Page 91 of Veil of Shadows

There was a beat of silence as all of us continued to stuff our pockets and crevices with everything that Merida brought us. I swear, she kept this fucking show on the road sometimes, especially in times of trouble.

“There’s one thing I don’t understand, though,” she said.

“What’s that?” I asked.

Ronyn and Voss stayed silent as Merida drew in a deep breath. “Where the hell did all that fire come from?”

I looked over at Voss and watched him chew on his lower lip.

“Seriously,” Merida said with a shrug, “now that things have settled down a bit for now, have we even considered where the hell Delilah and those vampires got all of that fire to use? Because it wasn’t one of my healers.”

Ronyn shook his head. “It wasn’t one of my troops, either.”

I shook my head as well. “I’m not sure of anyone in the pack that can throw fire like that. Does Bexley have anyone in her pack that can do that?”

Voss chewed on the inside of his cheek. “Not that I can recall, though I haven’t asked.”

“We should,” Merida said, “because whoever that was? They could be useful.”

A thought occurred to me. “Unless…”

All three sets of eyes slowly panned toward me, but it was Voss who spoke first. “Unless what, Dom?”

Ronyn nodded. “Yeah, spit it out.”

I drew in a deep breath and sighed. “When I was in the woods with Delilah? You know, trapped in that ring of fire? There was a moment that happened that…”

All three of them locked their stares with me, waiting for my next set of words.

“Dominic,” Voss said curtly.

I cleared my throat and shook the memories from the front of my mind. “Sorry. Uh, anyway. When Delilah finally walked out of the fire toward me after getting me attached to that tree, she showed off this… this ring she’s got on her hand.”

“A ring?” Merida asked.

“A ring,” Voss said.

“That’s it?” Ronyn asked.

I rolled my eyes. “No, that’s not it, jagoff. What I mean is, she had this ring on her finger that matched her dress. You know, red and all that? And the stone in the middle was massive. Even with as much pain as I was in, I plainly saw this sort of… energy… swirling around in it. And as I studied her ring, guess what she did?”

“Oh, boy,” Voss muttered.

“What?” Merida and Ronyn asked together.

I swallowed thickly. “She held out her palm while I studied that ring and a fireball appeared in her hand.”

All of their faces fell as I drew in a slow, steady breath.

“The fire… was Delilah. And for whatever the reason, my gut told me that the ring I saw on her hand had something to do with it.”

Voss pinned me with a look. “Did she say anything about it? Did she tell you anything about it?”

Ronyn and Merida waited on bated breath as I shrugged. “The only thing she asked me was whether or not I liked it, and that it was a gift from a very dear person in her life.”

“Enchantment,” Merida whispered.

“What?” I asked.

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