Page 47 of Snag
The dire mage chuckles darkly.
“The eyes are wrong,” Presh says, rubbing her arms and shivering as if Bellamy’s laugh might have affected her on a physical level. “She can’t fake an awry’s eyes.”
Bellamy’s smile widens, turning manic. “They’re not fake, youngest.”
I blink.
Awry?
She’s claiming that she’s awry?
A … dire awry?
I blink again, deliberately this time as I try to get a look at Bellamy’s threads.
“The fuck you say,” Reck snarls. Pivoting to face off with the dire mage, he takes a few steps back. Far enough to get between her and Presh.
Bellamy clicks her tongue chastisingly. “Come, come, brother —”
“Don’t fucking call me that!” He pulls an essence-enhanced stun gun from his pocket. It’s no bigger than his palm, but as it’s Authority issued, I have no doubt it’s nasty. Probably deadly to most targets.
And yes, Bellamy is claiming to be a Guerra sibling.
“Goodness.” The self-proclaimed dire awry presses her hand against her chest dramatically. “Is that because you couldn’t fuck me properly but still wanted to?”
“I wanted Zaya,” Reck says. “You knew what you were doing when —”
“What’s going on here?” Rought, trailed by DeVille, is suddenly crowding up against our backs.
The hallway really isn’t wide enough for three people to stand shoulder to shoulder. Especially not with the width of the gryphon shifter’s shoulders factored in. Rought snags Presh gently by the arm and pulls her back behind him, taking her place at my side. Reck is still ahead of us, between us and Bellamy.
“Oh good!” Bellamy cries with false brightness, clasping her hands in front of her. “We’re almost all here.”
“You don’t have to hold my hand, Andy,” Presh grumbles behind us, shifting so she can peer between Rought and me at the dire awry.
Dire awry? That just doesn’t make any sense …
“I’ll put you over my shoulder again,” DeVille mutters in a warning tone.
“You won’t,” Presh says.
“Don’t make me.”
“Where’s the dragon?” Bellamy asks, grinning madly as we all ignore the teenagers bickering. “On his way? You can’t have a family reunion without all of the family … I mean, all of us in this particular country, that is. Daddy will be so pleased to have us together again.”
“We don’t fucking know you, mage,” Rought says caustically.
“I know enough,” Reck says. The dark-tinged energy of the cu-sith roils around him. “Enough to lock her up and forget the paperwork.”
“Oh, yes!” Bellamy talks over both brothers as if they’re inconsequential. “Let’s do proper introductions.” Making a show of it, she combs her sharp-tipped red nails through her hair, then down her face and across her shoulders, snagging layers of essence as she goes.
The glamour coating her cracks and crumbles. More of that foul-tainted essence writhes around her.
Rought huffs a few breaths as if clearing his senses.
Behind me, Presh gags and DeVille snorts.
Reck doesn’t outwardly react.
