Deception by A. S. Fenichel Read Free Book Online Page A

demons up a mountain pass, as if she’d been born to do nothing else. Perhaps that was the case. Still in the highlands, the terrain was rough, rocky and mountainous. It was an area better suited to sheep than horses. Green patches of grass between gray rock and purple heather.
    Holding up her hand, she pulled the horse to a stop. Dorian slowed, watched, and waited.
    Lillian touched her nose, alerting him to the scent of wood burning. The wind came out of the northeast. The almost full moon lit the night well enough. They dismounted, and tied the horses to a low bit of brush along the rocky pass.
    Spending the bulk of his time with the hunters behind a desk, he willingly took a step back and allowed Lillian to take the lead. She was far more experienced in the field. The fact that she was a woman meant nothing in The Company.
    He wished he was as unaffected by her feminine allure.
    To his astonishment, she pulled a string at her waist, which lifted her skirts, and she tucked them into some kind of belt hidden at her hips. Above her high leather boots, he glimpsed her creamy thighs. His gaze dropped to her curvy flesh and an array of weapons cleverly stored inside her skirts instead of focusing on the danger ahead. He met her gaze.
    “Try to stay alive, Dorian. Do not get distracted.”
    He looked her up and down one more time. “You ask the impossible, Lilly.”
    The wicked look she gave him was almost as enticing as the curve of her leg. She turned and climbed up the rock-strewn hill to the right. He followed, making an effort not to admire her bare legs or the throwing knives strapped around her right thigh. When they reached the precipice, flames blazed as high as ten feet in the center of a clearing. Two demons fed the fire, one a small trebox with scaly dark skin and the other a larger, dumber malleus covered in slime. To the far left of the fire, three children huddled together. The smallest girl wept loudly while the other two tried to comfort her.
    Alive! A surge of elation followed by a wave of fear assaulted him. Could he and Lillian keep those children alive?
    The malleus stood as tall as the flames and sang in a low grating tone. Firelight reflected off its slimy skin as it tore a year old tree from the ground, roots and all. As if it were a twig, the malleus tossed it on the fire. Flames roared higher and his voice grew louder. Dorian knew nothing of the demon language, but the eerie cadence churned his guts.
    The trebox slunk around the fire. He used two hands on a sword, carving symbols in the hard ground. This trebox had shed his human clothes, exposing his hunched back and visible ribcage.
    A recent report had crossed his desk depicting a similar scene in England. When they completed drawing the runes, the innocents would be sacrificed. “They mean to open a gate. We only have until the song ends.”
    Lillian’s eyes widened. She reached into the folds of her underskirt and released a small crossbow from its holster, chocked an arrow, and took aim. “We will need to move fast.”
    “Ready.”
    She let the arrow fly.
    It pierced the malleus demon’s left eye, silenced the song mid-word, and dropped the enormous monster to the ground before he even had time to roar.
    The trebox screamed in the language only demons understood. He took up the song his comrade had been chanting and wrote faster in the dirt.
    Dorian pulled one throwing knife from the belt strapped around Lillian’s smooth skin. He jumped over the hill and ran down, dagger raised in his left hand.
    The trebox rushed at him with its eyes focused on the long knife.
    When he was within range, he let the smaller blade fly.
    It buried deep in the greenish creature’s throat. He crumpled with a whine.
    Lillian ran behind him down the hill.
    All three children screamed and cried.
    She charged past them and kicked dirt on the fire.
    “What are you doing?”
    “I think he might have gotten the incantation finished. Look at the way the smoke curls