Irritated, I stalk toward him, grab the saddle horn, and swing up onto the horse, feeling his eyes on my every move. I know he’s next, but I’m not prepared for the full-body cringe that grips me once he’s fully seated behind me, Joran’s thighs cradling mine.
This is seven kinds of twisted, being pressed against the body of a man I once slept with who also happens to be possessed by a god I loathe. I now have some idea how Raina felt when she learned about Neri and Alexus.
He leans close to my ear. “I’m glad it’s my heart you’re wearing around your neck instead of my balls.” I hear the smile in his voice. “And you don’t know how long I’ve wanted this lovely ass against me, just like this.” His thighs tighten around mine. “Are you ready for this, witch?”
I tilt my head forward just a little, then I slam my head back into his nose, hard enough to hurt like fuck, but not hard enough to knock him out, sadly. He grabs Joran’s poor face and shouts a curse that roars through the alley, which tells me he feels Joran’s pain, which is all I needed to know.
“Now I am.” I straighten my spine, making certain to put a lilt in my voice.
With a growl, Neri kicks the horse forward and turns us onto the street. “You are a cold-blooded woman, Nephele Bloodgood.”
Though I keep my eyes peeled for those telltale red velvet caparisoned horses and guards in black, I grin, thoroughly satisfied. “You haven’t seen anything yet.”
By the time night falls, we’re still in the outskirts of Itunnan, and the air is growing colder.
This city is so vast. This continent is so vast. It will take us far longer to reach the City of Ruin than it took to travel from Winterhold to Malgros. And now that Fleurie is practicing with portals, we very likely don’t have that kind of time.
The Dread Vipers have been nowhere in sight, something I have to wonder if Neri caused. I’m not sure how he could have, but much as I hate to admit it, he’s saved us many times before. It isn’t impossible that he somehow led them on a false trail before we left the inn.
That night, we stop and sleep in the cold, surrounded by whispering sand and—just like Neri told the group when we were on the ship—the constant feel of magick in the air.
Come sunrise, we ride until midnight, crossing empty stretches of land dotted with small villages. Once the horses tire and our empty bellies can’t remain empty any longer, we find the ruins of an old temple to camp inside until morning.
It doesn’t take long to build a small fire to ward of the chill in the air. We lay out our bedrolls while Callan draws protective runes in the sand around the old temple. The presence we’ve all felt remains, even stronger now, and I feel so much guilt, because I know it’s been Neri this entire time.
Rhonin and Hel sharpen the ends of two long branches they found beneath a lone eucalyptus tree and go on the hunt for meat. Orlena provided nuts, dates, loaves of bread, and wedges of goat cheese, but after one night, supplies are already low. What we have will only keep us going another day or so.
Neri vanishes into the shadowy alcoves of the ruins. Exploring, I suppose. I find myself wondering how many times he visited the Summerlands to see Asha, or for other reasons, perhaps. I can’t stand him, but I can admit that it must be strange to see this land after so many years.
I take a seat beside Raina and Alexus near the fire. My sister sits close to him, a new scrying dish and canteen in hand, preparing to take a look around the world. There’s still a strange reserve to her when it comes to Alexus, though, still a thread of conflict in her eyes and the way she moves around him. But like these ruins, her walls are crumbling.
“I’m worried about time,” I tell them. “We’re many weeks away from the citadel, and that’s if we have no issues getting there.”
Alexus sits with his elbows draped over his knees as he pinches a bite of bread from a small loaf and eats it. I can see the worry on his face too.
“I’ve thought about that all day,” he says. “I’m not sure how we can get there any faster unless I transport us, one by one.”
“It isn’t a far-fetched thought,” I say.
“But it is dangerous,” Raina signs, widening her eyes. “I have flown with him.”
He scrunches his brow at her. “I take offense to that. For something I haven’t done in three centuries, I think it went well.”
She cocks a brow and gives him a glare. “Because there was a sea below. Not a desert.”
I think of Neri’s proposal and my requirements, which we discussed off and on today as we rode. But he isn’t an option for aid in this scenario. Though I have a feeling he could come up with something, I don’t know what he’s capable of. I also don’t know if he could get us there without everyone knowing that he is, in fact, not Joran.
Besides, I need time to think my way through this deal before I commit. I have him paused in an in-between state right now, waiting for the lines of our deal to be laid out. I refuse to place myself, anyone I love—any Tiressian for that matter—at a disadvantage with a god who can make our lives miserable if I’m not careful. I mean for us to benefit from this deal. Not pay.
“I can get us there,” Raina signs. “If there is a way to show me where we are going.”
Alexus looks at her. “Your flying isn’t much better than mine.”
Her brow crumples. “Untrue. You might lose momentum and leave us stranded at different places across the desert. I have control. We will end up in the same place.”
Alexus sighs from deep within his chest, a man who knows he’s just lost all chance of any argument. Because she’s right.
“We’ll reach the provinces first,” he says. “Do our best to suit up with what we need for the desert, and then, if we can find a way to show Raina where we need to go—” he scrubs his hand over his face as though he isn’t sure about this at all “—perhaps we’ll try her route.”
