Shades of Darkness (Guardians of Eternity #16) - Alexandra Ivy Page 0,44

reached out to grab at Basq’s wrist, his legs kicking in a futile effort to escape. “There’s a way.”

There was an edge of terrified sincerity in his voice. As if he was certain that he had an answer, even if he didn’t want to share it.

“Talk fast,” Basq warned.

“Kgosi.”

“Kgosi?” Chaaya abruptly moved to stand next to Basq. “What the hell is a Kgosi?”

Chapter 13

Brigette squatted on the ledge of the tower, scanning the city below. From her vantage point she could easily keep watch on the narrow streets while avoiding any unwanted attention.

“I was right, was I not?” Levet inquired. The tiny demon was perched next to her, loudly munching on a roasted chicken he’d managed to grab after she’d knocked out a goblin guarding the back door of a pub. She’d finished her own meal in less than two seconds. She was burning through energy at an alarming rate. “This is a much better location to hide.”

She sent him a fierce glare. “I’m not hiding.”

He furrowed his brow. “Then what are we doing?”

“Waiting.”

“Ah.” Levet swallowed the remainder of his chicken in one gulp before noisily licking his fingers. “You must admit that it smells nicer up here. Plus we can see the stars.”

Brigette stared at her companion in bafflement. She’d never encountered another creature like him. It didn’t seem to matter that she’d kidnapped him and hauled him to this weird-ass place. Or that they were leashed together by a magic neither of them understood. He was irrationally good-humored. As if nothing could possibly rattle him.

Brigette didn’t know whether to be annoyed or impressed.

“You are…” Words failed her.

Levet flashed a winsome smile. “Oui, I know. A charming companion and a ravishingly attractive knight in shining armor. Females find me quite irresistible.”

She paused before asking the question that had been teasing at the back of her mind since they’d been sucked through the portal.

“You said you knew what it was like to want to be a part of a family, but always alone.” She tried to sound bored. As if she was simply passing the time.

“Ah, indeed, mine is a tragic tale,” Levet agreed, pressing a hand to the center of his chest. “Like all proper heroes.”

“Did your family die?”

The fairy wings fluttered, as if confused by her question. “Non. They are all alive and residing in Paris.” Levet tapped a claw against his chin. “Well, all of them except for my aunt Bertha. She is like me, a wandering soul who never stays in one place too long.” Tap, tap, tap. “I think it is because she once fell asleep in the Swiss Alps and woke centuries later to discover she was encased in a glacier. It took me months to chisel her out. Since then she never sleeps in the same place for more than a few days.”

“Then why aren’t you close to them?”

“My mother tried to kill me when I first hatched.”

Brigette stared at the gargoyle. Was he being serious? “She tried to kill you?”

“Oui.”

“Why?”

He wrinkled his tiny snout. “She did not appreciate my uniqueness. Like most gargoyles, she has a depressing lack of imagination and a habit of smooshing things she does not understand.”

There was no bitterness in his voice. Just a blithe acceptance that his mother intended to smoosh him for being different.

It made her resentment toward her family seem even more shallow. “How did you survive?”

“I was small enough to hide in cracks in the walls of our lair,” he told her. “Eventually she grew tired of attempting to catch me.”

“That’s awful.”

“That was not so bad. It became a game of sorts, and it kept me from becoming bored. There is nothing quite as refreshing as darting around a room while being chased by a gargoyle the size of a freight train.” Without warning his wings drooped. “I will admit, however, my heart was broken the night I was driven out of Paris.”

There was something weird niggling in the center of her heart. Sympathy? No. that couldn’t be right. She was an evil bitch who tried to destroy the world, right?

She didn’t get all soppy over a stunted lump of granite.

Brigette cleared her throat. “Do you hate them?”

“Non.”

“But…” She shook her head in disbelief. “They tried to kill you.”

“All families are complicated.”

“Complicated, not homicidal.”

“I suppose that is true.” He reached up to rub one stunted horn, as if considering his relationship with the mother who’d tried to end his life and then forced him to flee. “Still, if they had not driven me from