She shrugged. "Maybe. I don't really care."
Shoftiel smiled with reluctant appreciation. Brutal honesty. He liked that. "What kind of witch worries about losing her warriors? You can make others."
She stopped and looked at him, her gaze piercing and fierce. "I want to risk you. Who knows? Maybe I'll get to see you die a painful, horrible death."
"I am immortal."
"Technicality. Everything can be destroyed if you try hard enough." She gave him a taunting smile. "You motivate me."
He couldn't help his own slight smile. Sparring with her was vastly more entertaining than the Mistlands. But then, so was watching mountains erode. His standards had gone ridiculously low. He yawned. "What is this venture you need my help for?"
"A snatch and grab."
He frowned. "What?"
"Stealing something that doesn't belong to us."
That sounded intriguing. "What is it?"
Without giving an answer, Giselle started walking again, following a packed-dirt animal track. Once more, Shoftiel fell in beside her.
"Are you going to tell me?"
"You don't need to know. Your job is keeping me alive."
They came to the lip where the land dropped twenty feet and rolled away to the mountains. Below, a Jeep was parked next to a clump of pink trees. Their limbs moved in the pair's direction as Giselle jogged down and grabbed a pair of socks and boots off the backseat and put them on.
"You can fly if you want," she said, getting into the driver's seat.
Since it seemed she'd prefer not being saddled with his company, he went around to climb in the other side. Riding in vehicles wasn't easy for an angel. Wings didn't usually fit. He was surprised to find that Giselle had removed the front and rear passenger seats and replaced them with cushions. There was a bench that lowered and adjusted to allow him to sit or kneel, and the roof had been raised to give his folded wings space. The single extra-long door slid open to allow easier access. All in all, it was surprisingly comfortable.
He'd barely shut the door when the witch hit the accelerator. Powered by magic, the vehicle jumped forward.
She steered them southward. Any road that might once have been there was gone. The waves of wild magic released by the Guardians had transmuted the world in fantastical ways. The Jeep rode smoothly, despite the often strange and difficult terrain. Giselle skirted a sudden desert of pure red sand. It rippled and moved and Shoftiel realized that it wasn't so much a desert as a lake.
Something rose and fell in the sands. It had a smooth green body with hook-like protrusions running down its slim length. The tip of its tail was akin to the fletching on an arrow or dart. More creatures squirmed across the surface and burrowed under. Twenty, fifty, a hundred--all of varying sizes.
All of a sudden, the sky darkened and beasts dropped out from the clouds. They were feathered and furred and looked like hyenas with talons and razor-toothed beaks. They were ridden by small figures Shoftiel couldn't make out. They dove, driving spears, teeth, and talons through the hides of the sand serpents. As soon as they made a capture, the hunters rose into the sky, the serpents whipping and flailing. They flew off to the west with their prizes.
Shoftiel watched the event, fascinated, even as suspicion crept up his spine.
"How long was I in the Mistlands?"
"Almost three and a half years."
So long? And yet it had seemed like a century. Before he'd been sent to the Mistlands, wild magic had already begun to twist and change the earth. Or rather, returned to a starving land. The enchanted forests of old grew back a hundred times as big. Fields of flowers became blood hungry. All the creatures of fairy tales that had left or retreated into hiding began to return. "The world has undergone more changes. A bounty of curiosities."
"You don't know the half of it," Giselle muttered.
"Explain."
"You know, you have a habit of snapping out orders like I'm going to obey them. You should probably rethink that approach."
"Or what?"
"You'll make me angry. You wouldn't like me when I'm angry." She smiled as if at some secret joke.
"I don't like you now. As for your anger--is that supposed to be a threat? I am exponentially more powerful than you. I would crush you."