Page 59 of Into the Abyss
She tugged her hands away from me and gaveme a look of both anger and intense suffering. “Those lives touchedme. They’reinme!”
“Those lives are not in you,” I said as Ireclaimed her hands.
I held them against my chest as herochre-colored eyes stared pleadingly up at me. Running my thumbsover the backs of her silken hands, I watched as her mouth parted,and my body quickened in response to her. Except, this time Ilonged to hug her against me and shelter her as much as I wanted totaste her again.
“But they are,” she whispered. “I felt theirstrength flow through me.”
“Amalia—”
She tugged at her hands again. When shegrunted in frustration, I reluctantly released my hold on her, andshe spun away from me. The edge of her dirt-streaked dress trailedon the ground, becoming browner in color as she stalked down theremains of the battered street. With subtle ease, she avoided thejagged pieces of asphalt jutting up from the broken road.
I hurried to catch up and fell into stepbeside her. “You don’t have to go back into the Abyss.”
She abruptly halted. “Yes, I do.”
“We’ll find another way to help the others,and we’re not doing much good—”
“But we are doingsomegood. I don’tcare how much I despise that place, I’m going back in there, andyou can’t stop me.”
A smile curved my mouth as I stepped closerto her. The impudent expression on her face was as amusing as itwas alluring. Over the course of the past two days, some of herhair had straggled free from her braids and cleaved to her face.She didn’t bother to push it away, but I brushed it back before Icupped her cheeks in my hands.
“I’m going back in,” Amalia insisted.
“What if you open a portal and let me go inalone?” I asked as I stroked her silken cheek with my thumb.
“And how would you get back out if youneeded to?”
“I’d find a way.”
“There is no finding a way, if somethingwere to happen, you wouldn’t be able to get out.”
“That’s for me to worry about.”
She blinked at me before she gave a derisivesnort. “Silly, arrogant demon.”
“We could arrange a designated time to meetup again.”
“It seems as if they’re the same, but timein the Abyss might pass differently than it does here. A fewseconds or minutes could throw us off completely.”
“I think it’s the same,” I replied. “Or atleast I believe it is for anyone not caught up in the loops thejinn create.”
She pondered that for a minute. “I thinkyou’re right.”
“I usually am.”
She rolled her spectacular eyes. “Iamgoing back with you, and there will be no arguments aboutit.” Patting my hands, she removed them from her face and steppedaway. “We should return to the others and the Abyss.”
“Not before you feed,” I said.
“We can’t take the time that willrequire.”
“Shadows line your eyes and you lookdrained. We willmaketime for it. You’re not going to doanyone any good if you’re too hungry and exhausted tocontinue.”
She opened her mouth to protest beforeclosing it.
“Come on, Freckles,” I said and claimed herhand. “With as devastated as this town is, there’s bound to bewraiths somewhere close by.”
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