Dusk Avenger (Flirting with Monsters #3) - Eva Chase Page 0,29
was glad that she’d seemed more settled since her talk with Omen earlier today.
“Who—or what—is the Highest?” she asked him now.
“The oldest of the shadowkind,” he replied. “Some say they were the first ones, the only ones that have existed from the beginning. There aren’t many of them, and they don’t have much to do with the rest of us, generally speaking. They only intervene from time to time when they get the idea someone’s making quite a bit more trouble than they’d prefer.”
“I’ve never even encountered one of the Highest,” I said. We all knew, perhaps by some instinct, that it was best not to venture too far into the deepest depths of our natural realm. The ancient beings there preferred not to be disturbed.
“And you should be glad for it,” the hellhound shifter said darkly.
Sorsha hummed to herself. “So why are you really interested in this shadowkind they were looking for?”
“Essentially the same reason I gave that trumped up lizard. If the Highest take issue with this being’s behavior, he’s got to be something of a rebel. Maybe that means he won’t care about our cause either, but at the very least, I doubt he’d beg off out of fear of disrupting the status quo.” Omen let out a huff of breath. “As we’ve witnessed yet again, most of our kind are useless when it comes to paying attention to anything other than their own self-interest.”
“We found allies before,” Sorsha insisted. “There’ll have to be others who’ll care enough.”
She always challenged him so easily, without the slightest fear. And she had been right. I didn’t know if we’d have managed to destroy the main facility in that last city without the assistance she’d worked to obtain, often against Omen’s direct command.
I hadn’t tended to question my own capacity for bravery, but this mortal lady sometimes put me to shame. Watching her was making me start to wonder if the problem all those centuries ago hadn’t been that I’d ventured to question what we were doing but that more of my comrades hadn’t questioned it. Which I supposed was why when I opened my mouth, the remark that fell most easily from my lips was, “I believe there are potential allies out there, as difficult as it may be to find them.”
Omen gave me a sideways glance as if in askance, but he’d clearly come around to agreeing with our lady’s perspective on this matter, even if he still muttered about it now and then. He didn’t bother to argue. “Then it’s a good thing we’ll have plenty of time to ask around while we’re dealing with our diversion. We need to work out exactly where we’re going next to unravel your mysterious history, Disaster. Let’s hope it won’t be too catastrophic.”
Sorsha made a face at him as she climbed onto the RV. “You obviously wouldn’t have any frame of reference for this, but a three-year-old human’s memories are pretty vague. We can go over the bits and pieces I do remember, and—”
She stopped in her tracks in the space between the driver’s seat and the living area. Ruse had just emerged from the shadows farther down the hall, Snap popping into view behind him, but Sorsha wasn’t looking at them.
I peered over her shoulder to observe three pairs of shoes lined up on the floor beside the cupboards. From their size and their neon hues, I guessed they were possessions the unicorn shifter had left behind.
I was about to ask Sorsha what had disturbed her about them when two of those shoes leapt up in the air and switched places. Then three of them started hopping around in a little dance. They flipped over each other, smacked the floor in a rhythmic beat, and suddenly all six of them flew up two at a time to stack into a wobbly tower. It held, swaying, for a few seconds before the shoes tumbled back to the ground.
A figure about the size of a partly-grown human child blinked into view beside them, spiky orange hair sticking up from her rounded head and skinny arms flung out to grab at the shoes. Her voice came out thin and squeaky. “Darn it, darn it. Never get the balance right.” She glanced up at us—at Sorsha, mostly—and gave a grin that stretched far into her cheeks. “I hope you were a little entertained by the trick anyway.”
“Um,” Sorsha said, apparently at a loss for words.