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And then he pulled off his shirt, stuffing it in the largest compartment and zipping it shut. Before she could ask him what in the hell he was doing, he dropped to a crouch before her, turning so his back faced her. The tops of his shoulders were reddened by the sun, his freckles more prominent. And his tattoos…gods.

The ink on his back was divided by his spine—there were no tattoos on the right, but the left was completely covered with a grayscale masterpiece, filled with far too many details to notice with only one glance.

Okay, maybe not a glance but a hard stare. One really hard stare.

“Get on,” Roman said.

Shay blinked down at him. Was he really doing this? “Shadowmaster and camel?” she gasped. “Who are you?” His back was full of scars and weird little puckered marks that almost looked like…the top of a lighter.

“My offer expires in three, two, one…”

She got on, wrapping her arms around his neck and her legs around his waist. “At least give me your backpack,” she said.

“I can carry it—”

“Shadows, give me the damn backpack! You won’t be able to balance me properly if you have to carry it too.”

He passed it to her, and she held it by one of the straps. This would be awkward, but it would work. He stood with ease, his hands gripping her beneath her thighs, and scaled the rock. It was impressive—the way he could move. But she found it difficult to focus on much else when his warm hands were gripping such an intimate part of her body, his hold never faltering.

Nope, not thinking about his hands.

“Scratch the whole camel thing,” Shay said. “You’re a mountain goat.” That earned her a small chuckle. With her chest pressed against his back, she could feel the brief spell of laughter rumble through him. “Roman ‘Mountain Goat’ Devlin—I like it.”

He kept walking, covering ground quickly. “No one is to hear about this, pup. Got it?”

She zipped her mouth shut and tossed away the key.

Twenty minutes later, they reached the top. The moment Roman set her on her feet, she hurried to a flat, horizontal rock by the edge, one that gave her an utterly breathtaking view of the desert valley down below. She tried to convince herself that she had practically run away from Roman because she was eager to see the land below, and while that was partially true, she mostly wanted to put some space between them—immediately.

Roman joined her shortly after, bringing that rippling cloud of dark energy with him. She studied him out of the corner of her eye as he took a swig of water, a couple drops dripping down his chin.

Gold eyes locked on hers. “Have some water, pup. I don’t feel like carrying you all the way back.”

She didn’t want to be carried by Roman again either, so she let her pack slide to the dusty earth and took out her canteen. She stole a moment to stretch out her aching shoulders before unscrewing the lid and drinking the last of the lukewarm water.

For several minutes, they caught their breath as they stood together on that mountain, looking down at the red desert.

It was beautiful. When Shay thought of the desert, she pictured barren, lifeless land, but it was anything but that. It was alive in a way that only the desert could be, and so stunningly beautiful that it literally took the last of her breath away.

She shielded her eyes from the sun and looked harder, utilizing her sharp hellseher eyesight to scan for anything that might tell her where Anna could be.

There was the cristala power plant—gleaming like liquid silver.

“There’s nothing out here,” she sighed. What a waste.

But something glimmered in her periphery. She craned her neck, looking farther north—

There was another one.

“I knew we passed that plant twice!” She pointed. “See?”

Roman was already looking. “Yeah, I see.”

“Why do you think there’s two?” And so close together.

“It’s just a power plant, Shay.”

“But why two?” It was the only thing about this whole damn desert that stood out to her as being weird, and she wasn’t about to write it off. “Are there ever two in a single area like this?”