Even though I was curious about these caves, I knew I would see them soon enough. “Thank you, Cruz.”
“For what?”
“For saving Neverra. For saving my aunt.”
“Your parents saved Neverra, Amara. As for saving Lily’s life, I don’t deserve any gratitude. Especially since it was my fault she was locked out of Neverra in the first place.” Guilt veiled his easygoing expression, making him look older than his body’s age.
What an adjustment it would be for him once we got him back to Neverra. Everyone he’d grown up with had aged whereas he’d remained frozen at—how old was he again? Twenty-four . . . twenty-five?
“They’ll come for me and Remo, Cruz. And when they come for us, you’ll finally be free.”
His mouth pressed into a fine line. Nodding sharply, he turned away and headed back toward the dead feline. “Hope’s a dangerous feeling to harbor in this place, Amara,” he called out over his shoulder. “Dangerous but vital. It’s what’s kept me alive, but it’s also what’s brought me the most pain.”
My heart went out to him. Decades of confinement in this place . . . I stared around me, at the swaying cyan trees, the sugar-white sky, the slate rock walls. Out of all the worlds, it seemed the least horrible, but it remained a cell.
As he knelt beside the mound of purple and gold fur, I trailed the noise of crashing water. It took me a while to reach the beach, a while that gave me plenty of time to think about Cruz and Remo and Gregor and this supernatural jail. I’d resented Josh for sending me hurtling inside, but not anymore. Now I thanked him because what an extraordinary voyage it had been.
Still was.
I imagined Iba’s face when he’d see Cruz. Imagined Neenee’s and Nima’s too. All of them would be overjoyed. I was still picturing the reunion when I came upon Quinn and Kiera crouched beside the fallen tigri, carving up its belly with the tips of their spears. They’d set out large fronds on which they were tossing pieces of pink meat. The smell of fresh blood and damp fur pulled me out of my reverie and flung me back into the lackluster reality that we had yet to be rescued.
Kiera pushed back her dreadlocks, streaking the white-blonde cords with red. “Come to help us gut the tiger, princess?”
I gritted my teeth, not at the smell or the sight, but at the label she insisted on using and her demeaning undertone. “I’ll help, but first, I need to speak with Remo. Do you know where he went?”
Kiera stared steadily at me before tipping her head toward the liquid curtain. “Swam behind there a while ago. Didn’t look too happy.” As I stepped into the clear water, she asked, “How was your little reunion with the Neverrian hero?”
I didn’t miss her innuendo. “It was great, thank you for asking.”
Quinn tossed me a hostile glance as I dove under the rippling surf and stayed under until I’d passed the thundering line of foam. When I emerged, I found myself inside a small cave. Although little light penetrated through the curtain of water, I caught a flash of cinnamon in the dusky recess. From the way Remo was leaning against the rock, arms extended on either side of him, I took it he’d discovered a ledge to sit on.
I swam toward him until I felt the cave’s rocky bottom underfoot. The water rippled around my shoulders and then my breasts as the ground swelled beneath my boots. He didn’t utter a single word, just stared with those hardened emerald eyes of his as though trying to scare me away.
Once the water reached my waist, he said, “Is he everything you imagined he would be?”
Was he jealous? Because I was childish like that, I responded, “And more.”
His bladed jaw turned as sharp as Quinn’s machete.
“Why did you tell him I was your fiancée?”
“Because you are.” His voice was low yet echoed around us.
“So you didn’t say it because you wanted him to know I was off the market?” I was toying with a man who might not have been as lethal as a tigri, but who could hurt me just as much. Especially now that I owed him a favor.
He grunted a dark sound. “Like you said, prinsisa, our union is arranged.”
I was so close to him that his kneecaps grazed my thighs. He jolted his legs apart.
“So, you’re okay with him and me sharing a cave?”
He seemed to become steeped in even more shadows. “I’m not your keeper.”
“No, but you are my betrothed.”
“Like that means anything to you.”
“You know”—I took a step closer to him, which forced him to tip back his neck—“it didn’t mean anything to me before we got here, but now that I got to know the Remo underneath the uniform and spite, I’ve realized it does mean something to me.” I took another step, one that made me bump into the stone bench. “I realize it means so much that the thought of you remaining with me because of a magical oath hurts.” Even though I wanted to set my hands on his shoulders, I hovered my palms over the water. “Remo, if your only reasons to stay with me are duty and magic, please have the honesty to tell me now.”
“Or what? You move on to Cruz Vega?”
I shook my head at his vindictiveness, and the step I’d taken forward, I took it back. How I wished I could take my declaration back too. I felt more exposed than when he’d stepped into the inn’s bathroom. “That’s not who I am. But perhaps you still haven’t figured out who I am beneath my crown and scales.”
I started to turn when his knees closed around my legs, snaring them.
“I know who you are. You’re the girl who makes me fucking crazy. Who’s made me fucking crazy for years.”
I side-eyed him, and although I was no longer shaking my head, I was still upset.
“Who I hope will drive me crazy until I turn into a weed.”
I let out a little snort. “A weed . . .”
“Yes. A weed.” He circled my waist with his hands and tugged me closer. “The sort that’s impossible to get rid of. The sort that’ll grow among your adamans.”
It was surely the strangest declaration of affection anyone had ever spoken, but damn if it didn’t thaw me out. “What makes you think I’ll turn into a glass flower? My sharp wit and sharper tongue?”
His eyes danced, and not from the rippling surface of the water surrounding us. “You do have a sharp wit and tongue, Amara Wood, but I actually said it because it’s my favorite flower.”
Goo. I was becoming goo. It was a wonder he still had anything solid to grip on to.
I pushed a lock of red hair off his brow. “No turning into weeds or adamans for a long time still, all right?”
“Avoid consuming apples then, Trifecta.”
I flicked his nose. “And if you don’t want to be turned into a weed, avoid calling me Trifecta. Then again, you’d finally be quiet.”
His thumbs brushed up and down the base of my spine. “You hate it when I’m quiet.”
I lowered my forehead to his, the pressure of his fingers on my sore back delicious. “I do hate it. Almost as much as I hate you assuming I’m so flighty that I’d head into a stranger’s cave to spite you.”
His fingers gripped me a little harder, a little closer. “I’ve never been the jealous type, Amara. Never thought I would be. But now I realize I just never desired something that could be taken from me.”
“Don’t let anyone take me from you, then. And don’t give me a reason to walk, fly, or swim away.”
“So many methods of leaving me.” A smile tugged at his lips. How that smile transformed his face. “Believe me, if the train still existed, I might’ve whisked you to another cell, so it could be just the two of us again.”
“How romantic.”
He chuckled, and his laughter tickled my lips. On a mission to swallow every last vibration, I lowered my hands to his shoulders and gripped his slick skin to steady myself as I touched my mouth to his still curved one. His lips unbent instantly, and then a sound between a growl and a moan filled him, and then filled me.
His arms slid around my waist to pull m
e closer, fitting my body into the crook of his elbows, bones and muscles roiling against my electrified flesh. As he chased my tongue, I threaded my fingers through his hair and drew his face higher, closer, deepening the crush of our lips.
How I’d hated him.
How I’d wanted to cry when Iba suggested tying my essence to his.
How I’d yearned to scream when the Cauldron’s magic had licked up my body and bound me to Gregor’s heir.
And now . . .
I murmured my wonder against his lips. “My fiancé . . .”
He nipped the corner of my mouth, then kissed his way across my cheek, stopping right at my ear. “I hate that this is what my grandfather wanted. That we’re playing right into his scheme.”
“What he wanted was to get you on the throne. I highly doubt he had any hopes you and I would fall for each other.”
“Is that what we’re doing? Falling for each other?”
The beats of my heart intensified until I was sure they were the only reason the water rippled around our bodies. “That’s what I’m doing. Can’t speak for you, though.”
He loosened the lasso of his arms but didn’t release me. “Why do you think I followed you through that portal, Amara?”
“You’ve been very vague about that, Remo.”
“Because I didn’t want you to end up anywhere alone.”
Oh. Heat spread and swirled through me, almost as though my fire had returned. “I don’t think anyone’s ever fallen so literally for someone else,” I teased.
“They do say actions speak louder than words.” He pulled my body down until I was perched on one muscled thigh.
“You do realize I come with lots of strings though? A whole net, for that matter.”
“Hard not to when I’m already tangled up in them.”
“Good.” I nudged his mouth back open and kissed him until a loud splash made us spring apart.
Remo swallowed thickly. “That must be your uncle. Back from the dead.”
I sighed. “I can’t believe he’s actually in here.”
“Can’t you? I can.” His abrasive tone revealed yet again the simmering anger Remo felt for his grandfather.
I curled my hand around the back of his neck. “You know how I feel about your grandfather, right?”
“You mean, about my entire family?”
I expelled a long breath. I didn’t even want to wonder what it would be like once we returned to Neverra. Would Faith and Karsyn try to keep us apart? Would we be strong enough to stay together if they did? Would our union be the balm that would finally heal the relations between our families? “Just remember that although your grandfather cares little for people, he cares a whole lot for you, Remo.”
“So, what? I should just forgive him?” He grunted. “He might care a whole lot for me, but he’s lost my respect. And there is no love without respect.”
I stroked the vee of hair at his nape, kissed his hardened mouth one last time before shimmying off his thigh. “Come on. You need to teach me how to skin a tigri.”
“Hmm.” He stood, spearing his fingers through mine. “I’d rather teach you other things.”
The ground dipped and made me lose my footing. “I’m sure you would, and I’m sure I’d like all of them a heck of a lot more than butchering a dead animal, but I have to pull my weight around here, or Kiera and Quinn will keep looking down their noses at me.”
He stared at their blurred bodies beyond the thundering sheet of water. “Noses are easy to break.”
“You sound like Geemee. He’s all about peace through physical mutilation. Not that Neenee allows him to enact Gottwa reprimands.”
“I’ve always held your uncle in high esteem, but I might actually like him more for it now.”
I rolled my eyes. “Let’s forget about breaking noses for now and concentrate on making me look capable.”
Remo reeled me back into his body. “Make you look capable? Amara, you’re not some delicate, prissy courtier.”
“You used to think I was.”
“No. I never thought that.” His irises darkened. “I knew you could hold your own against any fae or human. I protected you, because—”
“It was your job.” I fluttered my feet to stay afloat.
“Because I could.”
Sighing, I palmed the slope of his shoulder and bumped my nose into his. “You can’t seal me in a box for my protection. You have to learn to trust me. To trust that that I can take care of myself.”
“I do trust you. It’s everyone else I don’t trust.”
“Trust me to hold my own against those you don’t trust.”
“Fine. But if I’m around—”
“You’re always around.”
A smile started on his lips. “If I’m around, I’m intervening.”
“Fine.” We sealed our deal with a quick peck on the lips, then glided through the waterfall toward the strange assortment of prisoners waiting for us.
34
The Apple
I wasn’t sure if I would ever be able to get rid of the smell of raw meat and sickly-sweet hide. The reek of it was on my clothes and skin, inside my nose and on my tongue. Although it no longer made my stomach clench, I hoped I would never again need to scrape a pelt clean or hew through bone and sinew.
Although Remo had been hesitant to let me work on the tigri, saying the others weren’t around, that I didn’t have to prove anything to anyone, I insisted, threatening to create my own knife from my dust if he didn’t share the machete.
“Brought you guys something to tie up the meat.” Kingston emerged from a yellow thicket, brandishing a liana. He’d shed his undershirt and had replaced his shorts with a pair of black ones that were discolored in places but which seemed dry. Lucky him . . .
Scratch that. I didn’t envy him. He’d gotten devoured by the vamp beetles.
Although his stings weren’t dribbling blood, they’d left welts on one side of his face and along one of his arms. When we’d emerged from the waterfall, he was sprawled on the beach like a starfish. Kiera had kicked a spear his way, but he told her he was in too much pain to help. Sure, I’d only suffered one bite, and sure, it hurt, but he was being awfully dramatic. Not that I expected anything more from the faerie who’d only ever lifted a finger to shoot his dust into the face of people who bored him.
He dropped the liana beside me.
Here I’d hoped this place might’ve changed him for the better but apparently not. “Still can’t help out?”
“I’m in too much pain.” Kingston’s brown eyes roved over the navy tunic top Remo had set to dry on a branch beside us. “You should hang up that catsuit of yours, Amara. You don’t want to catch a cold.”
I wiggled my wrist where the black Infinity gleamed uselessly. “The rest of my wardrobe’s not exactly accessible right now.”
He stared at the bracelet, which reminded me that he’d died before Neverrians were outfitted with them.
“I’m sure no one would mind if you walked around naked. Especially now that you’re all grown up.” The way he looked me over turned my insides to ice.
“The fuck is wrong with you?” Remo growled. “She’s your niece!”
“Slim pickings.” He stuck a piece of twine in his mouth. “I’ve tried thawing out Kiera, but to my incredible regret, she’s not interested in men.”
“Maybe she’s not interested in you,” I said.
His mouth lifted in that mallow-sweet grin of his. “Sugar, when in confinement, you do what you can with what you have. And frankly, between me and Cruz, the little Daneelie’s spoiled rotten.” He removed the twine from his mouth and waved it at me. “However, if you’re completely opposed to walking around naked—”
“I’m completely opposed to it.”
“—then we have some extra clothing in the caves. Not the Neverrian finery you’re used to, but it’ll beat a damp suit.” He pushed off the tree. “Come. I’ll take you to our walk-in wardrobe while Remo finishes up wit
h the tiger.”
Remo rose, rolling his bloodstained knuckles into fists. “She’s not going anywhere with you, Kingston.”
I got to my feet and gripped Remo’s taut forearm before he could swing it toward my uncle. Not because I cared about Kingston—I absolutely didn’t—but Iba had taught me to choose my battles, and this one wasn’t the right one to wage.
Kingston hitched up one of his eyebrows, the one that wasn’t riddled with welts. “Is that jealousy coloring your tone, Farrow Junior? Could what Kiera have said on the beach actually be true? A Farrow and a Wood, romantically entangled? Oh . . . the court intrigue I’ve missed out on.” He twirled his little vine. “How did you end up dating the help, Amara? Actually, let me guess . . . My dearest brother is worried about Gregor stealing his throne, so he outright gave it to him? Am I right?” He looked from me to Remo and back, then clapped. “Ooh, I am.”
A nerve ticked in Remo’s jaw.
“How have the others not forced the apple down your throat?” I asked.
“Simple. I took it from Cruz’s cave the first week I was here and hid it.” He tapped his little vine against his thigh.
A surge of lethal animosity shot through me. “Would it be wrong to gas him?”
“I have no objections,” Remo said.
“Gas me?” Kingston laughed. He actually laughed with tears in his eyes and everything. “With what exactly? A handful of sand? Oh, sweet little niece, your powers don’t work in here, in case you haven’t realized.”
When he flicked my nose with his liana strand, Remo grabbed him around the throat and dangled him in the air.
“I’ll just come back.” His hair fluttered around his purpling face. “And when I do . . . I’ll be very grumpy.”
Remo set him down so roughly my uncle stumbled backward.
Still flushed, he added, “Has it already slipped your puny caveman brain that I have the apple, Farrow?”
“Nothing slips my puny caveman brain, Little King.”
Reckless Cruel Heirs Page 28
