Odd. She frowned back at him and his features slackened, the hint of displeasure she swore she had seen in his eyes quick to disappear, making her feel she had imagined it.
Because Messengers didn’t feel emotions.
“Of course, my lady. Our home will be close to your brother. He will be able to visit whenever he wishes.” The male looked ahead of them again. “The edge of the realm is just beyond that tunnel.”
It was? She frowned at the yawning opening in the side of the mountain that rose to form one end of the valley. It looked dark, forbidding, and unsettled her for some reason.
She looked back at the distance they had already trekked, unable to spot the entrance to the cavern where she had last been with Thanatos. The urge to go back there was strong, but she forced herself to keep moving forwards. Maybe once she had been home for a while and had unburdened her heart to her mother, she could visit Thanatos’s castle. She was sure he would be home by then, that he had left her to continue his journey back there.
If he wasn’t, she would convince her father to dispatch a legion to look for him, and she would lead them.
Calindria followed the Messenger into the tunnel. This one had jagged teeth, huge spears of rock that rose from the ground or reached down from the ceiling. The sound of water dripping echoed along it, together with the chittering of creatures. The Messenger looked back at her and she swore she saw a flicker of concern in his mismatched eyes before he faced forwards again.
“We can find a small realm close enough to your family that they can visit, and there we can make it as green and beautiful as you desire, my lady.”
“We?” She frowned at his back as it struck her that he kept saying that. “Have the other Messengers who were assigned to me also remained loyal to me?”
His shoulders tensed slightly, enough that she noticed. He wasn’t talking about himself and other Messengers. He was talking about himself and her. Unease slithered down her spine and she slowed her pace. When she fell back, the distance between them growing, he pivoted to face her.
The barest hint of a frown shifted his eyebrows.
“I just need to rest a moment.” She pretended to rub her bare feet, making out they were tired, and used the time to run over everything that had happened since the Messenger had shown up.
She picked out several instances where she had noticed something was unusual about him, times where she had put it down to her reading into things, but what if she hadn’t been? What if Thanatos was right and Messengers could feel things?
If that was the case, then it possibly turned this male’s loyalty and devotion to finding her into something far more unsettling.
Obsession.
She set her foot down and continued walking, waving him on ahead of her as she formulated a plan, a way to test the waters and see if Thanatos was right about him, and her fears were right too.
They passed through a cavern filled with black winged creatures that watched her from the ceiling as she crossed the uneven floor of it, picking her way around enormous stalagmites that were all taller than she was. Some of them had joined together in places to form walls too high and sharp to scale.
When they reached a slippery incline of rocks that led up to a plateau a good twenty feet above, the Messenger held his hand out to her.
She tucked hers against her chest.
And there was that flicker of a frown again.
This time, his eyes darkened slightly with it, and if he had emotions, she would say he wasn’t happy that she had rejected his help, denying his touch.
“My lady?” He stretched for her.
“You shouldn’t touch me. I have a power I do not know how to control.” A valid excuse for wanting to keep her distance from him.
“I understand.” He straightened and pressed his hand to his chest, and went on ahead, picking his way up the rocks.
She followed the path he had chosen, slowly working her way up the incline on her hands and knees, slipping a few times, and was a little shaky when she reached the top. If Thanatos had been here, he would have flown her up here with a single beat of his wings.
She sighed.
The Messenger looked at her and she didn’t like the heat in his gaze as he lowered it to her body.
Calindria rubbed at her arms, trying to convince herself she was imagining it because Thanatos had put it into her head that this male wanted her.
“I am cold. Would you lend me your tunic?” She eyed it and smiled, all sweetness that she hoped would disarm him and make him feel obliged to hand it over.
He nodded and unbuttoned the long black jacket, removed it and held it out to her. She was careful not to touch his hands as she took it, was quick to slip her arms into it and button it, concealing her body from view. The tunic swamped her, reached her knees, but it was warm and it was nice to have something proper to wear.
The Messenger reached into his back pocket, his bare chest flexing as he stretched behind him, and pulled out a pair of leather gloves. He slipped them on and started walking again, glanced back at her when she didn’t move, just stood there staring at his hands.
“I do not want them to get cold, in case I have to fight.” He looked at the chittering creatures suspended above them. “There are things in this realm that I have discovered have a tendency to want to eat those who pass through it.”
She nodded. “Believe me, I have met with my fair share of them. Even these beasts are not as innocent as they appear. They came to my cage from time to time to attempt to get to me.”
“I will keep you safe from them, my lady.” He pressed his gloved hand to his bare chest and bowed his head. “It is best we keep moving.”
She followed him this time, heading for another tunnel, this one far narrower than the last. He squeezed into it ahead of her and she lingered, looking back the way they had come. Was Thanatos all right? She couldn’t stop imagining him in trouble, alone and having to fend off hordes of those Keres.
Her heart clenched at the thought, flooding her with a need to go back to him.
“Come, my lady.” The Messenger’s voice echoed along the tunnel, sending a chill skating down her spine. “You must forget the god.”
“Must I?” She frowned at the male’s back. “Who are you to say what I must or must not do?”
“I am the one taking care of you now.” He looked back at her, his frown unmistakable this time, together with the sharp edge to his mismatched eyes. “You will do best to obey me.”
“Obey you?” She scowled at him now. “I obey no one, especially not a servant.”
“Servant?” He scoffed and turned on her, a wild look in his eyes. “I am the one who saved you from this place. I am the one who has searched for you for centuries. I am the one you will be grateful to and not that god.”
She backed off a step, her pulse picking up speed as she stared at him. Thanatos had been right about this male. He wanted her for himself, but she didn’t want him. She wanted Thanatos.
She loved Thanatos.
Gods, she had made a terrible mistake.
“Do not come near me, fiend,” she spat and held her hands up.
His expression blackened, a glow lighting his one green and one blue irises. “She promised we would be together if I got you away from that god of death, and we will be together.”
“She?” Calindria swallowed hard and started backing away from him as he advanced on her, bumped into a rock and edged around it, her breaths coming faster. “Who is she?”