Page 56 of The Demon's Fire
“Certainly not with you.”
He enjoyed her snapped response, but when her shoulders slumped, guilt spreading across her face, he decided to confess.
“I may have exaggerated the dangers at the village. Though I would have had to pound the elder’s son into the ground if the kid hadn’t taken the gift in lieu of mating, the rest of the Yeti would’ve accepted the outcome. No need to battle them all.”
Skyler’s haughty chin did a toaster pop-up. “Why did you let me believe…?”
“You’re an easy mark, fast to rile. When you’re pissed, you come alive.” Kole didn’t say her crackling blue eyes stirred parts of him best not aroused.
“You were intentionally cruel.”
“Probably. But you have a knack for inserting your foot in your mouth. And once it’s there, instead of spitting it out, you try to swallow it.”
“Just say it. Say, ‘I told you so.’” Skyler fisted her gloved hands.
“I’m not an I-told-you-so kind of guy.”
She relaxed, her arms drifting to her side. “I admit I should have listened to you and Bounty. I should have acquainted myself with the various cultures on Scath and Darque before I ever came on this tour. I was wrong about the Genesis Rite. I miscalculated how much I could drink at the ball. I made an error at the Yeti village. I have shortcomings. I know it, Kole, but I will get better. I learn from my mistakes. Are you bad at anything?”
“Sure. Small talk, keeping my temper in check, kissing ass, and drinking coffee from tiny cups.”
Her lids shuttered her eyes.
Damn. She is beautiful. And way out of my class.
Skyler’s shoulders slumped. He could handle her icy arrogance—in fact, he enjoyed pricking it until she sizzled—but her defeat? Not so much. He sauntered over to her, toe-to-toe, and gentled her chin up with his thumb. “I’ve been rough on you. Your shortcomings are … strangely attractive. Few humans could meet the challenges on Darque. You got through Noir Swamp alive, tangled with an amphista, and dodged a sand leech.”
She straightened her spine. “I certainly did.”
“You could learn to take advice better, though.”
Her big blues fixed on him. “I’m working on it.” She tugged her hat down, sliding her frosty expression into place. “Where are we now?”
When Skyler shivered, Kole wrapped an arm around her shoulders, tucking her into his body for warmth, liking how she fit against him, head under his chin. He gestured toward an open, treeless plain where sparse vegetation and frost spread across the surface. Small-leafed shrubs dotted the rolling hills in the distance. “This is a tundra.”
“Look. What are they?” A restored Skyler pointed at a pack of fourteen white wolves who emerged from a canyon. They jumped, leaped, and pranced around, their necks arched, their noses lifted, their howls echoing across the permafrost terrain.
“Loup Garou. They’re shifters, proud, lethal beasts incapable of controlling their change or hunger for flesh. That’s why they live here instead of North Shelters on Scath.”
Kole glanced down at Skyler. His mouth gravitated toward her lips. He straightened at the last moment. Sheltered under his arm, she seemed soft, willing, in need of protection. In the crisp air of the tundra, her eyes sparkled like the sky. Her cheeks pinkened from the cold. Her up-tilted face was an invitation to a welcome kiss.
Nope. Not going there. Besides, I don’t poach another guy’s female.
The earlier kisses had been necessary or mistakes.
“Let’s go.” Kole shook off the momentary urge and portaled them to the Frozen Northlands, where they watched gigantic white polar rats roam across ice floes. Since the frigid winds coming off the water were strong, they rapidly jumped to the Painted Rock Forest to keep Kole’s balls from icing over. They exited in a burned-out section of the woods, the trees bare, their trunks blackened, the ground littered with ash.
“What happened here?” asked Skyler.
“Gagans happened. The hissing, dragon-headed beasts are mean sonsabitches. A couple of their hunting parties from the Great Prairie to the south set these sacred oulder trees on fire just to piss off the Yeti. It was probably their heads on display in the village.”
The next stop was a rise looking over Narobi Flats. Kole scanned for hellhounds. Though the beasts often preyed on slower wildings in this region, he saw no signs of them stirring dust.
Skyler yawned.
“I know it’s not the company. You’re tired. It’s time to return. We’ll jump to Scath from here.”
“But we haven’t seen the prison area. Outcast Keep.”
