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Etyx let out a snort. “Yeh, right. Take care, ye two.” And just like that, he closed the gate at our backs.
Shane and I exchanged a glance. I resumed walking and made my way toward where Etyx had pointed. Though I wasn’t sure what to do. We were outside the mountain, not lost in its tunnels. I could try ditching Shane now and go back to the bounty hunter, my sister, and my m—
I couldn’t say it. I couldn’t even think it.
No, because someone else pulled at my strings, made me hot and bothered with one look, and holy shit … I walked faster before he could hear the rapid thump of my heart or the scent of my desire.
Traitor body.
This couldn’t be happening.
But what if it was? What if it meant something? Since meeting Shane, everything had changed. My feelings, my thoughts, even my memories. I felt a connection to him, and I had seen things in my mind that hadn’t been there before. Memories I had forgotten.
Or that had been erased.
Oh, gosh, no, this was confusing.
Almost thirty minutes up the side of the mountain, we found the tunnel’s entrance.
I halted right at the edge of the darkness within. “Question now is, should we go in and search for them, and risk getting lost? Or should we skirt the mountain and look for them from the outside?”
Five feet from me, Shane ran a hand through his hair. He grunted, then looked at me, his eyes intense. “Not long ago, I promised you I would never lie to you again, so here it is: I don’t want to go back and find the others. By the moon, I don’t even want the dragon anymore. I was hunting the dragon so Paimon couldn’t use him for himself. But then …” He stalked forward until he was a foot from me.
I inhaled sharply, my body locked, my mind torn between backing away or leaning into him.
“Then I found you again. Alive and well. And my instinct now is screaming at me to take you out of here while I can.”
This time, I took a step back. “Shane, I—“
A shadow moved inside the tunnel and I stilled. Shane noticed it too and turned to the tunnel’s mouth. “There’s something in there,” he whispered.
I could feel it too.
Suddenly, shadows spilled out of the tunnel and surrounded us.
The shadows shaped into tall and lean humanoids with pitch-black skin, skeletal faces, and horns on their bald heads. Their eyes sockets were hollow, and their mouths were a long slit from side to side, filled with sharp fangs.
The blood drained from my face.
Shane grabbed my arm and pulled me close to him. “We’ll—”
“I’m Prince Paimon’s daughter,” I practically shouted. “Don’t attack. We’re on the same side!”
The demons struck. I raised a wall of darkfire in front of us, but more demons were behind us. One snatched for me but I ducked under his lengthy arm. I threw a bolt of darkfire at the side of his head. He dissipated into shadows again, and disappeared.
Something told me he wasn’t really gone.
As I dodged the attacks and threw my own, I counted the demons—ten against the two of us.
Once more, I told them who I was, but they either didn’t listen to me, or they didn’t care. One came for my throat, but I moved out of the way and sent darts of darkfire to him.
Meanwhile, Shane had turned into his wolf and ripped through the demons as if they were made of paper.
A demon feigned an attack and I fell for it. Then two more appeared behind me and grabbed my arms. I screamed and jerked against their hold.
Shane turned to look at me, and that cost him. The demon he had been fighting struck him hard on the side, making Shane stumble to the side and fall to his knees.
My heart squeezed.
