by Emma Slate
Just a little longer.
I was in too much pain to reply. Sweat beaded my brows and upper lip. Shivers ran up and down my spine. Just when I thought I couldn’t take any more of the searing heat that seemed to melt my bones, I felt the invisible partition shatter—and once again, I was flung away from it, landing hard on the ground.
“Poppy!” Hunter yelled.
I turned my head and retched. My palms no longer burned, but they throbbed. I looked at them, expecting to see blisters and seared, red skin. Nothing.
Wards can always be broken—but each of them requires something from you. In this case, it needed your pain.
You said you could break it. I assumed that meant you would’ve used your power to do it.
No. Wards don’t work that way.
You couldn’t have warned me? I snapped.
Sometimes it’s better to go in blind.
You’ll pay for that, I taunted, throwing his threat back at him.
Looking forward to it, Poppy. Now get up and come free me.
Hunter sat next to me. When I tried to get up, he forced me to stay down. “Take a minute. Thane isn’t going anywhere.” He unzipped the backpack, pulled out a canteen of water, and handed it to me. I took a sip, swished it around, and then spit. Then I took a long drink.
“Better?” he asked.
I shrugged and handed him back the canteen. “Thanks.”
“How are your hands?”
Looking down at them, I realized they no longer pulsed with discomfort. “Okay, I think.”
“Wow.” Hunter shook his head.
“Right?”
He helped me stand and held onto my hand. We slowly approached a line of crystalline white powder that lay where the wall had once stood.
“I’ll go first,” he said.
“Why?”
“Because I’m the protector—and if something is… You are the one that has to live.”
I hated that he spoke the truth but reluctantly nodded. He stepped over the line and paused. When nothing happened, he nodded at me. I stepped over the line and felt the temperature spike. It no longer felt drafty and cool in the cave, but sultry and humid, like we were close to a hot spring.
“Do you feel that?” I asked.
“Feel what?”
“Guess not,” I murmured. “It feels warm to me.”
“Weird.”
We walked into the cavern, heading for the opening on the other side where I could see another staircase. We had to go even deeper into the ground.
My steps were slow, hesitant. The air continued to grow hotter the closer we got to the stairs—at least for me. Hunter appeared unaffected.
I put a hand to his arm to stop him from going down the stairs. “I have to go first.”
“Why?”
“Because I do. Trust me.”
“Okay,” he said, worry on his face.
I ambled down the stairs, trying to prepare myself for what might be, but it was like preparing for a battle where you couldn’t see the enemy.
The air was stifling and sticky. It clung to my lungs, and I bent over, trying to catch my breath. My steps faltered before turning sluggish.
“Poppy! Are you okay?” Hunter called.
“Fine!” I yelled back, feeling winded.
The magic torches that illuminated the cavern and staircase suddenly snuffed out, and I was left in heated darkness.
The warm air swelled and engulfed me. It stole the air from my lungs, leaving me to gasp like a fish on land. I began to pant violently, but the more I struggled, the worse it became. So I forced myself to calm down and stop moving.
Without warning, the torches flared to life again.
And that’s when I saw a bright blue speck in the distance. It grew, and soon I realized it was a ball of energy flying toward me. And then suddenly I was in the middle of it, surrounded. I reached out to touch it, but my fingers encountered nothing.
The ball contracted until it began outlining the contours of my body, and then it was in me. I felt the power move through my blood, my cells, and then it went to my heart. I looked down, expecting to see blue light shining out from my chest, but I didn’t emit a glow.
My heartbeat quickened; there was a slight burning in my ribcage and then coldness.
Frozen.
Before I could react to it, the ball of blue light shot out of me and disappeared, dissipating like a doused flame.
I was winded but otherwise fine. I rubbed a hand over my sternum, still feeling the traces of cold.
What was that?
Purification of the heart.
Why?
A pure heart is a free heart.
Whatever the fuck that means, I growled. “Hunter!” I called. “It’s safe for you!”
I heard his footsteps on the stairs as he came down behind me. “Are you okay?”
“That’s the new party line, isn’t it?” I drawled. Hunter didn’t smile. “Yeah, I’m okay. Onward?”
He inhaled a deep breath and then nodded. “What happened?” he asked as we continued on our journey.
“Honestly, I can’t describe it,” I answered. I was still trying to process the blue light and purification of the heart stuff.
“Oh. Got it,” he said, tone bleak.
“Got what?”
“You don’t want to tell me, do you?”
I halted and put my hand to his arm. “Look at me,” I commanded. “Whatever just happened, I feel like it was a deeply personal experience. I can’t explain it, let alone work through it—I don’t have the time. There’s so much I have bottled up that I’ve had to push aside because I haven’t had the time to deal with it, ya know? Let me think on it for a little while, okay? And after some time, maybe I’ll be ready to talk about it.”
My hand dropped from his arm and we trekked on. We’d only gone a few paces in silence when Hunter spoke.
“Why do I get the feeling that I’m not the one you want to confide in?”
I didn’t reply.
Chapter 48
It looked like the air was rippling, distorting. That’s how I knew we’d come to another ward. At least this time I hadn’t had to run into it face first, bouncing off and hurting myself before realizing it was there.
I let out a labored sigh. What would this ward need from me? Would each test continue to be harder, building up to the last?
Hunter placed his hand on the wall, but of course that did nothing. He gave me an absent smile. “Worth a shot, right?”
“Might as well get on with this,” I drawled.
I set both palms flat against the invisible wall, just like before. My hands warmed, and I expected them to blaze hot, but they didn’t. Instead, the warmth spread from my palms up my arms and through my body.
A wave of intense lust almost knocked me over.
I slumped against the wall, panting, my body ready for sex in a way I’d never felt.
Close your eyes, Poppy, Thane whispered. Give into it.
I closed my eyes.
Need.
Unseen hands stroked over my skin.
Want.
Was I naked? I didn’t care if I was.
I felt lips on my neck and sought more, more, more.
I was consumed in a blaze passion.
Hands locked around my wrists and I felt someone at my back.
I pressed against him, demanding and greedy.
Thane—
It’s me, Poppy. I’m here.
He drove into me, causing me to scream.
Relentless, blissful, agony.
I kept my eyes shut as I begged him for it. Begged for him.
Our skin heated, our bodies slick with sweat.
Mindless, yearning, feral.
He lifted himself off of me and gave me space, just enough to turn around, so I could stare into his dark eyes. His square jaw was clenched, his lips pouty yet firm.
I reached for him and trailed my fingers up and down the contours of his muscled body.<
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He lifted me before sliding into me, pressing his chest to mine.
My back arched, and I threw my head back, feeling wild and uninhibited.
Mine, he growled.
Yours, I agreed.
His pace increased and when I thought I couldn’t take anymore, I came with a fierce war cry, shuddering around him as I pressed my head to the column of his throat.
Thane’s hands splayed my hips as he pounded into me, deep and hard, branding me, taking me, and then he came.
Poppy, he whispered.
Don’t leave me, Thane, I cried.
Never. You’re mine.
I woke up to Hunter’s face looming over me. Concern and pain flashed across his features.
Running my hands up and down my body, I was surprised to find I was clothed.
What had happened? Why were my emotions all scrambled? And why the hell was I still incredibly turned on?
“I’m afraid to ask,” I said. My voice sounded raspy, like I’d just been thoroughly taken—taken by a beast who knew exactly what a woman wanted—what I wanted.
I knew what had happened, what I’d experienced—who I’d been with.
Did Hunter know?
Judging by the look on his face, he knew.
What was that?
The most amazing thing possible, came Thane’s reply.
I felt his voice deep inside me. It was like a caress, stroking me in places no physical act could penetrate. I forced the excitement, the yearning away.
Did it really happen? I’m still in my clothes.
The last ward needed your pain. This ward needed your truth.
And my truth was—oh, dear God.
Thane fell silent.
“I thought I was going to be sick,” Hunter said, jarring me from Thane’s interlude. “Watching you call for him. Knowing you wanted him.”
“Did you see us? I mean, how could—”
“No, I didn’t see you. You disappeared—you became invisible. But I could hear you. Even after I put my hands over my ears I could still hear everything.” He shook his head and looked down at his feet.
I blinked. “Disappeared?”
He nodded.
Where did I go?
You were here. With me. In my prison.
So what happened between us…was it real?
Thane didn’t answer, letting me stew, letting me wonder.
I couldn’t stand the look of pain on Hunter’s face, so I turned away from him. I sat down and curled into a ball and began to cry. And because he was Hunter, he tried to comfort me, even though he was the one who was truly hurting, even when I’d been the one to hurt him.
“Don’t.” I shook him off, wanting privacy, wanting to be alone. I didn’t know who I was anymore, and the deeper I voyaged into the ground, the more I lost myself.
Maybe you’re finding yourself, Thane suggested. Maybe you’re stripping away all the extraneous layers of your person, whittling yourself down to your essence.
Essence, I sneered. I’m not even sure I know what that is.
Just keep walking, Poppy.
I don’t want to do this anymore. I keep changing. I keep hurting Hunter along the way.
What about you? Are you hurting?
To hurt him hurts me.
What about me, he asked. Do you care that you hurt me?
Yes, I answered with honesty, hating myself for another reason. I was raw and open and there was no hiding anything from anyone.
From my spot on the dirt, I looked up at Hunter. “If I could change this, I would.”
He stared at me for a long moment before his eyes slipped away, his face blanched and pale. “I thought we were done with lies, Poppy.”
Chapter 49
I didn’t know how long I spent crying on the cold, hard ground. At some point, Hunter had moved to sit on the steps, clutching a bottle of water and staring into the flames of one of the magical torches lining the staircase wall.
When I finally felt like I’d expelled all the salt from my body, I wiped my tears and stood.
“Are you still with me?” I asked through a smattering of hiccoughs.
“Yeah, I’m still with you. I have to protect you.”
His voice sounded dead.
I loved Hunter. Or at least I thought I did. But if I loved him why had my truth involved Thane? Why did I lust for Thane when I should’ve only wanted Hunter?
And then I realized—I desired them both.
For different reasons. Hunter was a protector—my protector. He would die for me. But that was also because he loved me.
Thane didn’t love me. Thane wanted me because I could free him. And yet, he instilled in me a passion so deep it had the potential to consume me.
Do you truly care about me? I asked Thane as I continued to walk down another set of spiraling stairs, Hunter at my side.
I refuse to tell you like this.
Like this? You mean through our connection?
No, I mean like this. When you’re desperate and spinning. I want to see you, hold you when I tell you how I feel about you.
Are you happy? You finally have a piece of me.
No, I’m not happy. Because I don’t have all of you. Part of your heart is still with Hunter.
You’ll never get that part from me, I vowed.
Who are you trying to convince?
I hated him in that moment. But it felt a lot like…something else. Something I didn’t want to examine or identify. So I buried our bond.
“I was right,” Hunter said.
“About what?” I demanded. My patience was done. Gone.
“I knew you wanted him.”
“Really, Hunter?” I stopped walking and turned to face him. “Are we really going to do this? Now? Here?”
His face mirrored his anger. “When would you like to do this, Poppy? We’re on the way to release Thane from a prison he’s been trapped in for hundreds of years. Neither of us know what’s ahead and I might—”
“Your timing fucking sucks!”
“My timing?” he thundered. “Why did you have to be the one?”
“I didn’t ask for this! You know I didn’t want it.”
His shoulders slumped in defeat. “I know. God, I know. It just—I thought… I don’t know what I thought.”
I had to stop myself from touching him. It would just torture him—torture us. “I know what you thought. You believed I would be different. That I would remain…unaffected.”
“Yeah.” He looked away from me and up at the stone cave ceiling. “I’m sorry, Poppy. I keep getting mad at you for the same thing over and over again.”
“I hurt everyone,” I admitted. “Without even trying to.”
“It’s not your fault. Feeling the way you do.”
“See? This is why I end up feeling worse. You vacillate between anger and understanding, and I just can’t take it anymore, Hunter. I can’t take it and I—”
My words cut off as I noticed the temperature in the stone cavern drop from cool to extremely cold. I bent over, trying to catch my breath, but I felt like I’d just been launched onto a mountain at high altitude.
“Poppy!” Hunter yelled.
I tried to speak but couldn’t.
Frost began to cover the stone surfaces and ice pellets rained down from the ceiling. Hunter covered his head with one arm, grabbed my hand with the other, and pulled me away as fast as he could. My view was compromised as tiny ice pellets became large chips of ice and the biggest snowflakes I had ever seen came down around us. They hit my face, stinging my skin.
We tried to outrun the magic ice storm, but it was relentless. We tore down the stairs, but somewhere along the way, they became a slide made of stone. Before we knew what was happening the steps had disappeared beneath our feet, sending us careening down the Cliffs of Moher. Hunter and I clung to one another, screaming out in terror as ice and snow continued to assault us, wind battering our cheeks.
The tunnel twisted and turned and
then leveled out. I breathed an internal sigh of relief, thinking we were about to come to a halt. But the earth had other plans for us—and spit us out the side of the mountain.
My eyes saw nothing but gray sky.
Salty spray misted my face. We were no longer inside the cliffs, but outside of them, and suddenly we were falling toward the ocean…toward the ragged rocks below…
Chapter 50
A scream lodged in my throat.
The waves churned below us, assaulting the jagged stones of the shoreline. And then the craggy rocks were all too close.
Hunter and I let go of each other.
I hit the water, fighting the tumultuous sea that attempted to throw me against the rocks I’d somehow missed as I fell. The sea was cold and I couldn’t get my bearings. My lungs were already burning from the struggle to survive.
I didn’t want to die by drowning. Not again. It had been bad enough the first time. And I hadn’t come all this way to fail.
I kicked my feet in the water as hard as I could. But the waves were stronger than even my survival instinct.
My limbs grew heavy, and I forced my eyes to open into slits. The salt stung. Speckles of sunlight dotted the surface of the ocean. I reached up, wanting to catch it.
But I sank—and that’s when I saw Hunter’s body.
His neck was bent, his blond hair floating away from his forehead, arms and legs twisted at odd angles.
Had he hit the rocks?
Was he dead?
I blinked salty eyes and watched as dark shadows swam toward me.
Sharks, I thought.
The shadows drew closer. Gleaming silver scales, hands the color of eggshells, webbed fingers. And then I met the somber gray eyes of the most beautiful creature I’d ever seen before everything went black.
My throbbing cheek dragged me from sleep. I opened my eyes to find a gull perched on my chest.
“Gah!” I yelled, startling the bird into flight—but not before it cawed at me in anger. Apparently it had been making itself at home on me.
“Fucking nature,” I muttered.
I sat up, a swell of nausea hitting me. Once my stomach settled, I moved and took stock of my body. I was a little sore, and parts of my face stung, but otherwise, I seemed to be intact.
