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He shakes his head. “Maybe you can’t save me.”
“I think I can save you. And, do you want to hearmydeepest worry? I worry that you only want me because I’m the being who can free you or because you haven’t had sex in over a year. Maybe you want to make me to lust after you, so I’ll free you. And then the moment you’re solid again you’ll get as far away from this place as you can because you’ve lived here for a year, in effect, a prisoner. You must want to return to your home planet.”
A growl rumbles in his chest.
“Show me how to fix everything,” I whisper.
Then we head downstairs to the basement. “Watch out for the dungeons, the whipping pit or the drowning pool,” Skogg offers over his shoulder. I grin and follow behind him, our torchlight bouncing off the stone walls.
We make it down to the basement and Skogg walks around the room, distending his jaw and flashing flames on a series of torches in scones on the walls. Eventually, between the two torches we’re carrying, along with the light glowing at intervals around the perimeter, I can see most of the damage. There is mainly nothing left here but broken furniture, shards of glass and twisted metal beams.
I reach out and rub my arm and bite my lip. This place is super creepy. I can literally see cobwebs and a nest of hairy spiders crawling in a corner, next to one of the torches.
“This is the device that’s keeping me alive, but also keeping me captive,” Skogg says, placing his claw on top of a very large, square, metal machine in the middle of the room. It hums with energy and lights blink across the sides. “It looks like it’s on, but it’s only performing at one-fourth of its capability, this is why it’s keeping me half-in and half-out of phased. I cannot be fully reconstituted until it’s powered up correctly.”
“The entire problem is that you need a way to fully power up this machine and turn it on? If you turn it on it can fix you?”
“That is what I believe.”
I glance around. “So all we need is a new generator, right?”
He nods.
I blink. “That’s all? I can do that. I probably needed one anyways.”
He hands me a cracked tablet. “This is the manual. I’ve read it so many times I have it memorized. The tablet barely works, and it will not connect with the vid nets. But it will bring up the specs of this device and what type of generator is required and how to connect the two.”
I take it from him. “Tomorrow we’re going to get this fixed and get you out of here.”
He grips my arms. “No, wait. It is dangerous. If the timing is off. If the…it can explode again. I cannot risk you. We will wait and ask the authorities for help.”
“The authorities will never enter this castle.”
A muscle ticks on his jaw. He knows I’m right.
“I will follow these directions in the manual to the letter. Do you want to live like this forever? I’m moving in here soon and starting a remodel. Do you want a future where you stay here while this castle is being remodeled and turned into a fancy hotel, and you are only able to be with me for half the day? I only see you at night? Or do you want a real life?”
He growls, pulls me into his arms and kisses me again, then he says, “You are more to me than a one-time pleasure mate. My true worry is, how can a female as accomplished as you settle for a male who isn’t entirely corporeal? I’ve been living this way for a year now, where the solar power has soaked up enough heat from the day to sputter on the machinery in the basement to allow me to take form for merely a few hours in the late evening. I am still confined by the boundaries of this castle. What if I can never become corporeal? I will not be a fit pleasure mate for you. Why would you wait for me?”
I give him a tender kiss in response, and he holds me tight in his arms. I keep my cheek pressed against his hard, red chest.
I hope that’s how he really feels and it’s not just the emotion of the moment taking over, because I’d love so much to rescue this Hyrrokin and stay with him forever. It might seem strange for me to have decided this so quickly.
But I just know that this, with him, is right. And it’s worth the risk.
7
Emma
The generator has arrived.
What a mess. I’m pleased that it arrived so quickly, but the local workers still won’t deliver the damn thing past the main gate because “ghosts.” So the one-ton 4k generator is left at the front gate.
I’m so desperate I have to recruit the Ghost Hunters to help me get it from the gate to the basement. Because of course they made bail, never left the planet, and are still hovering around.
“Human! Human!” they shout. As usual, they are overly chatty, bossy, and annoying. But they are the only ones who I know will go inside and have a vehicle I can hitch to the generator and pull it where it needs to go.
“My name is Emma Lavigne,” I sigh.
