Dusk Avenger (Flirting with Monsters #3) - Eva Chase Page 0,72
the rundown facility and on toward the river, much farther down than we’d been parked before. I scooped up a pebble from the sidewalk and tossed it at the water, accomplishing a whole one skip before it sank with a ring of ripples.
Thorn gazed solemnly toward the opposite bank with its concrete barrier. “I saw it often during the wars,” he said. His expression and his tone told me he had to be talking about the vicious battles fought several centuries ago, in which the wingéd had divided to support opposing factions of humans and battled each other. “We were always trying to stir up other shadowkind to our cause, as I suppose our brethren who opposed us must have as well, but rarely did they join in even if they voiced agreement.”
“To be fair, there were quite a bit more people dying in that conflict than have in our ‘war’ against the Company so far,” I had to point out.
“Perhaps. But one truth I have seen across my time is that beings will almost always retreat from a fight unless they are dragged into it by a motivation much deeper than a plea to their generosity. I fought because I couldn’t turn away from my brethren when they called on me, because at least for some time I thought that if I fought well enough, fewer of us would die…”
When he lapsed into silence, I tucked my hand around his powerful arm. I’d heard the warrior voice regrets that he hadn’t been there for his comrades enough, but never with the hint of doubt that had come into his tone now.
“Are you thinking you might have been wrong about that?” I asked.
Thorn’s jaw worked. “The things I’ve seen and learned over the past few weeks have made me question many things, including my own judgments of the past. I’m starting to wonder if perhaps we would all have been better off if we hadn’t been so quick to leap to each other’s aid at arms but instead had stopped to discuss just how necessary the warring was to begin with.”
I leaned into him, pressing a quick peck to his shoulder. “You’re turning into a pacifist on me. I’m shocked.”
“I wouldn’t go quite that far.” He eased his arm right around me and traced a line of heat up and down my side with the stroke of his fingers. “I will defend you and the rest of our companions by whatever means necessary as long as breath remains in this body. But do you know… I never was even certain of what we were fighting for, or why our brothers who rose up against us were so convinced they needed to strike out at us. How many of us leapt into the fray so ignorantly? What if most of those deaths could have been avoided?” He shook himself. “But we’re getting away from your concerns of the present.”
“That’s okay. I get to be concerned about you too. And it sounds like it’s a good thing you’re questioning the past. Better now than never. I still think the Fund doesn’t have anywhere near as much an excuse for staying out of our battles. Their whole purpose is supposed to be helping the shadowkind—and they’ve heard plenty about why we’re fighting the Company.”
“Well, there are other, less honorable reasons one might avoid conflict too.” Thorn’s hand stilled against me. “When I first heard that the Company’s presence extends into Europe, I must confess that something in me balked. To return to the lands where I fought before, or at least close to them—But it isn’t as if much remains of that time anyway. It’s only in my mind that the uneasiness dwells. The few of us remaining wingéd scattered far and wide after the slaughter. We’re closer now to one of my former companions than I might ever be across the ocean.”
I raised my head. “There’s another wingéd around here? Where’ve you been hiding them away?”
Thorn chuckled grimly. “With so few of us remaining, we’re attuned to each other’s presence. I couldn’t tell you how many exist in the entire world, but a few hours before arriving in this city, I could tell there was another of my kind some distance to the west. Perhaps even in San Francisco.”
I was about to point out how that could potentially come in handy when Ruse hollered from the direction of the distant RV. “Oh, Sorsha! You’ve got a gentleman caller.”