Chapter Twenty-Two
My lungs were burning from lack of oxygen when I heard Remy’s voice again.
“Open your eyes, Raine.”
I finally let out my breath. If he could talk, I must be able to breathe. Then I opened my eyes.
A bubble was all around us, its iridescent glow giving off enough light to see. I was on Remy’s lap, and beyond our bubble, I saw that we were between the whale’s throat and its teeth, that massive mouth closed around our bubble.
Private, Remy had said.
It sure was, although the whale probably felt like it had a huge beach ball stuck it its mouth.
I sucked in several breaths. Surprisingly, the air didn’t stink like fish. Or maybe the bubble protected us. Either way, I could breathe, and I wasn’t being chewed on or drowned. That’s all I cared about.
“You take me to the nicest places,” I said once I was breathing normally again.
A laugh vibrated through Remy’s chest. To save space, he held me tight against him. “You haven’t seen anything yet.”
I’d seen more than enough. If I had my way, the most exciting thing I’d see from now on would be an action movie.
“It won’t be long until we’re under my tower,” Remy added.
Right. He’d said something before about going under it. I hadn’t been paying much attention because I’d been too fixated on the whole whale part of the plan.
“You have a secret door under there, I take it?”
“Of sorts.”
He was being vague. That meant I really wouldn’t like whatever this was. “Either you do or you don’t have a secret entrance beneath your hotel. Which is it?”
His chin rested on the top of my head, preventing me from seeing his face. “I don’t, but I’m going to make one.”
I laughed. What else could I do? We were in a magic bubble inside a whale’s mouth on our way beneath a floating city, where Remy intended to make an entryway out of what was probably solid rock before one or both of us drowned.
“I wish I had my phone,” I muttered.
I felt his scoff. “There’s no cell service in Orion.”
“I don’t need that to record my obituary,” I began before a memory flashed through me. “Wait! Travis was talking to someone on a phone here. How could he do that without cell service?”
Remy dug inside his pants. A moment later, something round and hard, like a marble, pressed into my hand.
“Orion has many communication methods. One of them is speaking stones. They’re even more anonymous than burner phones. In addition to having no billing accounts that can be traced, they also can’t be recorded like a cell call can.”
I looked at the stone. It resembled a tiny, cloudy crystal ball. “If it can’t be traced back or recorded, why keep it?”
Remy’s head was above mine, so I only caught a hint of his smile, but it still made ice skitter up my spine.
“In case Travis’s contact calls back.”
I remembered how helpless I’d felt listening to Travis’s conversation before I realized that I could summon the Beast’s power one ability at a time. And yet, even if I had been helpless, I still would have been okay.
I am the monster that protects you now, Remy had said that night at the theater. He’d proved that once again.
I’d never had anyone rescue me before Remy. Sure, the Beast had slaughtered people to keep me safe, but that was its own form of self-preservation. Remy kept choosing to save me. More than that, this time, he’d risked his position to do it, too.
Yes, I was a valuable resource. My blood could break unbreakable spells, I could sniff out other races, and I could potentially heal his grandfather’s mind, which had both emotional and practical benefits considering the vast knowledge of spells Brendan had.
But I didn’t feel like a “resource” when Remy looked at me. I felt like someone special to him.
Or maybe I was only deluding myself. Remy was a powerful man with an agenda.
That would make him dangerous if he was only human, and Remy was a shockingly powerful Warden who ruled over deadly creatures on his lands, plus guarded gateways that led to even more deadly creatures in lands I hadn’t realized existed before now.
His schemes probably had their own schemes.
Was I being cared for by Remy? Or was I being … tamed?
Yes, Remy valued human life, so I didn’t regret aligning with him to subjugate the Beast. But I damn sure needed to think twice about my feelings for him.
Remy was all about keeping his lands safe, as the violence hemorrhaging from his aura proved.
He wouldn’t hesitate to use my emotions against me if that helped him do it.
So, had Remy really risked his position as Warden to rescue me?
Or had he only told me that because flattered, grateful people were easier to control?
I hated to be so jaded. I wanted to believe Remy had no ulterior motives beyond the ones he’d told me about.
I really wanted to believe that … which was why I couldn’t allow myself to.
Countless people ended up in the emergency room every day because they’d believed the person they cared about wouldn’t hurt them, even if all their logic had screamed otherwise.
All my logic screamed that it was too soon to trust Remy’s motivations. He’d already kept so much from me. He’d admitted that earlier, when he bluntly said he’d done it because he hadn’t trusted me. I had to treat him with the same caution.
Time would show what Remy really wanted from me. Maybe it was exactly what he’d said. Maybe it was more—and worse.
“How did you find me in Orion, anyway?” I’d never thought to ask that before. I’d just been so glad to see him.
His hand flexed against my back. “I’d just shared my essence with you.
That connected you to my power. I also had your blood.
Not all of it went into the kettle. Some of it spilled on the ground.
When Sam told me Travis had attacked him and you were missing, I did another locator spell.
With your blood and our power connection, it led me right to your side. ”
“Travis said I’d be worth a ton because I helped unblock your spell with Ellie.” My voice was neutral as I tried to affect a businesslike mentality. “But Travis didn’t know what I was. Neither did the buyer, from what I overheard.”
The tight confines of the bubble didn’t allow me to move away, so I felt it when the tightness left Remy’s shoulders.
“That’s good. It gives us more time.”
His fingers drummed against my back. An unconscious gesture, but it made me acutely aware of how warm his hand was. With my cloak gone, I was back to being only in my slashed-up tank top and pajama pants, and those pants hung very low on my hips from being waterlogged.
I tried to edge them up.
Remy saw what I was doing and pulled me closer. “Cold?”
My body was. My treacherous thoughts weren’t. They kept searing me with longings that flew in the face of my logic.
I want someone of my own.
I hadn’t admitted that to myself in years. Why bother? It hadn’t been possible before, so it wasn’t worth thinking about.
I want someone like Remy.
My mind was in full revolt to think it, but I did. It would have to be someone like Remy, or the Beast would appall and terrify them. Nothing terrified Remy. If the Grim Reaper came for him, Remy would tell it to take a number and get in line.
I want Remy.
Oh, it would be a mistake. A colossal one, for all the reasons I’d listed. And part of me still wanted to make it.
“Raine. We’re here.”
I lifted my head. At some point, I’d dropped it against his shoulder. For a second, Remy’s eyes seemed to shine as they met mine. He pulled me against him, his hard chest flattening my breasts as his muscled arms caged me.
“Take a deep breath and don’t let go.”
A harsh sound left me. That’s exactly what I wanted to do with Remy, and I couldn’t. Not in any way beyond this moment.
“Okay,” I whispered, and closed my eyes.
His arms tightened when I sucked in that breath. At once, water stung me with its icy, full-bodied embrace. Remy must have burst the bubble protecting us.
The whooshing sensation that followed was probably the whale spitting us out.
I still didn’t open my eyes. We had to be beneath his hotel in that massive, floating city now.
I didn’t want the sight of that endless ceiling above us stealing my remaining breath.
Even the Beast wouldn’t be able to swim around it in time to survive.
Remy would either magically tunnel us into his hotel, or we would drown. Those were our only options.
Sound torpedoed into me. Remy’s arms tightened like welded steel, and still, the sonic backlash nearly knocked me free. Pain split me, but it wasn’t the Beast breaking free this time. It was something worse, because I couldn’t escape it.
I only realized I was screaming when I inhaled a lungful of water. It felt like razor blades inside me, making me gag, only to choke on more water again. And again.
This is how I die.
The Beast roared, trying to rise.
With my last bit of willpower, I pushed it down. It couldn’t save me. Darkness was an oncoming train, and I was right in its path.