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“But?” I asked, sensing that there was something else he wanted to voice.
“But,” he sighed, looking up at me a little morosely. “There is nothing that can ever truly replace a mother.”
I ran my fingers through his hair, and he closed his eyes again, unaware of my pounding heart as I realized a truth. And maybe, just maybe, it wouldn’t be so terrible to admit that I was falling in love with him too.
???
“Goddess above,” I said, my voice echoing in the silent stone tomb that was the Temple of Cernunnos.
Carnon’s responding laugh echoed eerily, bouncing off stone walls higher than the surrounding trees. “Have I finally impressed you, Red?”
I shot him a playful scowl. “As if you had anything to do with this.”
His smile lingered, softer somehow than his usual mask of a smirk. He looked at me like he was pleased that I was impressed. Like he was happy to see me here. To be here with me.
Like he loved me.
I cleared my throat, tearing my gaze away to wander around the huge marble columns that held up the ancient, frescoed roof. A statue of the god sat on a huge marble throne in the center of the room, his horned head practically touching the ceiling as he towered above us. The statue looked disapprovingly out the doors of the temple, as if annoyed to be surrounded by so much stone.
“For some reason I imagined the Temple of Cernunnos would be more natural,” I said, pressing a hand to the cool stone columns. “Less ornate. More…foresty.”
“Foresty,” Carnon mocked. He walked slowly beside me, hands in his pockets in almost calculated casualness. He hadn’t told me he loved me again. Hadn’t said the words as we’d sat all night and watched the sunrise over the bonfire, his strong arm around me. Hadn’t said them when we’d crawled into bed, or when I’d straddled him and kissed him and begged him to give me pleasure in the best way he knew once more before finally sleeping.
But I saw them hovering there on his lips. A promise of a future if I’d just get out of my own goddess-damned stubborn head and accept.
“Even a god of nature like Cernunnos likes to be properly worshiped,” Carnon said, looking at me in a way that told me he knew exactly what I was struggling with inside my own head.
“Of course, what better way to worship than with an ostentatious temple?” I quipped, trying to lighten the weight that seemed to settle between us.
“I can think of something a bit better,” Carnon replied, a suggestive lilt to his lips reminding me how he liked to worshipme.
“Didn’t you bring me here to do actual work?” I asked, raising a disapproving eyebrow at him. “Where are these books you are so eager to dive into?”
“Below,” Carnon said, gesturing for me to walk ahead of him toward the back of the temple. I went, my boots making soft scuffing noises on the marble floors, his clicking more firmly behind me.
Old Elara would have been terrified to let the Demon King follow her into a dark passage. But then, I supposed the benefit of all Carnon’s lies was that I never really feared him. I was angry and hurt, but I never believed he’d harm me. He’d had a million opportunities, and he’d only ever touched me for pleasure. I realized with a bit of a shock that I hadn’t even put my chalk in my pocket on this excursion.
“You’re thinking loudly,” Carnon said, his voice sounding strangely harsh in the hush of this sacred place.
“Thank you for noticing,” I said, shooting a flat look over my shoulder.
“Anything I can help with?” he asked, an arched brow rising and making my skin tingle with the memory of him last night beneath me in bed. My necklace thrummed and I cursed, slapping my hand over it. He chuckled, and for some reason I imagined him giving his shadow stone ring a twist. “It feels like something I might like to help with.”
I paused, turning to face him. “What happens if I take this off?” I asked, gesturing to the necklace. “If I don’t want you to have access to my feelings through it?”
He shrugged, walking past me toward a staircase sunk into the floor that led to dimness beneath the temple. “Nothing,” he said, “but I’d still feel you. The stones link us, but I don’t need you to wear yours to feel you.”
“How does that even work?” I asked, more curious than annoyed about the magic of the stones.
“I have no idea,” Carnon replied, voice echoing as he descended the stairs first. “I have never read about it, but I’m certain you can find out if you wish. One of my scholars might know.”
The necklace warmed again, and I wondered this time what Carnon must be thinking about.
The bottom of the stairs were not as dark as they ought to have been for leading to a windowless basement. I frowned as pale light reached the space, looking for its source.
“There’s a skylight in the library itself,” Carnon explained, gesturing for me to follow him. “The room and this hallway are illuminated by a series of mirrors placed to reflect it.”
“Clever,” I said, looking up and finding one of the mirrors, barely larger than my hand, in the corner of the ceiling.
