Page 54 of Inflamed By an Incubus

Evelyn took a step back this time, and then another one, until she could see the whole of the carving. A chill tumbled down her spine as she looked at the sun that told her this scene had taken place in the mortal world—her world—and a feeling stirred inside her as she considered the fact the one she believed to be Brink was in his dragon form there.

Her gaze leaped to the woman.

According to the intel Archangel had recently gathered, dragon shifters couldn’t live in the mortal world. The moment they crossed into it, their powers were stripped from them and they suffered a slow, agonising drain on their strength that would eventually result in their death if they remained there. Everyone believed it was because the dragons had been cursed by a powerful sorceress.

This woman?

The one Archer believed was Aryanna?

Good God, if he was right… then she wasn’t sure what to feel—felt as if she might be losing her mind as she considered that Archangel potentially had the sorceress who had been able to banish an entire species to Hell and curse them to a painful death.

Archer looked as if he was already one step ahead of her as he stared at the woman with a crazed edge to his wide dark eyes and whispered, “They do have you.”

“Archer?” She moved a step closer to him and his gaze snapped to her, darkened in a way it did in her dreams, and she braced herself, waiting for his eyes to go all-black.

He shook his head, shattering whatever spell he was under. She studied him closely, wary of him as he closed his eyes and lifted his glasses to rub the bridge of his nose.

“Grab everything you can,” he muttered and kept rubbing his eyes, his shoulders stiff and his actions jerky. “Take it to the front cave. We’ll bring it all down and haul it back to the portal. Tell the others we can rest a mile south of here.”

When no one moved, he dropped his hand and glared at everyone.

“Go!” he barked and fished his phone out of his pocket. “I’ll document this carving.”

Evelyn had the sneaking suspicion he didn’t really want to document it. It was just an excuse to remain here alone while she and the three men carted everything out of the cavern.

She grabbed the sketchpads and everything else she could carry, and followed Lance to the fissure.

Stopped and looked over her shoulder at Archer’s back as he stared at the carving.

She had the feeling that Archangel weren’t the only ones who were up to something.

Archer lifted his left hand, pressed his palm to the female, and whispered something she couldn’t make out.

That bad feeling she had grew worse.

What did Archangel want with a powerful sorceress?

She stared at Archer.

What did he want with one?

Chapter 16

Fenix kept low, crouching behind a large basalt boulder across the valley from the Archangel soldiers. And they were soldiers. There was no way he was going to call the groups he had come across in Hell over the last few weeks anything other than that. They weren’t hunters when they were in this realm, weren’t protecting their breed from others they viewed as a threat to them. Hell, they didn’t even really do that in the mortal world. The organisation had been slowly settling back into its old ways, taking down any non-human they could get their hands on rather than singling out those who were a known danger to mortals.

But no, the ones he had seen in the towns he had passed through, all of them pretending to be part of the general population in the free realm of Hell, weren’t there as hunters. They were up to something. Their disguises might fool some species, but not him. His senses were so attuned to the different species in this world and the mortal one that he could detect a human among a sea of fae, had easily spotted every single one of them in the towns he had passed through. Where there was one, there was always a dozen more too, strategically positioned around the busy streets. He had started observing them, and had noticed something.

They were observing everyone else.

Cataloguing everything.

In secret.

If Fenix had been in the mood to bet, he would have placed it all on Archangel being up to something and that it wasn’t a mission of peace by a long shot. They were scouting towns and other locations. Charting Hell? For what purpose?

He adjusted the dial on the binoculars he had borrowed from Rane. He didn’t want to know why the incubus owned a pair of high-end binoculars that were more like a damned telescope than the kind Fenix remembered using years ago. Rane had looked as if he had wanted to explain himself and Fenix had made a fast exit. What the incubus got up to when he wasn’t within the grounds of the mansion was none of his business.

Although, Fenix suspected that Rane had acquired the binoculars recently, after a witch had rattled their den with a thunderstorm. Fenix had reassured Rane that the witch couldn’t cross the boundary of the property thanks to the spells Agatha and Abigail had put in place, but it hadn’t been a comfort to the male. Rane had been looking more and more haggard over the days since the witch had come knocking, was jittery and pale, and Fenix had the feeling he was going to have to lift his ban on females entering the house so the male could feed.

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