Especially that subtle shift in the air that said he was being stalked by something invisible. Something approaching fast on his right…
With lightning reflexes honed by battle, he reached out and grabbed their pursuer.
“I mean you no harm!” The sound of a woman’s voice shocked him.
Falcyn tightened his grip on what felt like a throat. “Show yourself.”
She materialized in his fist and, as he’d assumed, his hand was wrapped about her neck. Large lavender eyes swallowed a face that appeared more girl than woman, and yet the fullness of her leather-wrapped body said that she was well into her twenties. Physically, anyway.
Probably older given the amount of power and confidence he sensed from her. That level of expertise came from a creature who was centuries old.
“What are you?”
She rubbed at his wrist to remind him that his death-grip was cutting off her ability to speak. Another action that said she was older than a frightened teen.
Falcyn relaxed his hold, but not enough to allow her to escape. He wasn’t a fool and he hadn’t lived to his own advanced age by playing one.
“I’m Brogan.”
“Didn’t ask your name. Don’t really care. I askedwhatyou are.”
“Cursed. Exiled and damned. Please, let me go and I can help you.”
She was hedging and he didn’t like it. Creatures who played games usually had something to hide. “Why?”
“Why should you let me go? So that I can breathe.”
Falcyn ground his teeth. “No, why should we trust you to help us?”
“Because I want out of here more than anything, but I lack the powers to break the seal or bargain for freedom. If you take me with you, I’ll show you where a portal is.”
Still suspicious, he released her. “And again, I ask what you are.”
“A kerling Deathseer.”
Falcyn conjured up a ball of fire and held it so that she knew her own death was imminent. “Deathseer or seeker?”
A seer saw death. A seeker caused it.
Holding her hands up, she stepped back from him. “Seer,” she said quickly, letting him know that she got the less-than-veiled threat in his actions. “Though ofttimes the Black Crom uses me to find his victims.”
“And why is that?”
“I was sold to him for such.”
Falcyn moved to kill her, but Blaise caught his arm.
“Don’t hurt her.”
Aghast, he stared at him. “Are you out of your mandrake mind?”
Blaise snorted. “All the time. But not about this.” He held his hand out to the petite brunette. “Come, Brogan. I won’t let him harm you.”
Allowing the fire in his hand die out, he scowled at Blaise. “Can you see her at all?”
Blaise shook his head. “I can only hear her voice. Why?”
Because she was exquisitely beautiful. Her long dark brown hair that had escaped her tight braids made perfect spirals around her elvish features and pointed ears. Enchanting features the fey often used to lure others to their doom. And that included her tight brown leather pants and corset that were covered by a flimsy green robe, and the fey stone necklace and diadem she wore.
