“Wonderful. Trading one cave for another.” She shivered as adrenaline waned, everything that had happened finally catching up with her. “At least this one’s not in the clouds.”
“You’re cold. Let’s get out of here.” He headed up the incline, his strides eating up the ground while she stumbled after him on shaky legs. Beneath the moonlight, she could just about make out the cave mouth now partially hidden by thick vegetation. Race tore the brush away from it, then he gripped the entrance and stilled.
“What is it?” she whispered. “Animals?”
He shook his head, but his tense form said otherwise—like he sensed something wrong.
He was one of the most formidable people she’d ever met, and he hesitated to enter a cave?
Then the sensation slipped away, and he stalked inside.
Frowning, Ash followed, and sheer darkness surrounded her. Only Race’s gleaming hair gave a clue as to where he was.
“Home sweet home,” she muttered. “I don’t suppose you can light up this place, can you?”
A small flame danced in his palm, casting flickering shadows on rough stone walls, revealing a cavernous space, wide enough to hold two semi-detached houses stacked four stories high.
“Dragonfire.” She huffed, eyeing his dancing flame. “Should have guessed.”
His lips twitched again, almost a smile.
She turned away before she did something utterly stupid and planted her mouth on his like some kiss-starved idiot. “So, what’s the plan then? Hide in this cave while dragons hunt us and wait for a chance at the portal?”
“For now.”
“Wonderful.” She sank onto a boulder. “Just so we’re clear, I’m still furious with you. I’m just too exhausted to properly express it right now.”
“Noted.”
“How did you know about this place, anyway?” She raked back her hair from her face.
“Old memories. People used to live here once…” He walked around, as if unable to stay still, his flame illuminating more of the granite walls. “You’ll need provisions. Food…”
“How do you plan on getting those, then?”
He didn’t respond. Just lit a moldy torch and jammed it between the fallen rocks before moving deeper into the cave. The soft light revealed smaller chambers branching off. Natural ledges broke up the walls, and somewhere in the darkness came the soft sound of trickling water.
He turned. His eerie claret eyes skimmed her face in that slow, deliberate way of his, and suddenly, there was no air in the cave. Her chest felt too tight. But all he said was, “You should rest,” then headed for the entrance.
Ash shot to her feet, rushing after him. “You’re leaving? Just like that?”
Outside, he stopped near a cluster of trees, their needle-thin leaves glinting like coagulated blood under the moonlight. “You’ll be safe here.”
“That’s not—” Damn it. How did she explain that after everything she’d gone through, being alone in another cave in this terrifying realm wasn’t exactly reassuring? “Fine. Go. I’ll just wait, again.”
He studied her for a moment as she tramped through the weed-choked ground, trying to calm down. “I don’t sense any immediate danger, but I do want to scout the area. Make sure there are no unwelcome surprises. And hunt.”
She kicked a small rock out of her way. “I thought you knew where we are?”
“Nyxholt. Another zone west of Caelvyrn, so it’s still night.” He lifted his gaze to the soaring treetops, the bright moonlight dappling them and silvering the ground. “Lemurians who are non-shifters usually resided in these kinds of dwellings. It may have been millennia, but I remember.”
Her jaw almost hit her chest. “Millennia? As in a thousand years?”
A taunting smile. “More.”
“Wait-wait.” She flashed out a hand. “Just how old are you?”
He shrugged. “By mortal standards, several thousand. You?”
