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“Yes,” I answered automatically, my eyes dropping to her soft lips and then the delicate column of her throat as she turned her head to eye me skeptically.
“Hmm,” she hummed, lifting a brow. “I take it your silence means you agree that we should split up to make our escape easier?”
My eyes narrowed at her little lopsided smile.
“Mysilencemeans that I’m not dignifying that with a response because Lucifer himself wouldn’t be able to tear us apart.”
“Jesus, Sariel,” she said with a glare. “The last time you said something so ominous, we ended up actually agreeing to give our firstborn to a mad king and queen.”
I swallowed the guilt that threatened to claw its way up my throat at the memory. “That doesn’t matter,” I said, reaching across the bed to draw her into the cradle of my arms.
I relished the way my entire being melted at our proximity. I wanted to purr and nuzzle into her warmth like a damn cat. If circumstances were different, I might have allowed myself to be embarrassed by how much I needed her scent, her warmth, and her breathless little giggles.
I might’ve even accused her of bewitching me now that I was thinking about it.
She squinted, tilting her head back to observe me. “It doesn’t?”
“No. Because there’s nowhere you can hide, nowhere you can run, and nowhere anyone can take you that I won’t find, Aria.”
Her pupils dilated as I spoke, and satisfaction flooded me with how she squirmed closer.
Shelikedthat. She liked that she wouldn’t be able to run or hide from me. Or, maybe… it was something else. Maybe it was thechallengemy words posed, the possibility of testing how serious I was.
I wondered if she’d enjoy being chased.
“I believe you,” she answered softly.
“Good. Start from the top,” I said, then paused. “Actually, start from the part where you were terrified.”
She tilted her head back further so that she could see me better as she spoke. “There’s a vine woman living under the training grounds.”
I blinked at her.
“Crazy, right? But you haven’t heard anything yet. So, she attacks us, and everyone just watches like it’s a game. No one tells us, ‘Hey, she just needs a little blood from you, and then she’ll be a good sport.’”
Heat sliced through me. “They watched you get chased?”
She nodded. “At first, it was just the vines, but thenshepopped out of the literal ground and, like, snatched us up.”
She frowned and narrowed her eyes when I tensed. “You can be mad, but only on the inside. You can’t go after her because she’s the Commander’s sister.”
I jolted. “Commander Grel?!”
She sighed. “No. CommanderThorn. He’s in charge of the training grounds. Anyway, she’s his sister, Lady Magnolia. Her name is on one of the buildings, but I hadn’t gotten around to asking about her the others. Not that they’d tell me.”
Her disappointment trickled down the bond. I forced myself not to growl at how dejected she was.
“I can find out for you,” I said. “So… the vine woman wanted a little blood?”
“Yeah. She’s apparently the initial test for all Newbies, and she’ll be one of the tests we have to pass to get up to intermediate.”
“Christ. I don’t know if we thought this through.”
“What?” she asked, frowning. “I don’t care how scared I was. If I’ll be able to defend myself against something like that by the end of just the beginner stage, I can’t wait to see what intermediate and higher have in store for me.”
I didn’t have the heart to remind her that we might not have that long. “I just don’t know how I feel about you being intentionally put in danger,” I explained.
“I feel the same about you, but I don’t say anything because I’m confident you can protect yourself. I’m just trying to inspire that confidence in you for me….”
