Sorsha works with, but she doesn’t have any shortage of courage. Or any other useful quality. We wouldn’t have managed to find you, let alone break you out, if it wasn’t for her.”
Thorn, looming by the hood of the car, inclined his head. “She’s lost a great deal serving our cause and yet refused to back down. I wouldn’t hesitate to fight at her side again.”
Omen considered his three compatriots with the same piercing focus he’d aimed at me. I wasn’t sure what they might have given away about the other directions our relationships had veered in. Maybe the fact that they respected me on any level irked him.
“I thank you, then,” he said finally, turning his attention back to me for a brief moment—and not sounding particularly grateful. “Forgive me my skepticism. I’ve just spent the last innumerable weeks being tortured by your kind; I’m not feeling the friendliest toward anyone mortal at the moment.”
His gaze lingered on me a little longer, as if searching for some reaction to that statement beyond my tight smile of acceptance. A creeping sensation ran over my skin.
“Is that all they wanted?” Ruse said. “To torture higher shadowkind? It seems like an awful lot of trouble just for that.”
“Oh, no, I’m sure they had a much more complex agenda.” Omen rubbed his jaw. “They were attempting to accomplish something with their torment, to discover something, but they were careful not to say very much about it in my presence, so I can’t say what. I do know, given their techniques, it can’t bode well for us. As I suspected, there are humans making some sort of bid to sway the balance of power between mortal and shadowkind.”
My stomach knotted. And we’d left that place standing and full of other captive beings who’d be subjected to even more of that torment. The words tumbled out. “We have to stop them.”
Omen raised his eyebrows at me. “You sound as though you’re including yourself in that ‘we.’”
I lifted my chin. “Of course I am. The same bastards killed the woman who raised me. Even if it wasn’t for that, they deserve to go down. I’m already all in. The rest of the Shadowkind Defense Fund will help as much as they can too, whatever you think of them.”
“So you plan to go running back to them. Or did you think you’d join our little company? Keep in mind that the way we’re going won’t be easy even for us.”
The truth was, I hadn’t had much of a chance to think my options over. I hesitated for a second, but the answer came with a swell of certainty.
Maybe it was the connection I’d started to feel with all three of my trio. Maybe it was the fact that I suspected sticking around would really piss off the man who’d asked the question, and the more he talked, the more the idea of annoying him appealed to me.
Or maybe it was simply because I had to believe that if I was dealing with a devil, I’d be better off having him at my side than anywhere else in this battle.
The other three shadowkind were watching me too: Thorn in solemn silence, Ruse with a slyly crooked grin, and Snap braced, his face aglow with an indomitable hope that suggested he’d tackle me if I made any move to go.
Not that he’d need to. I shrugged as if I wasn’t concerned about how much danger I’d face and said, “I’m here now. We ended up making a pretty good team.”
When Omen smiled, his teeth glinted, even and white. I hadn’t yet located the shadowkind part of him that lingered even in this guise. “Welcome on board,” he said, in a tone that seemed to say, We’ll see about that.
In that moment, I wasn’t sure whether I faced more peril from the jailors we’d just fought off or the shadowkind man we’d rescued from them.
Oh, you were here for the end of the world, scores of death and destruction—what about that, you ask? I never promised it would be a short story. Stick with me. We’re getting there.
* * *
How will Sorsha and her monstrous lovers tackle the rest of the sword-star group—and will Omen’s hostility be their downfall? Find out in Twilight Crook, the second book in the Flirting with Monsters series. Get Twilight Crook now!
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Next in the Flirting with Monsters series
Twilight