Page 60 of When the Wicked Sing
Rufus shook his head. “Nah, just the cellar. But it’s gota bed.” He giggled with a wicked gleam in his eye and held up a key.
Ignoring what he was implying, Dax groaned. “Great! We get your sour, smelly bed. What a treat.” Dax made to grab the key—knowing very well that the cellar was where the old fart usually slept off his famous benders—but Rufus held it just out of reach.
He chuckled, a deep, gravelly sound, waggling the key teasingly. “There are fresh sheets on it, I swear. And”—he leaned in conspiratorially—“there might be some leftover whiskey under the bed. Just mind the spiders—they’re the friendlysort.” He finally let Dax snatch the key, his grin never faltering. “You watch over that lass, now. Aurelia’s no place for the faint-hearted.”
“Already on it.” Dax tipped his head to the old dwarf and walked over to Mari.
“This is amazing. The craftsmanship is …” She covered her mouth with a hand and shook her head. “I can’t get over it. I’ve never seen anything like it.”
“Rufus did it all himself. Spent years collecting the scales from old battlefields when they were finally safe to walk on.” Dragon flame was known for its undying burn. Even after all that had perished, there were some places where the ground still smoked.
“It’s amazing he’s even still around. How old do you think he is?” Mari asked in amazement.
“Who knows.”
Dax had no idea how the dwarf had survived this long. Before the Infernal Wars, after the dragons were declared a threat to the General, the dwarves rebelled. But it was a battle they’d never win. Rufus watched his whole family die and still walked the land where they fought till their dying breaths. It haunted him, though, beating him with every breath he took. When the grief ran wild, the dwarf would fall into a drunken depression, drinking enough illegal liquor to kill a horse. He could’ve traveled up through the Varasova Mountains, where many surviving dwarves had established their own towns. Still, Rufus stayed close to where his family was buried. To remember them. Something Dax greatly respected.
“Can you imagine all the stories he could tell? All the tales of glory and dragons flying through the sky …” Mari said wistfully.
“We can stay up here and have a drink, if you like. Rufus will gladly talk your ear off.”
Mari opened her mouth just as someone stepped up behind Dax.
The room went unnaturally quiet. Tension filled the air like a noxious fog. Everyone seemed to hold their breath as Dax slowly looked over his shoulder.
Standing within punching distance stood the blond male from the Crossing.
He smiled. “Surprise.”
The chilling sound of claws scraping metal followed. Then, chaos erupted.
Chapter 32
Themetaltablebesidethem burst upward, slamming into Dax. He landed on his back with a grunt onto the dirty stone floor.
Mariana’s heart seized as everyone around them ran screaming.
She reached for the bone dagger at her hip—
What felt like claws reached up behind her and gripped her arm, stopping her.
A creature made of swirling darkness with bright red eyes slithered out. It pulled Mariana forward with a force she didn’t expect, wrapping its dark tendrils around her neck in silent warning.
“What is this thing?” she gasped, raising her hands to rip it apart, but her fingers only clawed at the air. There was nothing she could do to make it stop.
The blond male shrugged, still smiling.
“A gift from the Matriarch,” he said as Dax stood up, seething with anger. The stranger’s eyes slid over to Mari. “To find and transport you to Aurelia.Now.”
“She’s not going anywhere with you,” Dax ground out, unsheathing the long blade strapped across his back that he’d brought from Kythera. The polished steel glinted under the light, promising a swift death for those who met its sharp edge.
“The Matriarch has grown tired of waiting. She wants her,” he said, pointing at Mariana, “transported to Aurelia by tomorrow morning.”
“Thanks for the reminder, now back off and get out of here,” Dax ordered darkly.
The fae shook his head like he had sad news. “I have my orders. Don’t make this any more difficult than it needs to be.”
Dax glanced between the fae and Mariana. She could see it then, the way he struggled.
