Worry darted through her. They were headed straight for those centaurs again. What were the chances the huge herd was off in another area of northern Atlantis?
Or maybe…itcouldbe.
She sent off a quick, silent prayer to Zeus. He’d been infuriatingly hands-off so far about this whole mission, but since he was apparently always spying and listening, maybe he could nudge the creatures away from them.
She glanced over her shoulder at Carver. Despite their moderate pace, he’d fallen behind. “Do you need a break?”
Shaking his head, Carver took a few bounding steps to catchup to her.
Bellanca rolled her eyes. “You have nothing to prove. Magical healing is awful and takes a lot out of you.”
“I’m fine.”
“You’re notfullyfine.”
Carver glared at her. “I’mfine.”
Ugh. Men.“I guess having allies wouldn’t be the worst thing,” she decided to admit, maybe as a peace offering. And from what Carver had told her, Dex and Silas were both intelligent people and formidable soldiers.
“We need a team,” he quickly agreed. “We could be fighting a war next, a war for Atlantis. We need people in our corner.”
“We don’t know if they’re in our corner,” she pointed out.
“And we can’t know, unless weask,” he said, his breathing labored.
She pursed her lips. “They haven’t done anything exceptional so far. Checking in on you after holding you down for Eryx doesn’t balance in my books.”
“I think they more held meupthan down,” he muttered. “But this is it.” He spread his arms, slowing and turning in a circle to encompass the huge spread of Atlantapol below them. “It’s happeningnow, and we’ll need allies. Dex and Silas are good men. Not perfect, but sometimes, you have to grow into the role of hero,” he reminded her again.
“I’ll grant that it helps to learn from other people, to be inspired.” She flashed him a vicious smile. “Frankly, I just wanted revenge at first.”
“And your brother deserved every bit of yours. But that’s not the whole of it, and we both know it. You saw Cat and Griffin standing up to Galen, and for the first time, you thought,Maybe I can do that, too.”
Her brows rose. “So now you’re an expert at what goesthrough my head?”
“Oh, darling, I know every thought that goes through your head.”
She snorted, a few incredulous sparks popping out. “Is that so?”
“Careful.” Carver’s lips twitched. “You don’t want to set this rain-parched hillside on fire.”
“If you know so much, then what am I thinking right now, O Insightful One?”
His smile widened. “That it’s a shame we haven’t had more time for kissing, and you’re dying to get your mouth back on mine.”
Her jaw dropped. Actually, she’d been thinking about war and allies and quests from the gods, but now that he’d mentioned kissing, heat rose straight through her and scorched her lips.
Her mouth went dry, suddenly aching for his. “Wrong.”
“Am I?” He winked.
“Well,nowI’m thinking about kissing,” she ground out.
Carver laughed. “You make it sound so appealing.”
Appealingdidn’t even begin to describe it, and no one was more surprised than she was. Desire swirled deep inside her, the molten warmth weighing down her legs and suddenly making hiking a chore. “You’re distracting me,” she muttered, forcing out a few last, big steps to finally make it to the top of the soaring hill.
Carver scrambled up the final part of the incline and stopped beside her, breathing hard. She looked around. The summit dominated the southeastern portion of the island, with Atlantapol and its outlying districts sprawled below. Much smaller cities with their own sheltered harbors dotted the coastline to the south and west, and farming hamlets broke up the rolling inland. She turned, her hands on her hips. The island narrowed to the north, where there was almost nothing but woods, mostly cliffy shores, and Mount Olympus with its vast marble palacecrowning the peak of peaks. The home of gods.
