Page 33 of Cursed Shadows

Baron nods and approaches us. His gaze is wholly captured by Eilish as he kneels down beside her.

“You need to go to the other side and bring Cambion back,” I say, but Baron doesn’t respond.

“Shadows surround her,” he says, still staring at Eilish. He seems surprised.

“What are you talking about?”

I look down at her, too, but I don’t see anything other than an angel who’s either dying or already dead.

Don’t let her be dead,I pray to no one in particular. The thought of losing her… I can’t even stomach it.

Baron looks up at me quizzically. “You don’t see the shadows?”

“No.” I clear my throat. “I’ll stay here with her. Get Cambion and bring him back.”

Ignoring me, Baron shifts his gaze back to Eilish. “Shadows are everywhere. I can see her breathing them in and out.”

Breathing? I frown as I look at her. “She isn’t breathing. Get Cambion!”

Baron narrows his eyes and reaches out, touching her face. As soon as he makes contact with her, her eyes pop open and sheinhales so deeply, it sounds like a scream. She looks at me with eyes that glow red and a split second later, black wings pop out of her back and flutter open, topped with a set of shiny, black claws.

***

EILISH

I open my eyes and inhale. Deeply. Immediately, I’m struck with a coughing fit.

Dragan and Baron are above me. And they both look shocked. Neither one can take their eyes off me, but both are clouded with… doubt? There’s something more in Dragan’s expression… suspicion?

“Dragan?” I say, glancing around him noticing the River Of Souls. Then, I remember what happened when I attempted to cross it…

I face forward again, feeling Dragan’s eyes burning into mine. I inhale once again. The air still burns my lungs, making me cough and sputter.

“What are you?” he demands in an icy tone.

I frown. I don’t understand why he’s asking me this. “What am I?”

“She’s succubus,” Baron announces with a clipped nod. I look at him and find his expression less suspicious than Dragan’s. Instead, Baron looks at me with what might be termed amusement—a slight turning up of the corners of his mouth.

“Impossible,” Dragan says with a shake of his head. He appears upset. “Succubae are extinct and have been so for a long time.”

“Just as angels no longer have their wings?” Baron demands.

Dragan looks at me and frowns. “She’s no angel.”

I feel my heart drop. I don’t understand what has happened, why Dragan’s suddenly doubting what I am. He’s seen my wings just as surely as everyone else has.

“We don’t know that,” Baron argues. “She could be both angel and succubus.”

“How can she be both?” Dragan insists.

Baron shrugs. “I don’t know, but if she’s succubus, it makes perfect sense,” he continues, finally facing Dragan with tight lips.

“How does it make perfect sense?” Dragan insists and he appears angry, but there’s something in his eyes that says he doesn’t fully doubt Baron’s words.

“This constant pull, constant need and desire we all feel towards her,” Baron says with a shrug. “The shape of her body. Her face.”

“Angels are equally beautiful,” Dragan argues. I notice he refuses to look at me, now.

---