Page 24 of A Hunt Bound in Blood
I followed the road until I spotted a good place for us to set up camp for tonight, then finally drew up my speed and settled in for a gentle landing.
The tartness of Glory’s disappointment when I set her down made me chuckle, though my amusement was tempered by the whisper of sweet spice as she looked up at me and dragged her hands down my chest. The desire I’d caught from her more than once since we’d met was distractingly delicious, and a long-dormant part of me, woken by the buzz of near death, longed to act on it. What would it take to stoke the embers of her want into an inferno? How strong would that slightly cinnamon scent become?
My mouth watered at the thought, but Glory pulled away and marched across the clearing before my control could be tested. I snapped back to myself, retracted my wings, and jerked my hand away from my neck, where in my wandering thoughts, it had sought out the healing wingleaf rash.
There was a slight wobble to Glory’s legs that she did her best to hide under the effort of dropping her pack and tearing at the bindings holding her tent rods together.
“You got the clue to the next signpost before the ground tried to swallow us?” I asked, wanting to needle her and get us back on familiar ground. Her cheeks flamed pink, and I savoured the faint sourness of her shame.
“I did,” she said stiffly. “Obviously if I’d been able to read the obscured text, I would have pushed the buttons in the correct order.”
I pressed my lips together. “Obviously.”
The ripple of her irritation, touched with a swirl of anger, was a sweet burst of energy to replace what I’d expended during the flight.
“So,” she said as she laid out the tent canvas, still not looking at me. “Wings? That would have been useful to know two days ago. Why aren’t we flying between landmarks?”
I barked a laugh. “The researcher is asking me why we don’t keep to the skies in the wilderness? In all your reading, did you neglect to learn what else lives up there?”
Her cheeks flushed a deeper pink, and she turned her face farther away from me. “A valid point. For all your strength, I suppose you wouldn’t be able to stand against a flying shifter or a dragon.”
I bristled. That hadn’t been my point. Of course I could hold my own against a shifter. One of them, anyway. Probably two. Would be difficult if they came in a pack, sure, but I’d like to see any demon win that fight. As for the dragon, no. I knew my limits.
What I didn’t like was that this magicless mage had made up her mind about where those limits might be.
While she went about setting up her tent, I changed my torn shirt and got to work on building a firepit. But her comment about my perceived weaknesses rankled me, and I found myself needing to rankle back.
“Care to explain why your king keeps a mage who can’t use magic on his advisory council?”
The line of her back stiffened, and I grinned, smart enough to stand where she couldn’t see it.
She cleared her throat, pulled her shoulders back, and said, “I bring more value to the council than magic. He has enough casting mages in his inner circle that he doesn’t notice my lack.”
It was impossible to miss the note of defensiveness in her reply, but there was something else there too. A touch of pride? She obviously believed she had value, and whatever that value was, Evaniel had to agree. From everything I knew about him, he wasn’t the sort to keep someone around out of the goodness of his black, selfish heart.
A woman like this no doubt had influential parents who’d bought her a place. That was the sort who usually climbed the ranks so quickly. I scanned the mage over, taking in the lack of grey hairs woven into the rich brown and the unwrinkled column of her neck. Everything I saw backed up my suspicions, and I couldn’t help but push. “You’re also a little young to be sitting around that table, aren’t you?”
“The youngest member to join the council in six decades, yes.” More of that ego spilled through, and my curiosity rose another notch as my suspicions faltered. If she’d paid for her position, she must have proved herself worthwhile for the king to have put such faith in this strange, long-shot mission. Clearly, I was missing something.
“Was it your researching skills that caught Evaniel’s attention?”
“That helped, yes.” She fitted the last tent rod into place and smoothed out the door before turning her attention to the bedroll and blanket.
She was walking very carefully around my questions. Discomfort floated off her in waves that tasted vaguely of bitter almond, and my need to dig grew stronger. This stuck-up mage was a walking enigma, and I was at very real risk of becoming interested.
The wise move would be to let the subject go. End the conversation, remind myself she was not a mystery worth solving, and go back to ignoring her.
“But it’s not why he hired you?” I asked instead, giving in to the temptation, needing to unwrap this riddle the universe had presented me. When she didn’t answer right away, I shrugged. “You don’t have to tell me. I just figured that since you’ve learned one of my secrets today, it’s only fair I learn something about you.”
A shameless ploy on my part, but the mage didn’t know my methods yet. Direct questions hadn’t worked, so necessity dictated I revert to mind games. Classic demon playbook. Ten years away, and although the pages were dusty, I could still read them.
Glory flapped the blanket to lay it flat inside her tent, then stepped out and made her way to the fire, keeping her attention on the trees. “King Evaniel discovered I was a tempest mage and thought it wise to keep me close.”
My hands stilled where I reached for the wood to throw into the firepit. “That’s… wow.” Most definitely not the answer I’d expected. I blinked and shifted to face her directly. I’d suspected she was an air mage because of the weight of her pack, but it had never occurred to me I might be travelling with one of the most powerful beings in the country. With her ability to wield all four elements, she was a one-person army. “Tempest mages are rare.”
She shrugged and joined me near the wood I’d gathered, picking up where I’d been interrupted and piling one, two, three logs into her arms. “Rare enough. I believe I’m the only one in Golth at present.”
From what I remembered of my studies growing up, tempest mages were given a high status in mage circles. They became generals; they weren’t relegated to some yapping advisory council. They also didn’t dangle uselessly over open pits without making an effort to save themselves. I frowned. “I’m not saying I don’t believe you, but…”