Faye glowered, prepared to tell the demon – commander or not – to keep himself out of things that didn’t concern him.
“You're right.” Lori interjected quickly, tucking in closer to Lephas. “I'm sorry Faye. Truly, you have no idea how glad I am to see you.”
Faye took a deep breath and reached out to take her sister's other hand in her own. What was wrong with her? Faye felt a flare of guilt. This was her sister, the whole reason she was out here in this forsaken place at all. They were finally reunited – that should be more than enough. She needed to get a handle on her emotions, and quickly.
“Let me worry about father having off with my head, let's just get back to the camp. I've got so many questions.”
Lori shot her a wide, knowing grin that spoke louder than words. Faye rolled her eyes playfully at her sister. She hadn’t meant the ins and outs of theirprivaterelationship, but if her sister was willing to kiss and tell...
“Don't you dare,” Lephas warned.
“What?” Lori replied, her voice heavy with mock innocence. “I'm not going to tell her any of the juicy bits.”
* * *
After a gruelling afternoon of re-tracing their tracks through the snow, the group finally made it back to the camp. Faye had never been so glad to see her tiny tent.
Upon their return, Raxx made himself scarce; disappearing to hunt down something to eat. Whilst Lephas gathered some firewood, Faye busied herself with re-lighting the fire and settling Gaia for the night. As the day began to draw to a close, Faye, Lori and Lephas chatted easily around the campfire.
Faye felt her envy and anger melting away the longer she was in her sister’s company. They laughed, she brushed and braided Lori’s hair, gossiped about Lori and Lephas’s intimate relationship with one another. If it hadn’t been for the bitter cold and the rumbling in their bellies, Faye could have closed her eyes and almost imagined they were back in Awrelwood. She had even returned Lori’s satchel to her. As predicted, her sister was delighted to be reunited with her belongings.
As time ticked on and the sky grew darker still, Faye found herself more and more distracted by Raxx’s absence. There was nothing like seeing her sister cosying up with Lephas to remind Faye of her own aching loneliness. She and Raxx hardly had the dream relationship, as Lori and Lephas apparently did, but she couldn’t deny she itched to lay her eyes on him once more. Faye would never admit it aloud, but she had a suspicion shemissedthe aloof, mind-numbingly frustrating shadow demon.
Chapter Nine
Raxx stood silent and still, submerged up to his thighs in an ice-cold lake. His eyes were trained keenly on the mirrored surface of the water, waiting for the tell-tale ripple of movement beneath.
Like a flash, he struck and leapt forward to shoot a spear of majick into the dark waters. The school of mirror trout that were lazily picking debris from the shallows around him darted away, startled, and the water splashed up in their haste to escape. One individual of their group was not so lucky.
Raxx bent to scoop the dead fish up into his hands, its body still jerking and twitching. He dragged the small satchel around from his back and dropped the fish in to join the three others he had managed to catch. The shadow demon hadn’t realised the name ‘mirror trout’ would be so literal.
When he first arrived at the lake, it took him a moment to realise the bright flashes of sunlight beneath the surface were in fact the scales of hundreds of brilliantly shiny fish. Though their skin was not as smooth and pristine as that of a glass mirror, Raxx was stunned to gaze upon a blurred image of himself, reflected back from the body of the first fish he had caught. They were beautiful to look at, he just hoped their taste lived up to the high expectations Faye had given him.
The daylight was waning and fine flakes of snow began to fall. Raxx glanced up at the grey sky above him. Even travelling with greatly enhanced speed, it had taken him several hours to reach the lake. He hoped the group weren’t too hungry.
Raxx waded back out of the water, tying a knot in the satchel to secure his spoils. The bitterly cold wind bit at his wet skin. He was soaked through from his thighs down, having had to solidify himself in order to gather the fish he caught. Raxx shivered and disembodied in an attempt to shield himself from the worst of the cold.
Without delay, the demon sprinted through the forest, using his large wings to glide as he jumped between tree trunks and boulders. Despite berating himself, he hurried ahead; intrigued to see what Faye was going to make of his catch.
* * *
By the time Raxx returned to the camp, night had well and truly fallen. He winced, shielding his delicate eyes against the light of the camp fire as he approached.
Faye and her sister sat together, huddled in the mouth of the tent. It was fascinating, seeing them side by side. Lori was pretty, she was blonde and she was a faerie, yet he regarded her as no more than an inconvenience. Unlike Faye, he found Lori to be immature and insufferable. It grated on him that she felt the need to fill every silence with inane chatter.
Apparently, that hit the spot for his commander – Raxx had never seen Lephas so infatuated – but there was nothing more irritating in the shadow demon’s opinion. As a man of few words, he didn’t relish the burden of having to entertain a woman of too many.
Raxx stood in the shadows for a moment, watching the faeries and rubbing the fortune crystal in his pocket between gloved fingertips. If his attraction to Faye was simply superficial, would he not have felt a similar pull towards her sister?
“Where has that demon got to? Surely it can't take that long to hunt something? I thought you said he was good at it?” Faye asked Lephas.
Raxx titled his head curiously. Was she missing him? The more time he spent in Faye’s company, the better he got at reading her. She often masked emotions with annoyance like that; it was almost as if she were ashamed to admit she didn’t dislike him as much as she made out. Raxx could sympathise.Hewas ashamed to admit he hoped that was the case.
“Apologies, but catching fish by hand is no easy task, princess.” The shadow demon allowed himself to become visible as he walked into the camp. Lephas was more than used to him stepping out of the shadows unannounced, but clearly the faeries still hadn't adjusted. They both yelped as they startled.
“How many times have I told you?” Faye snapped at him. “Don't do that.”
Raxx didn't deign to respond but held up the four large river fish, their silver scales glinted in the firelight.
