Page 8 of Madness of Her Mages

His gaze was drawn to the girl when she let out a soft moan and rolled onto her side, pressing a cheek into the damp earth. The sweet curve of her face reminded him too much of a younger Flora, her chestnut curls spread out across the forest floor, her long, dark eyelashes fanning her face. Her beauty rendered him momentarily speechless. His stomach soured at the thought of his mistress plucking out those pretty eyes, slicing open her slender neck, and cutting off her large, firm breasts. How could he let her harm this sweet child?

You’re a fool, Thorin,Samael taunted.Our mistress will find you and eat you both.

And then you’ll be sent back to hell with no host,Thorin reminded him.

Our mistress will find me a new host.

Are you sure?Thorin teased.Maybe I’ll tell her keeping the witch from her was your idea.

Samael gasped and Thorin’s blood heated, but the demon went silent.

“Maybe this is a bad idea.”

Thorin glared at Flora as she wrung her hands together. “This wasyouridea.” Had she always been so infuriating? He was starting to wonder why he’d ever loved her.

She chewed on her bottom lip while casting Derrick a pleading look. “I know, but I’m having second thoughts. The human lands are so far away and dangerous.”

He stalked up to her, his knees creaking like old floorboards. “As dangerous as waging war against a thousand dragon army?”

She backed up a step, her frightened gaze shifting from Thorin to her daughter. “Shiri and the children will be devastated.”

“They will be more devastated if the dragons kill your daughter,” he warned. “Not to mention, Fachnan won’t stop with her. He’ll destroy your entire family.”

“He won’t,” she said on a rasp, the look in her eyes reminding him of a lamb at the slaughter. “He was my friend.”

“Listen to me, Flora.” Thorin snickered, shaking his head. And to think, he’d once thought Flora clever. “Fachnan isn’t the same man you knew fifty years ago. If he can destroy an entire shifter town, including women and children, do you honestly think he’ll spare your family? Your shifter granddaughters?”

Flora shook her head, her eyes welling with tears. “She doesn’t have to go now that you’ve taken her memories.”

“What do you think the lycan king will do when he discovers his secret weapon like this?” Thorin waved toward Tarianya with a curse. “She has to go, Flora.”

“But she’s my baby.” Her voice splintered as she bit down on her knuckles.

“Don’t worry, my love.” Derrick clutched Flora’s shoulders, desperately searching her eyes as if he was about to go off to war. These two truly were dramatic. “After you change her features, I’ll accompany them and see to it she gets to safety.”

“Yes, my love. Please go with her.” Flora dried her eyes before casting her daughter a lingering look. “Let me pack her things first, a hairbrush and ribbons, and a spare dress.”

Thorin growled under his breath at the thought of flying with Derrick. No doubt the mage would want to carry both him and the girl. How humiliating. They didn’t know he’d planned on traveling through the underground demon tunnels. The same tunnels that would lead them straight to his mistress. He looked down at Flora’s sleeping daughter once more. She looked too much like her mother. She had the same pouty lips, the same thick eyelashes.

He remembered with fondness how Flora had been the only member of her grandmother’s court to offer him a kind word, a sweet smile. How could he hand over Flora’s precious child to his mistress? Perhaps he would let Derrick carry the girl overthe Periculian Mountains and the Werewood Forest. Far, far away from his mistress’s watchful eye. Thorin’s wings weren’t very powerful, but he could fly in short spurts. He would force himself to keep up with them. He had no choice, for he knew his mistress would send demons for them soon.

You cannot hide from her forever,Samael hissed.

He ignored his demon. Samael had always been too loyal to their mistress.

When the girl cried out in her sleep, he fought the urge to stroke her face as something stirred deep within his soul. For Flora’s sake, he would keep the girl safe. And perhaps he could teach the girl to love him in a way her mother never would.

Tarianya

EMBER. AURORA. I’Msorry I failed you.

I awoke to a pounding in my skull, my eyes slowly adjusting to the dim light. I slowly sat up as that pounding turned to a dull throb. I rubbed grit from my eyes that burned as if I’d stared too long at the sun.

My gaze wandered to a crackling campfire in the middle of a clearing surrounded by tall, narrow, balding trees, hardly more than a few leaves on their branches. This place seemed foreign, odd. A shiver stole up my spine, and I pulled a thin blanket over my legs, wrapping my arms around myself. I didn’t belong here. But where did I belong?

I arched back, fear numbing my veins when one of the bald trees moved. But, no, it wasn’t a tree. It was a man. A tall, stooped man in brown robes, a scraggly, gray beard coming halfway down his chest.

“How do you feel, Anya?” the robed man asked.

---