Dark Champion (Flirting with Monsters #4) - Eva Chase Page 0,71

might need too, couldn’t I? The sort of help she never would have allowed herself to ask for.

Whatever Tempest was going to throw at us in the next few days, Sorsha had to be at her best to meet it too.

When I left her, I stepped outside and pulled out my phone, but it wasn’t to do any more digging into my own past. It was to bring up the number of the most vital presence from Sorsha’s.

“Hello?” said the voice that answered, energetic and cautious at the same time.

I leaned against the RV’s side, tipping back my head to watch the tinsel waving in its manufactured breeze. “Hello, Vivi. It’s your best friend’s favorite incubus. How would you feel about embarking on a little trip?”

20

Sorsha

I braced my legs to keep my balance on the swaying dock and eyed the seafaring vessel Omen had pointed to. “This is the ship you got us?”

The boat was big enough—that wasn’t the problem. But more of the hull’s white paint had been scratched or worn off than was left on, which made me wonder just how intact the wood was beneath that. Aged beams jutted every which way around the small cabin, making the ship look like a mutated narwhal.

“She’s an old fishing boat,” Omen said, aiming a pleased glance at his find. “Outfitted with a modern motor, but still with all the other trappings. I thought we should make use of the time we’ll be at sea to get in some more training, and props are always useful for that. Unless you’ve got something better to do?”

I dragged damp, salty air into my lungs. I guessed if there was anywhere I could safely practice my fiery skills, out in the middle of an immense body of water would make the top of the list. “I suppose you’ve already named her?”

His lips curved upward, and he waved down the length of the boat. “I didn’t need to.”

Curling lines of blue swept through the patchy white paint, the letters spelling out Penelope. I had to admit it was an Omen-esque name if I’d ever heard one. I cocked my head at him. “Now I see the real reason you bought her.”

He waved off my remark and motioned me on board in one smooth movement. “Let’s get going, Disaster, while you’ve still left the harbor in one piece.”

I stuck my tongue out at him and darted across the plank that led onto the ship. Not wanting to draw attention in case Tempest’s lackeys or some other member of the Company asked around, the other three shadowkind in our crew had leapt on board out of sight in the shadows.

We were back to our original quartet, leaving the equines and Antic back in Athens with the Everymobile. If we hadn’t returned from Crete within three days, they were meant to launch a rescue mission. I’d expected Antic to complain about being left out, but she’d danced around with so much joy at the thought of being a potential rescuer that she might even have been hoping we were heading into a trap.

It was going to be a long voyage, but Omen had vetoed any talk of planes for this final part of the journey. “Too many records, too tight a space.” As if we had a whole lot of places to flee to out in the middle of the sea. I definitely couldn’t have gotten in any training on a flight, though, and maybe the rhythm and hiss of the waves would settle my nerves more before the confrontation ahead.

Omen cast off, and I gamely raised my hand in greeting to the other boaters we passed to show we were perfectly normal people off on a pleasure cruise, if on a somewhat unusual ship for that job.

When the harbor had dwindled into blobs in the distance, Ruse, Snap, and Thorn materialized on the deck. Snap leaned over the metal railing that was mounted along most of the starboard side and drank in the sea scents with a blissful expression. Thorn immediately clambered up to the top of the tallest post with its bedraggled sail still wrapped around it, where he’d get the widest view for surveillance.

Ruse flopped into one of the deck chairs, his face slightly greenish and his hand resting on his stomach. “Never been a huge fan of water travel,” he admitted.

I sat down next to him, tipping back my head to soak up the Mediterranean sun. “You could stick to the shadows. Plenty