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But when the guys began to pick their way down the path, I cursed and followed.
Just think of Eidolon's eyes bursting open and his guts spilling out.
26
"Why can't they just fly us?" I muttered, sulking with my arms crossed as Taj and Joseph figured out the oars of the boat we sat in. "They've got wings."
But the Company of Murkyr were piled into boats like the rest of us, their blue-black wings tucked tight to their backs. They looked about as happy as I felt, but determination carried through them as they plonked their armoured, heavily armed selves into the little wooden rafts.
"Ooh, look, it's the Malodorous Circle," I whispered when the biggest, scariest, meanest-looking warriors stormed into the boat beside us.
X laughed so hard he choked, and I was so happy to hear the sound, to have him back at all let alonelaughingthat I didn't even feel embarrassed.
"Malefic, sweetness," Joseph corrected, looking at me like I was an adorable kitten.
"That's what Isaaaaaaaaaaaid!"I screeched when Taj dug his oar through the water and nearly tipped us over. I grabbed X with a clawed hand, shifting in a panic, and Ark and Joseph both gripped my muscly red arms as the boat righted itself. My demon form was a fucking bodybuilder, I swear. I wasripped.
Beside us, the Malefic Circle guys snorted.
"Hey, fuck you," Taj growled. "I'd like to see you do better."
One of them, a giant with rich golden skin, long black hair, and a scar through his eye and cheek, gave a wicked smirk and demonstrated how to properly lock the oar onto the boat.
"Show off," Taj muttered.
The other demon laughed, wings ruffling. Weird. I didn't getunfriendly, avoid at all costsvibes from these guys.
The river rushed suddenly, sending our little boat up on a swell, and I hissed and held my mates harder.
"So, um, fun fact. I think I'm freaked out by deep water. I'm learningso muchabout myself in Hell."
"Me, too, Av," X laughed humourlessly, gripping the edge of the boat and lifting a hand to me. I high-fived him with a matching humourless laugh.
"I need a beach with shallow water," I complained when the water ebbed and flowed around us, brushing against the hull like a clingy cat. "And a parasol with a sun lounger. And candyfloss mimosas. I was promised a private island."
"We could be your barmen, and wait on you hand and foot," X played along, leaning against me in the middle of the boat as Arkan called up an order to row and our army of shadows and wings began to plough, terrifyingly, through the river of souls.1
"Naked?" I asked X.
"Obviously."
"This isn't so bad, see, sweetness," Joseph murmured, dark muscles working powerfully to drive us through the water.
I watched his arms flex, bared by his sleeveless leather armour. No, this wasn't bad at all.
"Watch out!" someone roared from another boat, followed by a matching alert in a demon language.
I jumped so hard that fire rushed from my hands and caught along the side of the boat. Taj slammed a hand over it before it could burn our ride; I shot him a grateful glance.
Because I was looking at Taj, by pure chance, I saw the black, liquid hand rise up out of the water and reach for my mate.
I screamed and lunged past Taj, driving my claws into the brackish arm. It shouldn't have worked—it was water, for fuck's sake—but someone screamed, piercing enough that pain stabbed through my ears into my brain.
"Everyone in the middle of the boat," Arkan commanded, his voice like the crack of a whip.
I stabbed my black claws into the fluid arm over and over, until the dark water collapsed back into the river.
"Taj?" I demanded, spinning and losing my balance.
