Wraith(36)

I squeezed my eyes shut then abruptly I was free. The Worm’s body rolled off me. Covered in slimy gunk and warm blood, gasping for air, I used my legs to push myself to safety.

Standing at the side, with crossed arms and a smug expression, Gabriel smiled at me. ‘You’re welcome.’ There was a nasty gash on his cheek where the Worm’s teeth must have slashed him but otherwise he appeared unharmed. He was also annoyingly clean.

Pulling myself to my feet, I shook off the worst of the dripping blood and scowled. I smelled like a sewer. Worse. As something disturbingly viscous slid down my forehead and threatened to blind me, I used my sleeve to wipe my face. Yuckity yuck yuck.

‘I think you’ll find,’ I said with a huff, ‘that I was the one who killed it.’

Gabriel’s smile widened. ‘You did. You were fabulous.’

Somehow his praise made me even more uncomfortable. ‘I’ve never seen a Worm that big before,’ I muttered.

He walked over to me. ‘Indeed.’ He turned to eye the Worm’s corpse, which was lying flaccidly against the gigantic fissure it had created. ‘But at least it’s proved good for something.’

I couldn’t possibly see what. ‘I’ve tried Worm meat before,’ I said with a sniff. ‘It’s inedible.’

Something dark and horrified flickered in Gabriel’s eyes before he masked it. ‘That’s not what I meant,’ he said stiffly. ‘Death Worms of this size live far below the surface. They don’t tend to come this close to us unless they have a very good reason.’ He gave me a meaningful glance. ‘The goblins must have driven it out.’

‘Why on earth would they do that?’ I said, without thinking. A Death Worm would kill goblins just as quickly as it would kill the rest of us. Then I realised what he was referring to. ‘They’re drilling underground,’ I breathed. ‘They think the Stone of Scone is buried somewhere.’

He nodded. ‘It would make a lot of sense.’ He grinned suddenly. ‘But they’re not as smart as they think they are.’

A guttural voice sounded behind us. ‘Who?’ Ghrashbreg enquired. ‘Who is not as smart as they think?’

Oh shit. Bring back the damned Worm.





Chapter Fifteen




‘Well, that was a conveniently timed arrival,’ Gabriel said, although the friendly smile on his lips offset his sarcasm.

The Dark Elf had a point. I wondered whether the Filit lord had deliberately hung back, watching our fight from a safe distance and hoping that the Death Worm would win the day. It would be a convenient way to dispose of the pair of us without having to lie to the Prime Minister about how his Envoy expired. Ghrashbreg had to be suspicious about what Gabriel was up to by now. Not to mention that Gabriel had supposedly told him I was dead.

Regardless of what Ghrashbreg was really thinking, he’d brought a veritable goblin army with him. They stood silently at his back, maintaining relaxed-looking positions that were anything but.

‘Indeed,’ the goblin Lord murmured, matching Gabriel’s smile. ‘Although if you’re suggesting that we deliberately waited until you’d killed this gruesome creature, then I’m disappointed.’ He bowed in my direction. ‘Saiya Buchanan. I’m pleased to see you alive and … well.’ His slitted eyes roved up and down my gunk-covered body. With any luck it would encourage him to keep a safe distance from me. ‘Tell me. Did anyone else escape from the Tolbooth with you? You dashed in there with undue haste. Generally it’s considered safer to run away from collapsing buildings rather than running into them.’

I wondered whether the desk goblin had managed to escape for long enough to tell him about Erica Quiddle. I hoped not. I shuddered deliberately and met Ghrashbreg’s gaze head-on. ‘I couldn’t help myself. The thought of all those people trapped inside…’ My voice trailed off. ‘Alas, I couldn’t save a single soul before the walls starting collapsing around us.’ I bit my lip. ‘Why have the Gneiss goblins started bombing us again?’ I injected a pained entreaty into my words, as if I trusted the Filit Lord to offer an appropriate answer.

Ghrashbreg shrugged as if the matter were of little consequence. ‘Goodness only knows. Gneiss goblins are vicious bastards as you well know, having been trapped in this city for three long years. They have no care for the well-being of others.’ He displayed his teeth. ‘Unlike us.’

Gabriel put an arm round me, apparently not caring about my physical state. ‘It’s a miracle that Saiya is alive. To lose my Fior Ghal mere hours after finding her…’ He shook his head. ‘It’s too terrible to contemplate.’ There was a strange edge to his tone, a sort of bitterness that I didn’t immediately understand. Then I realised with a chill what it was. Gabriel de Florinville wasn’t the sort to resort to subterfuge or deceit. He might employ diplomacy to great effect but he’d already shown that he had the sort of misplaced noble attitude that despised lying or prevaricating. But surely he understood that the only way to avoid being cut down by Ghrashbreg and his men was to glide past the truth?

Breaking the habits of a lifetime, I reached round Gabriel’s waist and squeezed it, attempting to warn him. Even his stomach was rock hard. I cleared my throat as much out of awkwardness about touching him as to draw attention to myself. ‘All this Fior Ghal business is rather baffling to me,’ I said, trying to focus the topic of conversation on something relatively benign – at least as far as Ghrashbreg was concerned. ‘I don’t really understand what it entails.’ I pulled back and punched Gabriel lightly on the arm. ‘You’ve not explained it to me.’

Ghrahsbreg smirked, an oily expression that made him appear even more heartless. ‘I’ve always wondered about Fior Ghals,’ he said. ‘Do they feel the same as their Dark Elf counterparts or are they forced to go along for the ride?’ He thrust his pelvis back and forth a few times in a crude suggestion of sex.

I felt Gabriel stiffen. Surely he was too intelligent to rise to such obvious bait? ‘There’s a lot more to being Fior Ghal than that.’ Anger vibrated through him.

I sniffed. Yeah: nine months of incubating a Dark Elf child, apparently. ‘Well,’ I said, in a bid to smooth things over so we didn’t end up with our guts spilling out next to the Death Worm’s, ‘I look forward to findi—’

I didn’t get chance to finish the word, let alone the sentence. Gabriel was already interrupting me. ‘In fact, it seems that it’s not the only thing around here that has more to it than meets the eye. Take this siege, for example.’

He had to go there; he had to open up a festering wound and not only put our lives in danger but our search for the Stone in jeopardy.

‘Whatever do you mean?’ Ghrashbreg arched an eyebrow as if he were nothing but curious but I knew he was bristling with suspicion. He wouldn’t hesitate to put us both down. Gabriel might be a Dark Elf but he’d just been slammed around by a gigantic Death Worm. Ghrashbreg had dozens of Filit goblins watching us, ready to act at a moment’s notice. Bloody Gabriel; he couldn’t keep his mouth shut.

‘It’s not the city of Stirling that you and the Gneiss goblins are fighting over. It’s—’

I flung my arms round Gabriel’s neck. ‘It’s honour,’ I said breathlessly. ‘They don’t talk about it but it’s impossible to miss. It’s the same as you being too honourable to kiss me even though it’s all I’ve been thinking about.’ I reached up on tiptoe, registering the astonishment on his face before I planted my lips on his. It was the only thing I could think of to shut him up. The idiot seemed to keep forgetting he was on enemy territory.

For a moment, I thought that he wasn’t going to move then a deep growl sounded in his chest, his arms moved round me and his mouth opened. My lips tingled. In fact, my entire body tingled. He tasted like nothing I’d ever experienced before. Even though I was pressed against him, he seemed to be trying to pull me even closer, absorbing my body into his. Some dim part of my brain knew that Ghrashbreg and dozens of goblins were staring at us but it didn’t matter. All that existed were Gabriel’s hands tight on my waist and the way he sucked my bottom lip before cupping my face and gazing into my eyes, dark desire lighting his own. I moaned. It was too much. I kissed him again, enjoying the feel of his rough stubble against my skin, the warmth of his tongue pressing against mine, the staccato hammer of his heartbeat which matched my own perfectly, the…

‘We should get these two back to the castle,’ Ghrashbreg said loudly. ‘I enjoy a show as much as the next goblin but this is making me distinctly hot under the collar.’

I yanked myself away. ‘That wasn’t supposed to happen,’ I muttered, feeling bewildered and off-balance.

Gabriel seemed equally stunned. He took a step back and ran a shaky hand through his hair. His tongue darted out, licking his lips, and I followed the movement. It took almost everything I had not to throw myself at him again. My cheeks burned and the squirming sensation deep in my groin intensified. It wasn’t real, I told myself; it was some strange side effect of this Fior Ghal business that made me want to open myself up to him. It was creepy Dark Elf magic designed to entice me into making love and falling pregnant. I drew in a ragged breath. Knowing that didn’t change things; I desperately wanted Gabriel de Florinville’s body on me. And I wanted it now.