Page 7 of Buzz Kill (Smoke & Mirrors Tavern #7)

Chapter seven

DECLAN

I could practically feel Acacia’s glee and she lowered the crossbow to get a better look at the show. I turned us to face the tear and the backlash of magic blew in our faces like a torrent of wind. The fragments of landscape I could see through the tear looked bleak and unforgiving, but what choice did I have?

I looked back at Acacia over my shoulder. “You know, there’s one good thing that will come of this.”

Acacia arched an eyebrow in question. I knew what she was thinking. She’d force an heir out of me and live in the lap of luxury with my family for the rest of her days. It was nothing but upside for her. And nothing but an absolute nightmare for me. But there was one teeny little thing I could almost smile about.

“My father will be furious when he finds out you lost his only heir.”

The flash of fear on the old hag’s face was the last thing I saw. My grip on Alwin’s arm tightened and I jumped, pulling him down with me. My arm stretched, fingers coming woefully short of the artifact, but Alwin was taller and when he saw what I was trying to do, he snagged the crystal as we fell.

With the crystal pulled from the wake of the spell, the tear sealed the moment we were through. Alwin managed to tuck me into his body, but we still hit the ground hard. The smell of burning flesh wafted past my face and I quickly scanned our surroundings, praying we hadn’t fallen right into some cannibalistic ritual. But a quick look at the barren desert landscape showed we were alone. Not one demon, plant, or drop of water showed itself as we picked ourselves up out of the red sand.

I reached for the crystal Alwin dropped, but he dragged me back. “Give it a minute.”

It was only then that I realized his hand was badly burned from plucking the artifact from the middle of an active spell. It was a dangerous and stupid move, the veil could have ripped us apart in the process, but it was our best shot. Sometimes stupid was the right answer.

I took Alwin’s hand and examined the burn. “Shit, Al, that’s pretty bad. You need a healer.”

“It’s fine.”

He pulled out an elven leather pouch and used his good hand to drop the artifact inside. His sharp blue eyes scanned our surroundings and he started walking.

“We should find a place that is not in the open. The sun is low in the sky and the elements are unfriendly here. Stay close. Once we find a place to settle for the night, I will begin working on new glamours that will make us less conspicuous in this world.”

For an elf, it could take a while to make a single glamour and we didn’t even know if this world had magic he could work with, but I didn’t shit on his plan out loud. Al seemed a little out of sorts at the moment. To the eye, he was as calm and collected as ever, but there was an underlying sort of nervousness that I felt more than saw. Like he wasn’t quite as confident in his abilities in this world, and who would be? The demon world was largely an unknown, no one who came here ever returned. And those who were summoned to our world rarely offered much insight. Our only knowledge was that it was a hard place to survive.

And now not only was he stuck here because of me, but I was also forcing him to protect me. It was really no wonder he was irritated. He was probably wishing I’d pushed him and stayed behind like Acacia demanded. We walked in silence and while I could see hints of things scurrying off from the corner of my eye now and then, no place to take shelter had made itself available.

After what must have been hours of silence, I was sweating, hungry, exhausted, sunburned, and I’d give my right arm for something to drink. Preferably something strong. There was sand working its way under my clothes and a light dust covered my skin, my nostrils, my tongue. The more uncomfortable I got, the more the silence nagged at me. I couldn’t do anything about my physical discomfort, so I needed to ease the guilt that had been eating away at me instead.

“I really am sorry, Al. I didn’t mean for you to get dragged into the family drama.”

“We will stop there,” he pointed out a faint… something on the hazy horizon.

“Uh, okay. What is it?”

“A rock.”

Awesome. After hours of walking, the most hospitable thing we found was a rock. I wasn’t one to complain unless I was keeping up the spoiled rich boy act, which was pointless around Alwin, so I merely nodded and followed along, noting that I was clearly not forgiven.

The sun dipped behind the horizon and the lower it got, the more drastically the place changed. The temperature dropped sharply, cooling the sweat on my skin and quickly going from relief to fucking freezing. Alwin’s pace picked up as the sky darkened and we reached the giant boulder. He wasted no time circling past the mouth of a cavern on one side and stopping where the increasing winds were blocked slightly better.

“We’re not going in?” I asked, ignoring the sand filled wind blasting off layers of skin as I stood there completely useless.

“I don’t know what kinds of creatures reside in there. For now, it is best to set up here.”

Al reached into one of his pouches and pulled out a small bundle of material. Within minutes, he’d anchored a small tent-like structure to the rock that almost blended right in. We retreated inside and only then did he finally pull out one of his healing charms and use it on his hand.

“The shelter will conceal traces of magic and signs of life from the outside,” he explained. “I’m unsure what will attract the beasts here. For now, it is best to be cautious.”

“Got it. Don’t suppose you’ve got a jug of that elven wine in one of those pouches of yours?”

The glow from Alwin’s charm faded and while the worst of his burn was better, his skin was still pink and probably tender. He selected a different pouch from somewhere on his body and offered a canteen that I was sure did not contain liquor, and a wrapped bar of some kind.

“What’s this?”

“It is a supplement I make when heading out on missions. It contains enough calories and nutrients to meet your daily needs.”

“You made this?”

I wasn’t about to turn down food, but while Al had whipped up an impressive meal for me at his place, this sad looking bar didn’t quite compare. After a few swigs of water, I took a tentative bite of the bar and held back a grimace. It wasn’t as bad as it looked and had a hint of sweetness from some kind of fruit, but there was only so much one could do with a mashed up bar meant to keep you alive in desperate situations.

“Thank you,” I finally said, tucking myself back against the rock which was still warm from the earlier heat.

Alwin gave a short nod and drank some water himself before fishing out two new charms and sitting back against the rock to work.

“I meant to ask, what are those things? Is that charm a design all elves use for their magic?”

“Each household creates its own design when it is established, like a seal. Courts with excellent weaving abilities become well known and their seals become quite valuable.”

“Oh. So that’s the seal you use for your court? How are your weaving abilities?”

“It is. My abilities are sufficient, but magic is not where my talents lie. My seals are not especially valuable aside from practical use, but I will construct our glamours carefully. You need not worry, they will hold up.”

“I wasn’t questioning your abilities, Al. It just looked familiar, but I’m sure a lot of them are similar.”

I couldn’t quite decipher the look Alwin was giving me, so I shut up for once and shoved another bite of the bar in my mouth. Alwin set aside his work for a moment, probably because I kept interrupting him.

“Why did you jump in here with me?”

“What other option did we have? Acacia must have told the others to wait outside so she could play her little game of cat and mouse, but there would have been an army waiting for us in the hall and it’s not like I’m much help in a fight. Her and Deimos both had weapons aimed at you, even if I could make one miss, that gun had six shots, there was no way he’d miss all of them. Plus, that old bitch is actually pretty powerful. It wasn’t a good plan, but that tear was the only way out for us. Unless you saw something I didn’t.”

“Was she lying when she said she would protect you from your father?”

I sighed. “No. If I did what she wanted, I’m sure she would have protected me.”

“Then why did you jump in here with me?”

Definitely not forgiven. “Look, I’m sorry, okay? I realize that having to protect me in a place like this wasn’t part of the plan, but I’m gonna try to not be completely useless for once. If nothing else, that artifact was activated by a sorcerer. Even if I don’t know any spells, I should be able to hit it with enough power to activate it. That’s worth something, right? You couldn’t have done that without me.”

Alwin pulled the artifact out and handed it over before returning to his work. The fact that he was continuing to work on the demon glamours while I looked over the artifact wasn’t exactly a vote of confidence, but it only took me a moment to figure out why.

“It’s dead.”

It wasn’t uncommon for artifacts this powerful to require time or a charge before you could use them again. But this thing wasn’t just depleted, it was dead.

“Mm,” Alwin agreed. “The question is, does it only work once, or does it require time, power, or some element to replenish the magic?”

Fuck me . I guess I was completely useless.

Alwin worked for a long time while I finally learned to keep my mouth shut. While there was a soft glow inside our tent, the dark outside seemed to grow impossibly deeper and colder. It wasn’t long before the rock I’d huddled against for warmth was as freezing as everything else and I scooted away, wrapped my arms around my legs, and shivered in silence.

Something brushed against the tent and my head popped up as Alwin finally took a break from his weaving.

“There’s something out there,” I breathed.

“Quite a few of them,” he acknowledged quietly. “This tent will conceal our presence as long as we remain calm and quiet. The spell is not strong enough to hide loud sounds, bright light, spikes in temperature, or strong magic.”

“Which means we can’t use magic or fire to warm up,” I concluded a second before a thin but heavy blanket wrapped around me.

Alwin pulled out another bundle and unrolled it along the ground. He released his glamour and laid down on his side with his bow behind him and his sword still on his back. Then he pulled me down beside him and tucked the blanket around me.

“Rest. You did not sleep well last night.”

His body was warm and I shamelessly pressed myself against him, untucking the blanket to burrow closer and cover him as well. Alwin and I had shared a bed a couple of times now, but he’d always kept a respectful distance. He stilled when I crossed that line, but rather than pushing me away, he took pity and wrapped an arm around me, rubbing my arm and back until the shivering finally subsided.

With Al’s ever-steady heartbeat against my cheek and his strong arms protecting me, I forgot all about the demons surrounding us and drifted off into a dreamless sleep for the first time in as long as I could remember.