Page 19 of Immortal Alliance

“He sounds like a good man,” I say.

Kolvar nods. “That he is.”

***

DRAGAN

Mortal Realm

Ripples of heat waft from the dunes beneath our feet. The sun is still high and Eilish hasn’t complained once, while I can hardly keep my mouth shut. My boots sink into the sand, the heat is oppressive and I’m in a shit mood. Gargoyles aren’t meant to live in the sunlight, not when our kind thrives in the night. Almost as quickly as I arrived here, I yearn to return to the Gorge, where shadow and stone reign above all.

Eilish brushes the sweat-dampened strands of hair from her face and knots it atop her head. Lean muscle etches its way across her body, making her as strong physically as she is magically. Even the scent of her sweat is beguiling, tinged with the fragrance of her soaps and the very essence of who she is.

She catches me staring at her and immediately looks away. I feel as if she’s hiding something from me, though I don’t know why I feel this way. She just seems… distant somehow.

“How are you handling the sun?” she asks.

I lift my arm to show the cuff Pyre gifted me. “I haven’t turned to stone, so I guess Pyre’sbraceletis working.” At the mention of Pyre, she immediately drops her attention to the ground before her. Hmm…

Eilish looks forward once more and shouts to Kolvar. “How far?”

“Another hour until we reach the end of the border,” the satyr replies. “Then we’ll make camp in the desert plains for the night before we start a four-day trek through the valley at the base of the canyon.”

“And from there?” Eilish asks.

Kolvar nods. “The Mercenary Stronghold is carved deep into the canyon, surrounded by high walls. It can’t be seen by anyone who doesn’t know what to look for, perfectly camouflaged with the terrain.”

I’m itchy. I’ve got sand in places it shouldn’t be, and my already piss-poor mood is souring by the second. Something’s going on with Eilish and I want to know what the fuck it is. But, I’m not eager to open that conversation with the fucking satyr right here. So, we push on through the flat, open expansion of cracked earth.

“Had I known what this placed looked like, I never would have agreed to come,” I grumble.

“Ah, does the sunlight not agree with you?” Kolvar asks in a patronizing tone.

“This place is a shithole,” I answer.

He nods, his eyebrows reaching for the sweltering sky. “That it is.”

The only thing in sight for miles and miles are spatterings of completely dead grass and the cacti that call this barren land home. Eilish explores her surroundings with exuberance, as if she doesn’t find fault with anything around her. And she looks different in the daylight as well. Her skin appears pinkish and her white hair is even brighter, aside from the strands of black that remind me she needs to feed from a man of the light and soon.

A man from the light?I think to myself and scoff inwardly.

The only “man” of light from whom Eilish can feed is Cambion. No one else, with the exception of Variant, would be able to survive her hunger. And clearly, neither one is an option. And I’m both pleased with that fact and disturbed by it. Pleased because I don’t want Cambion to have her. I’m already torn by the fact that I have to share her with that fucking vampire. But, I’m also disturbed because I know Eilish needs to feed from the light, so she doesn’t lose herself to the darkness within her.

I’m so occupied with watching Eilish that I don’t notice Kolvar’s change in mood until Eilish catches on and lifts a finger to her lips. She creeps along the ground with skill I hadn’t known she possessed.

With lightning-quick reflexes, she snatches a snake from the ground before it can lunge for Kolvar.

“Come on, I’m not going to hurt you,” she says to the snake as Kolvar and I exchange a look of surprise.

She laughs openly as the thing wiggles around in her hand, tail rattling fiercely. And, once again, I’m captivated. I know what I feel isn’t a result of her seduction, but, instead, it’s Eilish’s unique charm. A charm that’s been in the process of unveiling itself. Eilish wasn’t always this confident. In fact, this is a new side of her—and I’ve loved witnessing the changes in her. Where once she was meek and passive, now she’s a force to reckon with.

Not to mention the skills she showed in our fight against Theren and the Unseelie army in the clearing at Pyre’s cottage. She was nothing but fearless in the face of what could have been her end. But she didn’t drop back and she didn’t bow down to Theren.

I’m proud of her.

My hands clench with the urge to grab her and steal the air from her lungs with a searing kiss, but I hold myself back. I don’t like this power she has over me, but I’m also powerless against it.

As we approach a small cluster of rocks above a prickly sprout of foliage, Kolvar drops his bags and Eilish climbs up the rocks to watch the sunset. Streaks of crimson and orange stretch across the sky as I climb up beside her.

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