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Ha ha,I thought at my magic.Very fucking funny.
Well, I'd found my rope.
And as luck would have it, when Joseph surged out of the water and swam among the little row boats until he found our circle, heaving me up and inside the vessel, I was at the very end ofmyrope.
"You," I growled hoarsely when I finished hacking up the water in my lungs, giving Joseph a dark look, "need to grovelbig time,Joejoe."
"Grovel for what?" X demanded, his intensity ramping up a thousand degrees as he shot across the boat to hold me, narrowing his eyes at Joseph.
"I thought—he was dying," I coughed. "Nearly got—grabbed by a soul—myself. He was—eating them all. Snack bar."
The satisfied smile fell off Joseph's face and he surged towards me, rocking the boat and earning a snarled curse from Taj.
"One of them got you?" Joseph breathed, taking my face in his big hands, his cool skin chilling me further.
Ugh, his green-brown eyes were big and miserable and full of remorse. My chest grew tight, and not just because I'd been struggling to breathe for minutes underwater.
Joseph's fingers slid into my hair—my still-fairy-tale-length hair—and he tipped his head forward to rest against mine. "I'd rather rip out my own heart than hurt you. I'm so sorry, my sweet. I wanted to be strong enough to keep you safe, to keep youallsafe, and stop Eidolon from hurting anyone else in this circle but … I got carried away. They tasted so good."
My eyes flashed.
"Not as good as your sweet soul," he hurried to add, soothing my territorialism. Smart man.
"Good," I rasped, kissing him briefly.
"I'll make it up to you," he vowed, looking me dead in the eye.
"That'll have to wait," Arkan cut in, his voice chilled. "We're at the Isle of Deysi."
27
"There's not a snowball's chance in Hell you're making me climb that thing," I growled, my voice still hoarse and a little bit sexy as I glared up at the Feared Tower above us. That’s fear-ED tower, because for some reason it warranted an even more emphatic name than straight up feared.
The tower was accessible by hand-holds. Fuckinghand holds.It didn't even have the decency to have a death-defying walkway like the bluff across the river. This could barely be called an island even if I knew its name was the Isle of Deysi. I'd naïvely thought it would be pretty and harmless with a name that literally sounded like daisy. My mistake.
"No way. Not happening. Let's go home."
Joseph rumbled a low, fond laugh.
"If we go home, Eidolon will get the sceptre and he'll take over hell," X said, his voice stripped of all emotion. "He'll win, and we'll be enslaved or dead."
Shit. I turned to my incubus and drew him into a rough hug, clinging tight. That was a serious reality check.
"I won't let him win," I promised, giving the wraiths and warriors around us, impatiently waiting to climb, a death glare. "I'll kill him for you, I promise."
Taj stepped closer to us and snapped his wings tight to his sides. He was in full, scary demon form. I swore the tips of his two rows of horns were sharper than usual, the claw at the apex of each wing even more vicious.
"I'll fly you up," he offered, his voice hard but his eyes intent as they scanned my body, checking I was okay.
I felt like shit, actually, but Joseph was alright and it made my throbbing head, sore throat, and aching body easier to bear. I gave him a nod and released X, stepping into Taj's open arms. A weight fell off my shoulders when he closed them around me, holding tight.
"We'll wait for you at the top," Taj said to the others, snapping sharp teeth at a wraith who veered too close to his wings. "Don't do anything stupid."
"Same order to you," Arkan replied, and gave me a deep, searing look before Taj's wings boomed around me, gathering air and shooting us off the ground.
I buried my face in his chest and pretended it was just to avoid the wind his wings caused, and not because I was deathly afraid of heights. As if that wasn't enough, panic cramped my chest until I could barely breathe at having X out of sight.
I'd been too scared for Joseph when I dove into the river to process being away from my incubus then, but now I was acutely conscious of the distance between me and X.
