Claimed by Sin: an Urban Fantasy Novel (The Gatekeeper Chronicles Book 3)

by Jasmine Walt

  Garuda tensed.

  Yep, he recognized him, too. It was one thing knowing we were possibly in Loki’s old world, but to see him in the flesh, to have it confirmed…man, this was super weird.

  Loki scanned the room quickly before heading toward the far-left exit.

  I sagged against Garuda. “This is getting way too creepy.”

  Garuda pushed through the drapes and walked up to the table. “What was he doing?”

  An earthenware bowl sat on the counter, surrounded by several uncorked vials and a tiny folded piece of paper.

  “I have no idea.” I picked up the paper and smoothed it out. Symbols I didn’t recognize. “Do you know what these mean?” I held it out to Garuda.

  The door behind the drapes opened. Shit! Dropping the paper into the bowl, I grabbed Garuda’s hand and ran toward the exit Loki hadn’t used. We slipped out, smack into a throng of excited, overdressed people. The sound of laughter, the clink of glasses, and the scent of roasting meat assaulted my senses.

  “Keep your head down and keep walking,” Garuda said.

  We wound our way through the crowd, and no one paid us the blindest bit of attention. Too involved in whatever they were celebrating? Either that, or Garuda was somehow casting his glamour trick on us both. A majestic exit loomed up ahead, doors thrown open to invite the moon in to play. We skirted a group of buxom females dressed as peacocks and stepped over the threshold into the night.

  “Keep going.” Garuda pulled me along the steps until we were striding up the flagstone path toward a set of iron gates.

  More people milled through, carrying baskets of fruit and bread. Children ran screaming past us toward the steps.

  “There are guards,” I whisper-hissed.

  “I know. Trust me.”

  And then we were at the gates. One of the liveried guards glanced our way, and my heart jumped up into my throat. He blinked rapidly and looked away, and we were through, out into whatever passed for the village. Garuda pulled me into the shadows, and we both turned to look at the structure we’d escaped.

  It stood eight stories tall, with a domed roof etched in silver and gold. Two towers—housing bells—stood to either side of it. The walls glittered as if encrusted with gems.

  Garuda exhaled. “I think we just escaped a temple.”

  Yeah, we were definitely in Loki’s world. I had no idea when the unraveling would happen, no idea how much time we had left, but I wasn’t going to hang around to waste it.

  “Let’s go find these bloody bones.”

  The moon bathed the lonely lane surrounded by fields, and the sound of the night embraced us. Jeremiah’s diary had mentioned danger lay east in the form of a city. He’d mentioned a temple. Assuming the temple we’d entered through and this town were the civilization he’d been speaking of, then the hinn camp must be west.

  “Oh, shit. We’re gonna have to sneak back into the temple to get to the doorway, aren’t we?”

  Garuda chuckled. “You’ve only just realized that?”

  “Well, once we have those bones, you can fly us in.”

  “I’ll try. I used up a lot of juice sneaking us out.”

  So I’d been right about the glamour. “There’s a limit?”

  He nodded. “It takes a lot of concentration, and it drains my batteries. But I should be fine in a few hours.”

  I sighed. “So, seeing as we don’t even know how far we’ll have to walk to get to the hinn camp, we may as well have a chat.”

  Garuda smirked down at me. “I thought we were chatting?”

  “I mean a proper chat. Where we share stuff…”

  His smirk turned into a grin and his dimples came out to play. “Uh-huh?”

  Dimples be damned, I would not be distracted. “Like, what you and Ajitah talked about when I went for my nap the other day?”

  Garuda let out a bark of laughter. “It’s eating you up, isn’t it? Not knowing.”

  “No. Yes. Just tell me.”

  Garuda sobered. “What we talked about is between Ajitah and me. But I will say this…” The grin melted, and he tucked in his chin. “He’s a good guy. I can see why you’d want to be with him.”

  I was so confused. “So you want me to be with him?”

  His head whipped up. “Like hell. I just understand him, and he understands me.”

  “So you came to some kind of manly understanding?”

  “Something like that.”

  “That’s all I’m gonna get, isn’t it?”

  “Pretty much.”

  I punched his arm playfully and he froze, his eyes scanning the night ahead.

  “What?” I followed his gaze. “Shit.” The lush fields, the pebbled road, the trees and brush—they all just stopped. What lay beyond could only be described as barren. It was a flat land of dust and sand, as if the gods had reached this spot and given up on creation.

  “Please tell me you can fly us over that.”

  Garuda growled in exasperation. “Not for a few hours.”

  If we’d come close to the unraveling, we didn’t have a few hours to wait.

  Luckily for me, I was wearing my sturdy walking boots. We could so do this.

  My stomach chose that moment to grumble.

  Unluckily for me, I hadn’t bothered to pack a snack.

  9

  How far had we walked? My feet felt like they were on fire. The backs of my legs ached and my stomach felt hollow. It was my own damn fault for being unprepared. I should have grabbed my backpack—the one I’d packed when I’d thought I was going on this journey alone. Energy bars, dried fruit, peanuts, and water. In my defense, though, I hadn’t realized I’d be accompanying Garuda until the moment I made the leap.

  Garuda’s gaze kept flicking to me. He knew I was on borrowed time. I should never have come. I’d slow him down, and we’d fail because he’d put me first.

  “Listen, if I drop, promise me you’ll keep going.”

  The night was suddenly a little too silent, just the sound of his ragged breath and the scrape of my dragging footfalls.

  “Garuda. Promise me.”

  “I don’t make promises I can’t keep.”

  “Hate to get all prophetic on you, but the fate of the world kinda depends on you.”

  “No, Malina, it depends on you. On the seal remaining active. If you fall here, in this reality, who knows what will happen to the seal in ours.”

  “Yeah, well, unless we can find food in a barren wasteland, our friends back home are gonna find out.” I stumbled and Garuda growled, sweeping me off my feet and into his solid arms. Hmm, this was nice. He had the perfect pecs for rubbing up against.

  “I see something.” He broke into a jog.

  I peeled my eyelids back and watched the landscape bob by. “What is it?” I craned my neck to see. A fucking tree. Not just any tree, but a green, lush, fruit-bearing tree. My gut twisted. “Stop.”

  Garuda slowed down. “What?”

  “Put me down.”

  He obliged, and I stood on unsteady legs. “This can’t be real. Nothing could grow here. This has to be some kind of trick.”

  Garuda looked torn. “Maybe, or maybe not. This isn’t our world. This is a time before the multi-verse was even born, so who knows what’s possible.” He began to stride toward the tree.

  “Dammit, Garuda. Wait.” I followed, head swimming.

  He reached it first and paused a moment to study it before plucking a couple of low-hanging fruits.

  “They could be poisonous.”

  He studied the round purple fruit before biting into it.

  My heart skipped a beat. “Spit it out. Fucking hell. What is wrong with you?” I rushed toward him, stumbled, righted myself, and reached him in time to smack the rest of the fruit from his hand before he could take a second bite. My eyes burned, and I blinked back hot tears. “Why did you do that? What if you die?”

  He shrugged. “Then you’ll know not to eat the fruit.”

  I slumped to the gr
ound. The shadows wrapped around me as I cradled my head in my hands. “Then I’ll die anyway. We’ll both be dead, and there’ll be no one to get the hinn bones.”

  He lowered himself to the ground beside me, his arm brushing mine. “I’ve lived long enough, Malina. And if living any longer means living in a world without you, then…” He shrugged. “I’d rather eat the possibly poisoned fruit. At least there’s the hope that it isn’t deadly and that it can save you.”

  Why did he always know just what to say? Exhaling heavily, I rested my head on his shoulder. “I hate you.”

  “Yeah, I know.”

  Long minutes ticked by. Garuda yawned. “Well, I don’t feel sick. Or dead.” He stood and plucked a couple more of the fruit. “They’re surprisingly filling.” He handed me a purple orb.

  In for a penny, in for a pound. It didn’t taste of much, and the texture was stringy. Garuda was right, though. It was pretty filling.

  Garuda chowed down on a second. “You know what? The second one tastes better.”

  He was right again. The hunger abated, and a warm, comfy feeling spread through my limbs. Garuda yawned again, and I followed suit.

  “So tired…you…sleepy?” My eyelids grew heavy. It was too much effort to keep them open. Maybe just a short nap…

  Wake up!

  I jolted out of sleep. Pain registered. Bone-crunching, limb-tearing pain. Couldn’t move, couldn’t scream. Something was digging into me, squeezing my limbs. Above me, the sky stared back, serene and winking with stars. I tried to raise my head but was met with resistance. My neck…something was wrapped around it. Had to see. Had to… I fought against the band, choking for my efforts, and looked down the length of my body. Thick brown vines held me captive. No, not vines, but something else root-like made of… Oh god. Made of flesh? What was happening?

  The tree… The vines tightened. Fuck, that hurt.

  Garuda. Where was Garuda?

  Vindra. If I could make enough room to get to my blade…but I could barely feel my arm. Think. Focus, dammit. A stabbing sensation in my left leg. Shit. Was it…was it feeding off me?

  I was fucked. There was no wiggle room. Nothing. My leg grew numb. I was going to die. Eaten by a fucking tree.

  Heat surged through me, shooting out to my extremities and setting my fingers and toes on fire.

  Heat. Yes! My hellhound power.

  I wriggled, heart pounding with adrenaline.

  Come on.

  Focus.

  Burn, motherfucker!

  The bands around me loosened, and I raised my hands to find them spitting white fire. Pins and needles flooded my body as circulation came back online. I sat up in time to see a branch fly up and swing toward me. It hit me in the torso, sending me airborne. My butt scraped earth and my teeth rattled.

  I had to get to Garuda.

  Rolling to my feet, hands balls of flame, I charged. I could make out the shape of an unconscious Garuda pressed to the tree bark composed of a patchwork of fur and flesh. And then the thing shuddered, pulled itself from the earth, and rose into the air, suspended on a multitude of thick patchwork roots.

  This was no tree.

  It was something else—a predator parading as the innocuous. What the fuck had we actually eaten? I jumped a root, smacked at another that whizzed toward my head, and set it ablaze.

  “Garuda, wake the fuck up!”

  Ducking a swipe from the right, I singed another root coming at me from the left. Shitting hell, this thing was fast. Swiping, rolling, and jumping, I reached the trunk. Garuda’s skin was pale, his breathing labored. It was draining him. I couldn’t use my fire, not if there was a chance it might hurt Garuda. It was time for Vindra to come out and play. Come on, girl, you can do this. I slashed at the roots binding him. “No one gets to suck on my man but me.” Okay, that didn’t sound right, but whatever. “Garuda, wake up!” I screamed in his face.

  His eyelids fluttered.

  I sliced and yanked at the roots, my hands slippery with red and yellow goo. It was grossly satisfying, because I was hurting the monster.

  “Malina?”

  He was awake. Good. “Fight it.” I sawed at the root around his lower torso.

  “What the fuck…”

  Warm goo spurted up to slap me in the face, and then Garuda was pitching forward into me. We fell back onto the ground. The swish and slide of roots filled my ears. I pushed Garuda to the side and jumped up, ready to defend us, but the tree was already gone—skittering off into the night.

  I lowered myself back to the ground and then pulled Garuda’s head into my lap. “Eat the fruit, he said. It gets tastier after the second one, he said.”

  Garuda groaned. “What just happened?”

  “We almost got eaten by a tree made from flesh.”

  “It was glamoured?”

  “Yeah. It tricked us, all right. It didn’t like the taste of my fire, though.” My jeans were torn, and tiny punctures decorated my skin.

  “I think it liked me a little too much.” He sat up. “We need to keep moving. Who knows what else is out there?”

  I helped him up. “You’re not going to get very far in this state.”

  “We don’t have a choice.”

  “We need to look for somewhere safe to shelter for an hour or so. Just until you get your strength back.”

  “These are flatlands. There is no shelter.”

  “No. But see that?” I pointed toward the horizon. “The shadows indicate rockier terrain.”

  “Caves?”

  “Possibly.”

  “Knowing our luck, we’ll find a cave and it’ll try to eat us, too.”

  I slipped under his arm to support his weight. “Don’t worry. I’ll protect you.”

  He grinned down at me. “Shut it.”

  We found our cave. It was a slight trek to get up to the aperture, but better to be on higher ground just in case another hungry tree came along. That sentence just sounded wrong, even in my head. The entrance was wide but quickly narrowed, so it was impossible to walk side by side.

  It was pitch-black up ahead. “Maybe we should stay here?”

  “It feels too exposed,” Garuda said. “I say we explore a little further.”

  “And if anything nasty comes at us?”

  “I have you to protect me.” He winked.

  Smart aleck. I took the lead, allowing Garuda to lean on me. The tunnel grew darker until we were moving on instinct, using our hands to find our way.

  “There’s a junction or a chamber coming up,” Garuda said.

  “Don’t tell me. You have sonar?”

  He chuckled. “No. But the tunnel is getting wider, which means a junction or a chamber.”

  Smart. I shuffled forward through the inky black and hit a wall. Shit.

  “To the left,” Garuda instructed.

  I took a step to the side and then another, my hands trailing the cold, damp rock until there was no longer any barrier. A little further and we were in another tunnel, but this time, the darkness was tinged gray. We broke out into a smaller chamber. Light filtered in from a slender aperture in the ceiling, filling the room with a weak glow. Garuda slipped to the ground, his back against the wall.

  He looked exhausted.

  “You should get some sleep. Recharge or whatever you do.”

  He nodded and closed his eyes. “Stay close.”

  I slipped to the ground beside him and stretched out my legs. Our thighs brushed, sending a tingle through me.

  His chest rose and fell in a sigh. “Malina?”

  I turned my head to look at him and found his lips, so close I could have shifted my head a fraction and touched them with mine. “Yeah?”

  “Thank you for saving my life.”

  His eyes were dark in the gloom, his gaze traversing my face to settle on my mouth. My breath caught painfully in my throat. I wanted him to kiss me so bad it was a physical ache.

  “Fucking hell, Malina. If you keep looking at me with those fuck-me eyes,
I won’t be responsible for my actions.”

  I turned away, exhaling sharply. What the heck was I doing? Now wasn’t the time to show him how I felt. We were on a mission. Plus, I’d only just broken up with Ajitah. Focus, dammit.

  “You better get some rest.” I shuffled to the left a little, putting some distance between us.

  Garuda chuckled before falling into silence.

  Time ticked by, and his breath evened out, but I was too wired to sleep. A few more minutes passed. Sod just sitting here. Standing up and brushing myself off, I headed out to do some exploring.

  I hadn’t gone far when my skin tingled and the hairs on the back of my neck stood to attention.

  There was water close by.

  Letting my instincts guide me, I made my way down a tunnel that opened out into a chamber three times as large as the one I’d left Garuda in. Shards of light lanced down from apertures in the ceiling, reflecting off the pool in the center and painting ripples on the gray walls. The pool glowed with an ambient light of its own, and steam rose from its surface to curl against the ceiling. I’d heard of warm cave springs, but this was the first one I’d ever seen for real. The water looked fresh and clean, and my body, aching from the tree monster’s assault, begged me to take a soak. What else was I going to do while waiting for Garuda to rest up?

  Wincing as the fabric of my jeans grazed the wound on my leg, I stripped down to my knickers. The water was warm and soothing as it climbed up my body, enveloping me in heat to just above my navel. Steam rose off the surface of the pool and settled on my exposed skin, condensing into droplets. I leaned back against the rock face and a ledge bumped my ass—the perfect seat. Sinking down onto the rock aperture and resting my head back, I closed my eyes. Every knotted muscle slowly unwound as the water soothed away my aches and pains. Garuda’s face came to mind—the heat of his breath on my lips, his pupils growing to drink me in. My pulse kicked up, and I reached down into the water, fingers skimming my hip, heading south for that secret spot. It had been too long. My almost death, my proximity to the object of my desire—it was all getting to be too much. The tension needed to be released. I closed my eyes.