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Teris was pacingthe cave slowly when I woke up. He’d never used to like to stay still, so it didn’t surprise me that he was up and moving. He no longer seemed panicked, but instead, thoughtful.
“Has there been any sign of the creatures?” I croaked to him.
Damn, I sounded bad.
My body felt like it weighed a million pounds, and my muscles ached terribly, so it wasn’t a huge surprise that I sounded as crappy as I felt.
“No. I’m sure they can’t find the other entrance to this place. When I tapped into the magic for a way out, it pulled me in that direction.” He gestured toward the crack in the wall I’d noticed the last time.
“Cool.” I eased myself up to a sitting position—or at least tried to. The physical pain of the movement surprised me, and I would’ve crashed back to the ground if Teris hadn’t caught me by the waist and hauled me up to my feet.
He set me down carefully, and I fought a groan at the intense soreness in my body. I managed to get out a rough, “Thanks.”
“You’re in pain,” he growled back at me.
“No,” I protested weakly.
His scoff told me I hadn’t even almost sold him on it.
“Where?” He began lifting my arms, stepping around me and checking for injuries.
“Everywhere. It’s not actual pain; I’m just really sore,” I explained. “The goddess warned me that the magic would take a toll until I had a mate to share it with. I’ll survive.”
“I can’t believe you agreed to this,” he grumbled at me, stepping back behind me. The feel of his chest against my back as he wrapped an arm around my waist to hold me up was really, really nice.
I wasn’t sure why he was being so nice to me, so I didn’t acknowledge it.
Instead, I closed my eyes. “She didn’t have enough power left to reach out to Fovea or North, so I was the only option.”
“Anyone could’ve put their damn hand on the tree and let them suck the power out of them.Icould’ve done it,” he growled.
“The person who took control of the creatures would have to choose a mate within a week. I wouldn’t ask anyone else to do it,” I snapped back. “I know the cost of mating with someone you don’t want, and I wouldn’t ask my worst enemy to do it.”
Teris’s arm tightened around my waist, and I waited for him to say something.
To say anything.
Instead, he lifted me smoothly off the ground and walked toward the crack in the wall.
“What are you doing?” I asked.
“Getting us out of here.” He didn’t sound angry with me or anything, which surprised me a little.
“I’ll walk.”
“You couldn’t evensit up, Nai. If we’re going to get you mated in the next six days, we have to move fast.”
“Seven,” I corrected him.
“You slept nearly twenty-four hours. There’s fruit for you in my pocket when you’re inevitably hit with sudden, intense hunger.”
My lips curved in a ghost of a smile.
He remembered how violently hungry I could get.
“Six days, then,” I said quietly, as he moved me beside him, turning both of us sideways as he carried me through the tight fit of the crack in the cave.
“Yup.”
