A growl rumbled out of me at the nickname, and she shot me a smirk. She’d said it just to rile me.
Fair was fair, I supposed. “I want to talk to Rue, and I think it will be safer if I go alone.”
I half expected her to argue. She’d asked me dozens of questions about the outcast demigorgon when I’d first told her the story, but now she just nodded. A sure sign that the newly active volcano—one that had lain dormant for the whole of my time in the Nassa—really had given her a scare.
“I’ll bring him back here, but I don’t think I’m ready to try flashing him to the ship yet,” she admitted.
“Here will be fine, love.” I offered her a warm smile. “I will return shortly and take us all to the ship.”
She held out a hand, letting the fine flakes of snow fall into her palm. More of the tiny crystals clung to her hair and dusted her shoulders. “This is so weird,” she whispered. “I feel like I should be freezing right now.”
I closed the distance between us, slid my hand around the back of her neck, and ducked my head, capturing her feisty mouth in a heated kiss. There were a great many things that had the potential to make a man really feel like a man, but none so satisfying as to have a woman like Never melt into my touch. “There are some perks to sharing my abilities,” I whispered against her lips.
She reached out and tangled her fingers in my hair playfully, tugging just a touch before pulling back to look at me. “Did I win or did you lose?”
The hunting game. “Technically, I caught you, again. Meaning I am the victor.”
“I think the game should be forfeit based on the whole ocean of lava thing,” she grumped.
That made me chuckle. It was one thing to be terrified by something, but it was another to let it consume you. This was her way of actively pulling herself away from the fear and putting distance between herself and the moment.
“Very well. What do you say we call this one a draw?”
She arched a manicured eyebrow as she raked her nails lightly down my neck, over my collarbones, and to my chest. “And what do I get for a draw?”
A primal hunger swirled low in my center. “You are insatiable.” How she could elicit such a visceral response from me after all my years—millennia—was still a mystery to me. She bit her bottom lip, tempting me to put my mission on hold.
“Let’s deal with the task at hand first,” I suggested,grudgingly. My mind was already whirling with the things I wanted to do to her, but there were bigger issues at play.
“Fine.” Her pout was adorable as she patted my chest twice and took a step back. “I’ll see you in a bit.” Then she was gone.
I stood there for a moment, licking her taste from my lips and trying to get my riotous body under control. It would not do to have such lecherous thoughts swimming in my head when I visited Rue. Not with her ability to pull them out.
After a few deep breaths, I envisioned the caves and made the short trip. The cavern was as it always was, dank and prone to echoes. Darkness swallowed most of the light spilling in through the cracks in the ceiling.
“Rue?” I called. After a minute, when the only other sound in the cavern was the muffled crash of waves beating against the rocks at the entrance hidden around the corner, I tried again. Louder this time. “Eylarue!”
A few startled bats fluttered in the high shadows, but the cursed demigorgon was nowhere to be seen.
With my hand on the butt of my sword, I picked my way through the stones littering the path to the back of her cave. The possibility that she might be resting, or avoiding me, or otherwise engaged in any manner of things that were none of my business did cross my mind, but instinct drove me forward. Rue had never been the type to keep me waiting. It seemed unlikely she would start now, so soon after I’d repaid my debt to her.
Did I find it strange that she’d requested the chain from the pendant—that gruesome piece of me—that had once dangled from Never’s slender neck? Without question. It had also taken quite a bit of searching to find it in what remained of Petra’s camp.
The oddest bit, however, was what she’d done with the chain when I’d presented it to her. Instead of fastening it around herneck or looping it around her wrist, she’d let the dozens of small snakes atop her head claim it.
Which was why, when I slipped through the wide crack in the far wall leading to her living quarters and spotted it glittering on the ground, I paused long enough to unsheathe my sword.
I left the chain where it was for the time being because it wasn’t the only thing amiss in Rue’s home. There weren’t any obvious signs of a struggle, but there was a plate of food that looked like it had barely been touched molding on the table. I picked up a half-full goblet of red wine and sniffed the contents, wrinkling my nose at the sharp, acidic scent.
Vinegar.It usually took at least a couple of weeks for that kind of oxidation to occur, which meant Rue had vanished within days of the last time I’d seen her. Maybe hours.
A quick search didn’t reveal anything helpful, and given the circumstances, I was eager to return to Never. I paused over the fallen chain on my way out, weighing the pros and cons of taking it with me. I almost left it where it rested.
Almost.
If Rue hadn’t shown such an interest, I would have let it gather dust on the cave floor. But she must have had a reason for demanding that delicate chain as payment.
I kneeled, intent on plucking it from the stone with my index finger and thumb. Except the moment my fingertip brushed the cool metal, I was hit with a powerful vision. Of Never. She was caught up in a brutal fight with a demon, but she was like I’d never seen her before. Wild. Vicious. Deadly. It was like a feral animal had taken over her body.
