A Den of Tricks (A Shade of Vampire #54)(31)

“Care to explain, Lord Kifo?” Jax frowned as he took hold of the daemon, who watched our exchange with a flicker of amusement in his red eyes.

“There’s an access point not far from here,” Caspian explained briefly. “It’s cloaked with swamp witch magic, and it requires a live daemon for us to go through and reach the underground city. It’s why I suggested coming through here in the first place.”

Several seconds went by as we all stared at Caspian—Harper was the only one who didn’t seem surprised. She noticed my curious expression and gave me an apologetic shrug of her own, as if mirroring Caspian’s gestures. Those two were sort of made for each other.

“He told me just now,” she murmured, looking like a kid caught with her hand in the honey jar.

Yeah, two peas from different worlds, fitting perfectly in the same pod, and they don’t even know it. To be fair, I’d noticed the stolen glances already. I saw how they looked at each other, even when they weren’t paying attention. There was something brewing between them—it had looked like quite the storm in the beginning, but Caspian had softened considerably since last night.

Oh, wow. I understood then how similar Caspian and Jax were. They’d both adopted these big, gentle eyes whenever they saw us…

“I just wanted to see how capable you all are,” Caspian said, breaking my train of thought. Blaze finished tying the rest of the rope around the daemon’s torso, holding his arms in place. “You’re all quite adept at killing and ensnaring daemons; hence, I am now comfortable with sharing more information. Don’t take it personally. It’s self-preservation that leads me to make such decisions. But rest assured, GASP continues to surprise me in a very positive way, and I never saw it coming.”

I exhaled sharply and took out a healing pellet from the first-aid satchel mounted on my belt. I popped it into my mouth and chewed, then swallowed the herbal mixture, allowing it to dissolve inside my stomach. It was quickly absorbed into my bloodstream, and I felt my thigh wound tingling as it closed up.

Blessed be that Druid magic!

“Okay then, let’s go,” I replied, hands on my hips, as droplets of water came down from the sky once more. “Chop-chop! It’s raining again!”

Caspian nodded and walked forward down the path. I could hear the rain rapping the surface of the pond just fifty yards away. The sky was dark above us, charcoal clouds keeping the first moon hidden. It worked to our advantage, as we could use the obscurity of trees and stones in this narrow ravine to get to where we needed with minimum exposure to daemon attacks.

Blaze and Jax grabbed the daemon and forced him to follow us, while Caia stayed by their side and Harper moved to the front so she could walk alongside Caspian. Yes, there was definitely something happening between them, and my protective instinct was ringing all sorts of alarm bells.

I decided to keep an eye on them. Not that I disliked Caspian, but given all the secrecy, I had a hard time fully trusting him and an even harder time letting Harper get too close to him. I just didn’t want her to get hurt in any way.

There are few things in this world that are more painful than a heartbreak. One of them is the loss of a child.

And I had experienced both, repeatedly.

No way I’m letting her go through any of it…





Harper





(Daughter of Hazel & Tejus)





Caspian led the way up the ravine, then through a couple of narrow passages that took us to another gorge. I stayed by his side, followed closely by Hansa and Caia, while Jax and Blaze held the daemon at the back.

The rain had stopped, and the ground was mushy beneath us, slathering our boots in mud as we snuck deeper into the Valley of Screams. Two hours passed as we occasionally hid behind large rocks and in tight crevices—I’d become quite adept at noticing the air ripple across larger distances with my True Sight, to the point where I could detect daemon movement before they got close enough to spot us.

“It’s here,” Caspian whispered as we made a sharp turn to the left upon exiting the third passage. The gorge stretching both ways was quite narrow and barren, riddled with sharp stones and yellow-colored shrubs.

There was a cave opening in the limestone wall on our left, not easy to spot with all the boulders partially blocking the entrance. From certain angles, one could pass by and not even notice it. We followed Caspian inside, moving through a dark tunnel that went on for about three hundred yards before it hit a… dead end.

“Are you sure we’re on the right path?” I muttered, frowning at the sight of the stone wall.

“Look beyond.” He gave me a sideways glance, the corner of his mouth twitching. I used my True Sight, and, what do you know, the tunnel kept going at a lower angle, deep underground.

“Okay, what now?” I raised my eyebrows. Caspian nodded at our daemon.

“Bring that sack of meat over here,” he replied bluntly, and I let out a brief chuckle.

“Ooh, didn’t know you had that sass in you!” I quipped, and he responded with a slyly raised eyebrow before taking hold of the daemon, who was still squirming and growling against his restraints.

Caspian took a small knife out of his belt and cut across the daemon’s shoulder, drawing blood. The fiend hissed, and found himself pushed into the wall. The cloaking spell instantly reacted, and the limestone surface rippled.