They were now descending. The cliff they’d scaled was actually part of a long chain of ragged mountains that veered toward a valley below full of sharp rock spires and dusty sand.
The sun was now at its zenith in the sky and blasting them full on.
Lilith slipped on a patch of loose slate. Grabbing her by the elbow to make sure she’d not slip again, he asked, “Are you okay?”
She jerked her arm loose and growled. “I’m fine.”
Tossing his hands up in a gesture of peace, he shrugged. “Okay, then.”
Rumpel had warned him that shifters, but especially the wolves, were a prideful bunch prone to quick bursts of fury that just as quickly could fizzle out. It wasn’t that Giles regretted journeying with a female, or even a shifter, more that she was a spitfire of emotions whereas a demone fought to maintain calm and control. To lose that peace could send his kind into a berserker rage that nothing but a mate could stop.
A wild demone was a monster unlike any other.
Sighing, he plastered on a determined face and kept his human form, though traveling in shadow would have been much easier. So long as she struggled, so would he.
The slate was so loose in places even he had a rough time of it, and eventually he knew if he didn’t shift he could very easily tumble down the still-steep edge.
Giles was just about to suggest they shift, when Lilith slipped, she’d very nearly dropped off the edge of a sharp overhang that dropped a good hundred feet to a bed of rock spires below.
“Bloody hell,” she growled and scrambled back, plopping down on her bottom and breathing several ragged breaths before turning to him. “This is bluidy steep.”
A trace of her father’s Gaelic accent could be heard in her exasperated voice just then, and it tugged a small grin to his face to hear it. It was rather cute.
“We must shift.” And so saying he became his shadow, breathing easier now that the threat of bodily harm was gone.
She sighed, almost as if she dreaded the thought of it.
“I could transssport you with me,” he held out an amorphous hand to her. Shifting her into his nebulous form would be unpleasant for her, and not safe to do to anyone longer than an hour without the very real possibility of doing permanent damage to their body, but to just get her down to the bottom of the mountain would be no problem.
For a moment he could have sworn she’d considered it. She’d nibbled on her bottom lip and had stared at his shadowy fingers with a trace of longing, but the look was fleeting.
Lilith shook her head. “No. And I know what you’re thinking. I’m being stubborn.”
He shrugged and wondered why she hadn’t already done it yet—surely four paws would give better traction than two feet—but he stayed his tongue.
“I know,” she sighed, “but shifting while I’m in heat isn’t fun. It makes my wolf frisky.”
He snorted but didn’t say anything else even when it was obvious she was manfully trying to bite back a chuckle of her own at her admission. The girl had no censure to her thoughts; he found he rather enjoyed the fact that she had no artifice.
But now was not the time for jokes—there was a dragon about, and he needed to remain focused.
“Where isss the dragon?” he asked, staring at the looming desert valley.
It was hot as Hades now; each step they’d taken had only seemed to strengthen the sun’s rays. Pushing a strand of sweaty hair out of her eyes she shook her head, peering into the gulch beneath. “Hard to say. The Valley of Shoal shifts its major landmarks frequently—it’s part of the magic of this place. She’ll be hidden within the sandbar, so long as we keep well outside of the waters, we should be fine.”
“There isss no water.”
Her smile was grim. “For now. Just make sure to stick to my side like glue, because the moment we step foot on the bottom the mirage will shift.”
Nodding, he floated back a pace and watched as she called her shift.
A brilliant amber light engulfed her, and flickering like glittering flames it licked at the burnished beauty of her flesh. Dropping to her knees, she whimpered as her bones shifted and reformed. Fur ripped outward, covering her in a silky screen of reddish fur. Her blue eyes were piercing as she licked her muzzle. She glanced behind them and then, with a flick of her tail, she trotted off.
She was a lovely creature in this form. Trim and slender, but with a raw innate magnetism that made it hard for him to look away, wondering what she thought when she saw him in his natural form.
Taking her time, she wasn’t nearly as clumsy as she made her way down the steep side of the mountain. Maintaining a steady speed, they made it into the valley in no time.
The moment she stepped onto the sand, she stopped, nose scenting the air and ears shifting as she listened.
“Can you hear it?” he whispered, floating before her.