Binding Ties The Sentinel Wars - Shannon K. Butcher Page 0,44
his stance and stared past her as if he had something to hide. “There’s a lot riding on our relationship, Lyka. You can’t say that you haven’t thought about what a union between us might mean for long-term peace between the Slayers and Theronai.”
“Peace never lasts. Something always screws it up. That’s why I can’t let you in my head the way you want.”
“Even if it means you’re powerless to help find your missing brother?”
She fought against a spike of irritation. “I’m not powerless. I’ve never in my life been powerless. And I’m sure as hell not going to start now, when my people are missing and in danger.”
“You know I won’t let you risk your life, right? My vow makes it impossible for me to allow you to do anything that would hurt you.”
“Theronai women go into battle all the time.”
“Yes, but they also have access to incredible power and the ability to use their magic to fend off attack. You don’t.”
She hated it that he was right. While the idea of letting Joseph rummage around in her head was abhorrent, the thought that she could do what some of those Theronai women could was damn appealing. Slinging magic around like it was nothing . . . She could really get off on something like that.
“We should go,” she said. “It’ll be getting dark soon, we have almost an hour’s hike back to the road and I still need to survey the area for a clear scent trail.”
“Does your sudden change of subject mean you’re going to let me in, or is it your way of getting me to shut up?”
“Definitely the shutting-up one.”
“You’ve been through hell seeing what you just saw, so I’ll give in, but know that this isn’t the end of the conversation. One of these days you’re going to see that I hold no ill will toward you or the Slayers, and you’re going to wish you’d trusted me sooner.”
“Maybe,” she said. “But that day is definitely not today.”
The hair on the back of her neck stood up. It was the only warning she had before dark figures crashed through the brush toward them. She caught their stagnant scent on the wind as they closed in.
“Demons!” she shouted as she pulled a pair of daggers from her belt. The tips gleamed with thick black poison—one of the few known to work on the Synestryn.
Her mind rejected what her senses were telling her. These creatures couldn’t be demons. The sun wasn’t all the way down yet, and while the woods were growing dark, Synestryn never strayed out of their caves before sunset. To do so was to risk certain death.
Joseph drew his sword. The metallic hiss of steel on steel was reassuring.
The first shadowy shape reached them. Lyka’s Slayer vision amplified the light around them, showing her a clear image of what they faced.
It almost looked human. A long, tattered coat covered its body, revealing only its face and hands. There were splotchy patches of fur on both. It wielded a sword like the ones littering the ground behind them, only this one was far more nicked and dented from use.
Its face was oddly proportioned, with a protruding mouth and nose—the clear remnants of a beast with a muzzle somewhere in its lineage. Its teeth were sharp, its eyes huge and black, with no whites showing at all. Saliva wet its chin and ran down its neck, leaving a damp patch on the front of its coat.
If not for the stench it put off, the thing could have almost passed as an exceptionally ugly human.
She tried to summon the beast inside her, but as was the case whenever she needed her tiger the most, it evaded her. It would come out and play whenever she didn’t want it, but put her life in danger, and it was nowhere to be found.
Fucking pussy.
Joseph stepped in front of Lyka to take the brunt of the charge. The ring of metal on metal filled the trees. The force of the demon’s blow rocked Joseph back on his heels.
“Another one coming. Get behind me!” he shouted.
Maybe he was used to most people cowering behind him, but Lyka was not most people. She was trained for this. Bred for it. Her whole family came from a long line of warriors. Sure, maybe they could shift into their animal form and she couldn’t, but she was armed and wasn’t about to let a little thing like being stuck in her human form