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His eyes narrowed, and his lip curled back in a silent display of aggression.
“En,” I whispered deliberately, snaking my thin arms around his neck, licking from his cheek to just under his eye in a slow, savouring swipe. “It’s lateoutside.”
Now his eyes widened, and he tensed as he held me tight to him. But it was brief, like he thought I wasn’t aware of the implication behind my careless words. Except, I was aware, and my words weren’t said carelessly. I didn’t blame him. The last time he’d tried to take me inside his home, I’d refused and showed visible signs of distress.
Perhaps my previous reaction had struck him harder than I thought.
Cautiously, so cautiously as though one wrong move and I would reject him again, En leaned closer and lifted me in his arms. Well, he lifted me withonearm and steadied me with the other.
“You won’t run away?” His tone was just as cautious as his actions, just as cautious as his eyes that seemed to observe my every move.
Leaning my face into his neck, I gave a small nod. I became weightless the next moment, feeling him scaling up the ridge leading to his cave. I gulped as the ground we were on earlier became farther and farther, lower and lower until I couldn’t look anymore.
Until En set me down and turned me towards the mouth of his cave, standing behind me in silence.
The cave looked dark and endless, my eyes unable to estimate how far back it reached. Slowly, hesitantly, I took a small step forward, then another, then another until I was only a hair’s width away from crossing the line. I moved my foot, ready to take the next step, the final step that would determine my fate, but I halted.
Then I placed my foot down and took a step back instead, unable to suppress the low whine that formed deep in my throat. I bumped into something solid and warm, and I froze.
He was directly behind me, blocking any chance of escape because I told him I would do it.
He wouldn’t let me leave. Not now.
Breathing in deeply and straightening my spine, I moved forward again, taking another step until I’d passed that invisible line that separated the inside of the cave from the outside. The only way from there was to continue going ahead until I reached the inner parts of the cave.
Yet even then, I was hesitant, even more so when it became darker and darker as I moved forward. But it was warm, warmer than I expected, and that made my steps a little lighter, a little less unsure yet still nervous all the same.
En was close behind me with every step I took forward.
There were webs everywhere, in every corner and on every empty space, some terrifyingly large and others small enough to not causetoo muchpanic.
I was walking directly into his lair with my own two feet.
Every time I took a step back, every time I thought about fleeing, he was right behind me. I’d bumped into him numerous times that I lost count.
I didn’t know how much further I had to go, but suddenly my bones locked, my pulse skyrocketing as my body quivered.
Too dark. Too big. Too spacious and foreign. I couldn’t see a thing in front of me, and if I did see anything at all, it was either the cave walls or the webs lining every corner.
I tried to take a step back again, but hands were suddenly gripping my upper arms, keeping me in place with enough pressure to silence me.
En didn’t say anything, not a sound. He wouldn’t let me leave, not when I myself had told him I wouldn’t.
Forcing my throat to work over the block that had formed, I gulped, fisting my hands and taking another step forward, aware of En’s hands on my upper arms and his presence directly behind me.
The cave soon branched out into three separate passages: one on the left, one in the centre, one on the right. I paused, unsure of where to go from there.
“The left takes you to our space,” he said from behind me, his voice a low rumble that had me jumping in my skin. “The centre acts as a storage.”
I voiced a small noise of interest. I was impressed by how he had organised his cave, using the large space to his advantage to create sections suited for his needs. I’d thought it would be one area with countless spiderwebs—the part about the spiderwebs was true. The place was just aboutpaintedwith them.
“What about the right?” I asked, glancing towards the direction in question.
His hands loosened their hold on me a little. “It’s your area.”
I blinked, staring intently at that side as curiosity lit inside me.
“They are all connected on the inside,” he said. “You don’t need to come back here to move to another area.”
