“Does that mean I’m winning?” she teases. “You only answered one question while I went off on an entire tangent.”
Lacing my fingers behind her back, I keep her trapped on my lap. “Oh, you wish. Wait until I get to the part where my older sister convinced me that I killed our grandma.”
“Let’s hear it then,” she says with a broad grin.
“When I was seven, I was so mad at my grandparents that I tried to put a curse on them. Whole shebang; gathered random shit from around the house to make a potion, went out in the woods and drew symbols in the dirt, and even made up a hex. It worked, too; the bowl started smoking.”
Her hand flies up to cover her mouth. “You didn’t.”
Cringing, I nod. “They really should have a list of what household chemicals shouldn’t be mixed. Fumes burned my eyes and I went home hacking up a lung. My sister gave me hell for it after she went to investigate the gas because it was clearly my handwriting in the dirt. Anyway, the next day we woke up to the call that grandma had passed away in her sleep and our grandfathers were an absolute wreck.”
“And your sister wanted to teach you a lesson so you wouldn’t get yourself killed messing with things again and leaned into it?” she guesses.
Clucking my tongue, I correct her. “Oh no, she was, and still is, simply an asshole that thought it was funny to fuck with me as long as possible and never told our parents what I did, turning it into this huge secret that she knew what I did and held it over my head to blackmail me into doing her chores for a year. I still get a bottle of bleach and floor cleaner from her for my birthday every year. ”
Scarlett starts laughing so hard that only my grip keeps her from collapsing to the floor in a wheezing mess. Her amusement is contagious, dissolving the tension that had started to build between us before it got out of hand. When she finally regains the ability to form coherent sentences, she asks, “You said Malcolm will be tapped in when we finish cementing the pack link? At least he and Kasen could coordinate a bit, so we should just do this already. It's the most logical solution.”
I kiss her shoulder. “Angel, I don’t want logical. I want you unable to think of anything else besides me, begging for me to leave marks not just on your shoulder, but all over your body.”
Her fingertips skim the back of my neck. “You sure are obsessed with the thought of me begging.”
Going for honesty even if it makes me look pathetic, I reply, “Is it so crazy that I like the thought of someone wanting me? Needing me? Choosing me?”
Her expression softens. “Not any crazier than how I like the thought of you deciding that I’m yours.” Her heated gaze roams over me before she untangles herself, getting to her feet. “You guys were all so sweet about easing me into this whole thing. I have to admit, I’m curious how it might have played out if I hadn’t pushed back.”
A low growl vibrates my chest as I track her movements while she ventures deeper into the cave to see what we have to work with tonight. “I might never have met you if that were the case.”
She cocks her head as she peers into a wide fissure. Crouching, she slips inside and I’m up and behind her in an instant, snatching her wrist.
“What the hell are you doing?”
She gently pries my fingers off of her arm and guides my hand to her hip instead, taking another step into the dark crevice that’s barely wide enough for us to fit. “Listen.”
Extending my hearing, there’s a faint whistling from the wind and the trickling of water. “It could just be echoing from a crack to the outside.”
She doesn’t stop though and thus, neither do I. After days of scaling the cliffside until our hands are raw, I’m as overdue for a change of scenery as she is. After several minutes of venturing deeper, the solid darkness is broken up by a hint of grey from a low source of light up ahead. Following the winding path, the walls seem to close in on us until I’m on the verge of freaking out.
“If this doesn’t let out soon, we should turn back.”
She keeps her voice a low whisper, like she’s as nervous as I am, but she forces levity into it for both of our sake. “Still better than traipsing through a sewer.”
My stomach flips. “Did you-” I clear my throat to remove the pity creeping in, keeping it casual “- I thought the nightmares had stopped.”
“For the most part, but I think it’s more about how I’m looking at them.” She has to turn sideways to inch around the next bend and my breathing picks up nervously despite my best efforts to combat the claustrophobia. “That’s all memories are, right? Nightmares if they inspire volatile emotions, dreams if you’re watching them play out in your head indifferently? Time might be a small factor, but for the most part, it’s the three of you helping me change my perspective. Now it’s more like watching clips from a movie about someone else’s life than being dropped in the middle of the action.”
I reach over to steal her hand and squeeze it. “Proud of you. Looks like you found the perfect spot to mount your trauma on your skull wall after all.”
A breathy chuckle escapes her. “Yeah, behind a proverbial TV screen. Anyway, maybe we should head b- shit!”
Light suddenly surrounds us as the ground gives out beneath our feet and we go sliding down a steep incline before crashing into a heap at the bottom. Rolling off of Scarlett, I glare back up the hill that spit us out like a laundry chute. We could make it back up, but it’ll be a pain in the ass.
“Motherfucker,” Scarlett breathes, swiping dirt off of her jeans as she rises to her feet.
Afraid to blink, I slowly push myself up. “Fuck is right.”
The cavern is massive, water pooled in the center that practically glows. It trails off in three different directions in thin rivulets, stalactites reaching down from the ceiling like jagged teeth preparing to swallow us whole. The whistling sound is louder down the tunnel that shoots off directly across from us, and focusing on the slow path of the water, it looks like that’s where this pool is being fed from.
“So the real question is which one of us is going to see if it’s drinkable?” I skirt the pool, checking for signs of any surprises that might be hiding in here. “Rock, paper, scissors for it?”
