Page 95 of Fiendish Delights
‘Are you okay?’ Hugo asked gruffly.
I nodded. ‘A bit woozy, that’s all.’ My gaze dropped to one of the many scorch marks left by Athair’s lightning. ‘He said we’d met before but I have no memory of that. I didn’t know fiends existed until you told me about them. But the other fiends said something similar.’ Frustration beat at me. ‘I don’t get it.’
Athair’s last words also echoed around my head – but I didn’t dare confront them. Not yet. I wasn’t ready.
‘Given he stole my damned physical form and pretended to be me,’ Hugo growled, ‘you could have encountered him at any point. He could have been anyone. Same with the others. We’ve all been on the trail of the chess set – we could have crossed paths several times and not known it.’
I gave a jerky nod but my anxiety didn’t ease. The power that Athair had displayed was extraordinary. Even with Gladys to help me, there didn’t seem to be any earthly way in which he could be defeated.
‘Daisy knew!’ Hester called. ‘Daisy knew that wasn’t really you.’
Hugo’s head tilted. ‘How?’
‘My skin prickles,’ I admitted. ‘When there’s a fiend nearby, I feel itchy. And you – or rather Athair – said a few things that were out of character. Plus…’ My voice trailed off.
‘Plus?’ he asked.
I sighed. ‘There wasn’t a dimple.’
Hugo blinked. ‘Pardon?’
‘When you conjure up magic your dimple appears,’ I said. ‘But when Athair was pretending to be you, there wasn’t one.’
Something flared deep in his eyes. ‘How very observant of you,’ he murmured.
Yeah, yeah. I waved it off. ‘He attacked you?’ I asked. ‘Before he took your form?’
Hugo nodded. ‘I didn’t hear him coming. He must have come up from behind and hit me on the back of my head. I went down like a ton of bricks,’ he admitted. ‘I’m sorry, Daisy. If I’d been paying more attention?—’
I interrupted him. ‘No. It wasn’t your fault. I’m only glad he didn’t kill you.’
‘I might say the same about you,’ he murmured. We gazed at each other, unspoken emotion building between us.
Aine coughed out a plume of white smoke. ‘What is happening?’ she asked, her eyes flicking between us.
‘The longest session of foreplay the world has ever seen.’ Otis rolled his eyes then clamped his hand over his mouth. ‘I didn’t mean to say that aloud.’
Hester snickered. ‘He’s not wrong.’
Aine stared for another moment or two. ‘You are all strange creatures.’ She raised one of her massive front legs and flexed her claws. ‘And it is time for you all to leave. The danger is over. We shall find another new lair.’
We?
‘May we take the chess set?’ Hugo asked.
‘Ido not wish to see it again.’ She belched out a plume of fire. ‘Take it and go.’
‘Aine,’ I began, speaking slowly, ‘why did you?—?’
There was a scuffling sound from behind the pile of rocks at the entrance to the lair and I stopped. When I felt Hugo’s body tense as he started to draw on his last magic reserves, I quickly stepped in front of him. ‘No,’ I said. ‘It’s alright.’
There was a little squeak followed by a faint flicker of fire that briefly illuminated the lair’s interior. I caught a fleeting glimpse of a very small red creature with wide, blinking yellow eyes.
Aine rumbled and immediately moved, blocking the lair from our view. ‘Leave,’ she rumbled again. She gazed at us with sudden malevolence, as if the bonds between us that had formed during the battle with Athair had never existed.
‘The egg,’ I whispered, realisation dawning. ‘But it was so old… How could that happen?’
The huge dragon watched me. ‘Dragon fire may not be enough to kill a fiend but it is still full of magic. There are good reasons as to why we are not yet extinct, despite the attempts of your kind to kill us off. Call it a sort of prolonged hibernation, if you will.’
