Rivals by Kit Bladegrave

Author:Kit Bladegrave [Bladegrave, Kit]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2017-11-02T00:00:00+00:00

13

Forrest

My back burned as I tried to move, skin tugging as it tried to heal.

“Be careful moving around,” Craig warned, and I opened my eyes to see him coming towards me, holding out a flask. “Water, drink. It’ll help.”

I took it, not ready to argue with my mouth so parched, I was surprised my tongue was still whole. “Thanks,” I gasped, and he nodded as he helped me sit upright. “What happened?”

“Aside from you almost dying because you didn’t listen to me? A lot.”

I frowned, but followed his gaze to see Kate with her hands bound along with her feet, unconscious from the look of it, but close to the fire to keep her warm. “What are you doing?”

“We need to talk.”

“Obviously.” I tried to reach around to feel the wounds. “You… you both saved my life?”

“You can thank Kate for that, I was going to leave you.”

Reluctantly, I held out a hand. “Thank you, I owe you a debt.”

“How about you just forget about this bounty on my head? We have bigger problems, you know, the killer plague and all?”

I wanted to deny what I saw, but that… that monster, it was real, and it had come for me. Nearly killed me. How was it no one else believed Craig? If this was already spreading through the demon world, it wouldn’t be long before it reached the others, if it wasn’t there already.

“Yes, yes I believe you’re right.”

He laughed sharply. “I’m sorry, could you say that again?”

“Don’t push your luck, half-breed,” I grunted and stood, stretching my arms. “What happened to her?”

He hesitated then reached into his pocket, and I smelled the item before I saw it. “She held onto this and started to shift, while wearing that bracelet.”

I reached for it, but he yanked his hand back.

“Nope, I’m not having you go all crazy either and try to bite my head off.”

The scent coming from that piece of glass was old, very old and powerful. “Fine, keep it, but where did you find it?”

“Do you have any idea what it is?”

I shook my head, breathing deeply again. “No, but it smells… peculiar. I can’t describe it.”

“Do you think you could use it to find more like it?”

I shrugged. “Depends. We’re good at finding treasure, but this isn’t just treasure. It’s so much more.” My hand itched to hold it, but I wasn’t going to go after him over it. I was too weak to hold my own in a fight right now. “And Kate went into her dragon form when she held it?”

“Partially, it was odd,” he said, turning to look at her. “I knocked her out so I could get it out of her hands. She wasn’t herself.”

“Did she say anything?”

He bobbed his head. “Said they stole it from us, or something like that, then the shadow was going to destroy us all.”

“That’s comforting.” I moved around the fire and checked the bracelet on her wrist.

She growled, but remained unconscious. The inlaid runes were ancient, and most were beyond my skill of reading, but whoever created the band knew what they were doing.

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