Shades of Darkness (Guardians of Eternity #16) - Alexandra Ivy Page 0,48

she protested.

“You gave me what I needed.”

Unexpectedly, the female tossed the coin back at him. “I don’t want your money.”

Troy caught the coin. “No?”

She nodded toward the target. “I want you to teach me to throw like that.”

“Later,” he promised.

Troy turned to stroll out of the guard room, already plotting his next move.

Jord had claimed that Riza was on the ground when he’d found the cell empty. But if that was true, why hadn’t the younger male followed the protocol when he woke?

Something he intended to discover.

Chapter 14

Basq grimaced as they stepped into the alley only to be whisked into a vast desert. Instinctively he flinched as the illusion of golden sand drenched in sunlight surrounded them.

Dammit. He hated magic. Especially magic that sucked him from one place to another.

Glancing around to make sure that Chaaya was nearby and unharmed, he abruptly froze. Standing next to him, she was bathed in the dazzling sunlight that made her…glow. Her skin was as pale and smooth as ivory with soft lips that looked as if they’d been kissed by a rose. Her dark eyes held a hint of copper and the Celtic tattoos held a metallic glitter.

In the moonlight she was a ghostly beauty. In the sunlight she was gloriously, vividly alive.

Reluctantly he looked away, studying the vast sky above. The bright crystal blue didn’t captivate him with the same enchantment as the sight of Chaaya. Oh, it might have if it’d been real. Of course, it would also have turned him into a pile of ash. Next he surveyed the rolling dunes that appeared to have no end. And perhaps they didn’t.

Far in the distant he could make out the silhouette of a sprawling structure. It looked like a castle rising out of the sand with the traditional curtain wall and towering central keep. But the stylized décor on the gate reminded him of an ancient Persian fortress.

Basq pointed toward the castle. “Let’s go.”

With a strangled sound, Dabbler dug his feet into the sand. “No way. I’ve brought you to the lair of Kgosi. All you have to do is start walking. He’ll find you.”

Basq narrowed his eyes. “That wasn’t a request. Go.”

“No.”

Frustration bubbled through Basq. He didn’t like this place. Not only was the sun unnerving despite its inability to hurt him, but he could feel his power draining at an alarming rate. As if something—or someone—was sucking it out of him.

He bared his fangs. “Do you honestly think I won’t kill you?”

Dabbler quivered, his fear sullying the air with an earthy stench. “If I go a step farther, I’m dead.”

Chaaya moved to stand next to him, studying the brownie with a hard expression.

“It’s a trap.”

Dabbler shook his head, his earlobes flapping. “No. I swear.”

Basq reached to wrap his fingers around the demon’s throat. They were too exposed out here. Vulnerable. He wanted to find the mysterious Kgosi and get the hell out of there.

“I’m done with games.”

“Listen.” Dabbler held out his hands in a pleading gesture. “I can explain.”

“Start talking,” Basq commanded.

“My father didn’t actually create the bulla,” the demon admitted, licking his fat lips. “He was searching for a place to keep my mother from aging when he stumbled across an empty space between space.”

Basq eyed the brownie in disbelief. “He just happened to stumble across an unclaimed bulla?”

“We thought it was unclaimed,” Dabbler corrected. “My father built the palace for my mother, and we settled in to molder in dull isolation. After my parents died—”

“After you killed them,” Chaaya interrupted.

“Fine, yes,” Dabbler muttered. “After I killed them and started to create my city, I happened to discover this opening.”

Basq studied the brownie. There was no mistaking his genuine fear, but the probability that the words spewing out of his mouth were true was zero to none. This male had lived in his own delusion of grandeur for so long, Basq doubted that he was capable of recognizing fact from fiction.

“You’d never noticed it before?” he asked.

Dabbler shook his head, flushing at the mocking disbelief in Basq’s voice. “I don’t know if I missed it or if it deliberately concealed itself, but one day it was simply there.”

Basq let it pass. He was more interested in what they’d walked into than when Dabbler had found it.

“So you entered?”

“Of course.” Dabbler hunched his shoulders. “Who wouldn’t?”

“Most sane creatures,” Chaaya muttered.

The brownie looked defensive. “I wanted to see if it was a portal in or out of my city.”

“Ah.” That claim made sense to Basq. “You were afraid that demons