AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Sofie wrinkled her nose. She wasn’t into all this mushy, kissy-kiss stuff. Well, she enjoyed the kissing part. A lot. And, truthfully, she was starting to relish hearing Ryshi tell her how wonderful she was and how much he adored her….
So maybe she was into mushy stuff after all, she ruefully acknowledged.
Not that she was going to allow his skillful seduction to distract her from the original direction of the conversation.
“I love your charm, even when it annoys me,” she told him. “And your cunning. It’s rare for any creature to outsmart Styx. Not and survive.”
He sucked in a startled breath, as if she’d managed to blindside him. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
She arched a brow. She’d suspected the truth from the moment he’d revealed his terror of being trapped in the labyrinth.
“There’s no way you meekly allowed yourself to be imprisoned in that dungeon,” she said dryly. “You were sneaking out, weren’t you?”
His lips parted, as if he intended to deny her accusation, then realized that the mating had ensured she would know he was lying and heaved a sigh.
“Perhaps,” he conceded. “Although I would prefer you not share that suspicion. At least not with the Anasso.”
“But most of all, I love your devotion to your sister,” she continued. Despite her loyalty to her Anasso, she had no intention of sharing Ryshi’s talent with anyone. Not even Styx. “She obviously disrupted your life, but you are determined to find her. Even if it meant coming to this place. Am I right?”
“I did say you were smart.” His lips twisted. “Or maybe I’m not as clever as I thought I was. Hard to believe.”
She reached up to press her fingers against his lips. He was a master at dancing around a subject.
“Talk to me, Ryshi,” she commanded.
“You’re right,” he grudgingly conceded.
“Of course I am.”
His lips twitched at her teasing, but his eyes smoldered with a raw regret. “After Zena disappeared, I searched for years to locate her. I traveled through dimensions and paid outrageous sums to various trackers to discover her trail. Finally, I was forced to accept that I needed more than my skills to locate her. Or to determine if she was dead.”
Sofie resisted the urge to wrap him in her arms. Comforting him would soon ignite the passions that still ran white-hot between them. A delicious means of healing his pain that would have to wait until they’d managed to escape this place.
“Why would you risk coming to the labyrinth?”
“I have contacts among demons who deal in rare artifacts. They whispered of a stone that would allow the user to speak with another demon no matter how great the distance.”
Sofie nodded. Stavros had told her the truth when she’d asked about the missing object. He might currently be her enemy, but he was an honorable demon.
“You obviously found the stone,” she said, returning her attention to Ryshi’s story.
“I did. I even managed to escape from this place with it.”
“Did you locate your sister?”
“No, but I managed to contact her.”
“Then you know she’s alive.” Sofie felt a surge of relief. She’d been concerned that he was going to reveal that his sister was dead. If that had happened, Ryshi would never, ever forgive himself.
“Yes.”
“Then why couldn’t you locate her?”
“Because she didn’t know where she was.”
“I don’t understand.”
“After she left the Oasis, she traveled to various harems in the hopes of locating her father.”
