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“Anybody bring a chainsaw?” Omaera asked with mirth.

Maxar reared his head back in surprise. “We don’t need a chainsaw, babe. We have fire.” Then like a centuries-old fire-mage, he whipped up a fire sword longerthan Omaera was tall, and sliced it through the thick trunk of a spruce like it was no more than warm butter. “Timmmmmmmmberrrrrrrrr!”

The tree crashed through the low laying brush with a cacophony of crunches before finding its final resting place on the forest floor.

While Lumberjack Maxar went about falling a few more trees, Zandren and I pulled Omaera off to the other side where we pointed out a small escape passageway if things went sideways and she needed to get out fast.

“I don’t see anything,” she said.

“Watch.” It was no more than a crack about three feet in length and five inches deep in the side of the mountain, but that was intentional. I stepped back a few meters, then without hesitation walked right up to the face of the mountain and into the crack, disappearing before their eyes, and through to the other side of the mountain where a beautiful grassy meadow filled with bees and wildflowers swayed in the breeze.

I spun around, about to head back to encourage Omaera to try it, when she stumbled toward me out of the mountainside, her eyes wide. She shook her head to reorient herself. “Well, that was weird,” she said, taking in the gorgeous landscape in front of us.

I waited for the bear to join us, but he didn’t.

“I asked Zandren to stay with Maxar. I don’t think any of us should be alone right now. Too much at stake.”

Nodding, I pulled that fresh air deep into my lungs and stared out at the rolling hills in the distance.

She came to stand beside me. “I want to forgive you,” she said, after a moment of quiet passed between us. “Idesperatelywant to forgive you.”

I swallowed, and my heart thundered wildly. I didn’t dare look at her though.

“I’m not there, yet.”

I didn’t expect her to be.

“We can’t keep secrets from each other, Drak. None. I want to know if you’re constipated and need to fart. If you’ve got a headache, or your fang has a cavity. Secrets are what caused all of this mess that we’re in. Aunt Delia lied to me about who I really am and where I came from. I know she lied to me to protect me,but it was still a lie. Maybe if I met my father, if I knew that I was a demon—a princess— none of this would have happened.” Her chest shuddered as she pushed out a deep breath through her nose. “I’m sorry that you’re suffering from the Mate’s Ache. I really am. And I will do what I can to mitigate that pain as best I can. But I’m not ready to mate-bond with you. Not yet. I’m still …”

I faced her, and her eyes were full of tears, which absolutely ripped my already tattered heart to even less functioning threads. “Figuring out a way to forgive me.”

She nodded. “Yeah.”

“I don’t forgive myself, if that helps?”

Her humorless huff of a laugh made me smile. “Perhaps a little.”

Then she surprised me and laced her fingers through mine, giving my hand a gentle squeeze. I glanced at her in shock, and she turned toward me, keeping our fingers intertwined. I faced her too, trying desperately to keep my breathing even.

“Did Melissima give you something to help curb the Mate’s Ache?”

“Yes.”

“Are you running low? Did you take it while we were in Hell?”

“Yes, to both of those questions. It doesn’t stop the Ache, and when you’rewithMaxar and Zandren, I may as well not bother with the tablets …”

Her cheeks went a little pink and one corner of her mouth tipped up as she glanced down at the ground for a moment. She met my gaze once more. “Once we get through this, we’ll go back to Melissima. I need to check on Gemma anyway. It’s killing me being away from her. I haven’t been away from her for this long since we met.”

I should have been relieved, grateful that she was looking out for my well-being and didn’t want to see me in pain. But the fact that she wanted to return to Melissima’s in Oregon to get me more tablets to mitigate the effect of the Mate’s Ache, meant she was nowhere near ready to mate-bond with me.

Her gaze narrowed. “What are you thinking about right now?”

“Nothing.” I shook my head.

She squeezed my fingers, almost enough that for a moment I thought she might be trying to cause me discomfort on purpose. “Don’t lie to me, Drak.”

And uncomfortable heat flooded my neck and cheeks, and I ground my molars together, focusing on the ground to my left and the way a fat bumblebee darted from blossom to blossom.