He comes up beside me and surveys my work before pressing a kiss to my forehead. He scoops me up from my chair, steals it, and then settles me down in his lap. “Already? In just a few hours? That must be a record, even for you.”
He sounds a bit put out, and guilt pangs through me. Rez made his misgivings clear, and I should have let it rest. But I couldn’t. And now, knowing just how to find it, I definitely can’t.
“I know it’s totally insane, Yae, but I need to find this treasure. I need Liora’s locket. I can’t quite explain it, but I can’t get it out of my head. I feel like I’m meant to be its next owner.”
My incubus hugs me a bit closer and nuzzles my cheek. “Show me?”
So, I do. I walk him through the little passages I gleaned clues from. I show him how I pieced together the maps and unwound a mystery practically lost to time, and, okay, it involves a whole separate treasure—literal pirate booty!—and an amulet and a couple portals, but it’s all there.
He’s achingly sweet to me as I explain my madness, stroking my hair and murmuring soft, awestruck praise.
“And, with this route I’ve mapped out, we can completely skirt the fae courts that are feuding, save ourselves days with some shadow walking and be home in time for Christmas dinner at Shadow House. So, can we go find it? Please?”
Yae drops a kiss on my jaw. “We can talk to Rez in the morning. I’ll do my best to make him come around.”
I sag back against him with a yawn and a satisfied smile, worn out after my frantic frenzy of finding. “I’ve kinda missed treasure hunting and finding clues like this. It’s the only thing I’ve ever been really good at.”
“I can think of a few other things you’re pretty damn good at,” he whispers in my ear, a deep rasp to his voice.
“Blow jobs? Is it blow jobs? Because I am not above using them to get my way.”
“Devious little Mischief. I wasn’t too hard on you tonight, was I?”
I turn so I can kiss him. “No, you never are. And I needed that tonight. I’m sorry I was distracted at first. You and Rez mean more to me than anything. More than the shiniest treasure in the world, and I should have been more present with you two when you got home. I know I can be a lot, too much, just—”
He shushes me with a kiss. “You’re never too much for us, our brilliant little thief. You amaze me, every day, in more ways than I can count. I mean, look what you pieced together in only a few hours. You truly are terrific at finding things.”
“Found you and Rez, didn’t I?”
“I suppose you did, love. And found your way into our hearts.”
“Finders, keepers,” I tell him with an impish smirk. “There’s no getting rid of me now.”
“We would be lost without you, sunshine. You found us, but we’re keeping you.”
* * *
To my surprise,Reznik relents with only minimal grumbling once I’ve shown him my plan the next morning. To my even greater surprise, he sends me back to bed with a kiss, to catch a bit more sleep while they prepare for our adventure.
Of course, I’m too excited to sleep, more buzzed than I would be if I’d downed half a dozen of Yaelyn’s hot cocoa mochas.
Finally, I give up the ghost of trying to fall back to sleep and help them with our preparations. Honestly, we’ve gotten really damn good at readying ourselves for adventures—missions, really. Dark gods know we’ve ventured to the Shadow Realm to wage war against the darkness trying to overtake it enough times now to be really good at packing and preparing.
And at my favorite part.
There is something stupidly sexy about Yaelyn strapping weapons to my body: the way his touch lingers when he buckles my holster around my thigh, how the back of his hand grazes my breasts as he cinches a strap tighter. And he knows how wild it drives me. Wild enough that we’ve gotten a late start on more than one of our missions. So, yeah, I have a low-level lady boner from his attentions, but right now, my adventure boner is the bigger boner.
By the time we shadow walk (which I’m getting so good at I don’t even puke anymore!) and take our first steps in the shadow realm, I’m practically skipping with glee.
And that glee?
Totally fucking justified.
The leg of our route through the shadow realm takes us past the ruins of one of the oldest temples in all the realms, and though it’s long been picked clean of treasure, its might and beauty still leave me full of wonder as we wander its halls and walk through its chambers.
According to my calculations—if you can call them that—we have just enough time to linger and explore, something we’ve done very little of in our missions in the Shadow Realm. Even with the anticipation of treasure putting a spring in my step and urging me onward, there’s something about pausing to explore the old ruins with my demonkin that nourishes my soul.
Yaelyn translates inscriptions and Reznik tells old demon tales, the rumbling burr in his voice soothing away all the stress of the past few months. I forget about wedding planning and swatches and stationery—everything in the world, except for them. Treasure or no, this journey will have been worth it just for these fleeting moments where I feel like I’m right where I belong.
