Page 39

“What happens if you carry me like this?” Anna called out before leaping like a lockhorne jumping shrub and landing on my back. “Will I get more than the pendant now?” she asked with a laugh.

Somewhere inside of me, there had to be something that felt ashamed at the rush of endorphins that shot through my body when Anna clutched me tight, but the wave of good feelings pushed any logic away from my grasp and I let myself enjoy it.

A peal of laughter carrying double its weight in sadness flowed out of me.

It felt so fun to have this type of interaction.

I could lose my head to the pure joy that I felt from this tier.

I almost didn’t want to leave. A two-day stay here might not be the worst thing.

It might be a good place to really figure some things out.

“You heathen,” I shouted to the side as I pulled my arms free and laid them over her legs so she was wrapped tightly around my torso in a proper piggyback position.

Silently I hoped she would stay like this for a few minutes.

It felt kind of nice to pretend—maybe if I didn’t stop walking, she wouldn’t want to jump off.

She made a clicking sound with her mouth as if she were riding a horse and urging it to go faster.

“If I must be your steed, let me at least be blessed with the physique of your previous stallion—the one you rode in the red keys, what was his name? Sir Bunson the colossal?” I teased as I took off in a run, holding onto her legs tightly.

“Bunson the colossal? What kind of name is that? His name is Vlad.” I could feel her body move with laughter against my back.

I slowed, testing to see if she would jump off my back.

Did she want to stay on as much as I wanted her to?

I noticed she was keeping her hands on my shoulders, not moving them around my neck—where the pendant was, something that surely took a lot of restraint and forethought on her part.

It also caused little caterpillars of something dangerous to tickle around my stomach.

“Quick, say something evil,” I teased. “I’m starting to enjoy your company. ”

“Zef,” she said, turning serious.

“Zef?” I asked, not understanding. Did she want to talk about her father? Did we still call him her father? Thankfully she was adopted by the king himself—Kaohs really had stepped up for Anna. Perhaps he wasn’t as bad as I had been told either. That seemed to be a pattern I was experiencing lately.

I pulled my elbows into my side to keep her in place. Her body relaxed onto mine and my eyes shut with gratitude for another moment of this. Feeling her hug my back was…cozy and euphoric. She began to slide down from my back.

“Wait,” I whispered, my eyes still shut tight. She paused. “What?”

“Stay like that. I like you this close.” My voice felt so raspy and gravelly rumbling out of my throat.

“I’m sure your back could use the relief. I’m not the lightest girl around.” The slightest hint of insecurity tangled into her words.

“You are perfect. Whoever made you feel that you are anything less than that is a weak, stupid person.”

She stilled. “I can’t hold on very long without putting my arms around your neck.” That sounded even nicer than her hands on my shoulders. “But I will try and rip the pendant from your throat if I do that,” she said, and I couldn’t tell if she was joking or not.

“Heathen,” I said as I turned to look at her. She shrugged but laughter filled her eyes. “At least you’re an honest heathen.”

Sparks danced in her eyes. “Would you stop me?” she asked softly, sliding completely off me.

I had turned before she had stepped too far away so she craned her neck to look up at me.

From this angle I could see the soft skin of her neck and under her jaw.

It looked like skin that had never been touched, and good suns, did I want to touch it.

“I think so,” I replied honestly. For a minute or two, she and I stood still, just looking at each other from the new angle.

“I really think you should go to Moirai,” I said, sensing immediately I’d ruined the moment when she let out a grunt that rivaled one of Thistle’s.

“What if you could help more than just Kaohs by going there? The Fates made it sound like they really needed you. What if they have something incredible and amazing planned for you?”

“I’m sure they do. The Fates don’t make mistakes?—”

It was my turn to roll my eyes. It certainly felt like my being here had been a pretty huge mistake on their part.

“—but that something incredible and amazing is yo u

handing me the pendant and watching as I fill with power so strong I could put out the sun if I wanted to.”

I narrowed my eyes and scowled at her. “There is no sun in Tartarus to put out.”

Her eyes began to dance again. “Then I’ll create a new one—a sun so bright the weather gods are put to shame.”

I stopped, hearing something off in the distance. “Listen.” I turned to my left, purposely blocking Anna with my body from the strange sound. There it was again. The grating, wet call of—“Is that…a forest bog?”

Anna’s face paled. “My blade is with my armor. I didn’t bring it.”

“It’s okay. Here, take my blade,” I said, immediately handing her the four-inch blade I kept tucked away. “It’s small, but that doesn’t matter if you know how to use it.” Even an impending forest bog wasn’t enough to stop the glimmer of recognition at the unintended innuendo.

“Is it small?” She snorted quietly.

Heathen. “You tell me. You felt it back in the prostitute’s quarters.” I winked.

Her face turned as pink as her hair. Holy suns, was she beautiful all pink and flushed. My cock had already burst to life just thinking about how she had felt rubbing her hands over me. I wanted to see her spread out and panting—to see what else I could make blush pink.

Anna shouted something and I felt the searing sensation of teeth ripping into my forearm.

“Aagh! Fuuuuuhhh!” I yelled. “Stab him!” I called out as I moved the bog to where she could reach it.

She swung twice and missed. “Agh! How do you hit anything with this?”

My eyes widened at her horrible blows, quickly realizing that she wasn’t going to be of any help getting the cretin off me.

I whipped it around to the other side, away from her, kicking its fat frog-like body and trying to break off its branch-like arms. “I watched you kill like thirty men while on a horse. What are you doing?” I watched with concern as she swung haphazardly with the small blade, nearly cutting me twice.

“That’s a game that I’ve been playing since I was ten! It’s different on a horse than with tiny stupid blades!” she shouted, still swinging as if it were an enormous iron sword.

“Stop swinging it like that!” I frantically moved to grab the knife from her—and the pointed tip of the blade went into the tip of my pinky.

“Aggh!” I shouted. The bog had started using its arms to stab my stomach.

“Aggh!” Anna shouted realizing she’d stabbed my finger.

Another bog appeared next to Anna. I flipped the blade down from my pinky and lunged at the other bog before it could grab her.

For a split second, I watched fear come over her face and apparently that was all it took to make me turn feral.

I don’t know what it was. Maybe it was adrenaline, maybe it was something else, but seeing something go for Anna made me turn animalistic.

I had both bogs flayed open on the ground in the span of a moment as I stood panting over their bodies.

“You’re okay?” I asked her, suddenly irked that she had been out here all this time and couldn’t defend herself.

I had left her in the first tier and she couldn’t even fight.

“How is it possible you fight so terribly? It’s not that different on a horse,” I said.

She blushed again, now looking angry. “I don’t have to fight anything. Why would I know how? Half of what I do in the red keys is just choreography with a heavy sword! I just swing it around and knock the other riders down!”

“How do you expect to be the leader of the Underworld if you can’t fight?” I screamed louder. I couldn’t believe she didn’t know how to fight.

“Ugh, heads up, dummy. I don’t have to fight to lead! Anyone that does is bullying, not leading,” she screamed. “And you don’t think you’ll need protection? Among the kinds of people that live in Eromreven?” I tried to reason with her .

She gasped. “The kind of people that live in Eromreven? Sunshine, you live in Eromreven!”

“Ha! I hardly live there. I stayed briefly and shall be exiting entirely in six more tiers!” My pace quickened. I could hear running water, possibly a stream ahead. Perhaps that’s where Bexley went. Perhaps I could submerge my head in it and forget about this infuriating woman.

“What happens when you don’t make it out? Then what? You think it’d be so awful to stay in Eromreven forever?” She ran next to me to keep up with my long strides.

“I’ll make it out,” I said confidently. “And you are coming with me.” Less confidently.

“You must be nursing a head injury if you think I’m leaving Tartarus or Kaohs to come with you to see the gilded pricks of the Elysian Fields.

You’re cute, but you’re not ‘leave everything I have’ cute.

” She made her eyes even rounder and looked to the side.

“There’s a stream and a waterfall up ahead. ” She took off running at full speed.

“I hear it too.” I trotted behind her letting my anger ebb. “I can feel—aagh!” she yelled.

Moss and mud slid up the side of my boot as my feet skidded to a halt at the edge of a large stream. My arms shot out to catch Anna, but it was too late, and I wound up accidentally bumping into her and knocking her into the stream with a splash.

She rose from the shallow stream, sliding on the bottom, her hair plastered to her face. Thankfully her under-armor clothing was all black. Had it been white, I would have been presenting this stupid pendant to her on a platter.