Page 18 of Bound By Darkness

Baron nods and I depart, marching along the crunchy sticks and leaves that litter the forest floor as Eilish and Baron’s conversation begins. I can hear the low hums of their voices carry across the empty tree branches, but before I can listen forspecific words, my hearing is obscured by the loud flapping of Flumph’s wings.

“Whatcha think they’re talkin’ ‘bout, all secret-like?” he asks, annoying the bloody fuck out of me.

“I don’t know,” I say, swatting at the sound of his wings hovering close to my ear. He doesn’t take the hint, just as I knew he wouldn’t. If my owl, Trym, were present, I should order him to eat the bloody thing with immediacy. Luckily for Flumph, he’s not.

“Think they’s talkin’ ‘bout bein’ in looooove?”

“No,” I respond coldly. I’ll need my focus in order to cast a scrying spell, which means the sprite needs to bugger off. I begin looking for something I can use as my focus—in general, scrying spells require a mirror, or a fountain filled with water. Yes, I could create either with my Transmutation Magic but doing so is time-consuming and quite frankly, I don’t believe I have the time. In a pinch, I can use the fluorite crystal in my ring, but I don’t wish to be sloppy. Baron will know someone is listening if I’m not careful.

“Or maybees they workin’ for Variant now. That stone changed their ‘legiances!” Flumph continues.

“Why don’t you go spy on them and see what you can find out?” I ask in an attempt to rid myself of the infuriating thing.

“Me?” he asks.

“Of course!” I fake urge him back the way we came.

“I isn’t very sneaky,” he hedges.

“You may surprise yourself,” I reply, already distracted. I focus my energy on the stone in my ring, hoping Baron’s exhaustion will cause his guard to slip.

As soon as Flumph’s wings flutter away, back in the direction in which we just came, I close my eyes as I press the ring to my forehead and channel my energy into the fluorite. Immediately the crystal begins to heat and I instruct it to act as my ears.

At first the sounds of Baron and Eilish’s conversation meets my ears in a blur but slowly the words begin to take legible shape. I deepen my concentration and fairly soon I can hear Baron as clearly as if he were standing beside me.

“… destroyed by the last of the Succubus,” Baron finishes.“But deep down Dragan knows you aren’t the same as Lamia and her sisters. If he actually believed you were, he wouldn’t still care about you.”

“And why do you even think he does?” Eilish’s clear voice rings out, startling me out of the lull of Baron’s deep bass. I’m immediately waylaid by my own confusion.

“It’s obvious in the way he looks at you, and the way he dislikes me.”

“But what does it mean?” Eilish continues. “So what if I’m part Succubus? I’m stillme.Ihaven’t changed. Dragan can’t hate an entire race of people just because he was manipulated by three.”

What the fucking fuck?I rail against myself as shock launches a bomb inside my stomach.The bloody angel is a fuckingSuccubus?! How is it even possible? The last of the Succubae died when Dragan sacrificed Lamia and her daughters!

“I think Dragan can and does,” Baron says.

“It’s… it’s so unfair.”

“Such is the way of the world,” he responds with a snicker. I’m still so fucking floored, I find it difficult to continue paying attention to their conversation.

“I’m not those women,” Eilish says stubbornly.

“Aren’t you, though?” Baron asks.

If she’s Succubus, she’s demon. There’s nothing more to be said on the subject.

It’s a moment before I can detach my focus enough to process what they’re saying. The events of the last few days beginto make so much more sense. In fact,everythingmakes so much more sense.

Dragan’s sudden cold attitude towards her…

My attraction to her, my distrust of her from the outset…

She isn’t the creature of light I thought she was.

Eilish being Succubus changes everything.

My confusion doesn’t stay long. Soon it’s replaced with a boiling fury as something else occurs to me.

---