Chapter Twenty-Nine #3
We quickly grab our clothes but don’t bother putting them on as we leave the stream before the bear notices us. Another squall arrives, and the rain begins again before we make it back to the cave. Bane and I are trapped under the storms for two more days.
As soon as the rain stops on the third day, I make my second attempt to escape the cave while Bane is away relieving himself.
And for the second time, Bane finds and drags me back to the cave.
He actually has my hair in a vise grip as he drags me screaming back inside, and the idea of what this must look like is almost as upsetting as the fact that it’s actually happening.
He’s gone full fucking caveman.
The only thing missing is his club and a loincloth.
As soon as he releases me, I jump to my feet with an agility that would make Khalil beat his chest with pride, and then I jump on Bane, digging my claws into his face as I try my best to gouge out his eyes. “Don’t you dare do that to me again!” I screech. “I’m going back!”
The initial shock of my weight throws off his balance, and his back collides with the cave wall, but he quickly recovers and plucks me from the front of his body by my nape before dropping me to the ground.
I’m breathing hard, and he’s barely winded.
“Told you. Cabin not safe. Mine stay.”
“And I told you that if Thorin and Khalil are in danger, I have to go back. I have to warn them. It’s bad enough you won’t tell me why.”
“Trust.”
“Trust is earned.” Bane makes a sound of frustration and tries to walk away, but I catch his arm and he lets me stop him.
“Please,” I say in a softer tone. “At least let me talk to Zeke. I need to know he’s okay.
” I place a palm on his cheek when he still doesn’t respond.
“It doesn’t have to be forever. We’ll see each other again. ”
If Bane is right about the cabin being unsafe, it’s more than just a promise. It’s inevitable.
“Stay,” he finally says, “and I’ll go…Au-re-li-a.”
“Okay,” I agree, even though I want to ask him why he believes the cabin is unsafe. Bane didn’t say Khalil or Thorin. He said the cabin. What does he know? What does Zeke know? “I’ll stay in the cave.”
Bane lowers himself until he’s sitting on his heels with his knees digging into the ground.
I lower myself too until I’m kneeling in front of him.
I don’t know if I’m supposed to do something, but it feels important that I be as close as possible.
His palms are resting on his strong thighs, and he’s staring at me like he knows I’m lying but is choosing to trust me anyway.
And that makes me feel guilty as shit.
“Bane, wait,” I say, intending to come clean and tell him that I have no intention of staying in this cave, but it’s too late.
Bane doesn’t react to my request. His head drops, and then he doesn’t move at all for several seconds. And then… He twitches. When his head rises, his eyes open slowly and then he blinks.
Slow.
Catlike.
I watch as his green eyes look around, taking in the cave and then down at his hand. Somehow, instinctively, I know he’s checking for blood. There’s some caked in his nails along with dirt, but they are otherwise clean.
“Zeke?”
His eyes snap to me, and he actually looks shocked to see me. And then worried. He looks back down at his hands, turning them this way and that to recheck them, and then his gaze returns to me as he frantically looks me over for wounds.
“I’m okay,” I assure him. Grabbing his hand, I place it over my heart to show that it’s still beating fiercely. For him. For all of them. “I’m okay. Please talk to me, Zeke.”
He makes a pained sound, and then finally, he speaks. “Sunshine.”
“Oh my God! Seth?” I grab at his shoulder, his face, and his hair. Anywhere I can get my hands on him.
“Hey.”
“Hey? Is that really all you have to say? I thought you were—” I shake my head, unable to even speak the words. “I’m glad you’re okay.”
Seth sucks in a ragged breath that has me clutching him tighter. “I’m so sorry, Sunshine. I tried to stop Bane from waking up. I never wanted him to hurt you. I failed you.”
“You could never fail me, Seth. You came back to me. I missed you so fucking much.”
“You don’t have to say that, Sunshine. I know you don’t mean it.” He turns his head away from me and leaves me gaping at his handsome profile.
“Seth, look at me. I didn’t mean what I said.
Please believe me. I would have said anything to keep you safe, and that’s the only thing true that happened in that dell.
You are everything to me, and the last place I want to be is away from you.
It’s been killing me to think that I might never get the chance to tell you how much I love you.
That I will always love you. And I will never stop loving you.
I will never leave you. I know sometimes that you’ll have to leave me, but I will always be here waiting for you to come back to me. Please say you believe me.”
“I believe you, Sunshine. And I’m glad to hear it.
It would have made growing old together really fucking awkward if you didn’t want to be with me.
” A laugh bursts out of me. It’s such a Seth thing to say.
The perfect mix of romantic and unhinged.
I kiss him then because it’s been too long, and he groans like he feels the same. “So you and Zeke, huh?”
I hit his chest. “Don’t tell me you’re jealous. You said you were fine with it.”
Seth hums. “Yes, well, you just remember, I’m a lot more fucking fun than he is.”
“He’s not so bad.” When Seth scowls at me like a jealous boyfriend, it takes an effort to be a good girlfriend and hide my amusement from him. I’m just so fucking happy to see him.
Seth’s smile breaks free like he read my mind, and then he hops to his feet with a whoop.
He holds out a hand to help me up, and with my palm still in his, Seth lifts my hand and twirls me around, and I’m laughing again as I let him.
He lets me go and then dances away while singing “My Girl” by the Temptations.
He hops onto the slab like it’s his stage, and when he hops back off, Seth shoves his fingers through his hair to get it out of his face. His forehead and cheekbones are on display again, making him look more like Seth.
He’s back.
He’s really fucking back.
“I’m surprised you forgave me so easily. To be honest, I thought I’d have to grovel a little more.”
Seth hooks a finger in one of my belt loops and pulls me onto his lap as he takes a seat on the slab.
I fight off a shiver when he runs his nose along my collarbone where my shirt is torn.
“I’m crazy about you, Sunshine. You never have to grovel to get me on my knees.
I don’t want you to either. I’m yours. My heart is yours.
You can break it a thousand times and I’ll just piece it back together for you to do it again. ”
“I have no intention of breaking you, Seth.”
“You probably have a lot of questions,” I say when I catch him looking around again.
“Actually, I only have one. Why are we in a cave? Don’t get me wrong. It’s a nice cave, except for the fact that it’s a cave. It doesn’t really seem like you.”
I tell Seth about Meera and her pups, Bane waking up hours later like a delayed fuse, the storm, and waking up here. I tell him about my encounter with Bane, which seems to disturb him even more, and then Bane’s warning not to go back to the cabin.
“Did he say why?” Seth asks once I’m done.
“Only that I wasn’t safe there.”
“Hmm.”
“Any idea why?”
“No.” Seth sighs as he slides his hands into his pockets. “None. I’ve kind of been preoccupied keeping the son of a bitch from getting out.” He eyes me then. “Are you sure he didn’t hurt you?”
“I’m sure. Bane is, um…not what I expected.”
“Oh yeah? How was he?”
“Well, for one, he kept saying I was his, and then he saved my life. More than once. I really don’t think he wants to hurt me.”
“Bane is dangerous, Aurelia. If he’s fixated on you, it’s just one more reason to be afraid.”
“Maybe, but… I don’t know.” Just then, my stomach growls, so Seth and I search the cave for my boots, which Bane hid behind some rocks, and then we leave the cave to hunt for food.
I show him the narrow passage I found, and we squeeze through.
“The storm’s breaking,” he says as we search for whatever stream Bane had gotten our water from. “We’ll head back first thing in the morning. I’m sure Thorin and Khalil are losing their minds.”
“I feel like I’m losing my mind.”
“Join the club,” Seth retorts.
“So what’s the plan? We don’t even know where we are.”
“Bane wouldn’t have been able to carry you far after being in the river, so my guess is we’re on Maia. We’ll just have to keep heading south. Eventually, we should run into something familiar.”
The stream isn’t far away from the cave, and the moment I see the clear water, Seth and I drink our fill and then we tear off our clothes to bathe away the day. We even find some mint leaves growing by the edge of the stream and trout upstream hiding out near some log jams.
When we return to the cave, Seth pulls me close while we lie on the hard slab, and once again I have trouble falling asleep, but for a different reason.
“Sleep, Sunshine. You’ll need your strength tomorrow.”
“Promise me you’ll still be here when I wake up.”
“I promise. I’m not going anywhere until you’re safe.”
But if Bane is right about the cabin, who knows when that will be? I’m asleep before I can let the impending doom torture me further.