Page 98 of Slaying With Sylphs

“You asked me here, Witch. Well, Abe and Arkan on your behalf. Do you want help or not? Or would you like to handle a revenant all on your own?”

Shock courses through me. “You know about revenants?”

“You don’t know the half of it, sister,” she mutters. Then she spins on her heel and strides quickly up Sycamore toward Shifter Hollow.

“Wait, how is all of this gonna work?” I shout up the street after her.

When she doesn’t pause or answer, I jog to catch up.

She glances down, smirking as I struggle to keep pace. “We’ll toss you right into the deep end, Witch. Few things you need to know about me. First, I’m here as a favor to Abe. If it weren’t for him, I wouldn’t step foot in a haven at all. Second, if you mention one word of my involvement to Evenia, I will come for you, rip your innards out through your pussy and leave you for the ravens to pick apart.”

“Oof, sounds shitty,” I blurt out, sucking in deep breaths as I hustle to keep up.

“Listen,” she says with a snort, waving one long black-nailed finger at my face. “I don’t fuck with that bitch, and I don’t come to the haven system because I don’t want her siccing hunters onme to force me into service. You’d do well to hide this magic from her because she’ll do the same thing to you.”

“Err, is it gonna be a problem that one of my mates is a hunter?”

Laerith grabs my shoulder and halts me in the street. “Your mate is a hunter?”

I nod. “One of them. The other’s a?—”

“Don’t care,” Laerith all but shouts, her crimson eyes wide as her fangs grow longer. She glances around, like super-secret hunter spies might be around every corner. “Don’t like this.”

I’m pretty sure she’s talking to herself.

“Laerith, I need this help,” I press. “My hunter’s not a rule follower. I swear on my life he won’t tell Evenia about you. People are getting hurt. Doc Slade can’t fix it. And my family is at risk. I?—”

Her frown turns into a feral smile. “Did you say Doc Slade? As in the dark elf with those gorgeous long horns?”

I shake my head, confused. “I guess? Tall, thin, he’s been here a long time, I think.”

“Since Ever’s beginning,” she muses, tapping her chin with her forefinger. “Hmm. Very interesting. Okay, little blue, let’s go. My first rules still apply, and as long as you’re good with that, I’ll stick around long enough to give you a primer. You should be able to pick up the rest on your own, once you can feel the magic well.”

I take off at a jog to keep up with her, but when she darts off into the underbrush, disappearing behind two ferns, I stop and stare. This is ridiculous. Am I really about to follow a woman I just met into the exact type of situation where the guys found Amatheia?

Laerith pops back out from behind the ferns with a wry expression. “Your inability to follow basic instructions does not inspire confidence.” She shoots me a haughty look and thendisappears, and I think of my old mantra about how it takes a bitch to know a bitch.

So I follow my new bitchy teacher because I see a little bit of myself in her.

Pushing through the ferns, I follow her trail, barely keeping up with her. I jog, shoving plants and shit out of my face, until I run right through a spiderweb she must have somehow dodged. Or else I’m going totally the wrong way. When I shout, sputter and whirl around to wipe the web off my face, Laerith appears in my side view, sighing exasperatedly.

“Gods, you’re a mess, girl.” Without further ado, she steps forward, picks me bodily up and throws me over her shoulder like a sack of potatoes, grumbling under her breath the whole time.

“Put me down!” I shout. “Or I’m calling Abe!”

“Please do,” she sasses, spanking me on the ass.

I’m embarrassed at how hot I find it to be hauled off into the woods by a gorgeous vampire. If my mates could see me now, I think they’d laugh and enjoy this view. Even so, my power bristles and surges to the tips of my fingers.

“Call Abemet,” her hand tightly grips my upper ass, “because I have quite a few questions for him, my little dumpling.”

“Dumpling?” I shriek. “What on ea?—”

I’m promptly dumped onto the ground in a heap, and before I can even track movement, Laerith stands across a small clearing, leaning against a tree as she picks at her long black nails.

I rise and bend over my knees, sucking in harsh breaths as I glare at her. “Come over here so I can slap you.”

She grins and stalks to the middle of the clearing. “I like you.” She waves a hand toward my entire body. “I like everything about you. But you don’t know shit about your power, and we need to change that fast.”

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