Ash Princess (The Deviant Future #6) - Eve Langlais Page 0,24
problem with the dragons?
“Where is the volcano that started all this shit?”
“I think that’s enough of me answering questions for you,” she said, clasping her hands. “My turn, starting with, who are you?”
“Cam.”
She stared at him.
He had to admit he was enjoying teasing her. Probably not the smart thing to do given he didn’t know her and what she wanted from him.
“My name is Cam, currently from the Marshlands, more specifically the capital city of Eden. Formerly of Haven, which is now an outpost of the Marshlands. But before that I lived in Emerald.”
Her mouth rounded. “You lived in the Emerald Wasteland?”
For some reason, this made his lips tilt. “I did. Not a great place. I don’t recommend visiting.”
“You escaped, though.”
“I did, but not easily. We also had a crevice in our way.”
“How did you cross it?”
“Lucky for us a tree fell the right way.”
“Must be nice,” she muttered. “You said people were aware our kingdom went silent. Did no one try to come help us?”
He shrugged. “Don’t get mad at me. I haven’t been around that long. I only heard of Diamond recently.”
“And thought you’d come for a visit?” was her sarcastic retort.
“Why not? I needed a change of pace and scenery. Gotta say the welcome needs some work,” he drawled. “Not to mention, I’d like some pants.”
Hands in his lap over the cloth didn’t negate the fact he was pretty fucking naked and alone with a beautiful woman. Did she not grasp the danger? He should be locked up, tied at the very least. Had no one taught her to never trust strangers?
“You’ll get pants once you tell me what I want to know.”
“Why did you save me?” he blurted instead.
“I am regretting that decision, given you’re purposely avoiding answering me,” she griped. Her eyes flashed, drawing attention to the fine features of her face.
“I already told you pretty much everything. What else do you want to know? I have a sister, twin actually, although we look nothing alike. Her name is Casey, and she thinks she is tougher than me.”
“What makes you think she isn’t?”
“Oh, she probably is, but needling her about it is one of my quirks.”
“Do you have many quirks?”
He shrugged. “You’d have to ask my friends. I’m sure Axel and the others in Haven could tell you plenty.”
The spill of words had her blinking. “Who is Axel? And what is Haven?”
“Haven is the collection of people I escaped the Emerald Kingdom with. A good bunch looking for a better life. Axel is the person who got us there. Well, technically, it was Gunner who found the path, but Axel was the one who founded Haven in the first place.”
She waved her hand at him. “All these names mean nothing to me. Let’s go back to the more recent part where you said you came from the Marshlands.”
“I did. Here by order of the king.” He didn’t admit yet who his sister was married to.
“Why did your king send you? Does he not like you?”
He outright laughed. “Oh, he might not like me, but he won’t kill me. I’m here scouting out an imminent danger to the Marshes.”
Her lips thinned. She didn’t need him to elucidate. “The poison is starting to spread past our borders.” At his nod, she sighed. “We wondered how long it would take.”
A sudden thought came to him. “Speaking of wondering, how is it the dragons don’t stray from Diamond? If they can fly, shouldn’t we have seen them? Wouldn’t they have encroached on the Marshes before this?”
She shrugged. “Your guess is as good as mine. We only know what happens here. We had no idea if the dragons were spreading or not. We had our own problems.”
“Which you solved by going underground.” He glanced around the room, a strange rectangular shape with odd square cubbies in the wall. Obviously human wrought. No windows at all, and the rear wall was chiseled stone striated with dirt and minerals. “What is this place?”
“Welcome to the Necropolis.”
He frowned at the name. The Diamond capital used to be called Cloudring because it existed atop five mountain pillars joined by a series of pedestrian bridges. Or so the hand-drawn picture he’d seen depicted. He’d done his research before leaving on this trip. What little there was. For a world that could print books and disseminate information, it proved awfully hard to get the right tools to do so.
“Are we under the Cloudring?” Because it had occurred to him that if he were to find anything