Page 49 of Midnight Kingdom

“Dead, yes,” I interrupt. “He’s in The Veil and Noni was able to locate his spirit.” I pause for a moment as I remember the particulars and a small, sad smile crosses my mouth. “We spoke for a short while and some of the words he said have been echoing in my mind.”

“What did he say?”

“His words were a gift to me, Eilish,” I answer, deciding not to part with them. “But they affected me to such an extent, that I made a decision.” I pause for a moment as I lose myself in her eyes. When I speak again, my voice is lower, softer. “I’m done fighting this attraction between us.”

My hand lifts to toy with a strand of her dark hair. Before, it repulsed me, but now I see it as simply another part of Eilish. She wraps her arms around my neck and pulls me close to her, nuzzling into the crook of my shoulder.

“I missed you, Dragan.”

“And I have missed you more than you know.”

She grows silent and I can tell something is bothering her. “Dragan?” she starts.

“Yes?”

She’s quiet for another few seconds as she apparently weighs her words. “It can’t just be the two of us.” She inhales a sharp breath. “Do you remember Morrigan’s words? I have to balance the darkness inside me with the lightness.”

I think about the things Morrigan said to Eilish often, and every time I return to the moment in Raflamir’s home when Eilish stroked me beneath the table while Revenant pleasured her with his fingers.

I sigh. “I feel possessive and protective of you, and I’m unaccustomed to sharing a woman.”

“I understand.”

“But, I would be lying if I said that seeing you with Revenant didn’t also excite me.”

“I thought…” she starts.

“That I was repulsed by it?” I finish for her as she nods and I shake my head. “I was jealous, yes, but not repulsed. I had to come to terms with the fact that watching him touch you… aroused me.”

Eilish presses her chest against mine, clinging to me as closely as she can. “And I like knowing that you enjoyed watching me,” she purrs. I can feel her seduction swirling around us, so I take a step back and give myself space. Now is not the time and this is not the place.

Her pout is nearly as beguiling as the seduction itself and I wish she was aware of that fact. “This wound on your chest,” I start as I glance down at it.

“I’m working on healing it,” she answers.

“Pyre taught you how to heal?”

She nods. “He’s also going to teach me how to become a leader, how to use both my angel gifts and my succubus abilities. He says we can’t base my powers off them individually, but we need to focus onmeas an individual—not just a hybrid of two incompatible species.”

“He’s also taken Revenant under his wing. Who’s next? Cambion? Me?”

“It wouldn’t hurt,” she replies with a smile. “You were the one who said you didn’t know much about your kind. Maybe Pyre could teach you a few things, as well?”

“You feel drawn to him, don’t you?”

She drops her head and appears slightly embarrassed. “He isbeautiful,despite how deadly he is. I feel drawn to him, yes, but, not the way I feel for you and the others. Pyre is… a good friend.”

***

FLUMPH

The Veil

“You glad Noni back, Mr. Flumph?”

That godawful little critter back, an’ she ain’t leavin’ me alone again. I hurry off to hides from her when the necromancer come inside. He walkin’ to the fireplace an’ I flys over to see what him doin’.

“Hey, I gotta talk to you,” I say, real polite-like.

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