Niles

  Niles blocked the descending sword strike with the haft of his spear, and slashed back with the blade of his own weapon, but with a quick beat of her wings the seraph flew up just out of reach again, but this time Niles was ready for the move. Dropping into a crouch, he let go of his spear and launched himself into the air. Having already used her wings to avoid his spear, they were out of position to make another quick flight change, so Azrielle could not avoid the sudden attack. Niles still marveled at how much his physical abilities had increased. He’d never been much of a basketball player back home, but now he was certain he could easily slam dunk, if basketball had been a thing here.

  Grabbing the seraph around the waist, he pulled her back down to the ground with him. Had she not been surprised, she might have been able to keep them both aloft, but that was not the case. Niles twisted to make sure he took the brunt of the fall, not really wanting to hurt her, and they landed in a heap with the seraph on top, laughing.

  The seraph let out a happy sigh. “While we are here, can I have a little taste of your magic?”

  “We should probably get up first, or people will talk,” Nile said, letting go of his grip on her.

  Azrielle let out a less happy sigh. “You are right.” She got up and offered a hand to help Niles up. Keeping hold of the hand, she began pulling on his magic and moaned contentedly. “You have no idea how wonderful this feels.” Niles gave his magic a little push into her, and she let out a little squeak. “Careful, or I may forget we are just friends.”

  Niles smiled but stopped pushing his magic and walked with the seraph off the practice field to a bench in the shade of a tree where they could rest and cool down, while Niles shared his magic. He was really starting to like Azrielle, but that was probably because they were just friends now. It had only been a few weeks since she’d been an obsessed stalker, so he could still clearly remember it. SInce then, though, they had fallen into an easy friendship after spending a good deal of time sparring to prepare for the field study. And it was nice to have a relationship with a girl that was simple and straightforward.

  He had all but given up on trying to figure out Birgit and Vedika. They’d fluctuate hot and cold so many times he wasn’t sure where he stood with them. At least the two of them were getting along well with each other again, and for the last couple of weeks, things had been pretty stable. Vedika was just back to sleeping next to him on hunts and had pretty much cut out flirting with him entirely. Birgit was doing the same on hunts, but during the week, when he shared her bed, she was a bit more cuddly, but not to the degree she’d been after their karaoke duet. There had been a couple of mornings when he’d woken up to find her staring at him, though, so that was a little weird.

  Niles had tried not to think too much about that and had been focusing on the field study that was finally slated to kick off tomorrow. They would take a portal to the nearest city, Stonegarden, and from there, fly to the edge of the Haunted Wastes. A good number of support staff were going with them to set up camps at the edge of the Wastes so the teams could fly back for supplies as needed. From what Niles had heard, the location was near Deca’s border with Solaria and covered an area approximately forty miles in diameter, with the old elven ruins in the very center. For the field study, the area had been divided into six pie-shaped wedges, with each wedge assigned to one of the teams. Each team was expected to clear out their wedge, but the ruins that sat in the center of the Wastes were up for grabs. That was where the highest concentration of magic was, and therefore, that was where they had the greatest chance of finding really potent crystals and monsters. But each team had to clear out its wedge before moving into the city.

  According to the records from the last time the wastes had been cleared, the teams only spent a couple days in the ruins and reportedly had not completely cleared them, so there could be some truly massive crystals there now. Given that the wastes were reported to be pretty barren, it should be fairly easy for Niles to spot crystals, so they hoped it would take no more than a week to clear their assigned wedge. Giving them a good amount of time to explore the ruins.

  “Are you excited?” Azrielle asked, pulling Niles from his thoughts.

  Niles smiled. “Oh yeah, I’ve been looking forward to this for weeks. Fourteen days of nothing but crystal hunting and exploring ancient ruins. How cool is that?”

  “And do not forget sleeping with two lovely ladies every night,” Azrielle added with a smirk.

  Niles slouched on the bench, looking out across the campus. “That’s actually not as much fun as it sounds. It seems like someone is always kicking or elbowing me, Vedika has claws she uses in her sleep sometimes, and Birgit likes to use me as a foot warmer. It’s all the negative things about sleeping with someone else and none of the fun things.”

  Azrielle squeezed his hand. “Well, once this field study is over, you and Birgit should start exploring the fun things then.”

  Niles turned to look at the seraph. “What makes you think she’d be interested in that?”

  Azrielle gave him a knowing smile. “I see the way she looks at you. I am surprised she has not thrown herself at you yet, but as soon as this expedition is over, I bet she will tear your clothes off and have her way with you before you even get back to the academy.”

  Niles laughed. “We’ll have a new contract to negotiate once the field study is over, so that would certainly be an interesting negotiation tactic.”

  “I do not think she cares about contracts anymore,” Azrielle insisted. “She wants you. Mark my words, as soon as the mission is over, you will have the night of your life. With as much tension as the two of you have been building up, it will be epic.”

  “What will be epic?” Vedika’s voice asked from behind them.

  Niles turned to see the princess and Birgit approaching. From their expressions, they hadn’t overheard much.

  “The field study,” Niles answered quickly. “We were just talking about the field study.”

  “And what comes after,” Azrielle added, giving Niles a mischievous smile. “We were talking about how we might celebrate afterward, too.”

  “Oh? Did you come up with any good ideas?” Birgit asked.

  Azrielle gave a low, throaty chuckle. “Oh, yes, I was just telling Niles…”

  “Who else is hungry?” Niles interrupted. “This will be our last chance to get a good meal that we don’t have to cook over a campfire, so we better make the most of it.”

  The following day, they left shortly after dawn in a small caravan of wagons and carriages that took all the teams, staff, and supplies that were going on the expedition to the capital’s magic portal hub. From there, they jumped to Stonegarden. It was an interesting city, featuring gardens on every possible surface, from lawns to window boxes to rooftops, but they stayed only long enough for all the mages in the group to summon their flying mounts and load their supplies and passengers.

  “Do you think we can visit here on our way back?” Niles asked as they loaded up the mounts.

  “Yes, this is such a lovely, romantic city,” Azrielle added, smiling mischievously at Niles. “This would be a perfect place to celebrate.”

  They flew for most of the rest of the day, splitting up into six groups representing the six teams and their designated support as they neared the Waists. Niles’ team’s assigned wedge was on the far side of the Wastes, so they had a longer flight, but it gave them a good chance to see the terrain they would be exploring. It was indeed barren, with little green beyond a few scrubby bushes and the occasional stunted tree. It was quite rough terrain as well, with the ground pockmarked and broken, as if a massive artillery bombardment had shattered it. Niles wondered if the land had always been like this, or if this was the result of the ancient wars fought here. It must have been nicer at one time, though, or else why would anyone build a city here? What stood out to Niles most was the glow of magic crystals that seemed to be everywhere. This was going to be a very profitable hunt.

  They didn’t fly over the city ruins, but they flew over what had probably once been towns. These were not very impressive and appeared mostly destroyed, but they got a glimpse of the city from a distance, and that was quite a sight. The cities in Deca Niles had seen so far had impressed him. For a pre-industrialized society, they were amazing. Of course, they used magic to build things, so that explained much of what they achieved. From what Niles saw of the city in the Wastes, it looked like there were still buildings standing many stories high, and considering these ruins were centuries old, that was very impressive. He could hardly wait to explore the ruins.

  Finally, the lead scout began descending, and everyone followed to a location they’d picked for the base camp. Professor Fenhopper was the senior staff representative for their team, and with her were six other mages, two servants, and five guards. All of Professor Fenhopper’s underlings set about securing the area and setting up the camp, while the professor gathered the team around her.

  “Alright, students,” the professor began, assuming a lecturing tone. “As you know, tomorrow at dawn, the field study will officially begin. I will be scanning you all with spells to make sure you are not carrying any crystals into the competition with you, so make sure you are not. This is a competition, but we expect you to behave honorably and not interfere with the other teams. In fact, if there is a need, we expect you to help each other. There has also been a rumor that a certain individual, who I will not name since it is just a rumor, has offered to buy other teams’ crystals for ten times their market value and certain, unspecified favors. I do not imagine anyone on this team would be tempted by that offer, but all the instructors assigned to the teams were advised to remind you that this sort of behavior would be in direct violation of the student code of honor and subject to severe disciplinary action.”

  “I also want to remind you that you are to clear out your assigned area outside of the city ruins first. Make sure that you do that, because after the field study is complete. My team and I will sweep the area to make sure it has been done. If we find you have not satisfactorily completed that task, you will receive a failing grade no matter how well you do in the city. You may return to the base camp as often as you want, but that will cost you valuable time once you are deeper in the Wastes, so keep that in mind. Also, while we expect this to test you to your limits, if you run into anything that is truly beyond you, you may return here to report it. Do you have any questions?”

  The professor looked the team over, but no one did. This was all pretty much review, except for the part about the offer to buy other teams’ crystals. Niles felt pretty good about predicting that it might happen. They set up their own tents, but the staff made dinner for everyone, so they had a fairly quiet evening, which they spent looking over the map they had and running through their plans one more time.

  The next morning at dawn, they entered the Haunted Wastes. First, Niles and Birgit did a quick scan of the area from the air, and Niles picked out a course to the crystals. After that, they just went through and picked them up. Some of the monsters were a little tougher than what they’d faced before, and the crystals were almost all large, but it was not all that different from their previous hunts. They covered the first area Niles had scouted before mid-morning, and he and Birgit took to the sky to scout again. They completed five cycles of this before the sun began setting, but had only penetrated about two miles into the waste. Since they were covering the widest section of their wedge, though, that was expected.

  Since they were still so close to the base camp, they decided to return there for the night. Their crystal count for the first day was fifty-eight. It had been a very good first day. The following day was more of the same, but they covered another three miles of their designated area. On their third day, they came across the ruins of a town. There was not much left of it, but Niles still found it interesting. They found three crystals there, one of which was the size of a baseball and would classify as grand. Guarding it was their first horror of the hunt, a mean one that looked like a cross between a piranha, a squid, and a T-Rex, but the other familiars kept it distracted long enough for the mages to blast it with spells, so Niles didn’t get a chance to fight.

  So far, it had been a pretty boring hunt for Niles, but he had gotten used to that. In a way, he missed the early hunts with Hilaria and Uma, where they had split up and it was just he and Birgit, so he had to fight every monster they ran into, unless Birgit had time to get off a spell. It wasn’t that he craved violence, but he had felt more useful back then. He really didn’t like hanging back while other people faced danger. It probably wouldn’t have been so bad if it had just been the elemental spirits, but having Azrielle in the front line while he was in reserve felt wrong.

  By the end of their third day, they were a good ten miles from their base camp, so they decided to camp where they were rather than return. They camped out the fourth and fifth nights, too, but they reached the walls of the city by late afternoon on the sixth day and decided to head back to the base camp to get a good night’s rest and replenish their supplies before heading in.

  Niles was disappointed that they didn’t go in, but he agreed it would be better to enter when they were fresh. He was really excited to look around the ancient city, though. Even the walls of the city looked impressive. Standing at least fifty feet tall, they were surprisingly intact, given their age, and they stretched as far as Niles could see in both directions. If the information they had received was correct, the city covered over five square miles, and the wall surrounded it completely. Perhaps more impressive still was that, despite the height of the wall, Niles could still see buildings inside the city that towered over it.

  As they took to the skies, Niles got a better look inside the city. It was huge, and it looked like many of the buildings were still standing. Some of them had to be over ten stories tall, and given that they were centuries old, it seemed impossible they were in as good shape as they were.

  They returned to the city at first light the following day and flew over the entire place. Sinja and Jabari led the flyover, looking for specific, important buildings that would have the most chance of containing a high concentration of magic, and thus, crystals. The elves had also hinted that there might be other treasures among the ruins. They flew low enough that Niles got a good look at the buildings, and he was even more impressed than before. They were all beautiful works of art with soaring arches, graceful curves, and decorative stonework, at least the buildings that still stood. There were some buildings that had fallen, though most of them looked like they had been forcefully crushed or blown apart, rather than just collapsing from age. In particular, there was an immense crater in the exact center of the city. Niles was sure it had been caused by some sort of explosion.

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  Niles saw the glow of crystals everywhere, often he saw it coming from windows, so they might have to do a house by house search if they wanted to be thorough and with the size of the city, it could take weeks to really clear it out. There was also movement in the city, dark shapes moving among the shadows. Many were likely tainted beasts, but Niles was sure at least some of them were horrors.

  The elves finally descended into a section of the city that was mostly intact. Several large buildings towered over them as they landed in a square where a still-functioning water fountain sprayed water into the air. The fountain was large and ornate, featuring a twenty-foot statue of an elven woman in a long dress at its center. It had withstood the ravages of time remarkably well, but the presence of water had attracted life. Vines grew over everything, and the water was dark green with algae and other plant life. A strong aqua glow emanated from the water at the base of the statue, letting Niles know there was a water crystal hidden under the surface.

  “This is the heart of the city’s financial district,” Jabari said once everyone had dismounted, and then pointed to the largest of the buildings that dominated the square. “And that, I believe, is the city’s main bank. I doubt they left all their gold behind, but it could not hurt to check,” he smiled as everyone laughed. “The vaults should have a very high concentration of magic as well, so they will be a likely location for crystals. Also, some of the richest citizens of this city would have lived in the buildings in this area, so we may be able to find a comfortable place to set up camp.”

  “There’s a water crystal in the fountain there,” Niles added, pointing to where he saw the glow.

  “I bet there is some big, slimy monster in that water,” Azrielle said, scrunching up her nose. “I bet it is really gross, and it will wait until someone wades in, and then it will grab them and pull them under. Maybe we should just skip this one.”

  “You really don’t like water, do you?” Niles asked with a smirk.

  “Not icky, slimy, disgusting water like that,” the seraph sniffed.

  Niles laughed. “Let’s just nuke the water with lightning first, then. That should kill anything lurking in it.”

  A few lightning bolts later, a massive creature floated to the surface. It looked like some kind of mutant goldfish, nearly ten feet long, with an oversized mouth filled with hundreds of needle-like teeth. After that, it was easy to retrieve the water crystal.

  Next, they entered the bank. The main lobby was impressive, with a polished marble floor and matching marble columns supporting an arched ceiling high above. Niles didn’t have time to take in much more of the massive room, though, as a pigeon the size of a hippo swooped down at them from that arched ceiling. Opening its beak, it spat out a stream of ice shards. Nile grabbed Birgit and shielded her from the icy projectiles, taking several on his back. His armor protected him from most of them, but a few cut into his arms and legs.

  Hearing a squawk, Niles looked back up to see Azrielle engaged with the beast in the air. Its wingspan was much wider than hers, but she was more maneuverable. Glancing at the rest of his team, Niles saw that just about everyone was cut up at least a little, but no one was down.

  Running over toward one of the columns, Niles yelled up at Azrielle. “Lure it down low by that column.”

  The seraph shouted an acknowledgment and flew away from the bird. It followed her as she first flew up and then dove toward the column. Hiding behind the column, Niles had hoped he could just jump out and stab it with his spear, but he could see it was going to come in too high. He briefly thought about throwing his weapon, but it was balanced for close combat, not throwing. Instead, as the beast flew by, he sprinted after it. Leaping up onto a huge marble table, he used it as a springboard to jump even higher. Catching one of the monster’s legs with one hand, Niles rammed his spear into the beast’s stomach with the other. The creature was tougher than Niles expected, and he didn’t have great leverage, so his spear only sank in a few inches, not enough to kill the beast.

  Instinctively, the tainted monster tried to fly higher to escape the pain. Desperately clinging to the creature’s leg, Niles shoved his spear in even farther before yanking it out and thrusting it in again. The bird tried to angle its beak around to spit ice at him, but it could only get his boots. Blood rained down on Niles as he continued his butchery until, on his fourth thrust, he hit something vital and the bird’s wings went limp. Only then did Niles realize he was thirty feet in the air. Prepared for an unpleasant landing, Niles was surprised when a pair of arms grabbed him around the chest from behind, just under his arms.

  “I have you,” Azrielle said in his ear.

  They found a grand ice crystal in the massive room, along with large air and earth crystals. If there had been monsters guarding the other two crystals at one time, no doubt the monster pigeon ate them. They found two more crystals on the upper floors of the building that contained offices and storerooms, but the monsters guarding them weren’t serious threats.

  “The main vaults will be underground,” Jabari informed them, once they’d completed a search of the upper floors. We may not even be able to access them if they are locked, but if they are open, I would expect to find crystals in or near them because of the heavy magic used to guard the treasure.”

  “Will we have to watch out for deadly traps?” Niles asked.

  Sinja looked at him curiously. “Why would there be deadly traps?”

  “To guard the treasure,” Niles explained.

  “Goodness, no,” Sinja laughed. “We elves are a civilized people. Traps like that would be more likely to harm the employees of such a bank than any would-be robbers. We use stout doors and complex magical locks to guard our treasure. Did you use deadly traps to protect your valuables in your world?”

  “Only in movies,” Niles answered.

  A single winding stairway led down to the vaults. There were light fixtures along the wall, but the enchanted crystals had all run out of magic. Everyone but Niles had light-enchanted light sources of their own, though, so that was not a problem. Winding around the stairs, they finally came to the bottom, where a doorway opened into a short, wide hallway. With doorways spaced out at regular intervals along its length.

  “Hey, everyone, turn your lights off for a minute. I think there are some crystals ahead,” Niles said. Everyone complied, and in the darkness, Niles saw glows in a variety of colors coming from the doorways. “Oh, yeah, there’s a bunch of crystal down here.”

  “We should take it slow and carefully, then,” Advick advised. “No doubt there will be guardians.”

  “I’ll go first,” Niles volunteered, not wanting to get stuck in the back. “I can see where the gems are.”

  “Take my familiar with you,” Advick offered.

  “And mine,” Vedika added.

  “I will go, too, to light your way,” Azrielle volunteered.

  Niles revelled in the thrill of being out in the action again. The first door they came to opened into a big, empty vault with not even a single coin remaining. It had a large fire crystal, though. Azrielle flew in and retrieved it once they were sure the vault was empty. They proceeded down the hall, checking each door. Each led to a vault that was empty, save for a crystal in some cases. Their apprehension grew as they cleared vault after vault without encountering any resistance. That all changed when they got to the sixth vault.

  The vault looked like all the others at first glance, though in retrospect, Niles realized the ceiling had seemed just a little shiny, as if it were wet. At the time, though, the room had seemed safe, so Azrielle had flown in to get the death crystal growing from the wall at the far side of the room. Halfway into the room, a mass of clear, gelatinous goo dropped on top of the seraph, slamming her to the ground. There must have been a three-foot-thick coating of the stuff covering the entire ceiling, and now it covered the entire floor and Azrielle.

  Niles could see the seraph weakly struggling, but he doubted she could even breathe. Thrusting his spear into the mass, Niles met little resistance, so he pushed forward, stepping right into the mass that came up just over his knee. It was like walking through thick, clinging mud, but that was not going to stop him. He was six feet into the room before his legs started burning. Azrielle was only a few more feet ahead, so Niles pushed on, ignoring the pain. It didn’t look like Azrielle was even moving now. By the time he reached the seraph, the pain was excruciating, but still Niles ignored it and plunged his arms into the acidic ooze to grab Azrielle. Lifting her top half out of the sludge, Niles was happy to hear her gasp in a breath. Picking her up in a princess carry, Niles headed for the exit. Azrielle’s exposed skin was all an angry red, but at least it hadn’t melted off, as Niles had feared from the amount of pain he himself was feeling.

  Niles powered his way through the ooze to the door, only to find the monster had begun moving out into the hall, so he still had more to wade through. It felt like his legs were being dissolved or maybe digested. His arms and every part of him that had touched the ooze burned as well, but not as badly. At least Azrielle was unconscious, so she was not feeling it. Niles headed for the rest of the team, but the ooze was moving that way, too. Niles was moving faster, though.

  Niles was only about three feet from the edge of the blob when Birgit yelled a warning. “Behind you!”

  Looking over his shoulder, Niles saw the ooze had gathered into a wave behind him that was almost as high as the ceiling, and it was slowly moving forward to engulf him. Putting all his strength into it, Niles surged through the last few feet of sludge. Stumbling when the resistance suddenly ceased. Barely keeping his feet under him, Niles ran down the hall to where the rest of his team waited. As soon as he was out of their way, the mages cut loose with lightning and fire.

  It took an impressive amount of magic to finish the monster, but now that they were free of its grip, they could easily outpace it. Retreating before it, they continued to rain magical destruction on it until, when they were halfway up the stairs, the monstrosity finally lost cohesion and flowed away.

  They returned all the way back up to the surface to regroup. Niles’ pants were now shorts now, and his boots were ruined. His armor had survived, though, and his flesh was healing. Birgit, Vedika, and Sinja cleaned Azrielle up before casting healing magic to bring her around. Her armor had survived, but her clothes were in bad shape. Fortunately, all their supplies were just outside in the square where they’d landed.

  No one was enthusiastic about returning to the vault, but they did, finding no more danger and seven more crystals. Spending the rest of the day exploring the city’s financial district, they discovered that harvesting in the ruins was much more challenging than harvesting out in the open Wastes, where they often had the chance to kill the guardians of the crystals from a distance with spells. Here, there were far more places for the guardians to hide. They were not taken completely by surprise again that day, but they often had only an instant to react to a threat. There were some brutal fights, and both Advick’s and Vedika’s familiars, who stood at the front in most situations, were forced back to their planes several times. They might even have refused to return had they not been tempted back with offers of Niles’ magic. Healing magic was required as well for other members of the team more than once. It was by far the most challenging day of their hunt so far.

  They found a ton of crystals, though, and more often than not, they would find more than one crystal in an area guarded by the last surviving guardian, as they had found in the vaults. The city itself was amazing. Most of the furnishings had long ago decayed away, and anything of value seemed to have been either taken away when the city was abandoned or looted in the years since. But the stonework that made up the bulk of the buildings was in great shape. Some buildings even had intact glass windows.

  In their search, they came across what must have been a mansion at one time. In its day it must have been amazing, with a grand staircase in the entry hall, a massive kitchen, both large and small dining rooms, an indoor pool that was now dry, lounges, a library, three studies, and a dozen bedrooms that ranged from large to massive. Though all that remained now was the elaborately sculpted stonework. It seemed like a quite secure location with a wall around the exterior, bars on the windows, and stout doors that still functioned. They decided to make it their base camp in the city and set up the third floor for sleeping. Two stairways were the only access to that floor from inside the house, and there was a balcony large enough for their flying mounts to use for takeoff and landing.

  Taking extra time with their wards, they hoped to use this camp for the rest of their field study. For safety’s sake, they all set up their bedrolls in the largest of the bedrooms, which was also the room with access to the balcony. Niles spent some extra time with Azrielle to get her recharged, the ordeal with the vault ooze having taken quite a bit out of her. He half-expected her to ask to sleep in their little group, since they were all sharing one room, but she didn’t. It was probably just as well, since he had no idea how that would have worked.

  The following day, they moved from the financial district to the mercantile district, and the day after that, they hit the crafting district. Each day the fighting was fierce, but the crystals were abundant and potent. On their fourth day in the city, they found an impressive library. After defeating the horror that guarded it and collecting the crystal, they decided to spend some time searching it. Prince Advick was not too happy about the decision, but all the other mages pressed him, and he finally conceded to give them a couple of hours. Most of the shelves were empty or filled with tomes that all but crumbled to dust at a touch, but there were a few books that had somehow survived. Niles did his part, hoping he would find some reference to humans.

  “Have you found anything interesting?” Sinja asked, walking up behind Niles as he searched a remote aisle.

  “Oh, plenty of interesting things, just not what I was looking for,” Niles answered.

  “Are you looking for more records of your people?” Sinja asked quietly, stepping in closer.

  “Yeah,” Niles confessed, seeing no reason to hide the fact.

  “There was a time when elves summoned humans frequently,” Sinja said. “I did not have time to delve into it much when I was home last. But I saw humans mentioned in several ancient texts.”

  Niles turned his full attention to Sinja now. “Why aren’t you still doing it?”

  Sinja sighed. “To be honest, I do not know. Our war with the lunar elves has cost us much over the centuries. Our ancestors possessed many great magics that are now lost to us. But what is lost can be found. Now that you are proof that humans really do exist, I am certain I can convince our king to put significant resources into bringing more of your people to our world, all we would need is for you to share the planar signature of your world with me. I can assure you your people would be treated as honored guests, and you would be the most honored among them all. Anything you could wish for would be yours.”

  “You don’t know the planar signature?” Niles asked, both surprised and suspicious.

  Sinja stepped even closer. “I fear we do not. Otherwise, I am sure many of my people would have human familiars. What would it take to convince you to share that knowledge with me? I am certain I can offer you much, much more than your current mage can.” Looking into Niles eyes, she ran her hand down his arm.

  Her admission hit Niles like a hammer. He hadn’t realized how much he’d been counting on the one last hope that the elves had a way to get him home, until it was taken away. He truly was stuck here. Even though he was starting to really enjoy his life here, knowing he was trapped was still a blow. It was going to take him time to process that, but he set that aside for now, needing to address the current situation. Sinja had continued to move closer while he was lost in his thoughts, and her body was now pressing against his in a very distracting manner.

  Niles stepped back. “I’m afraid I can’t.”

  “Are you sure?” Sinja purred, stepping closer again and resting her hands on Niles’ shoulders. “I am willing to do more than just sleep next to you at night.”

  “While that sounds fun, I’m going to have to say no,” Niles said, gently removing her hands and stepping back again.

  Sinja did not continue to pursue Niles, but she did not give up. “With you at my side and access to your plane, I could become very influential in Solaria. And you would rise right alongside me. You could be rich and powerful beyond your wildest dreams.”

  Niles shook his head. “Sorry, I can’t tell you.”

  “Would you at least consider forming a contract with me when your current contract with Birgit expires?” Sinja asked, giving him a sultry smile. “I am certain that I can make a much more tempting offer.”

  Niles wasn’t comfortable with this conversation. She had clearly waited for him to be separated from Birgit, which played right into the warnings he’d been given about elves being sneaky. And now that she had revealed the elves didn’t know how to access his world either, the one thing he would have been really interested in was off the table. Still, this wasn’t exactly something she could have brought up in front of his mage, and there was still the looming matter of Birgit becoming Prince Advick’s consort to consider. Birgit had talked about giving him a long-term contract anyway, but Niles didn’t want to burn any bridges until the deal was official.

  “I want to give Birgit first shot, but I’ll think about your offer,” Niles conceded.

  Sinja’s smile grew. “That is all I ask. You should at least come and visit Solaria with me before you decide on anything permanent. We have entertainments and pleasures there that are undreamt of in this backward little kingdom.”

  Turning, Sinja slowly sashayed away.