Page 43 of Vicious Little Vows
The figure started to disperse, then reformed. The stars glittered more brightly inside of it. I had a feeling like I was stepping over a boundary, but I wasn’t moving. Then everything was dark. The air smelled of mildew and the stars were gone.
“Eva?”
My knees nearly buckled at the sound of Gabriel’s voice. I could sense him again. He was somewhere just behind me.
A hand gripped my shoulder, hesitating as if he thought I might not be real, then he spun me around, pulling me into a crushing hug.
I trembled, taking in his earthy scent. Gabriel at the very least was alive. “Where are we?” I kept my cheek against his chest, feeling the beat of his heart. We should have never come to this place. There was a reason the pathways were severed.
Gabriel stroked my hair, making tears sting the back of my eyes. “I don’t know. I was watching over you while you slept, then suddenly I was here. I’ve been searching for hours but cannot find a way out.”
Oh gods, had the creature decided I was ruinous just like the guys? Had it trapped us in some sort of magical prison? “Did you see the guardian?” I managed to choke out.
“I have seen no one. I couldn’t even sense you until now. I thought—” His voice was tight with unshed tears.
“It’s okay. I’m okay.” I hoped it wasn’t a lie. “Let’s just keep looking for a way out.”
I forced myself to slide free from his embrace, even though I was so scared I just wanted to stay there forever.
“I have searched along the walls. There are no openings that I could feel, but I do not believe this space is airtight. It would have caused an issue by now.”
That was a less scary way of saying it, but I knew what he meant. If there was no air coming in, we would eventually suffocate. There didn’t need to be an opening for a celestial-made creature to jump us here. But even if there was air, we could still starve.
Extending my hands, I took small steps forward until my palms grazed a stone wall. Pressing along it, I started walking until I had circled the whole room. Gabriel was right. There seemed to be no way out.
“Can you reach the ceiling?”
“No,” Gabriel answered. “Come here. We’ll try together.”
I followed the sound of his voice until his hand grasped mine.
“Ready?”
“Sure.” My voice wasalmoststeady. Bully for me.
His hands went to my hips and he started to lift me, fortunately slowly so I wouldn’t bang into the ceiling. I extended my arms overhead. I was high enough to sit on his shoulder when I finally reached the ceiling. More solid stone.
Once I’d had a good feel around, Gabriel lowered me, then moved his hands to my waist, keeping me close. The idea of no doors had me panicked, but the guardian had shifted us in here, so maybe I could shift us out.
The only problem was that I was absolutely terrified, and I couldn’t seem to summon a lick of my magic.
“Gabriel, I need you to kiss me.”
He didn’t ask questions. His hands skimmed up my body until he cupped my jaw, then his lips found mine. It was a chaste kiss, but it was enough. My skin warmed. I opened myself to the magic, and the faintest glow of sunlight surrounded us. I thought of Mistral and the room shifted, then we were in another dark space.
Well, mostly dark. Mistral sat against a stone wall, a tiny white light bobbing at his shoulder. I’d seen him summon it before, so he at least had access to a measure of his magic here.
He was on his feet in a heartbeat, moving toward us. He pulled me against him first, then reached out his other arm forGabriel. “I thought you were both lost to me. I couldn’t sense you.”
“That seems to be a theme around here,” I tried to joke, but my voice wavered. “There’s a guardian here. I met it outside. It thinks you guys were the cause of the draining magic.”
Mistral bowed his forehead against mine, his soft hair enveloping us. “I should have known this was not my homeland. I wanted to believe…”
I inhaled his scent, like drinking steaming vanilla tea after a rainstorm. Still gripping him, I felt his homesickness. His worry. “Is that why you felt so strongly about it?”
He shook his head, trailing his silken hair across my cheek. “This is the bridge between the Bogs and my home realm. The magic of all three feel similar.”
“But there was no magic where we landed,” I said softly.
