Page 117 of Faerie Hunted

Within an hour, we were back on the road and continuing our journey to the Abyss.

This time, however, I felt lighter than I had the previous day. With everything going on, I hadn't realized how much tension I carried when it came to me and Mike and our unresolved bullshit. I’d always told myself there would be a time and a place to make peace down the line, whether it meant we’d be together or not.

We’d needed last night.

The moment hadn’t been planned, but it was ours.

I forced myself to focus on the journey ahead rather than last night. Otherwise I’d walk with a blush that let everyone know exactly what I'd been doing. As it was, I managed to escape any kind of maternal talk from Livvy.

We were all still too stressed to talk much.

Onyx led the way unerringly forward.

I hadn’t expected to feel so awkward around him, but he’d glared when we saw each other that morning. Glared and drawn in a deep breath before his cheeks colored. He knew exactly what I’d done. Could no doubt smell Mike and me on each other’s skin. Imprinted.

The bite on the back of my neck still throbbed from the claiming.

I refused to let the moment be ruined. Onyx and I weren’t romantic with each other. Even though there had been times where I almost thought?—

Where we almost could have?—

I shook my head to clear it and offered Onyx a hard smile, urging him not to discuss it. Not to say a word or press the issue.

He’d eventually relented but I struggled with the guilt for the first few hours of our trek.Why should I feel guilty? Onyx and I never gave in to the small stirrings of attraction. There was no understanding between us. Friends. A cherished friend.

To his credit, no one stopped to question him on how he seemed to know exactly where to go without the use of a map or compass. The land around us changed and the tension mounted, but otherwise we were content to walk. To be silent.

To worry over whatever fresh hell waited for us.

Slowly, the guilt took a back seat to the worry, one I knew we shared between us.

Even Bronwen, who looked like she had a million questions for me about last night, zipped her lips shut. Although it wasn’t as if she and I had ever talked about boys before. There were too many other things, life and death matters, to talk about. Not sex.

I swallowed over a tired giggle then glanced around to make sure no one heard me.

Livvy straightened like she’d stuck her finger in an electrical socket but said nothing.

By the end of the day and after a handful of stops to rest, Onyx halted and lifted his arm to point to something on the horizon. “There it is,” he called out.

Bronwen squinted. “Therewhatis?”

Noren growled and the hair on the back of his neck lifted.

“You don’t see it?” Onyx asked, awed.

The ruins appeared out of the corner of my eye at first, like a half captured flash of something you weren’t really sure was there or not.Realor not. The longer I focused on them, the more the strange rock formation swam into view and solidified.

After a few minutes I was able to look directly at them.

The ravaged temple was not some majestic site perched on the side of a mountain. The ruins rose out of the ground in the middle of nowhere, halfway between a clearing in the forest and the farmland visible beyond. Faerie seemed made up of more ancient forests than anything else. And what had the temple been before falling to time?

The stones wavered, one moment as solid as the ground and the next as nebulous as smoke.

A tingle of awareness tugged at me and the sensation grew into a tremor of fear. This place wasn’t supposed to exist. And we were definitely not supposed to be here.

If Onyx hadn’t pointed out the ruins, I would have dismissed the temple as a trick of the light and nothing else.

“I wouldn't have been able to find this on my own,” Mike commented. “This is both fantastic and horrible at the same time.”

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