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CHAPTER 15

A Matter of Time

ALIA & SHEN

Alia

I was regretting my words two days later.

That imperial eyebrow was raised and his eyes were heavy with suspicion—and was that surprise?—as I showed up at the meeting place near the docks, where the scent of dead fish filled the air. I didn’t know how a werewolf could handle it when it made me wanna barf.

“ You are what Doc sent?” he said, looking me up and down.

I crossed my arms and tapped my foot. “You mustn’t sound too excited,” I said, saccharine sweet. He opened his mouth, but I cut him off. “I’m not pleased to be here, either, thanks. Let’s just get whatever is going on here done, then we never have to see each other again.”

He stood stock still and didn’t even breathe, as if my very smell annoyed him. With the fishy scent all around, it’s frankly insulting that my scent broke his nose. Then he released a breath. “There is no time for a replacement.”

My hackles rose at his blasé comment. I was more than capable, thanks. I remained silent. Just get through it. Forget the way his arms felt around you. Forget that you were hoping for a warmer greeting. Forget the way you actually wanted him to smile. Just daggum forget it.

After the tiny bit of camaraderie we’d built when I’d saved his life and then he’d cared for me, I was expecting… ahh heck. Just forget it. You ’ re likely just imagining things, Alia, I thought to myself.

I would beg to differ, my internal conscience said. Talking to yourself is hard when you have something that’ll respond. Did that make me insane?

“What are we doing?” I had to trot to keep up with his long legs. Why’d he have to be born so tall, anyhow?

“You will know when we get there.”

“Need to know. Got it. Why’d I need my remedy satchel?”

“Are you going to chatter the entire way?”

“Are you going to be an ungracious lump of fur?”

He stopped. I nearly rammed into his back. He turned to stare at me. Then his lip twitched. “Ungracious lump of fur?”

I huffed, stepping back so I wouldn’t have to cram my neck so far to look at the cur. Did I mention he was freakin’ tall? “It’s what you are, ain’t it?”

His lip twitch turned into a tiny smile. And once more, I was slightly awestruck. The guy should smile more. He still looked dangerous as heck, but he also looked handsome. Why’d supernaturals get all the looks?

Grandma said it was to lure unsuspecting humans to their deaths. Thanks, Grandma, for that little tidbit of paranoia.

“I suppose it is,” he said, slowly dropping the smile.

“Also, why the heck did you do a complete three-sixty? You were talkative and nearly friendly when I left after—” I paused, unsure if I wanted to remind him.

“Stabbing and kidnapping me? This is the real me. Get used to it.” He turned and strode forward. I cursed his blasted long legs.

Shen

She was untouched by the amount of darkness that was my world, and it was my task to ensure it remained so. But my mission to keep her at arm’s length did not get along with Alia herself. She was intuitive and direct.

Blasted Doc and his schemes. I asked him to send Fen. My cousin could use some practice after all the training I’d put into the kid.

“Stay beside me,” I said. As if it were not obvious she should do so.

“Are you going to gimme any hints?” Her voice still held a wheeze. Was she not well yet? It’d been a week since her sickness. Then again, I had not been around humans enough to know how long sickness stayed. My kind would be well in a day or two from what she went through—if we even got a cold to begin with.

I took a breath before I replied, “Someone of importance was kidnapped. We do not know what shape he or she will be in when we find them.”

She stopped. “Wait, this isn’t a poisoning mission?”

I could not help the tiny huff of laughter that escaped me. “You really have me pegged as the big bad wolf.”

She scrunched up her nose. I booped it. She wiggled it.

A sharp clap of leather pierced my ears a split second before a buzzing filled the air. I grabbed Alia and brought her to my chest, enfolding her in my arms. I turned, and the arrow thudded into my back.

Alia froze. I was surprised I did not have a knife at my kidney or in my stomach for such a move.

“Forgive me. Are you alright?”

“Did you just get shot protecting me again ?” Her voice held a hint of whine laced with what sounded like concern. “Get your furry butt down so you don’t get another?—”

Another thud hit my back. “Too late,” I said.

Alia’s entire face scrunched up, and I was unsure whether she would stab me or cry.

“Get down, idiot,” she seethed, grabbing my arm and dragging me behind cover. Another arrow grazed my hood, but did not nick my skin. I was unconcerned about the arrows, unlike Alia.

She stuck her head around the corner at knee level. I grabbed her by the hood and reeled her back behind cover. She squawked and huffed and glared, her hood and hair askew. “Do not dare get yourself killed after I worked so hard to ensure you lived,” I growled.

A blade pricked my chin before I could blink. “I’m a warrior. I know what I’m doing. I survived a long time before you came along, and I’ll survive long after.”

I gave a shallow nod in acceptance of her words and she sheathed the blade.

The harsh truth of her words sliced me deeper than a stiletto.

“You are right,” I said.

She glanced up at me with confusion marring her brow, then nodded. I did not mean for my voice to be gruff, but the reminder of our situations made my chest clench, as much as I tried to ignore it.

She stuck her head around the corner, and I gritted my teeth to keep from reaching out again. “Two rooftops over. Single archer.”

She pulled out her spit wad device that she used to consistently poison me. My feet stepped back without the consent of my brain. Wolfsbane was painful, regardless of the resistance I had built.

Alia did not glance at me. She loaded the end with a suspicious-looking ball of haze. She blew on one end and the orb popped out the other side.

“What is a little spit wad?—”

A tiny explosion made my brows raise. Smoke rose from where it impacted the cobblestones, providing a screen for us.

“Care to lead through what my little spit wad can do, your majesty?” she said with a low bow and flourish.

I huffed and walked around the corner, trying not to sneeze and give away our position. It smelled of garlic breath. I liked garlic, just not after it had been ingested.

Alia trotted at my heels. “We need to get those arrows out,” she said.

“They will need to be cut out.”

“Why—oh,” she said, realizing that my skin would have healed around them. “Then let me cut them out, at least. You look like a very sad porcupine.”

I hid a smile. “Fine.”

We found an out-of-the-way alcove where I could still watch the road leading to where we came from. Road may have been a bit of a stretch. It was a back alley barely large enough for two horses abreast and stank of refuse thrown from the stories above.

She quickly snapped the arrows just above the skin, her fingers sure yet gentle. “Are you sure I can’t take them out? I’ll be quick.”

I glanced over my shoulder. Her big blue eyes danced with compassion in the moonlight, causing them to light with hints of silver and burnt bronze. The two arrowheads were burning the muscles beneath my skin. I worried?—

“I’ll be fast,” she repeated. Her breath washed over me, smelling of peppermint and lilac and a bit of yeasty bread. I glanced away. With her eyes so imploring, there was no way I could say no.

I gave a curt nod.

She was as good as her word. Two quick slices on either side of the broad heads and they were out with tiny slurps.

“Done that before, have you?” I said, rolling my shoulders as the skin itched while piecing itself back together. Warm blood dribbled down my back, caught by my dark tunic where Alia had not sliced through it to get at the arrows.

“Perhaps,” Alia said almost absentmindedly, slathering an ointment on the wounds which dulled the pinching pain while it finished healing. I glanced back to see her eyes concentrated on the wounds, her bottom lip caught between her teeth.

“Stay still, you’re reopening the wounds,” she said, tossing a glare up at me.

I turned back around.

“We need to go,” I said.

“But you aren’t healed?—”

“They will heal. We have a mission.”

She packed her satchel.

“Any further guards I should know about?” Alia asked, her voice light.

“There are four guarding the door: two elves and two mages.”

“Black magic?”

I nodded, then realized she could not see me properly. “Yes.”

“Capabilities?”

“Vine wielder and fire.”

“Anything else?”

I paused. “You do not have to come along. I can handle it.”

“Doc sent me for a reason. And he saved—” She cut off, but not before I heard the way her voice changed. I smelled a hint of salt in the air that was too sweet to be of the ocean. “I owe him. And I’m not going to run from a few mages.”

“And elves.”

She huffed out a breath. “That too.”

“The spit wad was… good,” I said.

“Do you always choke on your compliments?” she asked.

She was a little ball of fire tonight. But I still heard the catch in her voice when she spoke of owing Doc. It was likely a family member or her unicorn. She had spoken of her sister being unwell… hmm.

I would research it later. From my contacts, I knew the Red’s village likely lay just beyond Dragon Falls. A visit would take care of my curiosity.

For now, we had a being to rescue.

Sure, it was likely only our mission because Mother wanted to have someone owe her a favor, but at least a kid would be safe.

These were one of few missions I actually enjoyed.

Alia

“Forgive me for grabbing you earlier. I am sorry.”

I glanced up at him with squinted eyes. “Why are you apologizing for saving my life?”

His steps paused slightly. Did he look uncomfortable? Surely not. He just dove through the gas Ran called dead demonspawn as if he were strolling in the park. “You do not like being touched without permission.”

I scrunched up my nose and then smoothed it before he could see. “Just because I don’t like to be touched doesn’t mean you didn’t save my life.”

“Did I detect gratefulness in that sentence?” he asked, walking forward and casually strolling to crouch beside a massive amount of stinking trash. I crouched down beside him just in time to see a patrol of two elves. Their pointy ears and purple eyes gave them away. They were twisty, turny creatures I didn’t like to mess with much.

“What are they doing away from the door?” I whispered. “Wait, it’s because of what we did with the sentry, right?”

“I am too lazy to fight unless there is a good reason.”

“So, the plan is to sneak?” I asked, my heart pattering with excitement.

A gleam of mischief entered those dark eyes as his lips twitched into a smirk. “You good with that, Little Red?”

“Heck yes.”