Bonded Ever After (The Royal Gold Keepers #3)

Chapter 19

NINETEEN

Elora

Hunger burns through me, a painful pit in my stomach. We’d been in this hellish place for eleven fucking days, and there doesn’t seem to be any end in sight. Callum and I have already made the hard decision that we would need to hunt and live off the land to survive now that we’d gone through everything we got from trading, but it’s proving more difficult than it sounds.

The lava spider skitters past me as I strike out with my sword, but I narrowly miss it. Again . Callum is poised to strike just a few feet away, but he’s gotten better, having struck too early the last two times we’d tried, and failed, to get something to eat. He waits. And waits. Then he strikes.

His sword tip goes through the center of the spider, and it makes a terrible crunching sound. The legs continue flailing around for several long minutes before it finally stops moving.

Callum lifts the sword that the spider is impaled on and does a little dance. “We got it! We got it!”

I laugh. “I just hope this is better than the snails.”

The snails were hard to find, usually living in the brown bushes, but easy to catch. Unfortunately, eating them was like eating a giant booger that tastes like ash. I’d hurled after our last two meals, so Callum is desperate to catch something I can keep down.

We return to the path, then stare at each other.

“There’s no way to cook it,” Callum says.

I nod. Even the brown trees can’t be burned here. We’d tried.

“So… we just… eat it?” he asks.

My stomach growls and rolls at the same time. If the baby didn’t want snails, the baby sure as hell doesn’t want spider guts, but we have to eat or die.

No one ever said being a Gold Keeper was easy. Or that being a mom who is trying to do everything to care for her baby is fun.

“I guess so.”

“Do you want a leg?” he asks and shudders.

I reluctantly nod.

He reaches forward and takes a leg, twisting it until it snaps off the body. Then he hands it to me. I stare at whatever is dripping out of the leg, then the hard surface.

“It’s crab,” I say. “Just a crab leg.”

Callum twists off his own leg, then offers it to me. We clink them together like champagne glasses before moving them to our mouths and beginning to suck the ends.

My stomach doesn’t immediately revolt against the taste. It’s like a mixture of ground beef and crab. It’s not entirely appetizing but better than the ashy booger. I definitely don’t want to eat this every day, but I think I can keep it down.

“What does Little Bean think?” he asks, studying me carefully.

I smile. “Little Bean… finds it tolerable. I think.”

He grins. “Then I’ll become the best spider hunter you’ve ever seen.”

“Yay,” I say, but I sound tired, even to my own ears.

He moves our packs away and shifts behind me so I can lean on him, then continues to break legs off the spider as we eat.

“This is pretty romantic,” I say.

“Oh yeah, I know how to treat a lady,” he teases.

I look back at him. “You’re going to be a really good dad, you know that?”

He smiles broadly for a minute before it fades. “I hope so, because I have no idea how to do this dad thing. Archer wasn’t exactly dad of the year.”

Thinking about the cruel way he spoke to Callum, I understand. “He was always so angry.”

“He wanted a life different from the one he had. He didn’t like being married to my mother. He’d married her because people wanted him to marry her, and she’d married him for the power. His title meant he didn’t have any real friends in Paradise Falls, and he resented having to go to Neverwood to help people he didn’t care about. I honestly don’t know anything that he actually cared about, including me.”

My heart aches for him. “I can see why you don’t care all that much about finding our dads.”

“That’s not true,” he says, surprise in his voice. “Your dad loved you so much. He loved you with his whole heart. I saw that, every time I looked at the two of you. I want you to have your dad in your life. I want our child to have your dad in their life. I just… I just want to keep you safe. Walking into the unknown goes against just about every instinct I have.”

I kiss him again. I can’t help it. He used to approach me with this big ball of possessive jealousy, but now it’s a more tender possessiveness, like his sole focus in breathing is keeping me safe, and it’s so, so sweet. Our child could do worse than him for a father, that’s for sure.

We finish the spider legs and go for the body. The stuff inside it isn’t nearly as tasty, but we finish it and actually feel full for the first time in awhile. Both of us know it’s unlikely that we’ll meet traders again, so we fully need to find a way to live off the land until we get out of here. If we can.

“Do you want to rest for a while longer?”

I shake my head. “We should keep going.”

“We don’t have to be as careful. There’s no world in which the Council could follow us this far into Neverwood.”

I smile. “Yes, but I don’t want to stay in this realm one day longer than we have to.”

“Fair enough,” he says, standing. He puts his backpack with the crystal chest tied to it on. He’d abandoned the one the traders had given him once it was empty. Then he offers me his hand. I take it, and try to pretend that I’m not as exhausted as I feel.

“We just have to keep going. We have to keep hoping we’ll get out of here soon.”

“I just wish there was a cabin,” Callum says. “One night sleeping in a real bed with a roof over our heads would be amazing.”

“Agreed,” I say, suddenly daydreaming of a cabin out in this lava world. “But I bet the lava would burn down a real cabin.”

He winces. “Probably.”

We keep going, climbing one hill after another as afternoon gives way to evening. Soon, we’ll be able to rest for the night, but not yet. Not when there’s still daylight.

As we get to the top of the next hill, I inhale deeply and take a step back. On all sides of the path spreading out on both sides of us are glowing blue creatures that are flying, just like the little girl we saw. For now, they all look like something close to jellyfish, just glowing and bobbing in the air.

I take Callum’s hand. “Don’t trust anything that flies.”

His hand tightens around mine. “This will be easy. We just keep walking, one foot in front of the other. We don’t leave the path for any reason.”

“Right,” I say, and then we start walking.

As we draw near, the creatures shift shapes, looking like lost kids, looking like the people we traded with, even looking like cuddly-looking animals. They beg and plead with us to come save them, to help them, but we just keep moving.

It’s weird. I know none of them are really what they pretend to be, but something about them makes me want to go toward them. My feet keep turning toward them, and I have to physically force myself to stay on the path. It must be whatever magic they’re made of. Whatever they’ve learned to do to survive in an environment like this.

Suddenly, the creatures part and a large one of them appears. It’s probably five sizes larger than the other ones and pulses as it moves, like a jellyfish. Instead of just having a blue light, it changes between green, red, orange, and yellow, melding from one color to another in a way that’s mesmerizing.

“Don’t look at it,” I warn Callum.

He shakes himself, and we keep walking. But then music begins to emit from the creature, and I feel a strange feeling come over my body. It’s like I’m suddenly really tired. My eyelids feel heavy, and the world takes on a dreamlike quality.

Callum starts to head off the path.

I push away the strange feeling, knowing that going off the path is trouble.

Stepping in front of him, I press my hands to his ears, covering them, so he can’t hear the music. He blinks down at me, as if seeing me for the first time, but the music continues to pull at me, to draw me closer to the creature, even though all logic says I need to stay away.

My hands drop from Callum’s ears, and I make a movement to step off the path. Callum’s arms encircle me, pulling me backwards, and he’s breathing hard. Then we’re both moving toward the edge of the path.

A squeal disturbs the music, and I jerk, my focus moving from the creature to an animal. It’s one of the donkey-like animals that the traders had had. It runs straight for the big creature, seeming caught up in its music. When the donkey-thing reaches the creature, the floating being stops playing music and leaps down onto the donkey-like animal, covering the animal in its translucent body.

The animal begins to scream and wail as we watch its skin being peeled from its body. All the creatures descend on it, and it screams and screams as they fight over it. Blood flies everywhere. Flesh scatters around, and the creatures race around, consuming the splattered flesh.

I look at Callum with horror in my eyes. “Plug our ears and run?”

He nods.

We plug our ears and start running, and we don’t stop running, even when the flying creatures are far behind us. Even when we’re sure the music can no longer reach our ears. We run and run until we crest a hill and spot a cabin along the path down below. What’s more… the entrance to the next ecosystem is just beyond it.

Finally, we stop running. We stand together on the path, breathing hard. We’ve reached the end! We’ve finally reached the end of this horrible place!

Callum picks me up and throws me in the air. I laugh, and then we’re hugging and spinning. Whatever comes next, it has to be better than this place. It has to be.

“What should we do?” Callum asks, grinning. “Escape or rest?”

I let my mind work. “We don’t know what we’re going to face in the next ecosystem. It’d probably be best to spend the night in the cabin. Maybe there are even supplies in it.” But at the very least we know there will be fresh water because of the magic of the cabin.

He doesn’t say a word, just starts heading for the cabin, with me at his side. We’re exhausted, but there’s a pep in our step at just the thought of a night spent in a bed and a cool shower. Any chance at an escape from this brutal realm.

We reach the cabin, go inside, and turn on the flickering light around the room. It’s immediately cooler, I mean like by twenty to thirty degrees at least, probably something our fathers had weaved into the goldarium when they built this place. We throw our stuff on the floor and don’t have to say a word before we’re both stripping and heading for the shower.

I moan as the cool spray washes over me, and Callum groans behind me. Then we’re opening our mouths and drinking as much as we can. I spend a full minute just standing under the falling water drinking before I start scrubbing myself clean. Callum does the same, both of us tired of being yucky and sweaty.

When we’re done, I ask him, “Do we really need to get out?”

He gives me a wicked grin. “I have another excuse for us to stay in…”

I laugh as he pulls me into his arms, and we start kissing. Our kisses move from sweet to hot within seconds, and my body heats up for him. How long has it been since we were together?

Too fucking long.

He lifts me up and presses me against the wall of the shower, his mouth never leaving mine. My legs wrap around his back, and his tip presses into my channel. I let out a rush of air against his lips as he squeezes inch by inch into my wet and willing body. The fit is tight.

When he’s fully inside of me, he breaks our kiss, breathing hard. “I love you.”

“I love you too,” I say, digging my nails into his shoulders.

He starts thrusting into me, and it’s as if the heavens have opened up and swallowed me whole. Every muscle in my body is tense. Every nerve is alive and aware of every inch of him touching me. And he feels… so incredibly good inside of me.

“Callum,” I moan his name.

“Marry me,” he groans, thrusting into me harder.

My head rolls back. He sucks his way down my throat, and I love the feeling of my hard nipples rubbing against his chest. Every part of him feels built for every part of me.

“Marry me,” he asks again, picking up his pace. “Elora, marry me.”

“Yes,” I whisper, and as he starts pounding into me, “Yes, yes, yes!” slips out.

My inner muscles tighten. Pleasure explodes over me and my orgasm hits, rolling through me like a tidal wave. I move my hips, taking his thrusts harder and harder as I ride the waves of my orgasm, and then I feel him come inside of me.

I clutch him harder, pull him closer, loving the feeling of his hot cum inside of me. I love knowing that the man I adore, the man I’m going to have a child with, can make me feel this good. This cherished.

Slowly, his thrusts calm, and he kisses me again and again. My forehead. My eyes. My cheeks.

“I just love you so much,” he rushes out between ragged breaths.

“I love you too,” I tell him again, smiling as I comb my fingers through his wet hair.

His baby blues lock onto me, and he says, “I meant it when I said I want to marry you.”

I don’t hesitate. “And I meant it when I said my answer was yes.”

The smile he gives me could light up the darkest night, could fill up my soul on even the bleakest day. This man is my everything, and I swear to the gods that I want him to always be at my side.

He sets me down gently. We turn off the water, and then he uses a towel to dry me gently before he picks me up and places me on the bed in the cabin. Then, he goes to dry himself.

“What do you need?” he asks me.

I shake my head. “Nothing.”

He frowns and goes to dig in the chests before coming out with bags of food. “I’m going to make a stew. You need to eat more.”

It’s hard not to watch the gorgeous, naked man making food for me. Hard not to want him all over again.

When he finishes, our eyes meet. He washes his hands, then slips under the covers with me. I don’t know what he’s planning on doing when he slips under the covers and his mouth finds my core. My hands clench the sheets. Every muscle in my body tenses, and he proceeds to lick and suck me until I feel like I’m losing my mind, and then my orgasm hits me like a ton of bricks.

I’m screaming his name as stars burst in front of my vision and my nerves sizzle with pleasure. He continues to lick me long after my orgasm passes. I have to reach down and tug on his hair to get him to come up, and then he’s grinning like he just won the lottery.

“Wow,” I manage.

He laughs. “I could tell you weren’t fully taken care of.”

I try to give him an innocent look. “Well, what if I’m not fully taken care of later on tonight?”

He grins. “What my lady wants, my lady gets.”

We cuddle together for a while, listening to the stew cook over the fire, enjoying the cooler air and the soft bed beneath us. I start to feel like I might fall asleep, and I force myself to stay awake. I want to eat first.

“Should we see if they left a journal here?”

Callum kisses my forehead, then slides out of bed and starts digging through the chests. After a minute, he produces a brown leather journal. We sit in bed together and open it, noticing there’s only one page with any writing on it.

“Is this a good thing or bad thing?” he asks me.

I shrug. “I guess it depends what’s on that page.”

The entry is in my dad’s handwriting. “The next ecosystem is the Cloud Realm Ecosystem. We only know this because of something we learned from the traders. We have never been to the next ecosystem, so we have no idea what you’ll face there. We have no words of warning. No words of caution. All we can hope is that Callum and Elora made it this far, because we sense we are nearly to the end of the Phoenix Trail. Can you feel it too? The pulling. The desire to keep going, even though you don’t know why? If you’re here, keep going. Paradise Falls is not the place you think it is. We are not respected the way you think we are. We are tools for the Council and the people. We will never have real lives, or happiness, if we remain in Paradise Falls.”

Callum sets the book down. “What are you thinking?”

What am I thinking? “I’m a little nervous that they don’t know what’s coming next, that we don’t know what’s coming next, and that they never returned back this way.”

“Yeah, all we can hope for is that the Cloud Realm is better than the Ash Realm.”

He’s right.

Then he glances at me. “Do you feel the pulling they were talking about? A need to keep going?”

After a second, I nod. “It’s like there’s something inside of me telling me that we’ll find our home at the end of the Phoenix Trail. That everything we’re looking for is there.”

He sighs. “I wish I had that feeling. The only thing I feel–” he hesitates, then continues, “is a need to keep you and our baby safe.”

I smile and kiss him. “Your dad instincts are just dominating everything.”

He returns my smile. “It’s weird that someone’s going to call me dad one day. Weird, and good.”

I kiss him again, then look back at the journal. “Do you think they knew about the Council’s plans for us?”

Callum takes a long minute to answer. “No, I don’t think so. I think they ran to protect themselves from something, but I don’t think they ever thought we were in that kind of danger. I think they just didn’t want us to be mindless tools for the Council. And I think they knew that our only way out of Paradise Falls was Neverwood.”

I feel strangely relieved. Some small part of me has been wondering what our fathers knew since the day we learned about the labs. I mean, if my father knew they were going to imprison and torture me, and he left me behind, he’d be a pretty shitty dad.

Sighing, I close my eyes and cuddle into my pillow, suddenly very tired.

Callum kisses my forehead. “I'll wake you when the stew is ready.”

“ Uh huh ,” I murmur, and then everything goes dark.