“What is he saying?” I asked, watching as those golden eyes slid from Ristan, to me. There was a look of helplessness in them that I wanted to wipe away.
“That if I allow anything to hurt you, I will be singing soprano,” he sighed, and looked me in the eye, “and then he will kill me.”
“Oh.” I snorted and looked at Ryder with a small smile lifting my lips. “I’ll be okay,” I sent to him, hoping he could hear it through the mental link.
“Be safe, Pet. Stick close to the Demon,” he sent back. “Come back to me,” he finished, as I gave him a small smile, and blew him a kiss.
I’d thought I’d lost him for a minute. It had been the worst minute of my entire life. I’d lost a lot that I’d lived through, but it wasn’t until I thought I’d lost him, that I’d known some of the most unimaginable pain in my life, and it had cut deep and quick.
“I thought you killed him,” I whispered through tears that still clung to my throat.
“I knew it wasn’t him. They were the guardians of the labyrinth and the first test. I didn’t have time to warn you; not with the odds being in their favor,” he said as he pulled me close and turned me toward the cave, the start of the labyrinth. “We need to get moving. If Danu has been playing with the old Dark King’s maze, we could kill half the people outside that barrier by the time we figure it out.”
“I thought you knew her?” I asked.
“She’s a sadistic bitch who loves to fuck with me. She gets off on trying to find new and inventive ways to screw with me,” he said tightly.
“Nice. Does she scramble the brain cells as well?” I asked sarcastically.
“And then some,” he replied.
We continued walking toward the cave in front of us. I turned one last time and looked at Ryder, who watched us as we slipped out of sight, into the labyrinth.
Chapter Twenty-Seven
We walked slowly into the cave, and before we got very far into whatever hell Danu had planned for us, Ristan stopped me with a hand on my shoulder.
“Here,” he said, handing me one of several short swords from beneath his cloak. “Now just because I’m letting you touch my sword and play with it, Flower, doesn’t mean we’re dating and shit. Don’t go getting the wrong impression here. I like my balls. Ryder would be having them for dinner if he thought there was something going on between us. Now, I know the lure of a Demon is strong, but this shit between us? It’s platonic. I like you, and even though the allure of swapping spit between us is appealing, fight it.”
“Seriously, Demon, you’re so full of it,” I said, shaking my head as he grinned from ear to ear.
“C’mon, admit it. You like me,” he said as he also handed me a dagger, and we started walking further into the maze.
“Oh I like you, but I like you better from a safe distance,” I replied with a wide grin.
“Come on, admit it, you want me.”
“Dream on, Demon,” I said. “So what’s between you and the Goddess?”
He growled, which caused me to give him a sideways glance. “It’s complicated.”
“You don’t say.” I smiled and looked around the colorful, glittery cave that surrounded us. It looked like something from a movie.
“She wants me to submit to her, and I don’t want to. I can’t say no, either. She has too much power, and yet if I say no, I could jeopardize everything Ryder has worked for. Everything we have worked for. You have no idea how much power she has, and how much shit she could cause for us. She fucks with me just because she can. About a century, or so ago, she took over the body of a female I was feeding on, and she has been doing it randomly ever since. One minute, I am in control of the feeding, and the next she is. Some people have to check their food to make sure it is fresh; I have to make sure mine hasn’t been hijacked. I have to have control. It is very important to me, because if I’m not in control, my partners can die. Trust me, it is tempting to submit. The sex is amazing. But those who submit to her that way; well, let’s just say it never ends well for them.”
“That’s harsh,” I said as we walked carefully between massive stalactites and stalagmites that almost touched each other. As we passed through the giant formations, the cave led out to green pillars of shrubbery on both sides that veered sharply to the left, indicating we were now in the maze. “So she wants you as a boy toy then?”
“You could say that. She doesn’t allow me to form attachments to women either. The moment it turns to anything more than just feeding, they die. I can’t prove it’s her, but why else would a fully Transitioned Fae woman just die without any signs of sickness?”