Dark Champion (Flirting with Monsters #4) - Eva Chase Page 0,94

throat and told me she wasn’t afraid of me. How many times had she asked to see me fierce and passionate rather than the “Ice-Cold Bastard,” as she liked to put it?

I’d changed so much about myself since my days with Tempest, but somehow I hadn’t managed to alter that one most basic thing: the belief that whatever I did and whoever I was with, if I gave in one inch to my baser nature, everything would go to hell, and most likely sooner rather than later.

Somehow I had the feeling I knew exactly how Sorsha would respond to that. Who’s to say a little hell is a bad thing?

I did care about her, and the reserves of rage and power I’d held in check were beyond even Tempest’s imagining. Wasn’t it time to put all that hellishness to good use, for the sake of the woman I—

Yes.

I spun on my heel. “I have to bait the hook. Wait here. The rest of you, do whatever you need to so you’re ready to storm that factory the second we get our opening. I doubt it’ll take very long.”

“Omen?” Snap said, his eyes widening, but I didn’t stick around to answer questions. If I was going to do this, I was going to do it now, before the Ice-Cold Bastard’s judgment reined me back in.

Bringing in new allies. It was exactly the kind of plan Sorsha would have loved. One I could admit I might never have thought of if she hadn’t wriggled her way so far into my mind.

My lips curled into a wry smile. I doubted she’d ever have expected me to pull off quite this spectacular a magic trick, though.

I loped through the shadows a short ways and then emerged to amble down the street, scanning the buildings around me. Stop and smell the flowers. Buy myself a chocolate bar. Give every appearance of not having a care in the world except indulging myself at my leisure. Yeah, that would rile them up quickly enough.

Footsteps tapped along the sidewalk to catch up with me. A banshee fell into step at my side, her chin raised at a haughty angle. “This is not what the Highest ordered you to do. Get on with your quest.”

I waved the candy bar at her. “What makes you think my quest doesn’t require plenty of chocolate?”

When she glared at me, I took the final bite, allowed myself a few seconds to enjoy the sticky sweetness, and tossed the wrapper into a nearby trash bin. “Actually, I was hoping to get your attention. I figured it’d be faster than heading to the nearest rift. I’ve found out where Ruby is, but it won’t be easy getting to her. Tell the Highest they’d better send their best—and lots of them.”

The minion sucked in a startled breath. “Where? I must inform them at once.”

“A coat factory not far from here. It’s heavily fortified, though. You can check it out for yourself before you make your full report.” I rattled off the address, gesturing in the general direction.

The banshee dove into the shadows and raced off like a bullet. I watched her go, a strange flavor creeping through my mouth—a metallic tang that was both terror and exhilaration.

Time to burn it all to the ground and see who was left standing. And if this didn’t work out the way I hoped, I suspected Sorsha would applaud the effort even as she fell.

26

Sorsha

It started with a distant crashing. My ears perked up, and I raised my head from where it’d been resting against my tucked arms.

A thud reached me next, still muffled but not as faint as before—then a shout and a grunt like someone taking a punch to the gut.

I pushed myself as upright as I could get in my cage, eyeing the door to my room. Was this another trick to get a reaction out of me? But it wasn’t as if I could do much with the cage properly locked this time. I’d checked the latches before I’d laid my head down, and I rattled them now just in case. They didn’t budge so much as a fraction of an inch.

More thumps and booms filtered through the walls. A cry, thin and fraught with pain, pierced my eardrums. My body tensed.

This racket could mean good things for me—it could be my allies breaking in—but it could also mean a whole lot of bad. Maybe some other shadowkind had found out about Tempest’s plans and meant