Page 46 of Bound By Darkness

“She shouldn’t be dining with us,” he says in a low and confidential tone as he motions to Eilish. “I don’t trust her with whatever information we discuss.”

“She’s not a spy, Cambion,” Revenant interjects, taking the words right out of my mouth.

I want to fucking punch something.

“Who’s to saywhatshe is?” Cambion demands.

“I’m not a spy,” Eilish insists as her eyes narrow and she then refuses to look at Cambion.

“She’s our prisoner for no apparent reason, other than the fact that she’s part Succubus when you thought she was a purebred angel,” responds Revenant with little interest. “Other than a fault by virtue of her birth, she’s done nothing to encourage you to believe she’s working for Variant—or anyone else, for that matter.”

Eilish looks at him and her eyes fill with gratitude. I hate witnessing her expression because prior to this moment, I’d only ever seen it when she looked at me.

“You better not be fucking her, asshole,” Cambion says to Revenant, his eyes narrowed and angry.

My stomach drops at the thought. God, what if he just had sex with her? What if while Cambion and I were arguing about whether or not we should have come to Earlann, Revenant was buried deep inside her? Insidemyfucking woman?

I want to fucking punch something even harder.

“You might not recall, owing to the fact that your memories haven’t been returned to you,” Cambion continues, addressing Revenant in that patronizing tone of his that makes me want to bitch slap him right across the face. “But the reason we lost the Great War was because Lamia had Dragan bewitched. That’s what Succubae do, Baron.”

“I am fully aware of the power of the Succubus,” Revenant returns, his tone icy. “And my fucking name is Revenant, for the last fucking time.”

Raflamir returns and Cambion clears his throat before revisiting whatever conversation they’d been having previously. A conversation I should have been paying attention to. But now, all I can focus on is what exactly happened behind closed doors between Revenant and Eilish.

God, but I want to fucking kill him. And then I want to kill Cambion and after that, probably that fucking sprite. Clearly, I’m in a foul mood.

“And you’re sure of this?” Cambion asks Raflamir. “If there’s a break in morale, perhaps we can exploit it.”

“Perhaps,” agrees Raflamir.

“You said yourself tension in the west is causing rifts in Variant’s numbers?” Cambion continues.

“Even if that’s true, you don’t stand a chance,” Raflamir answers. “Here you aren’t regarded as kings, you’re fugitives.”

Raflamir’s words fill me with rage, but Cambion shoots me a discouraging expression and I hold my tongue. Which is a good thing because I’m not exactly sure what would come out of my mouth at the moment. I’m beyond angry and I feel the need to exercise this anger—either by throwing my fists into Cambion’s smug face or fucking Eilish into tomorrow. I have a sneaking suspicion Cambion being an asshole (as per usual) isn’t the reason I’m itching for a fight. Furthermore, it’s currently Revenant’s face I’d rather sink my fists into…

Cambion nods and once I force myself back to the conversation, I hate to admit it, but he and Raflamir are right. There’s no way we can get near Variant without starting another war. Without our previous titles, we’re a ragtag group of outcasts just clutching to a hope that our mission will end in our favor.

Because that worked so well the last time.

And back then, we had armies to call upon. Now? Now, we’re nothing more than a gargoyle, a bloodsucking assassin who’s missing his memory, an obnoxious sprite, and a faerie with his head stuck up his own ass. Oh, and a fucking Succubus we thought was an angel. And that’s not even the best part. If our success hinges on the probability of Cambion, Revenant and me keeping our dicks in our pants so Eilish doesn’t drain us of our powers, then we’ve got no chance in hell. Clearly, I’ve already proven I can’t fucking control myself around her.

But Raflamir doesn’t know any of that. Raflamircan’tknow any of it.

I’ve never trusted the Steward of Earlann. His fussy disposition and wavering loyalties make him unreliable in my eyes. Even now, after he’s taken us in and told us all he knows about Variant, I still don’t trust him. There’s just something… shifty about the man that turns me off.

“There’s a chance our old allies will listen,” Raflamir says as he looks at each of us in turn. “But they’ll need to know the true kings have returned and they’re in Earlann.”

“Fuck no,” I rumble as I shake my head.

Eilish looks at me expectantly. “Why not?”

“It’s bad enough we’ve exposed ourselves as much as we have,” I explain as I shift my weight and lean forward, propping my elbows on the table. “If any of our old allies are loyal to Variant, we’ll be up to our necks in bullshit before we can even think about escaping. Anona is still out there looking for us as it is; we don’t need to draw more attention to ourselves.”

“But we need allies,” Cambion argues, shaking his head.

“It’s too risky,” I insist with a frown.

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