Page 16 of Dark & Dreadful Brutes

I tried to reach out to Ravv’s mind the way I did Gleam’s, since we were supposed to share a mental connection, but I failed. We’d never talked mentally before, so I didn’t know how to find that bond.

“Laeli.” Gleam’s low growl distracted me from the pain for a moment. “There are raiders coming. Stay inside the shelter while I kill them.”

Fear made my stomach clench. “What are raiders?”

“Groups of humans and magical beings who roam the Timeless Sands, looking for things and people to steal. Slaves only exist in the Sands, but some of the most ruthless creatures in Evare rule the cities here. Ravv didn’t want you to worry.”

Veil.

“Do you know how to fight?”

She scoffed, reminding me of Ravv. “I’ve fought beside my king and my mate for centuries. The fae are warriors, and so are their companions.”

Her king?

I hadn’t heard of an idorr king, but growing up, I’d heard a few stories about fae kings and queens, so it wasn’t difficult to believe that the idorrs had leaders the same way their fae companions did.

“Okay,” I whispered back, my teeth chattering a little. “But the shelter is melting.”

And the pain in my arm was driving me toward insanity.

She swore. “Try to stay calm.”

Considering my agony, sweating, and trembling, that wasn’t a possibility.

The heat was going to continue.

“Is Ravv coming back?”

“He’s just reached the city. I’m not telling him about the raiders until they’re gone.”

That did not seem like a good idea. “He needs to know.”

“He’ll abandon the city to get back to us, and we can’t let that happen. If we walk into Jirev without something to cover your arm and his palm, his people will kill you both. There’s no way he can reach us in time, anyway. I’ll protect us.”

Veil, we were in trouble.

Something told me this was going to go very poorly.

I tried to lean into that fear, because the fear was less terrible than the pain in my arm.

A whimper escaped me as the pain grew worse.

My heat flared, and sunlight filtered into my shelter through a hole in the roof.

“Shit,” I whispered.

“You’ll be alright,” Gleam promised.

I didn’t believe her, but there was nothing else to do about it. If I caught on fire, it could knock me out—and being unconscious in a melted shelter could definitely lead to me being abducted by someone far worse than Ravv.

A battle cry sounded outside the shelter, and my body tensed as I heard Gleam roar in response.

The awful sounds of swords clashing with claws and claws slashing through skin had me squeezing my eyes shut.

There was a cracking sound, and when my eyes flew open, I found a man with red eyes and horns grinning wickedly.

Demon.

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