A loud chest-rumbling growl was her only warning before he tumbled her into the water.
When she came up, spluttering and pushing her hair out of her eyes, he glared at her. “Behave or I’ll turn on the cold water.”
At the end of her rope, she bared her own teeth at him. “Try it and see what happens.”
He laughed and pounced on her, dragging her over to his chest. Another rub of his nose against hers. When she threatened to bite him, he grinned even harder. “I always knew my mate would be as wild as me.”
No one had ever called her wild; she decided she liked it.
When he kind of snuggled her against his naked body, her wet clothes sticking to her, she stayed. Because being held by him, being affectionately petted as they spoke about their adventure, it was so wonderful it made her aching heart pulse in unfiltered joy, her eyes burning until she had to shut them lest her tears fall and give her away.
* * *
Naasir left his mate three hours past dawn. “I’m going to find your stupid Grimoire book,” he muttered with a scowl.
“Naasir, it’s a legend.” His smart, wild—though she pretended not to be—mate glared at him, her hands on her hips. “I told you I take back that idiotic vow!”
“You can’t.” Something inside his Andi was broken and he wouldn’t help her hurt herself any more. “I’ll see you in a week at your parents’ estate for the dinner, and you’ll tell me what you hide from me.” It came out a snarl. “No more secrets.”
Eyes stark and wide, she nodded. Then she ran to him, wrapping her arms around him in a fierce embrace. “Don’t get hurt searching for the Grimoire. And don’t be late. I’ll be waiting for you at noon on the seventh day from today.” She pressed her cheek to his. “I’ll make us a picnic and I’ll go to what was the old elephant watering hole on the estate—you can find it by following the flight of the herons. They like that spot.”
Drawing deep of her delicious scent, he lifted her up and spun her around. “I’ll be there,” he promised when he put her down again. “Make sure you don’t cook the meat.”
Her fingers played through his hair, where he’d woven in a second feather. “I promise.”
“You should know something,” he said as they separated.
“Yes?”
“When we’re mated, I won’t go far like this again. We’ll be together.” Naasir didn’t understand why anyone would have a mate and not be with that mate. “If I have to go to New York or another place, you’ll come with me. If you can’t because of your work, I’ll ask Raphael to allow me to stay here—he won’t say no. He likes being with his mate, too.”
His words shattered Andromeda. Though he occupied a far higher position in the immortal hierarchy, he didn’t just assume his wishes would come first. “I would go anywhere with you,” she whispered, emotion a knot in her throat. “Go find the stupid Grimoire so we can do bad things together naked.”
A feral smile and then he was running out of the Refuge. She watched him until she could no longer glean even a hint of silver, and then she turned to pick up her small bag for the flight to Africa, a land that sang to her as Alexander’s territory did to him, and yet that was to be her prison.
46
Naasir hated the cold. Hated it. But he had to go into it to find the Grimoire. Everyone thought it was a legend, but during the flight home from Alexander’s territory, he’d finally realized why it seemed familiar: he’d seen it.
It had been long, long, long ago, when he’d still been two. The tiger cub was the one who’d seen the red book with the golden etching on the front. It wasn’t something that would’ve registered on the cub except that the chimera experiment had happened that night, the boy and the tiger forcefully merged into one. The tiger’s memories had become the boy’s and the boy’s had become the tiger’s, but because they were two such different species who should’ve never been one, nothing had made sense for a long time.
It had been a confusing, terrifying period and the chimera he’d become had long forgotten the book the tiger had seen. But when Jason had described the Grimoire, the memories had surfaced as all parts of him worked together to win his mate. So he knew where that book had once been and where it should still be. Unfortunately, that place was now buried under tons of ice and snow.
Running over the cold white stuff, his body protected by thick clothing and his feet by insulated boots, Naasir growled at the snow that hit his face and wasn’t the least surprised when a black-winged angel landed not far from him. He was at the end of the world, but it made perfect sense to him that Jason would be able to find him. That was what Jason did—know secrets.
“What are you doing in Antarctica?” Jason asked, folding back his wings. “How did you even get here?”
Naasir shrugged. “I jumped out a plane.” Far, far from his actual destination on the continent, which was why he’d had to run so long and spend two nights on the ice. And because it was important to keep this secret, he’d asked Illium to make any eyes in the sky look away until he was out of here.
No one but his family and his mate could know of this place.
“You should’ve worn white clothing and dyed your wings,” he pointed out to the member of his family standing in front of him. “You stick out in this place without shadows.”
“There’s no one to see me except you—and you hate the snow.” Jason didn’t budge. “So what are you doing here?”
“I’m going to get the stupid Grimoire book.” He growled as a flake of snow touched his nose. Brushing it off, he looked to Jason and caught his sudden stillness—as close to betraying surprise as Jason ever got.
“You know where it is?” the spymaster asked.
“I know where it once was.” And since Osiris had a habit of clinging to his possessions, and the entire stronghold had been buried as it was, it should still be there. “Do you want to come with me?” Jason was sneaky in ways Naasir appreciated—he might be able to think of a faster method to get under all that ice and snow. “Will your mate be angry?”
“Mahiya’s the one who ordered me to go find you when Illium told us where you’d disappeared to. My princess likes you.” The other man spread his wings in readiness for takeoff. “Why didn’t you ask one of us? We would’ve come with you.”
“Illium wanted to come, but the healers wouldn’t let him, and I knew you’d find me.” Jason had as much curiosity inside him as Naasir, only he hid it better.
A faint smile. “You understand people better than anyone realizes.” He took off in a wash of cold wind that drove snowflakes into Naasir’s face. Gritting his teeth, Naasir growled up at him. He almost thought Jason laughed. That intrigued him because Jason never laughed.