“As much as I’m enjoying the press of your sweet curves against me,” Bael says, “we need to get moving. He’s circling back around.”
I kissed him. Gods, what am I doing?
Lips still branded, I let him haul me toward the next section of the Labyrinth.
He slams me into the first entrance, shoving himself after me. Flames spew through the stone walls, and Bael roars in fury as he grinds me against the rock, shielding me with his body.
“Bael!” I scream, burying my face against his chest. There’s no air to breathe.
Finally, the flames die down.
“Bael.” I slap at the small flames that lick at his clothes, shocked to find he’s seemingly unharmed.
What… what magic is this?
“Spelled cloak,” he breathes, eyes wild as he hunts the skies above us. “It repels fire and magic assaults. Come on. We need to lose him.”
I hurry after him. “How can we lose him when we’re trapped in here and he’s up there?”
Bael flashes me a grin as lightning flashes, followed by the earthy growl of thunder. “I think Kasaros knows what’s going on. I don’t think that prick will be in the skies very long.”
“Wait.” I dig my heels in. I’m no longer a trembling mess and I suddenly realize— “That was my chance! That was the Beast of?—”
“That wasnotthe Beast of Kerawan,” he growls, stepping right up to my face. “It’s a second one. He’s not even black. And you can’t kill adreiwarrior in his prime. His scales are impenetrable. He’s only vulnerable in his mortal form. We need to move, Zyla. It’s not safe here.”
“They can shift into mortal form?”
“If your precious Beast has been stealing brides, then what did you think he was doing with them?”
Eating them. Burning them alive. Tearing them apart… I don’t know. I never let myself think that far ahead, because if I did, then I would surely scream.
“I didn’t particularly care. I just wanted him dead.”
We stagger out of the maze again, finding ourselves on a small cliff ledge. Beneath us stretches more maze. It seems to go on… forever.
“Then you’ve been looking in the wrong place.” Bael slides down the small cliff, turning to offer me a hand. “The Beast isn’t in the skies. I don’t even know whythatscaly prick is flying. Kasaros is treacherously dangerous with his lightning when he wishes to be. The skies are too volatile. Just fucking look at them.”
How would he know the Beast isn’t in the skies? A strange ringing arises in my ears.
I stare at his outstretched hand, calluses and all. It never occurred to me that he might know more about the Beast than I do.
“Are you coming?” He arches a brow over those unusual eyes, and again I get the sense that something else stares back at me.
“It’s not a cat,” he’d said.
Self-preservation forces me to slide down the slick rock after him, though I’ll be damned in the Flames of Malus if I take his hand.
And that’s when the skies open, a sheet of rain pouring from those flashing clouds. This is not the drizzle that’s been accompanying us for hours. This is fury.
“Curse it.” We slip and slide down the shale covered slope, and then I dart under an overhanging branch at the edge of theforest maze, shivering as a rivulet of water slides down my skin. “We’ve got to find shelter.”
Bael scrubs a hand across his stubbled mouth, looking uneasy for a second. “There’s a place nearby.”
Holding the edge of his cloak above my head, I glance at the hard line of his jaw, my stomach muscles still tense from the shock of the sudden thoughts racing through my mind. He clearly isn’t fond of the idea of this shelter. “What’s wrong with it?”
“I’m not exactly popular with the innkeeper.”
The little quiver inside me grows stronger. I knew he’d been here before, but I’ve never stopped to ask myself why.
