“Unless you want to stay?” he drawled. “Maybe see if they have a bus tour?”
She abruptly tilted back her head to meet his chiding gaze, appearing unbearably young. Whatever spell the mage had used to keep her alive had ensured she hadn’t aged beyond her early twenties in human years.
“Do you have to be an ass?”
“I . . .” His words choked in his throat as he noted the damp shimmer in her magnificent eyes. “Are you crying?”
“No,” she ridiculously denied, spinning toward the swirling lava. “Leave me alone.”
He should.
Victor had requested that he go in search of the captured gypsy, he hadn’t said a damned thing about protecting the female from the hordes of beasts rumored to fill the underworld.
No one would blame him if he abandoned her to her fate.
Unfortunately, he hadn’t become Victor’s right hand man by tossing aside his duty when things got tough. When he started a job, he finished it.
And that’s the reason he reached out to tug her gently into his arms, his thumbs brushing away the tears that stained her cheeks.
“Kata. Shush,” he murmured. “I will find us a way out of here.” He glanced toward the distant opening across the cavern. “Or die trying.”
Her dark gaze held an unmistakable fear. “Are you sure we aren’t already dead?”
“What?”
“How can we be in the underworld if we didn’t die?”
A faint smile touched his lips as he allowed his hands to skim down the slender length of her throat.