Dark Champion (Flirting with Monsters #4) - Eva Chase Page 0,3

with the mortals, the Highest caught wind of them and of my past schemes with Tempest. They would have ended me the way they did her if I hadn’t managed to convince them it was worth their while to strike a deal instead.”

A chill rippled down my spine. “What kind of deal?”

“I carry out ten tasks of their choosing, and then we’re even as long as I keep my nose clean. Until then, they’ve got a magical choke chain around my neck that they can tug on whenever they please. They made finding Ruby my last task.”

“Oh.” Even though I was sitting still, my balance wavered on the mattress. “So until you deliver on that…”

“I remain in their grasp,” he said grimly.

“And what would happen if they found out you know where I am but didn’t turn me over right away?”

“I’d imagine they’d decide I’ve reneged on our deal and that it’s fair play to eviscerate me after all.”

I swallowed hard. All he had to do was point the Highest my way, and he’d have his freedom back. I had plenty of experience with the hellhound shifter’s pride—I couldn’t imagine how much it’d chafed at him having that leash around his neck all this time. By even thinking it over, he was risking his entire continued existence.

It was a miracle he hadn’t pointed a blinking neon sign my way the second they’d made their demand.

An unfamiliar emotion rolled over me, suffocatingly heavy. Hopelessness—that was the word for it. I wasn’t just backed into a corner but down the bottom of a deep, dark pit without a single avenue out.

“Well,” I said, and for once in my life I didn’t have any words to follow that with.

“Yes.” Omen sounded more resigned than anything. “You’re welcome to put your sticky situation skills to that.”

I met his eyes again, searching them for some kind of answer there. “Why haven’t you thrown me to them already?”

The narrowest of smiles curled his lips. “You’ve made an impression.” He set the lantern down, produced a plastic bag that he tossed onto the mattress beside me, and tipped his head toward the floor beneath the cot. “Something to eat, and there’s a bucket if you need to take care of other bodily needs. I’ll leave you to it while I contemplate my options.”

With that, he vanished into the shadows, leaving me wondering if there were any options at all that didn’t end with me flayed and gutted.

2

Snap

The gash on my arm was already closing up, but it still stung beneath the gauze Thorn had wrapped around it. The way I’d gotten that gash stung far more, though. First Omen had lunged at Sorsha, and then he’d attacked the rest of us when we’d started to intervene. During that skirmish, one of his hellhound claws had sliced through the flesh just below my shoulder almost all the way to the bone.

If we hadn’t been so shocked by everything we’d just found out and by his sudden hostility, surely between the three of us, we could have stopped him? But I hadn’t been prepared to tackle our leader as an enemy. When he’d hit my beloved, my first reaction had been confusion. All those precious seconds I’d lost while I realized I wasn’t mistaken, he really did intend to carry her away from the rest of us, perhaps to the Highest who wanted her dead…

Our failure clearly weighed heavily on Thorn too. He strode back and forth in the narrow hall of the Everymobile, his expression the grimmest I’d ever seen it, and he wasn’t a being who spent much time smiling even on good days.

When Omen had charged off with Sorsha’s limp body, we’d chased after him, but in his hellhound form he’d outpaced us in minutes. After he’d vanished into the sparse wilderness where we’d parked outside San Francisco, we’d retreated to regroup, but looking at the gouge marks on the glittery cupboards and the crack now running through the table, I only felt more scattered.

Could Omen really mean to turn Sorsha over to beings who’d kill her? The thought of losing her caused the most stabbing pain of all, so sharp I could barely breathe.

It was hard to imagine him taking that step. While, yes, he’d been annoyed with her now and then, they’d seemed to be getting along well enough in the past couple of weeks. She’d done so much for us. How could he think she’d ever turn around and harm us, let alone