Page 59 of Demon's Bane

The teasing in his voice draws an unlikely smile to my lips.

Yes, we nearly died. But we didn’t. And now we’re here, walking to safety. Breathing and talking. Alive.

With that in mind, I loop my arms around his neck and settle more comfortably into his embrace. It shifts me closer to him and draws a low, approving rumble deep from his chest.

“Fine. Carry me, then. But don’t complain I’m too heavy.”

Rhett’s laugh is deep and rich, bouncing off the stone walls around us. “Heavy? Little mate, I’d almost forget I’m carrying you if you weren’t complaining so loudly.”

We’re not panicked, now, not terrified. We’re not inches away from death with our fear and mortality giving us permission to say things we don’t mean.

And still I don’t correct him or try to get him to stop calling me that.

Little mate.

The sound of those two words sends another shiver down my spine.

We fall silent for the next stretch of the walk through the caves, Rhett continuing to pick his way down the path that gets narrower and narrower.

It’s hard to make out how tight the squeeze is in the gloom, but somehow I canfeelit. The claustrophobic press of the walls and the low slope of the ceiling, shrinking the way ahead untilRhett has to stoop slightly to avoid running his horns over the rock above our heads.

It seems to go on and on, and the further we go, the tighter my chest becomes. My breath is shallow, too fast, every part of me aching to be out of this place.

“Look,” Rhett murmurs, like he can somehow sense that anxiety. “See, there?”

I don’t see it, not right away. It takes a few more seconds of squinting through the darkness to make out what Rhett is looking at.

A glow.

Faint, but growing brighter with every step. It’s the same color of green-blue as the crystals we saw earlier, and the closer we get, the more the knot in my chest loosens. The air in the cave gets warmer, too, heavy and damp with humidity.

Near-painful relief floods through me when we finally reach its source, followed by a gasp of impossible wonder as we turn a tight corner and step into a vast underground grotto.

Towering stone ceilings rise over a shifting, shimmering pool in the center of the cave. Lined with more crystals, their glow ripples up through the water, casting the whole chamber in hypnotic light.

All along the edges of the pool, strange ferns and mushrooms and other demon realm plants emit their own glows in shades ranging from neon green to soft purple, the warmth of the cave making it feel like a greenhouse. Thick vines crawl up the walls, and as Rhett finally sets me back on my feet, I feel the soft press of moss on the ground.

“What is this place?”

“A natural spring. Fueled by water that runs up from deep within the mountain and the magick of the crystal in the rocks.”

We take a few steps closer to the pool in the center of the grotto, and I can’t help but crouch down and reach a handtoward it. Remembering at the last moment that touching glowy water deep in a cave in a realm that’s not my own probably isn’t the smartest idea, I shoot Rhett a look. He chuckles softly and nods, and, satisfied with that permission, I drag my fingers through the water.

It’s as warm as a bath.

“There are several smaller chambers branching off this one,” Rhett explains, nodding to where the water curves around a bend in the rock and disappears down a narrow tunnel. “Our entire community uses the pools for bathing and relaxing.”

It’s easy to imagine why. With the serenity of the grotto and the warm lap of the water, the thought of stripping down and wading into the pool is impossibly appealing. Especially when the two of us are still coated in cave dust and my muscles are aching from the anxious tension lingering in every inch of me.

But there’s no time for that now.

Rhett takes my hand again. “Come on, it’s not much further.”

He gestures to a corner of the grotto where daylight is just visible. As we make our way around the pool and approach that daylight, my knees nearly buckle with relief.

We made it. We’re not going to die.

Alongside the relief, however, is a wave of dread. Over what happened in the cave, and what might wait for us back in the village.

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