Page 102 of A Hunt Bound in Blood
I sat back on my heels and let Glory do the honours as she cleared the top of whatever we’d hit. Definitely something wooden. And by the goosebumps that rose over Glory’s arms, I guessed something magical. It would have to be if it had stayed intact for any length of time. Glory dug around the sides of it, searching for the edges, until she finally brushed away enough earth to reveal a small box. At three hand-spans long and two wide, it was smaller than my usual prizes, but more than large enough for an enchanted amulet. Etched into the top of the mahogany lid were the initials FT, which I could only assume were Tersey’s. Beneath it was an inscription written in tiny print.
“It’s written in Old Golthic,” Glory said. “‘Love lives forever.’ This is it.”
Tears rolled over her dirt-stained cheeks, and her bottom lip trembled. She let out a shaky breath and sat back on her heels, giving me space to wrench the box out of the earth. Except it wouldn’t move. I put all my strength into tearing it from where Tersey had anchored it, but the damned thing held fast. I dug deeper and discovered that the bottom half of the box was wrapped in stone. The bastard had locked it into the foundation of the ruin.
“Can we open it as is?” I asked, and shuffled to the side to give Glory better access.
She bent forward and silently read the final clue scrawled across the front. It was a single line, the words written in a language I didn’t understand, but of course Glory had no issue translating it. Of course the woman who’d led us more than halfway across the country had no trouble interpreting and acting on the mad mage’s final steps. A wry smile twisted her mouth.
“It needs magic.” More tears dripped off her chin. “I can’t believe we made it all the way here just to have my uselessness as a mage stand in our way.”
I snatched her hand before she could dry her cheeks. “I never want to hear that word out of your mouth again. You are not useless, and you are not quitting. I don’t give a fuck if you need to unleash the hells to open this box, you do whatever it takes to see this through. Not for Brynna, not for Evaniel, but for you.”
She blinked up at me, her hazel eyes bright and her emotions tangled. She sniffled. “Well, maybe it won’t need that much.”
Still drowning in defeat that no words from me would dispel, she closed her eyes, deepened her breathing, and lay her hand on the lock at the front of the box. The hair on her arms rose and a sharp breeze cooled the sweat on the back of my neck. Overhead, the sky darkened, and I watched the furrow form between Glory’s eyebrows as she struggled to call her magic without pulling too much. Her neck grew taut, her fingers shook, and all around us, dirt and pebbles clattered down the sides of our hole with the rattling earth.
The lock clicked. Glory froze and squinted one eye open before allowing the other to follow. The ground settled, the sky lightened, and I heaved a breath of relief that we weren’t about to be buried or drowned in mud with our prize.
With shaking hands, she opened the lid, and inside lay the amulet. A large, ugly, diamond-shaped hunk of gold with three gems—two sapphires on the sides and a ruby in the middle—pressed into the centre. It hung from a heavy gold chain, the links strong and untouched by age.
A sob escaped her as she pulled the amulet out and draped it over her head for safe keeping. I grabbed her and bundled her to my chest. It didn’t matter that we were covered in sweat and dirt and blood. My pride for her overshadowed everything else. I dropped my bent knee to join the other in the dirt and pressed her to me so tightly our bodies moulded together. She straddled my lap and wrapped her arms around my neck, squeezing until I struggled to draw breath. I wished she’d hold me even tighter. I didn’t care about the pain.
I didn’t care about being a fucking prince. The revelation was enough to hit me over the head with the branch I’d spent half the day digging with. The title meant as much to me as any other treasure I’d dug up over the past ten years. It had been something to strive for. Something to chase. I didn’t want to rule over a bunch of demons in a land that had rejected me. Clearing my name, proving my innocence—it would be satisfying, but it wouldn’t give me anything I didn’t already have.
I buried my face in Glory’s neck, inhaling her scent, devouring the waves of joy and excitement that had replaced her fear, pointedly ignoring the undercurrents of sorrow that accompanied them. There was no reason for sorrow. If I was lucky enough that she wanted me to stay, I would stay. She could have her library, I would keep on finding treasure, and we would find a way to make it work.
“Cammon?” she murmured in my ear, her voice wet with tears.
“Hmm?”
“Can we go clean up before I become one with this tree?”
I laughed and tightened my grip around her. We didn’t have enough space in this pit for me to spread my wings, but I anchored her arms around my neck and climbed us out, back into the fading light of our final day.
Glory
XLV
I clutched the amulet to my chest as we shuffled away from the fallen oak to the foyer of the crumbling ruin.
We’d discussed finding somewhere else to set up camp for the night, somewhere closer to the harbour, but after all the digging, all the emotional upheaval around finding the clue and the amulet, neither of us had the energy to go any farther.
Cammon found a small water hole in the back corner of the front room, a place where rainwater had pooled from earlier, and to me it may as well have been a hot bath as I set about scrubbing off the day’s work. Tomorrow, I’d be on a ship. Tomorrow, I’d be on my way home, where my indoor washing basin and scented soaps waited. Tonight, I settled for clean.
As soon as I was dirt-free, Cammon followed suit, and I sat with my back against the wall and watched him use a small stone to scrub off the layers of dried earth and sweat from his chest and shoulders. When he struggled with his back, I stood and crossed over to him.
He said nothing as he dropped the stone into my open palm, and I scrubbed the muscles between his shoulder blades, noting the subtle ridges that marked the source of his wings. He shivered when I ran my fingers over them, and desire pulsed through the bond. I longed to explore that particular erogenous zone, but it pained me to think of doing so tonight. Maybe it would have made sense to take advantage of the time we had left, but my stomach twisted into tight, uncomfortable knots at the idea of indulging, knowing it would be the last time. Once we returned home, I would need to revert to my old self to stay safe, following the rules and keeping my head down. Bland personality, bland routine, bland fashion. Cavorting with a famous treasure hunter would draw too much attention my way. If we left what we had under the mountain, then the memories could stay there untouched. Perfect.
And I needed those perfect memories. I would need them every day for the rest of my life as I navigated through a world that offered survival and a challenging academic career and very little else.
Every night, I would come home to my little apartment. Maybe I’d check in with Ashara, but more likely, I’d be on my own. With no one to talk to about what I’d learned that day or what new research rabbit hole I’d fallen into. No one to share meals with or cuddle up next to at night. I’d been so focused on getting my little office in the library that I hadn’t given any thought to the rest of my life.
Then again, before three weeks ago, the rest of my life hadn’t mattered. I’d had nothing to compare it to. It had never occurred to me that anything else might be possible. As far as the world knew, I was a tempest mage who couldn’t use her magic. Any relationship I attempted, I would have to work harder to hide everything else. Sneaking blood in my own home, never letting my fangs show, never dropping my guard for an instant even in the privacy of my apartment. The very idea was exhausting and I’d be much better off with a few plants.
But Cammon knew what I was. He knew it, and he didn’t judge me for it. If anything, he seemed to appreciate it. He’d never hidden the pleasure he derived from my bite, and the bond running between us created an equality of power. He fed from my emotions, but I sensed his as well.
We were total opposites in so many things, but more compatible than I ever would have imagined when I’d walked into his office and found him slouched in his chair. He was the roguish playboy, I was the uptight mage advisor, yet somehow we’d met in the middle over a love of forgotten history.