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Reaching for Loric’s face, I don't make it far. His hand darts out wrapping around my wrist before I can heal the mark.
“Did I offend you?” I ask, blinking at him and unsure of how to proceed.
He arches a brow.
How do I save this? We’ve witnessed other prisoners initiate flirting in the dungeon as a means to get the opposite sex to payattention to them, toswoon. They always winked and it always worked.
I give it a go, finding it harder than it looks. I'm pretty sure I accidentally squinted both eyes.
Loric’s lips tip into a wider grin as his glowing eyes slowly, methodically, descend down my body. He stands to his full height and my spine stiffens. The man steps closer, lifting my chin with a bloodied finger. “If you want to woo me, you’ll have to try harder than that.”
Is that a no?
Loric steps around me, and his friends move to follow him as he starts toward the woodline.
“Where are we going?” I call, using hurried footsteps to catch up to them.
“To try again to get rooms for the night,” Loric says, stopping to wait for me. Except when our eyes lock, it's the man that stares back, not his other half. “Can’t have you freezing, especially now that you’re all wet.”
I’m what? Giving myself a once over, I find that my bloodsoaked dress sticks to my skin, soaked through. “Oh…” I’m not sure how to react to him telling me to try harder. I killed multiple beasts that nearly ate his friends alive. Yet, that’s not enough? Whatisenough?
The ground begins to shift and the trees start to close in as my steps waver.Shit. No… I'm not done. I have to woo him. I have to for both of mine and Calamity’s sake.
The ground meets my face and I'm not even sure when I began to fall. Then it's out like a light and I'm shoved back into the depths of Calamity’s mind.
Fuck.
Chapter 10
Calamity
Coming to, the world around me is a blend of shadows and whispers–voices I know, sort of. One in particular stands out the most. Loric’s.
His heavy timbre cuts through the silence, a sudden, powerful presence that wraps around me, unasked for yet impossible to ignore. It's deep, resonant, speaking with authority. It's the kind of voice that stirs something primal within, tugging at the very core of my being.
I pause, hesitating to crack an eyelid. He's not talking to me, but my heart skips a beat when I hear him say my name. I'm drawn to him, irrevocably, yet part of me rebels against the idea. A verylargepart.
Something warm is pressed against my side, my face, my everything. I curl closer, desperate to ward off the chill in the air. I’m not sure how long I was out, or whether I’ve died, swallowed whole by thatthing. Perhaps this is what comes after. Yet the frigid wind nipping at my flesh says otherwise.
I doubt I’d be cold in the afterlife. I likely wouldn’t feel anything. I’d be a ghost or another soul in the well waiting tobe reborn. No. This feeling, the goosebumps layering my flesh, is that of night. It’s why the dungeons used to smell of fire and coals when the hell flame was snuffed out by the moons.
“Wait,” Loric calls, his voice rattling against my left ear. It’s now that I notice the gentle rocking of my head–the cadence of inhales and exhales as lungs expand. The echo of a beating heart.
“Yeah?” I recognize the voice as the tattooed man, the one with the red swirls and symbols covering his skin. Faelor.
“You and Brenn stay with the horses. Tonight’s the blackout.” There’s a steely edge to Loric’s tone. “Assuming the bastard at the bar will give us rooms, we’ll likely be here a few days. I’d rather not travel in the dark if we don’t have to.”
If he’s right about the blackout, then the cold I feel will only get worse from here until the hell flame returns and casts the lands in amber light. Once a year, the moons stay put, blocking the hell flame for three days straight. No one knows why, but it’s my luck that it would happen while we’re traveling over the mainland. We might be on the safer side of the river, but there are creatures worse than the never cats that roam these parts. They stay clear of villages, but the nearest village isn’t for miles, if we’re still near Gael’s pub.
Faelor sighs. “The whole time?”
“We’ll take shifts, or the rest of you will. The last thing I need is for Brenn to try and take matters into his own hands again. Keep an eye on him, would you?”
“You got it.” Grass rustles as if Faelor is jogging away.
A silent moment passes before the gentle sway of Loric’s steps ceases. “You can stop pretending to still be out. I know you’re awake.”
My eyes shoot open. “I wasn’t… I… I’d just woke up.” I furrow my brow. “How did you know?”
