Page 29 of Claimed By Night

“Turn your fucking back!”

Cambion does as I insist, and I retrieve the additional crystals from the girl’s unresponsive body. I hand them to him.

“Then, she is well now?” I ask him as I face the sleeping beauty. She doesn’t exactly look well. She’s just as pale as she was before, and a thin sheen of sweat has broken out across her forehead.

“I should have been able to clear most of theAtacomite.”

“Most?”

“To dissolve all of it would take days,” Cambion responds with little interest. “Her body will be able to handle the remainder on its own. She’ll be weak and will require rest for the next few days, at least.”

“Then you weren’t able to heal her fully?”

“I did what I could, given the short amount of time, asshole.” Then he turns to face the sprite. “Sprite, you may feel more tired than usual, as well. The enchantment borrowed your life energy, as well as my own.”

“Do that mean I’m gonna die sooner than I would have?”

“No,” Cambion assures him. “It means you’ll require more food and rest.”

“Oh.”

Glancing down at the still girl, I realize this is another opportunity to attempt to investigate the angel’s wings. My magic failed, yes, but maybe Cambion’s won’t. “Try to produce her wings,” I order him.

“Fuck off.”

I inhale deeply and try to control the rage that simmering just beneath the surface. “Will youtry to produce her wings… please?”

“I thought you had to leave?” Cambion responds and the way he asks the question implies that he wants us to go.

“We can’t remain much longer, liege,” Thoradin confirms, even as he still faces the wall.

“How much longer do we have?” I ask him.

“Eight minutes.”

“We have time,” I decide and face Cambion resolutely.

He sighs in frustration but then turns back to the angel. He holds his hands out above her again and closes his eyes. Then, he begins chanting in the old language ofElvish, delivering hiswords in a commanding tone. There is a brief interlude of silence before he repeats them in a louder voice. Then he falls silent again.

After another few seconds, he drops his hands and opens his eyes. He turns to face me and shakes his head.

“It looks as though you’ve been duped, old chap,” he informs me with a smug, self-satisfied smirk. I know Cambion well enough to know he’d enjoy nothing more than for the fucking sprite to have pulled one over on me.

“I ain’t duped no one!” the sprite yells. “Maybe her wings ain’t showin’ up ‘cause she so exhausted from all your magic!”

“He has a point,” I admit.

“If you choose to believe him, then I suppose he does have a point,” Cambion replies. Clearly, he doesn’t.

And I’m beginning to wonder if I’ve been a fool for trusting the sprite in the first place.

***

EILISH

Open your eyes, Eilish.

As if the words are a command, my eyes blink open of their own accord and everything is blurry for a few seconds. A shape directly in front of me begins to delineate and, as my eyes beg my exhausted brain to make sense of the image, I realize it’s a man.

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