Dark Champion (Flirting with Monsters #4) - Eva Chase Page 0,10

doesn’t matter. I looked the other way too often when it was convenient to my purposes, and I’ve learned to do better than that. I won’t make those same mistakes again. Which is exactly why I’m being much more careful in my associations now.”

The pointed look he gave me made me bristle despite my best intentions. “I’m nothing like her.”

“No, I don’t think you are. The problem is, if the Highest are right, you might be even worse.”

He straightened up, and then he was vanishing into the shadows without another word. I stared at the spot where he’d stood, but he didn’t return.

Had all that talk gotten me anywhere with him, or had I only screwed myself over even more?

4

Sorsha

When I got tired enough that I figured I should try to get some rest, I turned off the electric lantern. I jolted awake sometime later to a room that was as pitch black as my first experience of it. But before Omen even spoke, I could tell from some shift in the air and the prickle of his scorching aura over my skin that I wasn’t alone. Probably his arrival was what had jarred my nerves.

“You managed to sleep,” he said. The lantern flared on to illuminate his well-built form.

I shoved back the sheet and sat up, rubbing the bleariness from my eyes. I hadn’t slept for half as long as it felt as if my body had needed. “It is a physical necessity for some of us.”

Not that I really wanted him thinking about my mortal side. It might be my shadowkind powers that were causing the biggest issue, but I’d bet he’d be much more inclined to believe that I could control those if it weren’t for the weaknesses that came with the human part of me. Although I’d still argue that I didn’t have half as many weaknesses as he liked to claim.

His lips had curled with a familiar hint of disdain, but his pale eyes looked only solemn. My pulse hitched. Had he made up his mind about my fate? If so, I didn’t think I was going to like the outcome.

The words spilled out of their own accord. “We’ve come a long way from when we first met, haven’t we? I know you’re more than an ice-cold bastard. You know I can handle anything you throw at me. We pulled off some pretty amazing missions when we put our heads together.”

He raised his hand to stop me before I could keep babbling. His expression hadn’t turned any less somber. I closed my eyes, groping for any shred of inner calm I could find. Whatever happened, I was not going to die flailing in panic. I had a smidge more dignity than that.

One last mangled ‘80s song to do Luna proud and offer a final plea? “Hate from the start,” I sang at a murmur. “Tell me we can take it all apart…”

“Sorsha.” His voice sounded strained. “I don’t like that I’ve had to do any of this.”

I could believe that. But he was going to do it anyway. Because why wouldn’t he? How could I possibly be worth more to him than finally getting his freedom back after eons under the thumb of these pompous ancients? I was sick of them already, and I hadn’t even met them yet.

Delay. Delay, and there was a chance, however miniscule, that I’d figure out another option.

“Can we talk a little more? I can go through some of my strongest memories of Luna in case there’s anything she did glamour over, and—”

Omen jerked around abruptly, as if he’d heard a noise beyond the door that I hadn’t. His posture tensed. He moved like he was about to spring into the shadows around that door—but at the same moment, an even larger and more muscular figure materialized beside him.

Thorn’s brawny bulk made the room feel twice as small, but I’d never been more relieved to see anyone in my life. I’d have leapt to him with a kiss designed to get across every particle of that gratitude if it hadn’t been for the damned chain fixing me to the cot.

The wingéd warrior took in my pose and the cuff around my wrist, his expression darkening with horror. He swiveled to face Omen. “What is the matter with you? You’ve chained her up like an animal!”

“The split-second before you noticed that, weren’t you simply pleased I’ve left her alive?” Omen retorted, his tone now dry. “You know how difficult it is