But you’re still apparently being kidnapped, and that can’t possibly be a good thing.
Especially not, considering he called you ‘bait’.
What, is he planning on feeding you to a skaddler?
Ziros, you think as loudly as you can.Help! Help me, Ziros!
Ziros
I’m halfway to nowhere, all the power of a thousand storms raging around me in a familiar dance, all darkness and wind in the middle of the night.
Damn, it feelsgood.
Not as good as she makes me feel, though, and even here, I can’t get her face out of my mind.
That’s when I swear I hear it.
Over the roaring of the wind, there’s another sound, a quieter one that echoes around my head.
I swear I hear her calling my name.
54
The Hot Guy’s Twin May Be Evil
Ziros
—A Few Days Earlier—
I don’t know what the hell happened, but it’s obvious I won’t be getting my claim back.
Gold. I used to have the richest claim in the west.
Now it’s covered in houses.
That’s right. There are huge, fancy houses all over every inch of these hills that used to belong to me. And I may be a demigod, but even I know better than to go ripping houses from their foundations.
Not if I can help it.
I turn, shaking my head as I disappear into the raging wind.
But I’m not done yet.
There’s one more place I have left to check.
One place not even that damn brother of mine knew about.
My cache.
Hidden deep in the mountains, I’ve got enough gold stockpiled to last a human lifetime.
The cave entrance is still there, overgrown by so much vegetation, even I’d never have found it if I hadn’t stumbled—literally—into it while playing miner all those years ago.
Carefully, I pull back the berry vines and manzanita, moving the remaining heap of crumbled stones with a gust of wind…
And grin at what I see.
You
