Shades of Darkness by Alexandra Ivy

Author:Alexandra Ivy
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Lyrical Press
Published: 2020-08-01T17:54:58+00:00

Chapter 13

Brigette squatted on the ledge of the tower, scanning the city below. From her vantage point she could easily keep watch on the narrow streets while avoiding any unwanted attention.

“I was right, was I not?” Levet inquired. The tiny demon was perched next to her, loudly munching on a roasted chicken he’d managed to grab after she’d knocked out a goblin guarding the back door of a pub. She’d finished her own meal in less than two seconds. She was burning through energy at an alarming rate. “This is a much better location to hide.”

She sent him a fierce glare. “I’m not hiding.”

He furrowed his brow. “Then what are we doing?”

“Waiting.”

“Ah.” Levet swallowed the remainder of his chicken in one gulp before noisily licking his fingers. “You must admit that it smells nicer up here. Plus we can see the stars.”

Brigette stared at her companion in bafflement. She’d never encountered another creature like him. It didn’t seem to matter that she’d kidnapped him and hauled him to this weird-ass place. Or that they were leashed together by a magic neither of them understood. He was irrationally good-humored. As if nothing could possibly rattle him.

Brigette didn’t know whether to be annoyed or impressed.

“You are…” Words failed her.

Levet flashed a winsome smile. “Oui, I know. A charming companion and a ravishingly attractive knight in shining armor. Females find me quite irresistible.”

She paused before asking the question that had been teasing at the back of her mind since they’d been sucked through the portal.

“You said you knew what it was like to want to be a part of a family, but always alone.” She tried to sound bored. As if she was simply passing the time.

“Ah, indeed, mine is a tragic tale,” Levet agreed, pressing a hand to the center of his chest. “Like all proper heroes.”

“Did your family die?”

The fairy wings fluttered, as if confused by her question. “Non. They are all alive and residing in Paris.” Levet tapped a claw against his chin. “Well, all of them except for my aunt Bertha. She is like me, a wandering soul who never stays in one place too long.” Tap, tap, tap. “I think it is because she once fell asleep in the Swiss Alps and woke centuries later to discover she was encased in a glacier. It took me months to chisel her out. Since then she never sleeps in the same place for more than a few days.”

“Then why aren’t you close to them?”

“My mother tried to kill me when I first hatched.”

Brigette stared at the gargoyle. Was he being serious? “She tried to kill you?”

“Oui.”

“Why?”

He wrinkled his tiny snout. “She did not appreciate my uniqueness. Like most gargoyles, she has a depressing lack of imagination and a habit of smooshing things she does not understand.”

There was no bitterness in his voice. Just a blithe acceptance that his mother intended to smoosh him for being different.

It made her resentment toward her family seem even more shallow. “How did you survive?”

“I was small enough to hide in cracks in the walls of our lair,” he told her.

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