Dark Champion (Flirting with Monsters #4) - Eva Chase Page 0,61

Oh, my dearest warrior. Tearing heads off was more his style than mine, but right then I wouldn’t have minded dropkicking a few wingéd skulls into the stratosphere. I loved his loyalty and his sense of honor, but sometimes they didn’t serve him well.

“The remains of one of my closest comrades were stolen by a pack of griffins,” he said. “I attempted to locate it on the request of my brethren. I came upon several griffins and did battle, but I could not discover the object I was looking for in their midst. It remains adrift.”

No doubt he had fresh scars to add to those that mottled his face and body from that battling. My hands clenched. “They should be grateful you did even that much for them. How is it your fault that they didn’t take good enough care of this dude’s ashes or whatever? Why don’t they go fight a horde of griffins if it means so much to them?”

Even more strain crept into Thorn’s voice. “As I related before, the wars of long ago dealt permanent damage to their forms.”

Omen let out a dismissive growl. “That doesn’t give them carte blanche to appropriate the one wingéd I actually like. I hope you told them to shove it.”

The tensing of Thorn’s stance told me he hadn’t stated his refusal in terms quite that blatant. “I informed them that my duty required I return to you and discuss the situation.”

And then possibly leave to go back to them? The emotion that shot through me at that thought wasn’t just anger but a jab of cold-edged refusal. I didn’t want to go into the battles we faced ahead without our warrior by my side.

“If those pompous asses think they have any claim—” the shifter started, clearly building up to a full-on rant complete with houndish snarls, but his tone had already made Thorn turn even more rigid. Lambasting Thorn’s people wasn’t the way to reassure him—it’d only make him feel he was betraying them even more if he stayed.

I strode right up to the wingéd, nudging Omen to the side with my elbow to cut off his spiel before he could get any more of it out. “Take a walk with me?” I said to Thorn. “I think you’ve had enough people telling you what to do today. I’d like to listen to what you’re thinking.”

Omen muttered something disparaging under his breath but didn’t outright protest. Thorn hesitated and then offered me a smile that was small and tight but at least there. “Perhaps that would help me sort out my thoughts, m’lady. I would be glad of having your ear.”

I followed him out of the Everymobile. We meandered into a stretch of parkland, patchy with weeds and holding a playground no one could actually use thanks to the broken ladder on the slide, the swing tossed over its support beam, and a teeter totter that had toppled right over. Tonight was cooler than past nights, the stars and moon clouded over. I walked close to Thorn to soak up the warmth his brawny frame exuded.

“It may be that I was right in questioning our wars of the past,” the warrior said after a stretch of silence. “But that doesn’t absolve me of all responsibility for my actions. I did leave at a time when others ended up falling in battle or meeting similarly harsh fates… My doubts meant leaving them to suffer.”

“They might have met the exact same fates even if you’d been there,” I pointed out. “You can’t know how much of a difference you would have made. They were all just as strong and fierce as you can be, right? Maybe it’d have happened the exact same except you wouldn’t be here to feel guilty about it either.”

“That is possible. I won’t deny it.” The breeze hissed tauntingly through the leaves of a nearby tree, and he frowned at it. “I cannot say how much of a difference I’m making to Omen’s cause either, though, can I? Why should he deserve my aid more than my brethren of old?”

“It’s not just for him, is it? What good does it do chasing after the remains of someone who’s already dead? Tackling Tempest could mean saving millions more lives than were lost way back when.”

“But if I take the time to make up for past failures now, perhaps I can bring new allies to that cause as well.”

“Okay, when you put it that way, I can see it’s not