Page 61 of A Sea of Vows and Silence (The Naiads of Juile #3)

Selena

I stopped Pheolix’s heart for only a second.

Just long enough to feel it flutter under my hand. A short skip, a palpitation lasting only the briefest moment. Then pulled away, terrified I’d hurt him.

Pheolix stepped back, a hand at his heart as though he’d been punched. But his wide steel-gray eyes didn’t leave mine. And mine didn’t leave his.

“Heart stopper,” he whispered.

“I’m sorry,” I blurted. “I’m sorry I hesitated in the servants’ quarters. I’m sorry I was confused. I’m sorry I left everything unsaid. I’m sorry I couldn’t say goodbye. I’m sorry I didn’t come sooner. I’m sorry I let you think I was him . I’m sorry—”

Pheolix closed the step between us, arm wrapping the back of my head, and crushed his mouth to mine.

My hands flew to his neck, his jaw, his hair. My fingers twisted into his collar, kneading at his shoulders. Everything I could gather. Everything I could touch. It was all here, and I gripped it with all the strength my fingers could manage, pulling him closer.

He nudged my legs wider apart, the ridge of his hip bones hard against the inside of my thighs.

Heat washed the cavern mouth around us, a tidal wave of flames against my skin.

They left me dizzy, drowsy, gasping for air.

When he pulled away, he only gave me an inch, panting over my mouth and chin, but his forehead pressed against mine, his eyes shut tight.

“You were going to kill me,” I breathed .

“Sorry.” He kissed the side of my mouth. “It would have been fast. You wouldn’t have felt a thing. What are you doing here?”

“I came to find you. I’m leaving Calder.” I stroked a thumb against his chest. “And taking you with me.”

He wove his fingers through mine, holding them still, a sudden intensity in his eyes.

I bit my lip, stifling the impulse to wiggle under the weight of that gaze. “You thought I was Thaan.”

“You pretended you were Thaan.”

“Well,” I huffed. “You weren’t coming with me.”

“He’s never let me get that close to him before.” Pheolix laughed softly against my cheek. “The mind games in this place.”

I leaned away, looking him in the eye. “What is this place, exactly?”

Mouth parted, he hesitated. “Does he know you’re here?”

“No.”

He rubbed a hand roughly down his chin, glancing around us. “Yes, he does.”

“No, he doesn’t.”

Pheolix pulled the black cloak around his shoulders, clasping the edges together. “You came by land? By horse?”

“Yes.” I pointed. “It’s waiting just under that tree.”

He unfurled a second cloak, wrapping it around me, drawing the hood low over my eyes. Draped directly across the bridge of my nose, the fabric was something like byssus silk, surprisingly easy to see through. “Land. Where birds could follow you.”

I blinked at him, at a sudden loss for words. “We hired decoys. I’ve made it all this way.”

Pheolix grasped my waist, lifting me off the cart and onto my feet. But he didn’t let me go. He pressed me into him as though afraid I might run. Then straightened, listening for sound.

Rain was the only thing we heard other than the guard’s quiet heartbeat .

Pheolix clicked his tongue. “It’s too easy. Come on.”

He turned back into the mines, a hand at my elbow, pulling me in front of him. I gave my horse a backwards glance over my shoulder. “It’s not too easy. I’ve been planning for months.” I reached for the torch, but he grabbed my hand. “We don’t need it. It will only draw them to us.”

Frustration at his doubt simmered in my blood, but I smothered it with cool patience.

I’d wanted him out of that cell deep below, and I’d succeeded.

What remained was merely a matter of making him comfortable enough to follow me the rest of the way.

If he needed an alternate route through the mountain to gain that comfort, so be it.

He laced his fingers in mine.

A river of smooth heat sprang from my fingers. Something tingled under the surface of my chest, fast and fleeting. Despite our walk through the cloud of dust and dark, I bit my lip.

The echo of our feet returned, the taste of rock and dirt on my tongue. The last reach of starlight faded as we reached the full shadow of the mountain. Pheolix’s thumb slid over mine, calling my attention.

“Is there any reason you can’t run?”

“Are you asking if I’m hurt? No.”

His grip tightened. “Whatever you do, don’t let go.”

I glanced at him. But we’d ventured so deep, I couldn’t see a thing.

He squeezed. “ Do you understand?”

“Yes.”

“Good. Run.”

Without light to guide us, it’s hard to guess how far we ran.

The carbon in the air tasted like soot. Pheolix turned us right and left, the labyrinth of rock seemingly stamped in his memory.

My knees and feet began to ache. The knife on my calf burrowed in with every stride.

Oxygen felt thin again. Weak. As though I might take the deepest breath my lungs could hold and still not inhale enough.

It wasn’t until the sharp scent of petrichor tilted my attention above that I realized Pheolix had driven us up at an incline. We’d been climbing the mountain from the inside.

Rain crashed somewhere above, a sudden gust of wind whipping my hood off my head. Pheolix righted it, grasping me by the hips and lifting me to sit on the edge of a rock.

Heavy drops pelted me from the black sky.

I shuffled backwards to make room for him, aware that he’d just sent me out the back of a small hole. The thick scent of pine prickled in my nose. “Where are we?” I shouted over the rain.

Pheolix grabbed at the stone above, groaning as he towed himself up by his fingertips.

“Secret entrance to Rivea.” He stood and reached for me, guiding me up into a crouch with a hand over the top of my crown.

“There are six that lead out from the mines. This one comes out under a tree. Watch your head.”

The light of the moon and stars hid more now than it had before, the clouds heavier here than at the entrance to the mine. But it wasn’t quite as black as inside. Faint light illuminated the edges of Pheolix’s bare chin and neck, though under his black drone’s cloak, he remained invisible.

We crawled out from under the tree.

“All my money was with my horse,” I said, suddenly realizing I’d left more behind than just my transportation.

Pheolix knelt in front of a stone almost as big as he was. He fit a shoulder against it and heaved, rolling it up against the incline. “I know the location of at least three Rivean shipwrecks,” he ground out. “You don’t need it. ”

“What are you doing?”

He stopped, the boulder obstructed by a thick root. Adjusting his weight, he stood and lifted it, vanishing under the pine tree’s low branches.

“Pheolix,” I snapped, certain he might hurt himself. “Can I help you?”

“Nope,” he grunted, letting the rock fall into the small cave we’d just climbed out of.

The ground vibrated under my feet as stone grated against stone, but the unmistakable solid thunk a moment later informed me the boulder had stuck fast not far below where we stood.

Pheolix emerged from the tree, his cloak plastered to his face with rain. He dusted his hands. “You already did.”

He felt down my arm, finding my hand once more, weaving it together with his. Then struck down the trail.

“Should we drop more rocks down?” I asked, throwing a backward glance behind me.

“Maybe, but I’d rather not waste our time. The other tunnels lead out near this.” He stopped suddenly, pulling me up short. “Where’s your sister?”

I’d known the question would come. But it caught me off guard anyway. I opened my mouth and closed it, fumbling for words. “She’s gone.”

“What do you mean?” Heat flared from him under the heavy rain, staining the earthy mountain air with a hint of fired metal. “What happened?”

I tried to answer him, but the back of my mouth cinched shut with a sharp and painful choke.

I hadn’t told anyone yet. And here, on the secret side of a mountain in the middle of the night, I suddenly wasn’t ready to.

My forehead fell forward instead, colliding softly with his collarbone as I began swallowing profusely, trying to control the well that threatened to flood my throat.

Cebrinne had wanted to go. Had fought with me for the chance to leave.

Why was it an overhanging sense of guilt that took her place in my heart?

Why, after finally accepting what she wanted, did I feel as though I’d failed her ?

Pheolix didn’t press me. Perhaps he might have, had he not been convinced we needed to make a quick evasion. But he no longer burned with urgency as he wrapped his arms around me, pulling me in, kissing the top of my head.

I let him tuck me against himself for a full minute. Until my body surrendered a rough shiver under the rain. “Come on,” he said, feeling a calloused hand down my arm again. “Rivea’s military base isn’t far from here.”

Something mischievous lurked in the tone of his voice. I pulled away, forcing him to stop. “Rivea’s military base?”

Under his hood, he smirked. “We need horses.”

“You say it as though you’re planning to steal some.”

White teeth flashed even wider.

I snorted. “Why worry about Thaan when we can provoke an entire army into chasing us through the mountains?”

He grabbed my hand again. “Exactly.”

“I’d rather find Sylus Lake and follow it east to the ocean. Maybe hide in Paria for a few months. Xiane might take us in.”

His thumb drifted across mine. “I assumed you’d want to head north. To find your Polaris Lights. Your escape.”

“I seem to remember someone wanting to spend their life cooking sausages on the beach and dancing with women out of their league.” I shivered again. “Besides, I have twenty-five years to find my escape before I have to be back.”

He tilted his head. “Before you have to be back?”

I exhaled, promising with the stroke of my fingertips against his knuckles to tell him everything later. Pheolix nodded. “To the east it is, then,” he said.