Page 33

THIRTY-THREE

Sorsha

The fire crackled within the ring of stones in the derelict campsite we’d stumbled on, miles outside the city. Its heat, sharper than the warmth that lingered at the tail end of the summer night, grazed my face where I was leaning against the side of the car. Its light washed over all of us arranged around the firepit, including the man we’d risked life and limb to save.

Omen stood poised almost directly across from me, his arms folded over his chest as he watched Snap poke at the fire with a long stick. I couldn’t have said he was quite as stunning as the team he’d gathered, though he wasn’t exactly hard on the eyes. I suspected if I’d been a regular mortal passing him on the street, I wouldn’t have given him a second glance other than maybe to check if his ass looked as fit as the rest of his body. But I wasn’t, and something about his presence drew my attention like a moth fluttering to those flames.

Flames that brought to mind the flash of his eyes I’d seen when he first sprang from his cell. He was some kind of shifter, clearly, though not from what I’d glimpsed any standard werewolf or kitsune. And he had more to him than that. I remembered the eyes, yeah, and I also remembered that tail.

Those now icy blue eyes gleamed starkly beneath his sharp brow. His Cupid’s bow lips would have looked dainty, his rounded chin soft, if it wasn’t for the firm set of his jaw. A sense of power and authority emanated off him so intensely I could almost taste it, like a spike of adrenaline and a tang of blood. He’d been around several centuries ago during the war of the angels, and I’d be willing to bet ages before that as well.

He ran his hand over the short, tawny hair slicked close to his skull and raised his gaze to meet mine. My heart lurched under his penetrating inspection, but I held myself still as if it hadn’t affected me. He hadn’t bothered to apologize for or even acknowledge the way he’d lashed out at me when I’d first freed him, though at least the scrape of his claws had barely broken my skin through the sleeve of my shirt. Pickle, perched on my shoulder, squirmed closer to my face with a nervous chirping sound.

Omen’s mouth curled into a smile as chilly as his eyes. “Would the three of you care to explain the mortal in our midst?” He gave the word “mortal” a disdainful taint.

“They needed a leg up navigating the city and figuring out where you’d ended up in it,” I said before the others had to admit to how we’d met. A twinge of protectiveness filled my chest. He didn’t need to know they’d gotten themselves captured too—and by ordinary hunters no less. “I was happy to help. I was raised by a shadowkind woman. I pitch in where I can.”

I’m not afraid of you . Well, maybe a teensy weensy bit, but he didn’t need to know that either.

“She’s part of that group of humans that advocate for mortal-side shadowkind,” Ruse put in with a wave of his hand. “The something-or-other Fund.”

Omen grimaced. “The do-gooders who haven’t the guts to do half enough good to make a real difference. I know of them.”

I bristled at his bland dismissal, but Snap leapt to my defense before I had to. “I don’t know anything about the people Sorsha works with, but she doesn’t have any shortage of courage. Or any other useful quality. We wouldn’t have managed to find you, let alone break you out, if it wasn’t for her.”

Thorn, looming by the hood of the car, inclined his head. “She’s lost a great deal serving our cause and yet refused to back down. I wouldn’t hesitate to fight at her side again.”

Omen considered his three compatriots with the same piercing focus he’d aimed at me. I wasn’t sure what they might have given away about the other directions our relationships had veered in. Maybe the fact that they respected me on any level irked him.

“I thank you, then,” he said finally, turning his attention back to me for a brief moment—and not sounding particularly grateful. “Forgive me my skepticism. I’ve just spent the last innumerable weeks being tortured by your kind; I’m not feeling the friendliest toward anyone mortal at the moment.”

His gaze lingered on me a little longer, as if searching for some reaction to that statement beyond my tight smile of acceptance. A creeping sensation ran over my skin.

“Is that all they wanted?” Ruse said. “To torture higher shadowkind? It seems like an awful lot of trouble just for that.”

“Oh, no, I’m sure they had a much more complex agenda.” Omen rubbed his jaw. “They were attempting to accomplish something with their torment, to discover something, but they were careful not to say very much about it in my presence, so I can’t say what. I do know, given their techniques, it can’t bode well for us. As I suspected, there are humans making some sort of bid to sway the balance of power between mortal and shadowkind.”

My stomach knotted. And we’d left that place standing and full of other captive beings who’d be subjected to even more of that torment. The words tumbled out. “We have to stop them.”

Omen raised his eyebrows at me. “You sound as though you’re including yourself in that ‘we.’”

I lifted my chin. “Of course I am. The same bastards killed the woman who raised me. Even if it wasn’t for that, they deserve to go down. I’m already all in. The rest of the Shadowkind Defense Fund will help as much as they can too, whatever you think of them.”

“So you plan to go running back to them. Or did you think you’d join our little company? Keep in mind that the way we’re going won’t be easy even for us.”

The truth was, I hadn’t had much of a chance to think my options over. I hesitated for a second, but the answer came with a swell of certainty.

Maybe it was the connection I’d started to feel with all three of my trio. Maybe it was the fact that I suspected sticking around would really piss off the man who’d asked the question, and the more he talked, the more the idea of annoying him appealed to me.

Or maybe it was simply because I had to believe that if I was dealing with a devil, I’d be better off having him at my side than anywhere else in this battle.

The other three shadowkind were watching me too: Thorn in solemn silence, Ruse with a slyly crooked grin, and Snap braced, his face aglow with an indomitable hope that suggested he’d tackle me if I made any move to go.

Not that he’d need to. I shrugged as if I wasn’t concerned about how much danger I’d face and said, “I’m here now. We ended up making a pretty good team.”

When Omen smiled, his teeth glinted, even and white. I hadn’t yet located the shadowkind part of him that lingered even in this guise. “Welcome on board,” he said, in a tone that seemed to say, We’ll see about that.

In that moment, I wasn’t sure whether I faced more peril from the jailors we’d just fought off or the shadowkind man we’d rescued from them.