Bound By Darkness (Guardians of Eternity #8)(102)

The gazes clashed as the heat of his frustration brushed over her with a physical force.

“Does it have to be a fight every time?”

“I’m not the one who is fighting.”

“Jaelyn.”

Whatever he was about to say was lost as Ariyal went rigid in shock, his attention turning to a point just beyond her shoulder.

She spun around, not sure what to expect.

Vampires, magical curs, resurrected Dark Lords.

What she found was more of the damned fog.

“Do you sense something coming?” she whispered softly.

He frowned. “Didn’t you feel that?”

“Feel what?”

He took a minute to answer. “Magic.”

Okay, that was nice and vague.

“The Dark Lord?”

“ No.”

“The cur?”

“ No.”

She threw her hands up in defeat. It was annoying as hell she couldn’t feel whatever magic was in the air.

It was like stumbling around blind.

“We’re running out of options,” she muttered, then gave a shiver as she considered the various possibilities. “Or at least I hope we are. I don’t want to think about what else might be lurking in the fog.”

He moved past her, holding out his hand as if searching for a precise point.

“It’s coming from the other side.”

The other side?

She frowned. It seemed remarkably convenient that he would sense the magic just when he was losing their argument.

“You’re just saying that to try and distract me,” she accused.

He glanced over his shoulder. “Jaelyn, you would know if I was lying to you, wouldn’t you?”

Oh. He had a point.

She certainly didn’t sense any deceit. In fact, there was a growing sense of relief that was flooding through their bond.

“That doesn’t necessarily mean good news,” she warned, not wanting him to get his hopes up too high. Prepare for the worst, and expect the worst. That was her motto. And it had stood her in good stead over the past decades. “There are thousands of the Dark Lord’s minions,” she reminded him. “It could be one of them trying to break through.”

“I don’t care who it is,” he retorted. “Anything or anyone that can get you out of here is good news.”

Muttering at the stubborn stupidity of Sylvermysts, Jaelyn circled to stand directly in front of him.

“There’s no ‘you.’ It’s ‘us,’” she informed him, stabbing her finger into the center of his chest. “We’ll go through any opening together or neither of us will go.”

“Poppet.”

“Don’t poppet me,” she interrupted, her voice revealing she wasn’t going to tolerate any excuses. “We’ll go through and prepare for the Dark Lord. If we can unite the vampires and Sylvermysts, not to mention the Weres, there’s no way he can defeat us. We’ll at least have a better shot than trying to do it on our own.”

His lips parted to argue, only to snap shut as he realized the sense of her words.

“You do have a point,” he reluctantly conceded.

“Thank you,” she said dryly.

She didn’t have any time to congratulate herself on her small victory. Or even to feel relief that they might actually escape the nerve-racking fog.

Not when a vicious pain sliced through the air, along with a female voice that made Jaelyn’s skin crawl.

“Jaelyn.”

She sent Ariyal a resigned glance. Whoever might be trying to enter the mists was too late.

“Shit,” she muttered.

He brushed his fingers over her cheek, his gaze skimming over her upturned face with an aching regret.

“It looks like the decision has been made for us.”

“Looks like.” She palmed her shotgun, pulling it free of the holster. “Do you have any suggestions?”

Holding out his arm, Ariyal called for his bow and arrow, his gaze searching the mists. A good warrior wasn’t so distracted by the lion that he failed to notice the cobra hiding in the grass.

“She’s not yet at her full strength, which means there’s the potential that her body can be injured.”

She swiftly followed his logic. “So if we can destroy it ...”

“Then the Dark Lord will be back to where he started,” he completed. “Unable to enter our world.” He grimaced. “Or at least that’s the hope.”

Hope.

She might have laughed if the Dark Lord hadn’t chosen that moment to part the mists and appear in front of them.

Jaelyn shuddered, struck by the horrifying irony of such evil being hidden inside a young female who might have been the poster child of innocence.

It was just ... wrong.

“Sweet Jaelyn, why do you run from me?” the creature taunted, a whimsical smile making her dimples dance. Then, as if caught by surprise, the Dark Lord widened her china-blue eyes. “Oh look, a Sylvermyst.” She released a giggle that battered against Jaelyn like shards of glass. “Yummy.”

The fear that threatened to crush her was abruptly pierced by a savage fury as the female drifted toward Ariyal.

“And mine,” she gritted, pulling the trigger of the shotgun.