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Pulling back, his eyes have turned golden, his fangs long and lethal. My sex pulses at the sight of him, my need swelling up and threatening to overtake me.
“Tell me you want to break the deal.” He drags one finger down my throat. “Tell me you want me to claim you here and now.”
It takes every ounce of backbone I’ve got left to say no. But I do. I have to. For Clotilde. “The deal stands. No claiming until after we’ve rescued Clotty.” My lady bits want to rebel, but I have the upper hand here. Mind over mating.
He snarls, then presses his lips together.
“Glad we’re in agreement.” I turn and let out a long breath, releasing the pressure—or at least trying to.
“One day through the jungle,” he bites each word. “We’ll keep to its edge to avoid the dangers of the sand, and travel south for maybe a week until we reach the slaver city of Cranthum. After that, we continue south until we hit the Abyss.” His voice drops on the word. “An unending nightmare of darkness. It’s deadly for newcomers.”
“There’s a way through.”
“There are several ways.” He sighs. “We know none of them.”
“So, we’ll get through the Abyss and then arrive at the mines. Easy.”
He grumbles under his breath.
I take a step toward the jungle, but he hauls me back. “Rules, changeling.”
“Changeling?” I smirk. “What happened to ‘my beloved’?”
He pins me with a familiar glare. “If we are to survive this, you must follow my lead. I go first. You step where I step. You let me know as soon as you feel tired. You do not lose sight of me, no matter what. You do not touch anything—not a pretty flower, not a vine, not a tree. This jungle is known for its toxins. Anything could be poison. More likely, everything is.”
My mouth goes dry. “Everything?”
“Have you heard a single animal sound since we’ve been on this beach?”
I peer up into the trees. “I … I haven’t been paying attention.”
“Not so much as the chirp of a bird or the skitter of a crab.” He frowns at the greenery. “The Ocean of Storms has turned this stretch of coast wild and dangerous. Trust nothing. Just as this sunny day could give way to a tempest in a matter of moments, so will the jungle turn inhospitable without notice. We’re going to be hot, thirsty, and exhausted by the time we reach the landward side.” He steps under the canopy. “Let’s hope the toxins are confined to the sea-facing side.”
“What if they aren’t?”
He points where he just stepped so that I follow him precisely. “Then we won’t have to worry about the Abyss or the mines because we’ll be dead.”
16
Gareth
Green sludge drips from the edge of the pike I fashioned from a sapling.
“That one was bigger than my head.” Beth hangs onto my waistband as we descend the low ridge that separates the seaward jungle from the inland side.
Another huge wasp-like creature buzzes nearby, and I bring the pike back up. The hum circles us, then dissipates. Perhaps it didn’t want to meet the same fate as its compatriot. I sling the gooey innards from the end of the pike and continue picking my way down the slick slope while being careful to avoid the plentiful thorny vines that hang all around us.
“How’s your arm?” Beth slides a little but catches herself.
“It’ll be all right.” I glance at it, my entire forearm swollen and purple. My tongue itches—a strange sensation, and sometimes I swear I can hear the trees around us whispering about our demise. I pause for a moment to clear that odd thought away, but the tree to my right says, “My bet is on a fall to your death. The elderberry tree over there thinks you’ll be eaten by the spider clan. If I win, I can drop my seeds at his roots. If he wins—”
“Shut up.” I whack the bark with my pike.
The tree yelps and falls silent.
“Um, Gareth.” Beth pats my sweaty back. “You okay?”
“Fine. Why?”
“No reason.” She licks her cracked lips. Though parched and hungry, she hasn’t complained. My beloved is a fighter.
She shifts her gaze to my arm. “I’m sorry,” she says for what must be the tenth time.
“Don’t fret about it.” I skid to a stop where the ground evens out a bit and help her stand beside me.
“If I hadn’t lost my balance, you wouldn’t have swiped out to catch me and hit that thorn.” She chews her bottom lip, her concern like a warm liquor coating my insides.
With my good arm, I stroke her cheek. “My beloved.”
Her eyes flutter closed for a second. “I love it when you call me that.”
“I know.” I spin and thrust my pike out.
A hissing cry cuts through the trees as I impale a huge snake, its’s fangs already dripping venom and prepared to strike.
Beth’s scream seems to puncture my eardrum, but it dies down as she realizes I’ve speared the snake right through its brain. Its luminous green eyes lose some of their shine as its enormous body convulses once, the tremor flowing from its thick head all the way to a tail I can barely see through the dense leaves.
“He killed Baturan,” the tree a few paces away whispers. The statement spreads through the jungle like a ripple through water. Soon, they’re all talking about it, the gossip coming back at me from every angle.
“The great snake. Dead!”
“Baturan killed?”
“By what?”
“Baturan dead?”
“By my leaves, it’s true. Baturan is—”
I shake my head. Hard. The cacophony disappears.
Beth’s voice trembles as she peers at the great serpent. “That thing must have come from the Spires.”
I debate the wisdom of cutting off a hunk for later when I can build a fire, but decide against it. Could be poisonous. I can’t take the risk, especially when I have my mate to protect.
I thrust it off my pike as Beth clings to me.
“You’re safe.” I stroke her hip.
She takes a deep breath then steps back a little. “Right. Safe. Snake slain.”
Peering over the slight ledge we’re on, I can see an even muddier descent below. If we aren’t careful, we could lose our footing, then our lives.
“Snake killed.” She seems to be speaking to herself. “No more snake. We are safe.”
“Ready?” I want to take her hand, but my good one is holding the pike, and the bad one is … really bad.
She nods. “We can go. I mean, we’re almost through the jungle.” She points at the snake. “And nothing can be worse than that, right?”
The trees snicker.
I wince. “Things can always be wor—”
A shriek from overhead pulls my attention away, and a great shadow pulses over the treetops above us.
“What was that?” Her nails dig into my side.
“We need to get lower.” I grab her with my bad hand, the ache in it like a million scorpion stings, and pull her with me to the edge. “Slow going. Follow my steps. Don’t get in a hurry or—”
