Page 48 of Sinful Curses
“Or they were coming from our way and didn’t get far at all.”
Sahira’s ominous words hung heavy in the air. No one responded to them; there wasn’t anything to say. They had no choice but to continue.
CHAPTERFORTY-ONE
They didn’t bother findingwood to start another fire or to return to the one they left behind. It would take too much time to return, and by the time they finished gathering enough sticks for another fire, the day would be upon them.
Instead, they settled near the edge of the fiery geyser field. They gathered all their blankets and huddled together for warmth.
The brownies burrowed in to nuzzle securely against them. When the wind picked up, it found crevices that let it blow down the blankets; the small immortals shivered in response.
Sahira spent most of the night trying to ignore that she was wedged between Orin and Elsa. Every time she nodded off, her head inevitably fell onto his shoulder; the second it did, she’d pop back up.
Whenever it happened, he’d smirk at her in that annoying way he had. He had no idea how close that smirk brought him to having his throat ripped out.
She glowered at him and contemplated moving, but she’d have to get up and walk to the other side of Zeth, which meant she wouldn’t be between him and Elsa and would have one side exposed to the cold.
As much as Orin infuriated her, she couldn’t tolerate the idea of being more exposed to the frigid elements. She’d had enough of the cold as her teeth chattered and her toes were caught somewhere between being completely numb and an awful pins-and-needles sensation that never ceased in thishorribleplace.
Eventually, exhaustion won, and she passed out. She woke to discover her head on his shoulder and his arm draped protectively around her. His body was like a small furnace she’d burrowed close to.
She tried to deny it but stayed there far longer than she should have while savoring his warmth and scent. He was more addictive than any drug.
While she would never become one of the dark fae’s mindless, sex-craved shadow kissed, she understood how those immortals and humans could fall so completely under the spell of the dark fae. They were a deadly, nearly irresistible temptation.
But she would resist.
As the first rays of the sun touched the horizon, she stirred from his arms and sat up. Yawning, she instantly missed his warmth but pretended not to as she rubbed her eyes before studying the vast field.
Not being able to see where it ended was a little unnerving, especially considering they were only a hundred feet away from a dead immortal who had failed to traverse it.
Sahira rubbed her hands together before breathing on her cold hands. She wasn’t looking forward to this.
She’d prefer to climb another mountain today… maybe. Her fingers ached as she recalled gripping those icy stones while pulling herself higher. She’d prayed to Hecate to keep her from making one small mistake that could send her spiraling toward a bloody, broken oblivion.
On second thought, she’d prefer not to scale anything again today.
As the sun crept higher, Elsa stirred, and Zeth rose to stretch his back. The sun’s rays revealed more of the field, stretching endlessly before them.
She certainly couldn’t see the end of it, and the more she saw, the further her heart sank. It had to be at least two or three miles across the thing, if not more because she still couldn’t see the end.
And then something strange started happening. At first, she couldn’t tell what was going on; it was too far away to process it, but as more of the sun’s light touched the field, it drew closer to them.
Then her jaw dropped as understanding dawned. What was coming toward them was small puffs of smoke as the geysers closed and sucked into the earth with tiny pops that left only tendrils of smoke behind.
The geysers disappeared completely into the earth, leaving only a vast, barren landscape of flat rock. Only fifteen feet away from them, the last one vanished so completely she couldn’t tell the difference between the rock and the place where the geyser once stood.
“What the fuck?” Zeth breathed.
The brownies had crept out from beneath the blankets and stood shivering at the edge of the field. While Elsa and Orin rose to examine the now blank canvas, Sahira remained where she was, her head resting against the rock, as a sense of understanding and doom descended over her.
When Orin lifted a rock from the ground, she didn’t have to see what would happen when he threw it sidearm across the field; she already knew the answer. Orin’s stone made small clicking noises as it skipped over the flat rock like it was passing over water.
As she’d known it would, the rock only made it ten feet before a geyser sprouted from the field. It propelled the rock upward in a fiery blaze that most likely incinerated it. The geyser vanished again with a pop, but smoke lingered above it.
“Now we know why that immortal didn’t wait until the sun rose to cross.” Sahira pointed to the remains that had finally stopped smoking. “It’s safer to cross at night.”
“Son of abitch!” Orin exploded.
