CHAPTER 75

"Big sister!" Emery leaned forward enough that she could just see his head and arms. He pointed down below at a clearing, and she saw a dark figure sitting on a rock in the shadow of a giant conifer.

She knew better than to land. If that creature was alone, it likely wouldn't be an issue, but what had happened to Pierre immediately came to mind.

A powerful force swatted her out of the air, causing her to tumble. She grabbed onto Emery and cradled him against her chest as they fell. As the tree line neared, she extended her wings once more and got another thirty feet before something grabbed her by the legs.

"Tell the others," she whispered to Emery as she hurled him over the tree line. The imp's wings opened just above the trees, and then she saw no more as she crashed into the ground.

Two hard falls in one day had left her body sore. She did a quick damage assessment and frowned when she realized her left wing had cracked. It wasn't as bad as the time rocks got dropped on her, but she would have to be careful. Wrapping her wings around her body, she rolled over and scowled at the dark, inky tendrils that had clutched her ankle.

"I apologize for the rough greeting." The voice sounded like a man, but it had a hollow timbre to it, as if he was speaking into a gourd. "But it seems that this was the only way to get your attention."

"Who are you?" she asked while scanning the trees. His voice seemed to come from multiple places at once, but there was no sign of him. She couldn't hear his movements or even his heartbeat.

"I've never seen one of your kind so close before." The voice sounded like it was right in her ear, but nobody was there.

"You can come closer if you want." She rolled over and contemplated the tendrils holding her feet. They weren't actually tendrils, but a collection of shadows. She tried to cut them with her claws, but her fingers passed harmlessly over them. "Maybe quit being a pussy and show yourself."

"I doubt that you would like what you see." A dark shadow appeared next to a tree, but when she looked at it, it flickered and vanished. It reappeared to her left, leaning out from behind another tree. "I must say, you are the first of your kind that I have had the pleasure of meeting. You...are a gargoyle, yes?"

Abella shook her head, refusing to answer. If he was just going to wander circles around her while asking questions, she had no interest in appeasing his curiosity.

"I find you strangely beautiful. You look just human enough that I can see the appeal." He was much closer now, and she caught sight of a clawed hand gripping the bark of a pine. "This man you travel with, does he accept you?"

She feigned looking away, but was keeping watch from the corner of her eye. The shadow kept moving between the trees, but now she could hear the subtle shift of a branch or the crunching of snow. Her best guess was that he was teleporting between the trees.

"I saw what happened to you last night. With the Arachne."

Abella turned her attention toward the shadow. "And? So what?"

"You are right to fear her." The shadow chuckled, and then spoke from behind her. "But there are far scarier things in these woods."

"I'm not afraid of her." That much was true. Her only fear was for Mike's safety, and this asshole was rapidly climbing her list of potential threats.

"It was quite beautiful, seeing the two of you in your danse macabre. I held my breath, wondering which of you would win out in the end. I must admit, I was disappointed to see that she was in possession of that wretched blade." He spat his words out in anger, and the nearby trees quivered as if in fear. "But no matter."

"I was worried that you were going to kill me," Abella told him. "And now I know you plan to do so by talking me to death."

"You are alive for two reasons. The first being that I am curious about you. A powerful creature in the thrall of such a simple man. The others are not as interesting to me as a creature made of stone.

"Which leads me to the second reason. I believe that you are...unhappy with your current situation." The shadow's voice was now like honeyed smoke drifting through her mind. Hidden beneath his dulcet tones was a line of discord so subtle that she almost didn't hear it. It was the sound of untruths and treachery, of someone trying to get their way. She wondered if he was using a spell to sweeten his words like candy, unaware that she had no taste for sugar. "I bring this up because I feel a certain kinship with those who wish to better their situation. You see, the world is no longer the oasis it used to be for...beings of our disposition."

Abella tilted her head while pondering his words. "It was you who brought the Nirumbi, wasn't it?"

"Guilty." She could almost hear his smile. "They've been locked away underground for so long now, forced to feed on each other and whatever they could find. When I found them, they were quick to bargain with me."