Page 21 of Kings of Carrion

I lift my gaze to the surrounding cave and smile. “This place is cozy enough. Maybe we’ll stay here forever, then.”

“Wherever makes you happy.” He strokes his hand down my hair and presses his lips to mine. “I’d camp in the middle of hell, itself, to stay by your side, woman.”

“It’s hot enough in here, isn’t it?”

A chuckle rumbles inside his chest, and he rolls onto his back. “You make it twice as warm, but yes, I’m sweating my ass off in this cave.”

“I’m missing the tinaja back at the old cave. Remember swimming there? Cooling off in the water?”

“Putting a baby inside of you.” The flicker of his brows catches my attention. “Perhaps I was too hasty. Too demanding. I had dreams of your belly stretched with my child. But maybe it was all too soon.”

I run my knuckles down his cheek. “I want this baby, too. And it won’t be long before that happens. Maybe even sooner. According to Hesaya, my uterus is measuring bigger than she expected.”

He glances out the corner of his eye, and his brows crease even further. “Is that unusual?”

“I suppose a bit, but I’m not going to worry until I have reason. And you shouldn’t, either.”

“I won’t, then. Until I have reason.”

“Good.” I run my finger over the deep grooves in his forehead. “I’d love to see you without all this worry written across your face all the time.”

“It’s the result of being crazy over you.”

Chapter 7

Cali

I lie beside Cadmus, head propped on a rolled-up sleeping bag, and watch out the back of the truck as the sun begins to set, casting shades of orange and red. A blanket lies draped across his groin, beneath which he’s shamelessly naked, not having bothered to dress after what we did earlier. Back at Calico, there was no modesty when it came to nudity. Doctors there would strip us down in front of a crowd of other doctors, who proceeded to poke and prod. At some point, we simply became as comfortable without clothes as with. Fabric never offered much of a shield to our dignity, anyway.

Even so, I lie fully clothed alongside him.

He sucks in a drag of his cigarette and blows off the smoke.

“Smoking kills, you know,” I say with a smile in my voice.

“Yeah, well, so does love.” The cigarette crackles with another lungful, and he lifts his head as he flicks what’s left of it out the back of the truck, drawing my attention to his short-cropped, blond curls that have begun to grow in.

“Where did the curls come from?”

“My mother.” He bends his arm behind his head and stares off. “She had long, beautiful curls that reached the middle of her back. I always played with her hair when I was a kid.”

“What happened to her?”

“I don’t know. I woke up one morning, and she was gone.” Brows furrowed, he shakes his head. “I don’t know if someone took her, or if she up and left.”

What a horrible thing that must’ve been for him, wondering, all those years, what happened to his mother. And which fate would be worse?

“Can I ask you a question?” There’s something soothing about Cadmus’s voice. It reminds me of Valdys, so deep and rich, as it vibrates in my ear.

“Yeah, of course.” I push the thoughts of Valdys aside, for fear of the panic that waits to swallow me any second. The unresolved ache of yet another dead end in our efforts to track down those rebels and set him free.

“That night I went down to the tunnels. Were you really going to let me fuck you?”

Blowing out a breath, I shift my attention to his profile, which doesn’t show a hint of amusement. “Why are you asking me this now?”

“Told you, Cali. I get off on pain. Every stab. Every cut. Reminds me that I still feel something.”

The question is one I’ve asked myself since that night, and in light of the guilt that still tears at my heart after what we’ve just done, it’s one I might answer differently now. “I would’ve done anything to be with Valdys. But not at your expense.”