Page 79 of Witch Untold
“Lauris, you’ve gone nuts,” Bramble said.
“What?”
“Who the heck you talking to?”
He blinked down at her, his brow furrowing. “Voran the sylph…wait, you don’t hear him?”
“The hissing?” Bramble asked.
Lauris frowned. “He doesn’t hiss. Wait,that’swhat you guys hear?”
Bramble and I nodded.
A soft hiss caressed my senses and a feather-light touch kissed my ear.
I jerked my head to the side. “Quit it.”
“Stop it,” Lauris ordered. “These are my friends. You don’t get to touch.”
He turned onto a path leading to a narrow house, bounded up the steps, and knocked on the door.
Bramble peered through the window. “Shit, it’s pitch-black inside.”
“Ida likes her privacy. The windows are glamoured.” He knocked again.
No one answered.
The sylph hissed again.
Lauris made a sound of exasperation. “I can see that. If you want to help, tell me where Ida is.”
A series of sibilant sounds filled the air in response.
Lauris listened intently, nodding periodically. “Okay. Yeah, next time.” He turned to us. “Come on.”
We followed Lauris and the sylph followed us. Down the street some more, a left into a narrow alley with walls so high it felt like they touched the sky. Thank fuck I wasn’t claustrophobic. The alley narrowed the further we got down it until we were forced to walk single file. I let Bramble walk between Lauris and me with the sylph at my back.
A whisper of air by my ear, then at my nape. “Touch me again and I’ll make it my mission to find a way to kick your airy ass.”
The sylph hissed but backed up.
Lauris chuckled. “No, she’s not joking.”
Shit, it was getting tight in here. “Um, Lauris.”
“Almost there,” he called back.
The sound of cheers drifted toward us and the scent of blood tickled my senses. “Lauris, where the hell are—"
The alley widened suddenly, as if taking a breath, and spat out into a courtyard filled with people of all shapes and sizes. They stood in a loose circle around a massive iron cage where two other creatures were beating the shit out of each other.
I scanned the crowd filled with breeds of outliers I hadn’t known existed. Antlered and horned, bat-winged and hunched. The wordmonsterscame to mind, but there was no threat here. The atmosphere, despite the bloodthirsty activity taking place in the cage, was almost pleasant.
“Motherfucker,” Bramble muttered.
Lauris took a deep breath, then tipped his head back, drinking it in. “It’s fantastic, isn’t it.”
One of the occupants of the cage went down hard, and the crowd’s cheer was a wave of excitement washing over us, infectious and compelling.
