“Cursed. Exiled and damned. Please, let me go and I can help you.”
She was hedging and Urian didn’t like it. Creatures who played games usually had something to hide.
“Why?” Falcyn demanded.
“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?”
Urian agreed with that question, as there was a big difference between them. 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.”
Letting 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.
But if Blaise couldn’t see it, then it wasn’t a trap for him.
“Why are you attracted to her?” Falcyn asked.
“Didn’t say I was. I only hear the truth in her voice. She’s not lying to us. So I think we should help her.”
“And no good deed goes unpunished. You help her and you’re likely to pay for it. In the worst way imaginable and at the worst possible time.”
Blaise sighed heavily at Falcyn’s mistrust, which had come from a lifetime of betrayal. “What I love most about you, Fal. Your never-ending optimism. It bowls me over.”
For once, Urian was on Falcyn’s side. He wouldn’t be so quick to dismiss that sage advice. If he were Blaise, he’d be listening a little more closely.
Tucking down her gossamer wings so that they couldn’t be seen, Brogan retrieved her knapsack. As she started past Falcyn, he stopped her. “You harm him … or cause him to be harmed in any way—even a hangnail—and I will make sure you die in screaming agony.”
Her eyes widened at his threat. “I see no death for him. You’ve no cause to threaten me on his behalf.”
As she moved to walk beside Blaise, Medea dropped back to Falcyn’s side. “What’s a kerling?”
“A conjuring witch.”
