“I can’t focus with you here,”she pointed out, giving my presence a shove like she meant to kick me out of her mind.
“I’m not sorry. I didn’t want to let you go just yet.”
“You’ll see me later.”
“It’s not soon enough.”
“Have I ever told you that you have an unhealthy obsession with me?”
I found myself grinning.
“You’re my mate. Am I not supposed to want to be at your side all hours of all days?”
Her eye roll echoed down our bond.“Don’t make me break out of this pretend trance or everyone will know I’m not focusing on the task at hand.”
“Fine. But the moment you’re in our bed later, I am going to drink from your source.”
And with that wanton promise, I retreated. At least if we were lost in each other, the drain my sister forced upon both of us could be forgotten—for a short while.
Maelsar regarded me with a mist-gray brow raised. “Care to share?”
“Not a chance,” I told him.
“If it was something sexual, then I definitely want to hear,” he joked, crossing an ankle over his knee and resting his chin among his fingers.
I rose, grabbing an apple for myself. I hadn’t eaten more than breakfast that morning, and with dinner fast approaching, I was starved. “It seems that Iaoth is drugging them again today. Sylaira needed something to give them.”
“She still hasn’t Seen?” he asked, his head cocking to the side.
I shook my head. “Nor does she know we’re leaving soon.”
My friend sighed, scratching at his stubble. “I haven’t told Lyriasthe. Though she suspects something based on other servant gossip.” He looked away, swallowing hard. “I can’t leave her behind, Vaeron.”
She hadn’t been included in the initial plans. But Lyriasthe was posing as a servant, which made her disappearance easily overlooked. “We’ll find a way,” I promised Maelsar.
He met my gaze again. “You know it’s dangerous to leave her behind. Leaves us exposed. And if anyone found out I’d lied about where I found her…”
“She’d be dead. You’d be dead. I know the risks, Maelsar.” I bit into the apple, studying the way he slumped back in the seat. How our bodies would rest like that against the silver gates of Thalvireth if we were caught.
“This swell of soldiers better work,” he muttered, raking his fingers through his already tousled hair.
He wasn’t wrong. The Demons had recruited a massive number of males to fight for them, by all accounts. Each time a message arrived from Ishim, I was the first to snatch it from the aviary, thanks to Ilae informing me of its arrival.
His latest note had conveyed a surreal scene from the scouts who had taken to the skies at high noon to blend in. Between their Illusion, Sensor, and Amplifier magic, they’d remained hidden, enhancing their senses to peer into the vast Paks Desert.
And all they’d seen was an ocean of black and red.
The picture he’d painted had drilled a chill into my bones. The Halálhívó was ruthless and his dark, twisted magic had sent a jolt of fear through me when I’d seen him raise hundreds of bodies—Demon and Angel—and direct them to chase us through the northernmost parts of the Eso Forest.
When I hacked at their bodies, they felt no pain. They didn’t flinch. They didn’t yield. Instead, they fought with reckless abandon. After all, they were already dead.
And like Ishim, he could wield that mighty power for great lengths of time.
He was cruel, forcing Angel corpses who had done their duty to the Goddess by fighting in Her holy war to then turn on their brethren. It was an abomination.Hewas a monster.
And the thought of Sylaira anywhere near him was enough to make me sick. I could not—would not—let them pass into the Angel Realm again.
“If I have to abandon the trial by light and ride to the front myself, I will do it,” I growled, nails digging crescents into the apple’s skin.
