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My pores tightened in awareness at the way he’d been looking at me. There’d been a hunger in his eyes, and I wondered how the mark felt on his end. For me it was a pleasurable buzz that yearned for Vas’ closeness. Was it the same for him? Did he feel the need to be close to me, to touch me, and was it a struggle to resist?
When I was done washing my face I lowered my mouth and took several long gulps of water before stepping back. Vas quickly splashed water over his face and neck, and I noted that there was something oddly mesmerising about the soot that stained his skin.
He filled the flask and then we let the people waiting behind us have their turn. We walked to the ramshackle food vendors that we’d visited the night before. Vas got us each a bowl of the same soup and I drank it without protest. I suspected there would be very little in the way of variety, deep as we were below the ground. It was almost stifling when I thought about just how far down we were, but I quickly pushed the thought from my mind. Bringing on a panic attack was the last thing I needed.
After we finished our soup we found the others idling near the entrance to the mining section of the Blaze. I went directly to Ren, and again noted Vas’ dismay at our closeness.
“How did you sleep?” I asked my friend.
“Not well, but not as poorly as I expected. How about you?”
“The same. Did you eat? Did Sven bring you to one of the water fountains to drink and wash?”
“Yes, mother. I’ve been sufficiently fed and watered,” he replied, his lips curving in a grin at my fussing.
Several demons appeared and ushered us into the noisy, overwhelmingly hot mine. We grabbed hammers just like yesterday and were ordered to get straight to work.
I stood next to Ren and Vas took the position on the other side of me. We didn’t speak but that was mostly because the work was so gruelling. I couldn’t help being impressed by his strength, the sheer power of his body as he mined. My eyes traced the hard lines of his shoulders, the way his muscles flexed and moved as he lunged forward with the hammer.
“What?” he asked, stopping for a moment to catch his breath.
I flushed but it was so hot that my face was probably red already. “Nothing.”
He rested the hammer over his shoulder and wiped some sweat from his brow. “You okay?”
My eyes flicked to his bare chest then back up. “Yes, I’m fine.”
To my left I caught Sven smirking. He knew exactly what I’d been staring at but thankfully he was kind enough not to say anything. Forcing my attention away from Vas, I resumed mining. At least two hours had passed when a scream broke out from somewhere up ahead of us.
I looked just in time to see a man had fainted, seemingly from exhaustion. One of the demon watchers marched towards him and prodded him with a stick to get up. I suspected it was the woman who’d been working next to him who screamed. She was distraught and I wondered if he was her partner or family member. The demon prodded at the man again but he still wasn’t responding.
“He’s dehydrated,” the woman said. “We’ve run out of water. Please let me fetch him some. He just needs to drink and he’ll be able to work again.”
The demon cast her a look void of sympathy. “He’s old. I doubt he has much labour left in him.”
“Please, just let me—”
Before she could finish her plea the demon shoved the unconscious man off the edge of the mine, his body falling into the dark abyss. The woman screamed once more and I moved on autopilot, disbelief and rage pounding in my blood. My instinct was to attack the demon watcher but strong arms wrapped around my middle, pulling me back. Vas’ mouth was at my ear. “Don’t. It’s not your fight,” he said roughly.
12.
“But he just…he just murdered that poor man,” I cried, my fury building. “He was tired. He needed water and he killed him.” My throat thickened with emotion. I couldn’t believe the barbarity I’d just witnessed. The woman was weeping and the demon crowded her. “If you don’t wish to join him I suggest you get back to work,” he ordered.
The woman, still weeping, picked up her hammer and resumed her work. The demon cast his eyes down the line. “That goes for the rest of you. Show’s over. Get back to work.”
It took every ounce of willpower not to take my hammer and bash him over the head with it. “Calm down,” Vas whispered, still holding me. “His time will come, but not yet.”
