The blood mage’s dark eyes flicked to the tip of her blade, tongue darting out to run over his bottom lip. “My, you’ve sure sharpened your claws, haven’t you?”
Carefully, he brought the tip of his finger down onto the dagger’s point, drawing his own blood. Amma realized a second too late, a shadow enveloping the weapon before she could pull back, and it was ripped away. She jumped after it as it was held aloft, but Xander only pulled the shadow up out of her reach.
“You’re still adelightthough!” He squealed with laughter, sending the weapon up onto a high shelf with the flick of his hand and striding deeper into the parlor. “But I suppose this whole thing does look sort of bad, and when have I been anything but? Where you’re wrong is thinking that Delphine and I are in on anything together. If you believe either of us is capable of sharing, you are sorely mistaken.”
Amma watched him roll his head on his shoulders as he stood behind a long couch, a frown creasing his face in disgust when he used the woman’s name. Trusting Xander made little sense, but keeping Amma alive made even less. He had admitted to wanting the talisman that could only be fetched out with her death, yet she was standing there largely unscathed, better actually, thanks to his minions. Her only other option was to run across the plains back to Buckhead where she now knew Kaspar and possibly his parents were allied with the king and, in turn, Gilead. In the oddest reversal of fate, Xander was perhaps the only person close to an ally she had. “So, you’re not working with Delphine?”
“I would rather have my cock blessed by that priestess out there.” He gestured to the doors back into the rest of the house then snapped his fingers. In a poof of hazy blackness, a shadow imp appeared. “Dinner,” he said to it before it vanished again.
“Then what, you were just following us?”
“No, I didn’t need that bloody, little trick this time.” He snorted and patted his chest. “It was all inspired by a hunch, really, and then confirmed from on high. Yvlcon was enlightening in a number of ways this year. First of all, your precious blood mage attacked me, and while the Grand Order has a zero-tolerance policy for violence between members at our gatherings, they let that slide, so I knew Bloodthorne was in deep with GOoD. But more impressively, watching Bloodthornewalk awayfrom Delphine, while amusing, was a surprise I knew would return to stab him in the back. She was infuriated, and I wasn’t the only one to take notice, so when I saw one of the members of the Grand Order pull her aside for a private chat, you bet your sweet, little ass I kept an eye on her after Yvlcon and did some sleuthing of my own.”
Xander brought himself around the couch and sat, gesturing for Amma to join him with a deep smile. She crossed her arms and remained in her spot in the middle of the room.
“Suit yourself,” he said, leaning back. “Anyway, Delphine was so obsessed with the chore she’d been given by GOoD, that she didn’t notice yours truly following behind her on my own errand. She came out to this wretched, little place instead, so I schlepped my minions along too and set them up here while I tracked the witch, and let me tell you, hiding out on the side of that bloody mountain is boring after a few hours, nevermind multiple days, but I was committed, watching her watch out for the two of you. The only reprieve was those divine mages who went down a day or so earlier. I was supposed to follow along to do my own chore handed down from GOoD, but I couldn’tbecause she justkept sittinguntil oops! There you were, hiking away from that city, finding the entrance, and disappearing inside.”
Amma stepped closer to him, searching for the truth in his face. “Someone from the Grand Order sent Delphine after us? But the Grand Order sent Damien to the catacombs in the first place.”
Xander cocked a white brow. “It isn’t the first time a member’s gone rogue. Probably isn’t the hundredth. Never goes well for them, they always get taken out in the end, but it does explain why the organization gets so little done. Anyway, you know the rest, she enthralled him all over again, and then I saved your tail from becoming wyvern fodder, which you’ve yet to thank me for, I might add.”
Amma grimaced. “Thanks.”
“Don’t lay it on so thick, kitten.”
“I know you didn’t save me out of the goodness of your heart, so what do you want?”
He winced at the ridiculous suggestion. “Well, finally you’ve got something completely right. I do sort of…I don’t want to sayneed, but there exists a conundrum with which you may prove slightly useful in all of this.”
Amma rubbed her temple, though she was reminded, however slightly, of Damien in that moment, and the corner of her mouth threatened to turn up until the knowledge that he wasn’t there came crashing back down on her. “I just want Damien back, so tell me what you need me to do.”
Behind her, the door opened, and a shadow imp carried in a tray with bowls and wine glasses.
“Just in time. Right now, kitten, I need you to join me for a meal while I regale you with a bit more exposition.”
Amma moved to the oversized chair angled beside the couch Xander lounged across, planting herself down firmly and doingher best to show him she wasn’t happy about it. Quaz hopped down to the chair’s arm and sat as catlike as he could, but a little growl constantly emanated from him.
The shadow imp offered them bowls and goblets, and Amma took them—Xander would have killed her by now if that’s what he wanted, and poison didn’t seem like a method he would favor anyway. She watched the blood mage take a bite of the stew, a sip from his glass, and then settle back.
“Well?”
“Oh, right.” He took another sip and tipped his head to the side. “The thing is, it’s not easy to explain unless you really know what noxscura is, so, do you?”
“Sure—it’s demon blood.”
Xander groaned. “Well, yes, but also, no. Noxscura isindemon blood and so is in the blood of demon spawn, but unrefined. True noxscura and luxerna are the purest forms of arcana, the basis of all magic and life, destruction and creation.” At this, both of his brows raised and he took another spoonful of soup to his lips, watching her intently.
She nodded as she held her bowl out to Quaz to let him chomp on a chunk of meat. Damien had called refined noxscura a destructive and deadly force, and he had told her that was what sat idly in the cup, offered to her by the fae king. Those same strands of silver were what ran through the air when the veil was thinned between the planes and imps were summoned. And they ran inside the head of her staff when last she conjured it.
“So,” continued Xander after he saw, or didn’t, what he wanted in her, “human and demon blood don’t typically take to mixing: one is so dreadfully mundane and the other is liquid magic, so blood mages are rare, and even when we do exist, existence can be…challenging. Now, Icancontrol my noxscura, mostly, but Bloodthorne has always sort of had aproblemwith it.”
Amma didn’t like how he said that, and she stuck out her bottom lip.
“Don’t look at me like that, I know you’ve seen it. He’s just so tentative about things, you know? Noxscura just wants to be used. In fact, itneedsto be used. I tried to take a break once, and it refused to let me.”
“A break?” She took in how he was draped over the couch, feet up, wine goblet in hand. “From what?”
“Being evil, of course.” His nostrils flared. “And everything else too: studying, conquering, being the greatest danger in the known realm. It was right after my mother was imprisoned, and I was just, you know,overwhelmed. Anyway, I was a few moons into my corruption hiatus, and I was only a little restless, and the next thing I knew, I hadbuilt an entire oasis out in the middle of the Wastes.” Xander leaned forward, a hand on his chest, astonishment on his face.
