Chapter 1 Cinder #2
“That it is.” I pushed from the wall and peered at our surroundings. We stood on a ledge deep in the canyon, about six feet above the acid river. Sheer cliffs rose all around, and steam hovered on the surface of the stream.
We could clamber our way down, but unless there was an invisible ladder around, we’d still be stuck at the bottom of the ravine. We had definitely ventured past the touristy part of the canyon. “How do we get out?”
“Normally, I’d bend space and drop us in front of the temple. But with the way my powers are waning…” He gestured to the jagged wall soaring twenty yards above us. “We’ll have to climb.”
I craned my neck, squinting in the glowing orange moonlight.
The wall went straight up. No little trails or gradual inclines to make the feat even slightly easier.
I’d visited the rock-climbing gym in Salem more than a few times, and fighting off ghouls and fae mosquitoes kept me in decent shape, but damn, that would be a long ascent.
“It’s a good thing I’m not afraid of heights,” I said. “Should we walk a ways and see if there’s an easier spot to climb?”
“It doesn’t get easier for miles in either direction.” He rested a hand on a bulging rock. “Grab on here. The soles of your boots should grip the protrusions and recesses.”
“I know how to climb.” I wiped my sweaty palms on my pants. “I’ve just never done it without a rope.”
“Ladies first.” He stepped away from the wall, his gaze flowing down my body before returning to my eyes.
I fought a grin and grabbed the rock, hauling myself up the first three feet. “You just want to look at my butt, don’t you?”
“The view is quite nice.”
I glanced down, and he flashed a crooked smile, arching a brow in appreciation of the junk in my trunk.
“Are all demons horndogs, or is it just you?” I found another foothold and pushed, using my leg strength to reach above and grab another protruding rock. Whether my heart was pounding from the physical exertion or the flirtatious demon, I couldn’t say. Probably both.
“I haven’t been with a woman in over four hundred years.” He hauled himself up and followed as I climbed. “The kiss we shared has awakened a beast inside me.”
Good goddess. I didn’t dare look down, but I could imagine his hungry expression, the fire in his eyes as he prowled toward me, the deftness of his hands and tongue.
Whew. In all fairness, it had been a while for me too.
Not four hundred years, but long enough to make his advances sound way more appealing than they should, especially in our current predicament.
And that beast he claimed I’d awakened… Sweet spirits and spells, how I would love to meet him. Gah! Concentrate, Cin. I was only halfway to the top, and my muscles were screaming with the exertion.
My thighs and shoulders burned, and my fingers felt like I’d scraped them against the steaming blacktop on the school playground. If I could focus on those physical sensations, maybe I could ignore the heat pooling in my nether region.
Twenty feet to go. I peered up and found an indentation in the stone just big enough to fit my fingers in. I grabbed on and pulled, gripping the wall with the soles of my boots. My pulse thrummed, my breathing growing shallow as I hauled myself up.
Sharp pain sliced through my index finger as if it had been stabbed and wrenched out of the socket at the same time.
“Son of a bitch!” I yanked my hand out and lost my footing. My left hand gripped a piece of obsidian protruding from the rock, but the surface was too slick. My fingers slipped, and I fell backward, Hans Gruber from Die Hard style.
Please don’t let me land in the acid was the only thought in my mind. Time seemed to slow as I plummeted and stared up at the weird moon hanging in the cloudless sky.
Discord gripped my forearm, stopping my fall, but my body swung, slamming into the wall with a thunk.
My head smacked the rocks, and my vision swam.
Thankfully, instinct made me latch on to his arm too, because his grip slipped.
I caught his wrist half a nanosecond before I continued my unwelcome descent, and his fingers encircled my arm, locking us together.
I blinked my vision back into focus and scrambled around to find something to hold on to. “I’m okay,” I lied, my breathless voice giving me away.
“Climb onto my back,” he said. “I’ll carry you out of the ravine.”
“I said I’m okay.” I tugged from his grasp and grabbed another rock, pulling myself above him.
A spark of annoyance lit in my chest, fueling my adrenaline. I climbed faster than I had ever climbed before, muttering to myself the entire way up. Did he seriously just suggest a piggyback ride? To a strong, absolutely capable woman? To an elemental witch?
The good news was his ridiculous suggestion had squelched any desire I’d felt toward him. Hopefully, he could smell that too.
And hopefully, I could get my emotions off this damn rollercoaster. My own mood swings were about to give me whiplash, but I blamed that on all the trauma we’d endured since we arrived in Hell. It was enough to make anyone crack beneath the pressure. Not me, though. I refused to break.
A gnarled black tree stood at the top of the canyon, its twisted roots exposed and reaching downward, creating the perfect grip for the last few feet of my ascent.
“Don’t,” Discord shouted, but it was too late.
I grabbed a root, and an array of teeny, tiny spikes, no thicker than acupuncture needles, sank half a millimeter into my palm, making it itch like a flea-infested werewolf with mange.
Scrambling to the ground above, I army crawled onto the surface, took two deep breaths, and rose to my feet. My hand burned like the spikes had injected me with everything I could possibly be allergic to, but I ignored the pain, grinding my teeth as Discord pulled himself over the edge.
“First of all, you need to stop treating me like some damsel in distress.” I flicked my wrist, fanning my burning hand.
Discord fought an amused grin. “Perhaps if you stopped putting yourself in distress, I would.”
I opened my mouth, ready to insist he give examples, but I closed it again, ticking off the list of times he’d had to carry me in my mind. “I’m not a damsel.”
He chuckled. “Noted. Would you like some help with your hand?”
I finally looked at my offending appendage, and Hecate have mercy. My index finger had swollen to the size of a sausage, and the skin on my palm had turned purple and pruney. “What the hell?”
He gingerly took my hand in his, turning it over and back again. “That tree is a thorny ash. Its sap causes burning, itching, and blisters.”
“Fabulous. I caught herpes of the hand from a thorny ass tree.” I bent my fingers and winced at the searing pain.
His brow furrowed. “Thorny ash. It also causes necrosis. Your finger, though. Did something bite you? The reaction reminds me of brimstone scorpion venom.”
“Probably. That’s why I fell.” I slipped my backpack off one shoulder. “Let me see if I’ve got any healing herbs.”
“No need.” He lifted my other arm and ran his finger over the sigil. “I can help you, if you’ll admit you are, once again, in distress.” Amusement danced in his eyes, and I narrowed mine.
My gut reaction was to tell him hell no. I was stubborn, like most first-born daughters were, but the black blisters forming on my palm made me think better of it.
“Please fix me,” I muttered.
He covered the sigil with his hand. “Are you in distress, sweet damsel witch?”
I sighed and shook my head. “Yes, Prince Pain In My Ass, I am in distress. I need my big, strong demon to use his magical healing ability to help me. Happy now?”
“Indeed.” He closed his eyes and inhaled deeply. As he let out a slow breath, the invisible tether connecting us vibrated and heated. His magic seeped into my skin, spreading through my chest before cascading down my arm and gathering in my hand.
A flush of coolness spread over my palm, and the pain in my finger turned from razor sharp to a dull ache to nothing. The blisters disappeared, and the swelling faded as if I’d never been injured.
I stared at my hand in awe before looking into his eyes. “Thank you.”
He bowed his head. “Taking care of you is my pleasure… Words I never dreamed I would utter to anyone.”
Cue the flip-flopping stomach. Again.
Before I could even begin to form a response in my mind, he took my face in his hands and planted his mouth on mine, and yeah… I’ll admit I melted a little.
Okay, a lot.
He just had these full, soft lips that fit over mine like they were made to kiss me, and his body… I couldn’t help but lean into him, pressing my curves against his angles, parting my lips so he could swipe his tongue against mine.
All the blood in my brain plummeted below my navel, and I allowed myself to get lost in his embrace for a moment. A little longer. Longer still…
But this was wrong. He was a demon for Hecate’s sake, and I was on a mission to survive Hell and find a way home.
I broke the kiss on a quick inhale and touched my fingers to my lips. They still tingled; his taste lingered on my tongue.
“Which…” I cleared my throat. “Which way to Hecate’s temple?”
His eyes smoldered with an intensity I could barely stand, and that beast I’d supposedly awakened…? He was ready to devour me.