Hanna and the Hitman - Honey Phillips Page 0,71

kissing her, and the question had disappeared.

Now he was smiling down at her, and even in the semidarkness of predawn, she could see his eyes gleaming.

“Do I have to get up?” She yawned sleepily.

“I suppose I could carry you the entire way,” he said thoughtfully, and she laughed.

“As tempting as that sounds, I guess I can make the effort.”

She hurried through her morning routine and emerged to find him waiting for her, his travel bag over his shoulder.

“We don’t even have time for breakfast?”

“Once we get there,” he promised.

They walked hand in hand through the jungle, Trouble scampering around their feet. Aidon had tried to leave him behind, but he had whined so piteously that he had shrugged and agreed to let him come.

“You won’t be able to go all the way with us,” he warned the war beast.

A faint glow on the horizon indicated the coming dawn as Aidon stopped at the base of an enormous tree. Hanna’s extended arms barely covered one side of the trunk.

“Now we climb,” he said calmly.

“You have to be kidding. I couldn’t even climb a tree on Earth, let alone climbing this monster.”

“Don’t worry, saachi. I’ll carry you.” He bent over and motioned for her to climb on his back. She had done so once before when they’d been escaping Chotgor’s mansion back on Hothrest, but this tree was considerably taller, stretching up until she could barely see the top.

“Are you sure about this?” she asked.

“I would never let you fall, my mate.”

With a reluctant sigh, she climbed up on his back, putting her legs around his waist and winding her arms around his neck. He took hold of one of the big vines that reached the forest floor, and Trouble whined anxiously.

“I told you you wouldn’t be able to come the whole way,” Aidon said as he threw Trouble a bone almost as big as the pup. “We’ll be back in a little while.”

“He always seems to understand—oh!” She yelped as Aidon began to climb. He didn’t hesitate, scrambling nimbly up the vine until he reached the lowest branches of the tree. She realized that between the length of his hands and feet and his claws, he was perfectly suited for the climb and tried to relax.

“War beasts are renowned for their intelligence. That’s one of the reasons they were so desirable,” he said, his breathing as steady as always.

Only once did she make the mistake of glancing down. Despite the thick foliage, she could tell how far they had climbed already, and her stomach protested. After that, she squeezed her eyes shut and just concentrated on the secure feeling of Aidon beneath her.

There was a sudden jolt of movement, and then he straightened up as if he was on a flat surface.

“All right, saachi. You can let go now.”

“Are you crazy?”

“It’s fine, I promise. Open your eyes.”

She reluctantly opened them and gasped. They were on a large platform with nothing above them but the wide-open sky, already streaked with rose and gold. The ground beneath her feet felt soft and yielding, and vine-covered branches formed a chest-high barrier around the edge of the platform.

“What is this place?”

“It’s a cravan’s nest. An abandoned cravan’s nest,” he added hastily as her eyes widened. “They only ever use them for one hatching.”

Her pulse still beat rapidly as she went to join him at the edge of the nest, but the view that greeted her wiped away her fears. They were high above most of the trees, and the jungle stretched out before them like an ocean of green and gold, reaching all the way to a distant mountain range. The sky above them was growing steadily lighter, more colors adding to the glorious display until first one, then the second sun peeped above the horizon.

“So beautiful,” she whispered.

“Yes,” he agreed, but he was looking at her rather than the scenery. “Look around, saachi.”

She cast a confused look around the nest and saw little hints of blue start to appear. The blue spread, opening into a multitude of delicate blossoms until they were surrounded by flowers, beautiful blue flowers with a heavenly fragrance.

“Are these saachi flowers?” she whispered, almost afraid to breathe in case they disappeared.

“Yes, my mate. I promised you that I would bring you to see them.”

She stroked a cautious finger across one of the fragile flowers, delighting in the silky feel of the petal.

“I can’t believe that when you saw me in that cage, you thought of something so beautiful.”

“You are far