Page 77 of Fiendish Delights
From the rear of the car, Hester piped up, ‘Goody!’ I turned and scowled at her.
‘I’m with Hester,’ Otis said. ‘That sounds great to me.’
‘I will continue to train you in meditation and magic control. Once you’ve mastered them, we’ll work on your addiction. I know a lot about it after what happened with Philip. I can help you.’ His eyes met mine. ‘We’re both stubborn as hell, Daisy. We’re both determined.’
While both those things were true, he had to realise he was being far too optimistic. ‘You can’t cure me. I’m not a damsel in distress who needs a good man like you to save me.’
‘I wouldn’t dream of thinking that. I’m not going to cure you, I’m going to help you cure yourself. You can’t say no, Daisy. You owe me a favour.’
‘It’ll end in tears.’ I wasn’t being pessimistic, just realistic.
‘It’s worth that risk.’ For the first time, I spotted something desperate in his eyes. ‘Give me three months. You can do that.’
I sighed. ‘I don’t have much choice, do I?’
‘Nope.’ His expression lightened. ‘When your addiction is out of the way, if you still don’t want to act on the attraction between us I’ll stop mentioning it.’ He leaned in and lowered his voice. ‘But we both know that won’t happen. You won’t be able to stop yourself.’
‘Because you’re so desirable that I can’t possibly say no?’
He smirked. ‘Exactly.’
I gave him a long, cool look. ‘You will regret this.Ifwe make it back from this venture alive, andifI can learn to control my magic, andifI can wean myself off spider’s silk, andifI decide that I will act upon whatever this is,’ I waved a hand between us, ‘then you’ll be lost forever inmyspider’s web. Because you’re right. Icankiss better than that. Once you’ve tasted meproperly, Hugo, I’ll ruin you for every woman who comes afterwards.’
Hester sucked in a delighted breath. ‘Fighting talk!’
‘Go Daisy!’ Otis yelled.
Hugo only smiled. ‘I can’t wait, princess.’ He ran his tongue across his lips. ‘I can’t wait.’
Partof me wondered if things would become awkward after our conversation in the car, but strangely I felt more at ease. Hugo seemed happier, too. He was humming to himself the following morning when we broke camp and he looked more relaxed than I’d seen him for a long time. It was as if a valve had been released on the pressure cooker that contained us. The steam had escaped, if only temporarily. That was a good thing.
Given how close the fiend was to our goal, we needed to be in the right frame of mind for success. If Hugo wasn’t concerned about the way the fiend had acted towards me, I wouldn’t worry about it either. Besides, I could have misunderstood both his words and actions – as Hugo had said, goodness only knew what went through the mind of a fiend.
However, there was one thing the fiend had said that concerned me greatly and I chewed it over as I tidied away my sleeping gear and we checked the map. When we started the trudge towards the first potential lair, I mentioned it to Hugo. ‘Prevailing wisdom states that fiends are solitary beasts who dislike each other.’
‘I’ve never heard anything to the contrary,’ he agreed, shifting the weight of his backpack until he felt comfortable.
‘The fiend yesterday mentioned Athair.’ I glanced at him. ‘He said “Athair will hear of this”.’
Hugo frowned. ‘I missed that.’
‘To be fair, you’d been knocked on the head a few times and blood was gushing down your face. You’re forgiven for not hearing every word.’
Otis flapped over to Hugo and hugged his earlobe. Hester stayed where she was on my shoulder but I felt her stiffen. ‘Athair is one of the stronger ones left in Britain,’ she said. ‘If the fucker we met yesterday wasn’t Athair, does that mean that the fiends are working together now?’
‘It sounds that way.’
‘What if they band together and attack the dragon? What if they hurt her? What if they kill her?’ I felt a barrage of tiny thumps on the side of my neck as she punched me. ‘Stop meandering, Daisy! You have to run! We have to get to the dragon’s lairnow!’
‘The first possible lair is seventeen miles away, Hester, and it’s uphill all the way. We need to pace ourselves.’
‘But … but … but…’ she spluttered.
Hugo scratched the stubble on his jaw. ‘It’s a concern, but we don’t have the ability to beat one fiend, let alone several, so nothing’s actually changed. We move quickly, find the dragon, warn her about the fiends and save the day.’
He sounded very confident. ‘You make it seem easy,’ I said resentfully.
‘It’ll be a piece of cake.’ His tone was breezy but when I looked at him, I saw that he was worried.
