Dark Champion (Flirting with Monsters #4) - Eva Chase Page 0,86
to experience—and somehow or other, arrive at the appropriate portal without any great passing of time.
Flint already had a clear course in mind, having just come from what was now our destination. As we barreled through the murk, I felt his attention settle on me. “Your mortal—or somewhat mortal—companion. Something untoward has happened to her?”
“She has been stolen by our greatest enemy, the one who means to end most mortal and shadowkind existence if she has her way,” I said. “It is possible that our lady’s capture may even help bring that catastrophe about. By every indication, the destruction the sphinx intends to inflict on both worlds is imminent.”
The other wingéd asked nothing more, but his presence beside me gave off a more palpable uneasiness.
“What is this urgent matter our brethren have sent you to me about?” I asked.
“I think it would be better for them to explain. They didn’t share all the details with me, only said it was your trial to bear.”
That phrasing didn’t sound particularly promising. I managed to hold in an ethereal sigh. Those who had fought valiantly deserved better than my disdain, regardless of my impatience.
We emerged over a roadway only a mile or so from the palace the mortals considered holy where my brethren had made their home. As if they wished to think of themselves as some sort of “angels.” That idea rankled me as we hustled on through the shadows that were starting to split with the brightening dawn.
The two with their mangled bodies were poised on the rooftop as if they’d been standing there awaiting my return since the moment I’d left. Both of their expressions looked even more grim than I recalled. And here I’d found Flint overwrought. With every one of my kind I encountered, I discovered new depths of dourness.
“You took so long in your rambling adventures I started to doubt you still had any sense of duty at all,” Viscera said in her wheezing voice before I could even greet them.
My hackles rose at the attack on my honor. I held my temper in check. “I had urgent matters to attend to, as we discussed. It was hardly for my enjoyment. And an even more critical matter faces us now.”
“Faces you,” Lance said. “Do not include us in your foolishness.”
“It isn’t foolishness. All our fates may depend on the outcome of the next few days.” I dragged in a breath and squared my shoulders. “What is it you need from me? I’ll help you however I am able.”
Viscera raised her broken chin. “We believe one of the griffins flew by here and dropped the box they stole, allowing what little of its contents remained to scatter. I can sense the fragments of my brother’s being all around. But we dare not venture into view in our physical forms to collect them. The mortals would flee in horror.”
A shudder ran through me at the thought of my former comrade’s remains abandoned in that way, but I couldn’t restrain the question that rose up. “Could not Flint—”
“You fought beside my brother. You will recognize the bits of his essence. The rest we can worry about later. You will go forth into the city and collect all you can of him.”
I glanced down at the courtyard below with its framing of bleached columns. “Where exactly do those fragments lie? I will gather them immediately.”
“The wind has blown them through the streets far and wide. It may take some doing, but we will bring what still exists back together.”
They expected me to hunt all across one of the largest cities in the world for the tiny particles of our long-dead comrade’s essence, all while a vicious menace of a shadowkind brought about a near-Armageddon?
I peered at my kin, suddenly wondering if any of this story were even true. To lie to a fellow wingéd would be shameful… but she’d already proven how little she thought of me. How could it be that these griffins had happened to pass by at exactly this time?
“Well, what delays you?” she demanded.
The thinning thread of loyalty that had brought me here fractured with an ache that shot straight through my chest. As I drew myself to the fullest my height could reach, the memory of Sorsha’s arms around me came back to me—her warm voice in my ears, telling me I could leave her if I truly felt that was right, if it would satisfy my conscience.