Dark Champion (Flirting with Monsters #4) - Eva Chase Page 0,12
worst of it, taking only a gash as the warrior’s knuckles grazed the side of his arm. He transformed into the massive beast of his hellhound form before my eyes. With a howl, he bounded off one of the walls and crashed into Thorn, his fangs gnashing and his underworldly glow hazing the room with an orange tint.
The warrior stumbled but pummeled Omen in the face at the same time. More smoke flooded the small space from so many more new wounds. It clogged in my throat and stung my eyes.
I scrambled back on the bed just before the fight brought Thorn slamming into the side of the cot. My lungs had constricted. “Stop it!” I hollered at them. “Just take a breath and talk about it.”
My appeal went unheeded. The way the two powerful shadowkind were going at each other, I wasn’t sure if Thorn would even hear me if I revealed Omen’s secret—if it would have made a difference at this point anyway.
At this rate, they were going to kill each other. Over me. I valued my life pretty highly, but no part of me wanted to see either of my monstrous lovers end their existence while vying to decide my fate. How much destruction was I going to cause right here without even using my supernatural sparks?
Just thinking that in the midst of the chaos brought a stinging surge of my flames licking up over my chest. As I smacked at them, willing down the fire, Thorn hurled the hellhound against the wall. One of Omen’s paws hit the rough stone with a crunch that turned my stomach, but he flung himself back at the warrior with his fangs flashing.
More heat churned up from the bonfire inside me. This wasn’t how I wanted this catastrophe to end. I was responsible—for myself, for what my powers might do, and for what I allowed to happen here if I stood silent and let these two men tear each other apart.
I’d accomplished a lot of supposedly impossible things in the past month. Maybe it was time to try one more if that meant I didn’t have to watch anyone else die in an attempt to protect me.
“Stop!” I shouted, louder than before, and hopped onto my feet. I stood as tall as I could manage given the length of the chain and waved my free arm frantically. “Stop! I’ll go. I’ll go to the Highest.”
The two shadowkind careened past me in their fight without giving any sign of acknowledgment, so I did what might have been the most foolhardy act of my life so far—which if you’ve been following along, you’ll know is saying a lot. I hurled myself right into the middle of that smoky clash of fists and claws.
Of course, thanks to my close friend Chain, I only made it a couple of feet from the bed, but that was enough to propel my arm between the two fighters.
Thorn heaved himself backward with a startled grunt and wild eyes. Omen, for all he’d threatened to rearrange my face a few minutes ago, recoiled in the opposite direction with just as much force. They both stared at me, Omen panting as he shifted back into human form, Thorn checking me over for damage as if he wasn’t standing there pouring his life essence into the room.
“I’ll go to the Highest,” I said again, now that I was sure I had their attention. The words caught in my throat, but I forced myself to keep going anyway. “You don’t need to fight about it or make any decisions. I’m deciding. They want me, so I’ll go.”
Thorn’s tan face grayed. “M’lady—they mean to destroy you.”
“I know.” I swallowed thickly. “But they haven’t met me yet. I’ve stolen a lot of things in my life—possibly I can manage to steal a little goodwill too.”
When I shifted my gaze to Omen, he looked equally stunned. The fire had gone out of his eyes, and the blue that remained looked more pained than icy. “What are you playing at, Disaster?” he said, but without any of his typical rancor. He sounded almost worried.
About my sanity, possibly. I was questioning that too. But I’d made my decision, and I wasn’t going to go all wishy-washy now.
“You can tell the Highest where I am and fulfill their orders,” I said. “I’m just asking that you also tell them how much good I’ve done trying to help the shadowkind and how much I want the chance to