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My face heated. “Helpful.”
“I’m not your enemy, Margo.”
He was no longer calling me Velvet.
I’d gotten my wish, I supposed—even if it hurt like hell.
“You’re not my friend, either,” I retorted.
He was silent for a long moment, before he finally said. “Perhaps I should be. I know you don’t want a mate, but fate has matched our souls. There is no separation for us, so friendship would ease the strain of our bond.”
“Fine. We’re friends.” I gritted the words out.
“Good.” He considered me for a moment before he said, “Food will help.”
I didn’t let myself watch that gorgeous bare ass as he strode into the kitchen, or wonder what he might have to eat in his strange cave. Was it just some place he knew about? Or had it been his home, once?
I didn’t want to focus on what I’d focused on in the flames.
Didn’t want to let those words charge through my mind again.
But I still needed a way to kill the fire burning on my skin.
My gaze landed on the river.
Perfect.
Fire blazed off my bare body as I stood up and rushed toward the water. Without a second thought, I jumped in with a splash. A strong current yanked me under immediately, sizzling and boiling around me as the icy underground river put out my flames.
The fire was out, but now I had a new problem.
I kicked up to the surface of the water, and found the fast-moving stream dragging me away from Quake. There was only the tiniest gap of air at the top—not enough for me to even take a damn breath.
Panic coursed through me as I pressed my hands to the stone above my head.
I was going to die.
I was going to—
The stone grabbed me by the wrists and yanked me upward, into a large crack in the rock that opened above me.
I sucked in air, pressing my body tightly to the earth that had rescued me. It moved smoothly, wrapping around me as it carried me away.
And a few moments later, it set me down carefully on my ass on the floor of Quake’s cave.
The man was still working in the kitchen—unfortunately, wearing pants this time—and called calmly over his shoulder, “The water won’t teach you control, Margo.”
I wanted to curse at him, but he’d just saved my life.
And it still stung that he wasn’t calling me Velvet.
So I just lowered my back to the ground, staring up at the ceiling and wishing for a way out of this fiery hell I’d managed to walk myself into.
I should’ve just stayed human.
I should’ve disappeared into that burnt forest and figured out a way to ally myself with the beastmen that apparently lived there.
I should’ve done anything other than walk into those damn flames.
