CHAPTER FIFTEEN
DRAGAN
The Veil
Noni pushes open the door to Pyre’s cottage and I drag Kolvar inside, depositing him flat on his back on the table. Aima bustles around the small space, obviously more familiar with Pyre’s home than I am. She twists open the lids of carefully labeled jars and begins mixing something in a bowl. Cambion pushes his way in and moves to aid his former lover in healing the satyr. Eilish appears in the archway and I’m overwhelmed with relief.
Without even realizing it, I take the steps separating us and sweep her into my arms. She winces and pulls away from me, glancing down at the wound on her chest. “You’re hurt,” I say.
“It’s already healing,” she whispers.
My brow furrows and I pull her aside to speak privately. “What happened while you were with Pyre?” I ask softly, care and concern lacing my words.
She seems surprised. “We walked through the forest for what I think was two days. At first, Pyre was able to walk on his own.” She shuffles on her heels and her eyes are wide blue pools as she stares up at me. She’s so small and little, I just want to wrap my arms around her and never let go. The feeling is sudden and overwhelming and it makes little sense to me.
“Go on,” I say gruffly.
She nods. “At the edge of the woodland territory, there’s a place called the Ashland. It’s a flat wasteland of stone that acts as a sort of a barrier between the obsidian mountain path and the forest, guarded by harpies.”
“And?”
She nods again. “I was attacked by the harpies while I tried to make it across.”
“How many harpies?”
“At least six. Pyre tried to help me, but he was getting weaker with every step.” She shakes her head and focuses on the wall across from her, worry contorting her features as she apparently remembers the specifics. She looks back up at me with a frown.
“They could sense my life force, Dragan.”
“How did you stop them from killing you?”
“When the harpy’s talon pierced my chest, it caused another flare of my power—white light that exploded and nearly burned everything.”
“I’ve never seen an angel or a succubus do that.”
She shrugs as though she has no answer for me. Then she continues. “After we made it to the other side of the Ashland, the harpies didn’t attack us. It was like they respect the borders of the territories unless there’s a threat against The Veil. Anyway, the mountain was full of restless spirits, but we managed to make it past them. It was so cold. I could barely move when we finally saw the spire in the distance.”
I listen as she continues her tale, watching the way her face lights up with every fascinating detail. She describes the Echoing Spire in a way that makes it sound beautiful, but I can’t imagine anything more lovely than her. And it’s then that I realize I need to stop fighting whatever this is between us. Thoradin’s advice rings through the back of my mind and gives me the strength and courage I need to make this decision, here and now.
I glance back at the others who are busily tending to Kolvar and am pleased to find none of them are focusing on us. I face Eilish again and take a deep breath.
“Dragan, is everything okay?” she asks.
“I need to tell you something,” I begin.
“Okay.”
“Noni took me to speak with Thoradin.”
“Thoradin?” she repeats, her eyebrows reaching for the ceiling. “But, he’s…”
“Dead, yes,” I interrupt. “He’s in The Veil and Noni was able to locate his spirit.” I pause for a moment as I remember the particulars and a small, sad smile crosses my mouth. “We spoke for a short while and some of the words he said have been echoing in my mind.”
“What did he say?”
“His words were a gift to me, Eilish,” I answer, deciding not to part with them. “But they affected me to such an extent, that I made a decision.” I pause for a moment as I lose myself in her eyes. When I speak again, my voice is lower, softer. “I’m done fighting this attraction between us.”
My hand lifts to toy with a strand of her dark hair. Before, it repulsed me, but now I see it as simply another part of Eilish. She wraps her arms around my neck and pulls me close to her, nuzzling into the crook of my shoulder.
“I missed you, Dragan.”
“And I have missed you more than you know.”
She grows silent and I can tell something is bothering her. “Dragan?” she starts.
“Yes?”
She’s quiet for another few seconds as she apparently weighs her words. “It can’t just be the two of us.” She inhales a sharp breath. “Do you remember Morrigan’s words? I have to balance the darkness inside me with the lightness.”
I think about the things Morrigan said to Eilish often, and every time I return to the moment in Raflamir’s home when Eilish stroked me beneath the table while Revenant pleasured her with his fingers.
I sigh. “I feel possessive and protective of you, and I’m unaccustomed to sharing a woman.”
“I understand.”
“But, I would be lying if I said that seeing you with Revenant didn’t also excite me.”
“I thought…” she starts.
“That I was repulsed by it?” I finish for her as she nods and I shake my head. “I was jealous, yes, but not repulsed. I had to come to terms with the fact that watching him touch you… aroused me.”
Eilish presses her chest against mine, clinging to me as closely as she can. “And I like knowing that you enjoyed watching me,” she purrs. I can feel her seduction swirling around us, so I take a step back and give myself space. Now is not the time and this is not the place.
Her pout is nearly as beguiling as the seduction itself and I wish she was aware of that fact. “This wound on your chest,” I start as I glance down at it.
“I’m working on healing it,” she answers.
“Pyre taught you how to heal?”
She nods. “He’s also going to teach me how to become a leader, how to use both my angel gifts and my succubus abilities. He says we can’t base my powers off them individually, but we need to focus on me as an individual—not just a hybrid of two incompatible species.”
“He’s also taken Revenant under his wing. Who’s next? Cambion? Me?”
“It wouldn’t hurt,” she replies with a smile. “You were the one who said you didn’t know much about your kind. Maybe Pyre could teach you a few things, as well?”
“You feel drawn to him, don’t you?”
She drops her head and appears slightly embarrassed. “He is beautiful, despite how deadly he is. I feel drawn to him, yes, but, not the way I feel for you and the others. Pyre is… a good friend.”
***
FLUMPH
The Veil
“You glad Noni back, Mr. Flumph?”
That godawful little critter back, an’ she ain’t leavin’ me alone again. I hurry off to hides from her when the necromancer come inside. He walkin’ to the fireplace an’ I flys over to see what him doin’.
“Hey, I gotta talk to you,” I say, real polite-like.
He nod him head, but then the Mother Heifer come over an’ start askin’ him a bunch o’ questions. I know she do it just to distract him, but him an’ me need to gets down to business an’ quick! Mother Heifer lookin’ real flirty when she talk to him, all but twirlin’ her hair an’ fuckin’ bendin’ over in front o’ him like a bitch in heat. But Masky don’t even react none. I seen how he is around Pretty—like he be wantin’ to sample what she got on offer. He don’t react the same way with this bitch. An’ I be glad for it. She make me madder than anythin’. Even Assface, who currently bleedin’ out on the supper table, ain’t as bad as her.
“So, Pyre is it? Why have I never heard of you before?” she ask.
“You would have if you had been at the battle like you were supposed to be.”
Oh, snaps! I fuckin’ love the psycho-ghost-talker now! He my new favorite.
“I was powerless and of no help to anyone; surely you can sense the magic I have is barely enough to keep me standing at the moment.” She lyin’ real smooth. I ain’t buyin’ it, an’ neither is Masky if that stomach flu face o’ his be any indication. “Perhaps you should get to know me better before you pass judgment.”
“I’m not judging you, Morrigan. I simply treat you the way I treat anyone. You are innocent until proven otherwise, but don’t think you’re entitled to any automatic praise and respect in this world.”
Oh, snaps again! He my hero now! Fuck yeah! The other dicks can take a long walk offs a short portal that be open up at the bottom o’ the ocean.
“Then why did you help them rescue me?” she ask.
“ We speak for the fire in the night. Upon his flame we thrive .”
“I... I’ve heard that before.”
“That is how the Astral refer to me,” Masky reply.
“I don’t understand.”
Yeah, no shit. I ain’t understandin’ neither.
“ We hear her like rain upon the stone. Beneath her charge we cannot sing, but oath demands we devote in her name ,” he say an’ then he looks at her. “And that is how they refer to you. My spirits are watching The Veil always. You astral-project in your sleep, do you not? Shadow walking between the thin barrier that separates the realms?”
“If I do, I did not realize it.”
“Of course,” he say, an’ I think that hims way o’ callin’ her a fuckin’ liar. “They told me where to find you, and I know you play an important role in all of this. Astral is projection, they are that barrier where you tread.”
“Do you suspect me of treachery?”
“I only wish to protect this world. Whatever happens to the rest of it is out of my hands.” Masky walk away all dismissive-like an’ I wanna shake hims hand.
The Mother Heifer smile an’ walk back to her room an’ it look like it take up all her energy just to do that. Masky get busy helpin’ heal Assface on the table, an’ so are the others. Even Pretty gots her glowy hands all over him. My only hope—an’ gods help me for thinkin’ it—is Noni. Ugh. The little brownie too damn happy. Ain’t nobody that happy in the middle o’ all this shit.
“Noni!” I squeaks as I fly up the stairs. She be pickin’ through a sack o’ string last time I sees her, talkin’ bout needin’ to sew the satyr a pair o’ pants. But she ain’t nowhere, neither. An’ Noni don’t like bein’ nowhere, she said it her damn self. “Noni!”
Then she goes an’ pop up right behind me, scarin’ the fucks outta me an’ nearly makin’ my breeches turn brown. “Fuckin’ hell! Why ya gotta sneaks up on me?”
“You need Noni, Mr. Flumph?”
“I don’t need you! But... yeah, I guess I do need you,” I grumble an’ puffs my chest real big so I much bigger than her. “Help me spy on the Mother Heifer an’ I’ll helps you make supper. That my offer, takes it or leave it.”
“Noni leave it.”
“What? Why?”
“Noni will help Mr. Flumph if he—” She stop an’ give me that creepy grin o’ hers. “If Mr. Flumph be Noni best friend forever! Noni like Mr. Flumph, she wanna be his friend for ever and ever and ever and ever and ever.”
The fuckin’ brownie go on an’ on like that for ways too long. I put my hand over her mouth to keep her quiet. “No. I ain’t doin’ it. You drive me up the walls ‘nough as it is!”
“Then Noni no help.”
“The fate o’ the realms’s in my hands, you little brat! I a hero now, not the giants. Help me spy on the Mother Heifer an’ takes my offer or I drown youze in the bath.”
She gasp an’ then fall to the floor, gigglin’ like I ain’t serious or somethin’. But I am! I picks her up, but she go all invisible an’ wiggle away. I tryin’ to find her, chasin’ her all over the damn cottage. Then, she peek her big fuckin’ head out from under the bed an’ I scream real loud, but real manly-like.
“Mr. Flumph, be Noni friend. Please. Please. Please. Please.”
“All right!” I at the end o’ my straw when I shouts that, ‘bout ready to kill her. She let out this piercin’ sound o’ happiness that just make my balls itch an’ try to crawl back inside my body. “Shut up! You gotta be quiet if youze gonna be spy with me. Let’s go.”
She grab my hand an’ make us invisible, like when we was sneakin’ in the Unseelie Kingdom. We slips inside the Mother Heifer’s room an’ hear her whisperin’ to the damn mirror.
Everyone ‘round here goin’ batshit crazy.