again, and her heart sped up like her thoughts had been drawn out in vivid detail on her face. This time, Amma couldn’t hide what her mouth did, turning up as her eyes darted down. She’d been caught, and she could feel him still staring even as she tried hard to empty her mind of what he might look like stripped of his tunic. As the image persisted, she felt her face redden, biting her lip and failing to keep the smile off of it.
Do not ask me what I’m thinking about, she insisted internally as if she could cast her own enthrallment over him, though if he had ordered the truth out of her, the desire to steal the scroll wouldn’t have even been floating around in her mind to tell, eclipsed instead by much lewder thoughts.
“Amma,” Damien said, his voice such a low rumble then, that she would be compelled to follow any command he gave with or without the enchanted word.
Amma’s knoggelvi reared up with a whinny, and when it slammed its hooves back down, she was nearly jostled right off its back just as the image of Damien nearly undressed was jostled right out of her mind.
On the path, a creature had darted out, all gnashing teeth and swiping claws. It charged her knoggelvi, missing as it cantered backward, then moved in a green blur, little more than a hiss and a tail. There was a sizzle and a snap through the air, and arcana connected with the thing, sending it tumbling off of the road. It landed in a heap amongst the tall grass.
Damien dismounted in one quick movement and crossed before Amma’s calming knoggelvi to where it had fallen. A groan emanated from the creature, small now that Amma could properly see it, and it rolled onto its back. Stout and covered with scales, she had never seen anything like it until she had been to Aszath Koth, shocked something so similar was in the realm of Eiren.
The creature tried to sit up, but fell back again, and that’s when she could see the bruising. Older marks, not from Damien’s attack, blossomed in purples and blues all up its side and along its jaw where its skin was pale.
“Don’t hurt it,” Amma called as Damien stood over it. “It’s already badly injured.”
He took a knee beside it. “I don’t intend to.”
Amma slid down off of her mount in a hurry, stumbling in the dirt. Damien had a hand over a new wound on the creature, likely the one he’d just given it. He said something sibilant, and from below his palm a dark smoke emanated, and the wound began to close itself up, though the skin did not stitch itself very neatly.
With its eyes closed and head lolling to the side, it would have looked dead if not for the rise and fall of its chest covered in a yellowed, thick skin and more of that old bruising. If it had been standing on two feet, it would have perhaps reached her hip, and she could tell it walked on two legs, clawed hands lax at its sides.
“What is it?” Amma asked quietly.
“A draekin,” Damien told her, finishing the spell and looking it over. “But I’ve seen very few outside of Aszath Koth and never this far south in Eiren.”
The draekin wore tattered but well-fitting breeches and a threadbare vest, so like a small human, but it had a thick tail covered in green scales and a long snout with slits for nostrils and many pointed teeth. It mumbled out something like words, turning its head to Damien. Then yellow eyes opened fully, and it hissed again, attempting to scramble to its feet, wincing, and only managing to push up onto an elbow and hold out a claw less than menacingly. Amma backed up and shrieked anyway.
“Calm yourself,” Damien said, holding out a hand and never flinching, “unless you’d like me to reopen the wound I just closed. I’m admittedly much better at that.”
The draekin’s jaw remained opened, fangs on display, but it brought back its talons to feel around on its chest until it found the newly-healed wound. Its browless eyes narrowed with a second lid, features contorting.
Amma took a breath, hand on her chest. “He looks like a baby dragon,” she said, tilting her head from the spot behind Damien she deemed safe enough. At least, he looked the way they were described except for the wings, though she had never seen one.
“I’m thirty-three, you idiot!” it spat in a scratchy voice and snapped again at Damien’s hand.
“They are distantly related,” Damien said.
“And I can call one down to burn the two of you to a crisp, if I want!”
Amma pulled back, even with the blood mage between them, though she doubted his claim very much. “Are they always so mean?”
