Dark Champion (Flirting with Monsters #4) - Eva Chase Page 0,52

city as well, Ruse will do his charming, and Thorn and Flint can barter with their not-so-angelic acquaintances. Let’s attempt to meet back here by midnight. Tempest will be rushing her plans along even faster than before now that she’s seen how far we’re willing to go to stop her.”

Thorn’s mouth twisted at his orders, even though he’d suggested the plan of action. As everyone moved to leave, I caught his hand. “Give me a sec,” I told Snap.

When we were alone, the massive warrior peered down at me. “Is there more I can do for you before I go, Sorsha?” His brawn had already tensed as if ready to spring to my aid.

“I was just wondering if there’s anything I can do for you,” I said, squeezing one of those impressive biceps. “From what you said before, your ‘brethren’ out at the Vatican gave you kind of a hard time.”

The tightening of Thorn’s jaw suggested he hadn’t even told us the half of it. “I’m accountable for whatever tensions remain between us, and I will resolve them,” he said. “It is the least I owe them.”

“I don’t think you owe them anything at all. It’s been centuries. You didn’t even do anything wrong to begin with.”

“There are varying opinions on that matter. And the past is more present in its impact on them than it is for me.” He sighed and lowered his head to brush his lips to mine, his voice dropping too. “Believe me, if I could simply stay by your side at all times, I’d much rather be here.”

“Well, hurry back then,” I said, giving him a peck in return, and headed out after him to where Snap was waiting near the door.

Normally, I couldn’t have asked for a better companion for exploring a city than the devourer. He devoured new sights and experiences as avidly as he did his favorite fruits—and human souls.

For the first hour or so, that expectation held true. Snap peered with wide eyes at the looming ruins of antiquity in the Forum, listened in with eager little hums as a tour guide described the ancient activities that had taken place there, and sampled the energies around the structures with his forked tongue when no other tourists were near enough to see.

But we didn’t find any shadowkind to beg to lend a hand—the couple that Snap sensed in the shadows darted off as soon as he paid any attention to them. As we passed a gaggle of college-age sightseers who jostled against me without so much as a glance back, let alone an apology, the devourer’s usual bright demeanor started to dim.

“The shadowkind are nervous of all the mortals around,” he said. “Humans haven’t been all that kind to this place, even though it’s their own history. I can’t taste anything from the times when all this was whole and celebrated… Too many impressions of people chipping away at it, bumping against it without watching, carving words that make them laugh into it to show how little they think of it… Why would they do that?”

The fraught confusion in his voice brought a lump into my throat. “We don’t always appreciate our history,” I said. “It’s harder when we don’t live anywhere near as long as shadowkind do, you know. For the people seeing this now, the society who used this place was gone before any of our great-great-great-however many times grandparents were born. It doesn’t feel totally real.”

“I didn’t exist that long ago, and I still find it fascinating.”

I bumped my arm against his playfully. “Well, that’s part of what makes you so special.”

The compliment lit him up again, but only for a little while. We failed to gain any supporters from the creatures lurking near the Pantheon and the grand museums. Clouds clotted in the sky as we approached Trevi Fountain, and Snap shivered with the fading of the sunlight.

“Someone carved that whole sculpture without any magic at all,” I said over the burbling of the water. “Pretty amazing.”

“It is,” Snap agreed, but the brightness of his voice diminished too. “They built so many things… and so many of them wish no being like me ever got to see them. They would be upset that I enjoy all the fruits and the honey and…” His brow knit. “Most humans would want us dead if they knew of us, wouldn’t they? That’s why we keep our existence secret.”

“Well, maybe not dead,” I started, but I didn’t really know how to follow