Page 18 of The Oracle of Dusk

“What was that?” Silvanus asked.

“What was what?”

“I…” He peered at her, blue eyes raking over every inch of her. “No, never mind. My apologies.”

“The light plays tricks at this hour. It’s almost easy to understand why the ancients thought the spirits were most active at dusk and dawn.”

They weren’t any longer, if they even still existed. If they’d ever existed.

He smiled ruefully.

“I suspect a lack of sleep isn’t helping.”

“Maybe we’ll get some when we return to camp.”

“With the dulcet tones of the princess’ insults and the comfort of the paladin’s open contempt, how could I not rest peacefully?”

Aurora laughed. Perhaps Silvanus would have survived Phaedra’s tests after all, had he become her guard. In another life, maybe they would have traded tips for dealing with her antics, rather than chasing hopeless leads and battling ancient evils.

Warm lips caressed her neck.

Aurora stiffened, turning to Silvanus with wide, fearful eyes, slapping her hand on her neck. What kind of hero accosted a woman?

Fingers trailed up her calves.

As panic threaded through her, Silvanus seemed just as surprised by her movements. He couldn’t possibly be touching her, seated as he was behind her with his hands on the reins.

“Surrender yourself to me, and I will make your last moments worth dying for.”

“It’s here,” Aurora said, swallowing down bile.

“You canfeelit as well as hear it?” he asked, aghast.

“Yes,” Aurora whispered.

“Filthy, fucking monster,” Silvanus muttered darkly, washing her in divine magic, erasing the feel of the beast on her skin. “Well, it doesn’t look like rest is in our immediate future.”

“No,” Aurora sighed. “Thank you. I don’t… I don’t know what I would do if you weren’t here to—”

“Stop right there. I could be bleeding to death and I would consider it an honour to use the last of my strength to keep that thing from touching you. Never think you need to suffer through that for a moment, Aurora. Understood?”

“Yes. Tha—”

A loper shrieked in the distance. Shadows cast by the sunrise bubbled and congealed all around them. Their loper shied before stomping on the ground, sending the shadows scattering. She’d heard the steeds used by Justice’s temple were imbued with the goddess’ power and trained to fight as hard as their riders, but it was altogether another thing to see it in action.

“Monstrosities,” Silvanus said, grimacing. “I need to find the centre of their eruption and destroy it or they’ll spread.”

He raised his hand and sent out a wave of divine magic, sparkling, pale light dissolving the monstrosities before they could take shape.

“Hold on.”

Silvanus urged their loper to make haste as Aurora’s heart was lodged in her throat. They made it to the next rise, the camp visible below. A sea of bubbling black circled their small camp, monstrosities rising from the shadows, their gruesome features hardening as they prepared for bloodshed. The camp was surrounded, hemmed in by tooth and claw, all of it dripping black shadow. Imperial lopers scattered and shrieked as monstrosities tore them down. Blood painted the shredded remains of tents quickly lost in a sea of roiling black. Imperial guards were devoured whole. The paladins and their mounts pushed back against the tide, but where their divine magic dissipated one monster, another three rose and took its place.

Aurora’s eyes sought Phaedra in the slaughter. There, surrounded by imperial guards using wild magic to little effect, Phaedra stood bloodied, wide-eyed, and holding a small box in her hands. She was backing up as the monsters advanced, but one was rising behind her, its toothy maw wide open, ready to swallow her whole.

“FAE!”

Chapter 5

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