Before he could stop himself, some foolish part of him that was striving for a connection with her, a long-dead part that she had somehow revived, had his mouth moving.
“It was not the only time I was taken captive.”
She looked back at him again. “It was not?”
His mood blackened at just the thought of it, and he knew she had seen it when her features softened, a hint of warmth surfacing in her eyes.
“I was held once in a place much like this… and I knew no one was coming to save me.” Each word was a struggle, but somehow he managed to get them past his lips, found the strength to speak about this dark part of his past as he stared at Calindria.
She paused and turned towards him, stepped up to him, narrowing the distance down to only a few feet, close enough that her soft fragrance of wild lilies reached him, cutting through the fouler odour of the realm. “How did they catch you? You are strong… a warrior.”
Gods, he wasn’t sure he deserved to be called strong by her. She was strong. A warrioress. She had survived things far worse than what he had suffered. Or perhaps not. No one had dared touch her.
He clenched his jaw and squeezed his eyes shut, trying to block the memories.
“Thanatos?”
He felt her reach for him, moved his hands back and stepped away from her, needing the space. He tried to ignore that trace of hurt that shone in her eyes when he opened his and looked at her, focused on getting this over with as quickly as possible.
“I was defeated in battle by a demigoddess. Weakened by a poisoned blade.” His voice sounded hollow to him, wooden. “She kept me drugged while she was holding me and regularly came to torment me.”
He couldn’t bring himself to tell her more than that.
The soft light in her eyes said she understood why he wouldn’t continue, and this time when she reached for him, he didn’t move to evade her. He accepted her touch, savouring the light caress of her fingers over his left biceps when that same touch from another had sickened and repulsed him.
Her fingers drifted off him, her hand falling to her side, and an awkward look settled on her face before she gazed down at her other hand and the waterskin she held in it.
“They would bring me water in this every few days.” She lifted the leather pouch and looked at it, a light in her eyes that told him what a relief it had been for her to have water. “A sip of it was like ambrosia… even though it was filthy.”
Thanatos didn’t like the sound of that. When he had been held, the demigoddess and her minions had given him liquid that had contained a drug. It had kept him weak, stripping him of his powers. When he had realised what the water contained, he had tried to refuse it, and they had forced it down him instead.
“Where did you get that waterskin?” He held his hand out to her and she tucked it to her chest, holding it as protectively as she had when they had first met.
“It is the one they used to give me water… only a bare sip of it whenever I was parched… but it restored me.” She clutched it more tightly when he rolled his fingers and gave her a hard look, silently demanding she hand it over.
“I only want to check it.” He wanted to toss the damned thing away, and he hadn’t even found any proof it was drugged yet.
No. He had proof. The way she protected the waterskin was proof enough. She feared he would take this water and it wasn’t because she was thirsty. It was because she was addicted to it and how it made her feel.
She reluctantly held it out to him. He took it and opened it, brought it to his nose and sniffed it, and growled when he smelled the barest hint of something in it.
“What’s wrong?” She looked as if she wanted to reach for the waterskin, fear emerging in her blue eyes as she lifted her hand slightly.
“It is not just water. They were drugging you.” He turned the pouch on its head, pouring the water out, and refused to feel bad about it as she gasped and lunged for it.
She looked ready to lash out at him as her eyes snapped to lock with his, but as the last drops of water soaked into the black dirt near her bare feet, the anger he could sense in her faded. She looked down at the damp patch and sighed.
“I think this water inhibited your powers, combined with the power woven into your cage to ensure you were not aware of them, and kept you complacent to a degree.” When he offered the empty waterskin to her, she took it.
“Is this why I cannot teleport too?” She lifted the pouch and frowned at it.
“No.” Thanatos shook his head. “I think it is something about this realm that prevents us from teleporting. Do not worry though. I recognise this tunnel and the last cavern we passed through. We are heading in the right direction, back the way I came to find you.”
She murmured, “To save me.”
He chuckled at that. “It turned out you didn’t need saving. You didn’t need me after all.”
She raised her eyes to meet his and the softness in them unnerved him, had him pulling his barriers back up and cursing himself for lowering them around her—around a female.
Her softly spoken words undid him, tore down the walls and shook him to his core.
“I do need you, Thanatos.”
Chapter 13
Thanatos had fallen quiet. Calindria glanced back at him as she walked, crossing the space between two great mountain ranges. He refused to look at her, kept his silver eyes on the ground. She wasn’t sure how long they had been walking like this—him refusing to speak, and her unsure how to break this silence.
Unsure what she had done wrong.
She held back a sigh and looked up at the sky, watching the thick black clouds rolling across it. They were low, brushing the cragged peaks of the towering mountains in places, and churned constantly, like bubbling water. A faint orange light touched them and she looked off to her right, to the volcano that spewed another wave of lava, sending a huge plume of smoke into the air to block out the sky even more.
Calindria fanned herself with her hand as she walked, trying not to think about the fact she had no water or how parched she was, or how her skin was slick with sweat that made her feel uncomfortable. Gods, she would kill for another bath.
She grimaced at that word. Kill.
Perhaps she wouldn’t go that far, but she did want one. Badly.
“Can we rest?” She looked over her shoulder at Thanatos again.
He glowered at her. “No.”
The same response he had given her every time she had dared to ask that question. She was sure he was trying to march her to death as punishment for whatever she had done wrong.
“Can we at least rest soon?” She gestured to the valley. “It is a delightful spot to take in after all.”
He huffed. “We rest once we are clear of this valley.”
She huffed right back at him and folded her arms across her chest as she turned away from him and muttered, “I swear you are trying to kill me.”
He growled now. “If I were trying to kill you, you would be dead already.”
She was well aware of that.
She stopped and twisted to face him. “Can you even kill me?”
His answering growl had a harder edge to it, a threatening note that sent a shiver skating down her spine and made her painfully aware of him.
“Do you wish for death?” he snapped.