“Seems I can,” he murmured.
With her body one big bruise, she barely felt the healing, but hope surged. “If you can heal me, then the cursed spell is wearing off, right?”
“I don’t know.” He shifted, and so unlike his usual graceful self, he fumbled as he gripped the rock for support. Leya put her arm around his waist, helping him up. This time, he made it to his feet.
She didn’t ask if he could dematerialize them. His damp skin was hot against her palms; his temperature was too high. “You have a fever.”
“My body’s trying to rid itself of the poison.”
“This has happened before?”
A nod. “There are always those…trying to kill us. This feels worse…”
Slowly, they slogged over the boulders strewn over the only accessible path, trailing deeper into the cave. Unable to see much in the darkness, all she could do was rely on Aerén’s keen sight, and hold onto him as they shuffled along. The fact he walked, sluggish as each step was, gave her hope.
“Tie me, huh?”
She blinked at him, his pale features faintly visible in the dark, hellish hole. “What?”
“You want me tied up.”
Oh. Heat streaked her cheeks. But she snorted to get his mind off whatever was happening to him. “Yep. Except, I can’t decide if I want you flat on your back, hands fastened to the bedframe while I have my dirty, dirty way with you. Or, have your wrists tied to a beam, with me on my knees, licking you from root to tip…”
He groaned. “You are cruel, female, tormenting me this way.”
A smile tugged her lips.
Silence for a few more shuffles, then, “Give us a chance, Leya. Trust me to find a way out of this.”
The stark pain in his voice grabbed her by the heart.
She shut her eyes, tears burning them. After being sucked into the ocean, every danger they’d faced…hell, they could still die, and here she was, robbing them of a life together. And it wasn’t even about her resolve weakening. It was him…her…and the happiness they’d shared in the short time they were together. Nothing would ever come close to it.
“You always put the people you love first, Leya, even me. The stars know I don’t deserve the privilege.” His quiet words wrapped around her, enhancing her own unspoken thoughts, highlighting the truth. “But you’re amazing,caeli mea.Youdeserve a chance at happiness, even if…if it’s not with me—”
She stumbled to a halt and put her hand on his mouth, stopping his words, her eyes tearing. She swallowed painfully. Unable to see his face properly in the darkness, she shut her wet eyes and traced her fingertips along his tight, sensual mouth, to the taut skin over his cheekbones, feeling his strain as if it were hers. “Okay.”
His eyelashes fluttered against her fingertips, as if trying to capture her,yes.
He grasped her wrist, kissed her palm, and they started the careful shuffle over the debris-laden underground pass again. “That way, to your right,” he said. “Less treacherous, I think. Do you…Do you still sense anything of my sire?”
She stopped and closed her eyes, searching for the thread that had pulled at her, starting them on this death-defying journey. “Yes…I still feel it.”
“Here. In the middle of an ocean?”
She remembered the turbulent, murky sea surrounding them. “I don’t know where we are anymore. This could be a false lead. All I can do is follow the sensation. The tug is stronger in this place. Besides, those rebels were here, hiding in this cave.” She resumed walking again. “Why would they capture your father and keep him close to Cidéra?”
“To torment us.” His voice was barely audible. The damn freakin’ spell still affected him. “But this weather, the atmosphere, doesn’t feel right.”
“I know. It could be because we were sucked underwater, caught in a whirlpool, then spewed out again. Even your enforcers got lost,” she said. “I would have thought it a portal, but it was underwater. So, maybe a riptide? I’m just glad we survived it.”
She could almost feel his frown, but he merely grunted.
They shuffled down the slopping underpass, deeper and deeper into the underground, further into ominous darkness.
How much time passed, Leya had no idea, but it grew hotter. At least their clothes had started to dry—
A sudden hiss exploded like an unplugged geyser.
