had a thicker spray. “Then again, it was the same day.” I tipped my face toward one of the holes in the ceiling. “Maybe it’s still the same day.”
“Not if you went through four cells, it’s not,” Kiera commented.
“Feels like one endless day.”
“So now, you don’t hate each other anymore?” Quinn asked.
“Something like that,” Remo said, his fingers no longer teasing my waist. Or rather teasing it differently. His nails raked across the skin he’d pinched, raising bands of goose bumps.
“I can’t believe Ace agreed to an arranged marriage.” Cruz’s quiet proclamation made Remo’s fingers still. “I was certain he’d abolish them.”
Remo’s face became an assortment of angles and edges. “Massin Wood thought my grandfather was about to orchestrate another coup.” He swallowed jaggedly, his hand drifting away from me. “He looked miserable about giving me his daughter. Almost as miserable as Amara.”
“I wasn’t miserable; I was furious. And you didn’t exactly look happy.”
He held my gaze before staring back at the fire.
“I’m beat,” Quinn announced.
Kiera rose, too, stretching her arms over her head. “I’ll see you guys tomorrow. Don’t forget to put out the fire.” She trailed Quinn toward their caves.
“Cat, is your—” Cruz’s eyes grew wide as he realized by what name he’d just called me. “I’m sorry.”
“It’s okay.”
“You just look so much like her. Though she probably doesn’t look like you anymore.”
“Don’t tell her that. Neenee Cass and Nima are all about forty-one being the new twenty.”
“Forty-one? Wow.” Cruz stuck his fork inside the sand, right where Lily’s face had been. “Skies, how strange it will be . . . seeing everyone again.”
Silence draped over us, interrupted only by the snapping flames.
Sighing, Cruz stood. “I’m going to call it a night, also. If you need to . . . you know . . . relieve yourself, there’s a designated area fenced by a wall of fronds. Just circle the outside wall of the cave. Can’t miss it. As for drinkable water, you can find some in there.” He tipped his head toward the wall behind him, or rather toward a piece of scrap metal fashioned into a squat barrel. “The blown-up train comes in handy. If you two feel like it in the morning, I’m planning on heading back to the explosion site to gather usable pieces before they fade.”
“Fade?” I frowned at the barrel.
“If you don’t pick them up within a certain timeframe, they vanish. Once you touch them, you lock them into this cell.”
Why anything still surprised me was beyond me. “What happens now that there are no more trials?”
“Unless Gregor’s changed the rules, it’s all dreadful peace and quiet until someone new shows up.” He rubbed his hands down his jeans that were a few inches too short on him. “To turn off the fire, just kick sand over it.”
“And the meat?”
“Leave it. No animals roam around here except the vamp beetles, and they don’t come down into the valley.”
I looked at his retreating figure until the archway of his cave gobbled him up. When I turned back around, I found Remo poking at the blackened, sputtering logs. I held my palms out to the flames, relishing the heat. Although not cold, the air inside the cave system carried the mustiness of a basement and the chill of a place in dire need of sunlight.
I propped my chin on my shoulder and studied Remo. “Are you okay?”
He blinked at me, then at the dancing blaze. “Yeah. Fine.”
“I made you mad again, didn’t I?”
His eyebrows scooted a little closer to his nose.
“I’m sorry I blabbed about our engagement. I didn’t think it was a secret since you told Cruz—”
“That’s not it, Amara.”
“Then what is . . . it?”
“Getting engaged shocked and confused me, but I was neither miserable nor angry,” he said without glancing away from the fire. “I guess it just hurts to hear how upset it made you.”
“You scowled at me throughout dinner.”
“Because you had your back to me, Amara. You didn’t even attempt to be civil.”
A startled breath escaped me.
He ran one hand down his face. “Forget it. I’m just tired.”
“You can’t say something like that, then tell me to forget it.” I lowered my palms and leaned back. “I’m sorry. I promise not to turn my back on you, or bite your head off for holding my hand during the binding ceremony next time the Cauldron appears.”
His rigid posture finally softened under his borrowed cream Henley. “Next time, huh?”
I circled my finger in the air as though I were trussing him