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For a brief moment, I was sure she felt the spark between us. Or maybe it was just the bloodlust, a semblance of her true self returning the more she killed ... but I was starting to believe that less and less.
There was a voice in my head that kept insisting she was different this time. The woman fighting in the jungle wasn’t the same woman I’d known. The things she’d said didn’t make sense. Guilt didn’t mean you deserved to die? That wasn’t Kali’s viewpoint. It wasn’t in her nature to be forgiving. She was brutal. Ruthless.
She hadn’t spoken since we’d left and taken an alternate path, determined to keep quiet. Her screams had given away our location when she’d fallen down the embankment. Clearly she wasn’t going to let anything like that happen again and risk alerting further shifters. She spoke not a word. Not a complaint. Not a question. Just silence.
“We’ll be at the ruins shortly,” I said, glancing at her.
“The where?”
“The ruins. It’s a shorter path to the caves,” I answered.
She slowed her pace, turning to me. “Don’t people usually live near ruins? Places like that provide shelter. Civilizations are built near natural resources, so won’t more shifters be living in that area?”
I inhaled deeply, letting it out slowly. “Not these ruins. No one goes there. They believe they’re haunted.”
She let out an annoyed scoff. “I can deal with haunted, but if it’s a shortcut and no one is there, why didn’t we take that way before?”
Because I didn’t want to. Because it is a painful reminder of the past.I couldn’t explain that to her. Maybe I wouldn’t have to. Being back there might trigger her memories even more. I’d be lying to myself if I said I wasn’t terrified of seeing her that way again.
After a while, the jungle started to thin out, and a clearing appeared not far from our path. As we broke through the tree line to open ground, the view changed. A large, flat area spread in front of us. The once-vibrant green grass was still dead and blackened, never able to grow again after the destruction of this place. The foliage surrounding it wasn’t as thick as one would expect, and younger trees grew at its edge, trying to reach the height of their neighbors. But the centerpiece was the ruins positioned on a plateau, steep cliffs on either side. The moonlight cast the entire scene in an eerie glow.
“Holy shit,” she breathed, her eyes wide as she took it in. “It looks like a bomb went off here,” Adora muttered, kneeling down and rubbing the charred ground with her hand. She lifted her fingers to her nose and sniffed. She looked at me in confusion. “There’s no smell.”
I tilted my head, considering her. “What were you expecting?”
She pressed her hands to her thighs and pushed herself to stand, then she shrugged. “An accelerant of some sort, or the scent of magic.”
I stared at her blankly for a few moments, trying to register what she’d said. “You canscentmagic?”
She crossed her arms and cocked an eyebrow. “You seem to be shocked again, Mr. God-king. You act like a know-it-all, but you don’t really know much about me.”
I gave her a deadpan look, and she rolled her eyes in return.
“Yes, I can scent magic.”
“Peacocks can’t do that.”Shecouldn’t do that.
“Well, I don’t know what other peacocks can supposedly do. I’m the only one left on Earth, so I’ve been on my own there, andIcan scent magic. My moms taught me how. I’m not that great at it, mind you, but I can get by okay. It comes in handy working with the Portal Guard. Investigating and whatnot. An explosion like this should be easy. It’s hard to mask the scent for something of this magnitude, but there was nothing.”
It had been an immense explosion. Those who didn’t feel the tremors in its wake were rocked to their core by the devastation and loss. All of Arcadia felt it in some manner. I felt it still.
“We’re losing the cover of night,” I said, glancing at the dim streak of sun on the horizon. “The caves are at the base of the valley below, just on the other side of these ruins and down a very long set of stairs that I’m not looking forward to descending. So let’s go.”
Adora pressed her lips together as she stared at the remnants of the structure, massive even in decay. Columns that once stood high were now toppled and broken. Huge rectangular stones littered the ground, and some had clearly fallen over the edge of the cliffs. “Stairs? In that? It doesn’t look structurally sound. Is there a way to climb down the side?”
“The only way is through it, unless you want to fly.” She was already full of surprises and liked to point out how little I knew about her. Perhaps this was one of those times.
She frowned. “Peacocks aren’t exactly graceful in flight,” she started, trailing off as she peered over the edge. The ravine was steep, and sharp rocks jutted from the mountainside. “I’ll pass. Last time I tried to fly, I couldn’t do it without hitting a tree. And that was ten feet off the ground.”
“Wise choice.” I took the steps that led up into the ruins and pulled down a torch mounted on the wall. Snapping my fingers, a small fire lit on its top, casting a warm glow around us.
She raised her eyebrows in disbelief, then gave me a look of approval. “Fancy.”
I took a deep breath before entering. I wasn’t ready, but this was the only way to avoid killing any more of my people. Adora followed silently, and I turned my head to see her in my periphery. She looked around, cautious and curious, her hand on her dagger.
“You won’t need that here.” When she gave me a questioning look, I jutted my chin to the hand on her weapon.
“You say that,” she whispered, her eyes still shifting from side to side as though she were waiting for someone to jump out. “And yet ...”
