clearing I’d started in. Panic flared in my chest, and then the crunch of boots had me falling into a defensive stance. Keon appeared behind the log and skidded to a halt at the sight of me.
He held up his hands. “Fee, stop. We have to go after the power source.”
My head felt suddenly fuzzy. “What took you so long?”
“What?” He looked confused. “I was right behind you.”
“No, you weren’t. I was here, and I met a man, and he…he…Fuck. This place is fucking with us.”
“Let’s get back to the path.” Keon beckoned me.
I looked east, upriver, the direction that the man had told me the power was. He’d also told me Uriel had been taken west, and all that had done was spit me back out here. But maybe that was this place playing tricks. Maybe his information was correct.
“Fee?” Keon approached warily.
“I’m not going to bolt, okay. But we’re not going back to the path. We go this way. The power source is this way.”
Keon pressed his lips together and nodded. “And Uriel?”
I swallowed the lump in my throat. I’d tried to get to him, but this place was a bitch, and if the man was right, then hours could have passed already. We couldn’t waste more time.
“We’ll get him out. Once we find the power source and deliver it, we’ll come back for him.”
With a final look west, I headed upriver toward what I hoped was our salvation.
Please be safe, Uriel. Please hold on.
Chapter Thirteen
The river either went on forever or time was fucking with us. I wasn’t sure which. There weren’t many landmarks to go on. Everything looked the fucking same here, and the gloom and shadows didn’t help. The stars might be bright above us, but their light didn’t seem to make it down here.
Keon walked beside me in silence. He had a fluid way of moving, as if he could launch himself into a run, or leap or pounce at any moment. I got the impression that the clothes he was wearing were an encumbrance, and I was totally distracting myself from the fact that he was pissed at me. I was damned if I’d apologize for going after Uriel, though.
He needed to understand that where I came from, we didn’t walk away from the people we cared about.
“I’d have done the same for you.” I glanced across at him to catch the slight flinch to his features. “I would have gone after you too.”
“You’re an idiot,” he snapped. “You could have been hurt. Killed.”
“And Lilith would have been affected. I know, I get it, but I had to try.”
He was silent for a long beat. “You could have been hurt…” His tone had dropped, and there was a slight edge of uncertainty to it as if he was testing out the words and examining their meaning, and it hit me that he’d been worried about me. Just me, and not what my demise would do to his queen. For some reason, that made me feel warm.
“Keon?”
“Don’t. I can’t like you, Fee. It will make everything more difficult.”
I grasped his hand and pulled him to a halt.
He blinked down at me with his beautiful cat eyes and sighed. “Now I have the urge to kill a rodent and offer it to you,” he said with a flash of annoyance. “Why you?”
He was talking about his courtship, about the fact that pheromones made him want me, and a week or so ago I’d been horrified by it all. I’d been horrified by him and his strange ways, but now…Now those same strange ways were graceful and beautiful and compelling. He’d just calmly told me it would be difficult to kill me, and I was focusing not on the killing part but the part where it would be difficult.
There was no denying that I was beginning to care about this complex man.
“Why you?” he asked again. Softer, this time.
I gave him a small smile. “Why not?”
He frowned, and then his eyes narrowed. “If you think you can take advantage of my primal instincts and convince me not to kill you, then you’re mistaken.”
I shrugged and let go of his hand. “I know.” I began to walk again. “Keep up.”
He sighed. “I can understand Lilith’s conflict over you now.”
“Oh?”
“She won’t enjoy ordering your death once she finds a way to nullify Eve’s curse. She believes you worthy of her son.” He flashed a look my way and then fixed his attention on the ground ahead.