“Hey, you’re not going to hide in your room and leave me out here with her.” I cocked my head to the side and scrunched my lips.
“What’s the matter, Coal? Afraid of Scylla?”
“Not at all, but if I left you to dressing yourself, you’d come out in a miniskirt and stilettos and your tits hanging out.” My neck nearly broke from jerking my head back so fast. Did he just say tits?
“That's it, I’m going to get the soap. You said fuck and tits? What the hell has gotten into you?”
“We’re going to caves near the core of the earth. You need to be dressed appropriately,” he chided, ignoring my mocking him.
“I would not,” I replied, my voice caustic.
“You so would.”
“No, I wouldn’t. This isn’t my first rendezvous with danger.” He wasn’t buying it. “Okay, Dad. But I’m not going anywhere in these shoes. No way in hell would I be caught dead, let alone in these things. C’mon, you usually make better choices than this. Clearly, you’re not as good as—” Bored, he snapped his fingers, and the shoes were replaced with a pair of clunky combat boots that concealed nearly my entire calf with black leather and red laces. “Better.”
Another joining of his fingers had the entire place cleaned up and the food gone, nothing but the aroma of turkey left. My stomach growled at me. I guess I should have eaten more like he said. Little did I know we’d have an unwanted visitor so soon. Coal pursed his lips and turned to the door after another knock nearly blew it off the hinges. I didn’t want him to open the door, we hadn’t yet gone over our plan, just that we had both agreed we didn’t trust her. We also didn’t know what we were going to do with the fact that Daddy Dearest knew about our plan to get the dagger.
As of right now, Scylla was our wild card. Daddy didn’t know about her, or so we’d hoped.
We needed to be more diligent if we were going to get into world-ending shit.
“Mention nothing about the D-word,” he ordered.
“Aye aye, captain.” I saluted him. He just folded his arms over his chest and sighed heavily in annoyance. “Yes, Coal, I got it, less is more,” I said blandly, another one of those pick-my-battle times. “Let her in, I guess.”
Face sour, Coal reached for the doorknob. Waiting on the other side was an equally sour-faced Scylla. My mouth went dry. I gazed upon her sexiness, looking her up then down. All the way down until I saw a gorgeous set of black Steve Madden block heel leather boots. “How come she gets to dress like a stripper and I can’t?”
Coal’s eyes followed Scylla as she marched right in like she owned the place. Straightening my shoulders but letting them fall, I gestured to her feet and stared pointedly at Coal.
“Please, a stripper wished they looked this good.” She flipped her red hair, her green eyes gleaming. Unable to look away, I just resigned to staring at her and all her glory, like a fat kid at a buffet with a basket of yeast rolls. She was simply delectable.
Coal didn’t think so. He all but snatched her fiery locks and yanked her away from me. Making more like a door than a window, Coal stepped in between the two of us, crossing his arms over his chest. He knew well enough that I couldn’t control myself around a beautiful being. I could barely control myself around him. We had had many conversations over the days about how gorgeous she was, even if we weren’t sure we could trust her.
Time we should have spent plotting and planning so we could save our asses.
Yet here we stood, without an ounce of a schedule, dumbfounded as to why she was gracing us with her presence so early in the evening.
“Shadow––” he snapped his fingers “––you’re drooling.”
“And you’re not? What the hell is wrong with you?”
“Less is more?” He reminded me. I snapped back to reality. Right, I was giving away all our chips … or stuffing them all in one basket … or something. Wait, I got it, don’t show all your cards. Whatever the saying was, I was letting on that I liked her when I shouldn’t because we still didn’t know if we could trust her or if we would be alive by the time the night was over. “What are you doing here?”
“The Brotherhood has gathered.” The way her face was carefully poised, it was clear that she thought we were idiots and should know exactly why she was here early. I mean, we knew we were going to the caves with her, but still, this early?
“Yes, we are aware,” Coal stated. The distrust he had for her was so painstakingly apparent; it was hard to watch. A flash of surprise crossed her, then left just as fast.
“Then, let's get to it. We need to get the dagger.”
“There’s no need to rush. Daddy already knows that we plan to get the dagger.” The sound of Coal’s exaggerated sigh had me slumping my shoulders. I glanced over to him as he ran a palm over the dark stubble on his chin. Oops. I sat back on the couch, locking my lips shut.
A euphonious laugh, like music to my ears, tumbled from Scylla’s lips, though it felt a little condescending. “You two are something else,” she shared with us when she finally quit laughing.
“So we’ve been told.” My tone was a little more grumpy than I’d intended, oh well. I wasn’t in the mood for her. I was about to dive into a cave with soul-sucking bats, and although I didn’t have a soul for them to take, I wasn’t exactly thrilled with the idea of being in their presence.
“That's what you’re wearing?” she asked, turning her nose up as she inspected my outfit.
“It's practical. We are going into caves after all.” My eyes jerked over to Coal, who was just standing there with his eyes shut as if he wished he were somewhere else completely. I didn’t blame him.
A horrible itch attacked my right shoulder, more on the backside. I reached for it but struggled to hit home in my attempt. I leaned back against the arm of the couch to satisfy it, and when I had, I stood up. “Besides, I’m not trying to seduce the bats, now am I?” Coal chuckled contemptuously, and I could have slapped him.
A few moments of silence passed, which were fine with me. In no rush to get to the caves, a good awkward silence was great. But Coal was all business, as usual. “So, what is the plan for the caves?”
“Well,” she crossed her arms under her boobs, which pushed them up in a yummy manner. I stared, salaciously, like a nerd in a women’s locker room. Could you blame me? Her low-cut red crop top was way more revealing than some caves in the middle of the earth required. So, I would enjoy it. It's not like Coal was looking, so someone had to. “We blink down there. I’ll ride with the big guy. Getting there will require a good bit on my end, so I can’t do it on my own. We will take you as far as the bats. Then after that, you’re on your own.”
Dropping back down to the couch, I raked a hand down the length of the braid that Coal provided for me. That was it? Blink in, then leave me on my own? That wasn’t much more of a plan than we had. Coal shifted, dropping his arms to his sides and shoving his hands in his pockets. Unease made his face fall flat. He didn’t like it any more than I did.
Warmth filled me, and for once, I didn’t fight it. Coal was concerned for me. It was sweet, even if unnecessary.
I was going to be okay. I had to be. We had a job to do and needed the upper hand. We had to kill Hades.
“So, how do I find the dagger?”
She shrugged, way too casually, “I’m not sure. I’ve never been down there, never seen it.” The confirmation of our fears didn’t sit well with me. I jerked back to my feet and made my way to the door casing of my bedroom. My back suddenly itched like a son-of-a-bitch. I wriggled back and forth against the wood, sighing when the itch was satisfied, cringing when the contact worked the nervous sweat into my shirt.
Coal’s amber eyes studied me. A crease formed in his furrowed brow, and he tilted his head. Damn, he was so handsome it hurt, and the worry in his face only served to ignite a fire in my belly. I swallowed tightly and ripped my eyes from his. Now was not the time to be catching feelings.
Damn, was I the one catching feelings?<
br />
I was all sorts of messed up and breaking my own damn rules. No relationships. But it was hard when he was tearing down my defenses and making it so damn easy. I had never had anyone show true concern for me, and even though I hadn’t fully trusted him, the sincerity in which he was looking at me made me question just why I didn’t trust him.
I glanced back at Scylla, the one that made it easy not to trust her despite the fact that I wanted to lick her all over. It was easier than admitting what I felt when I watched Coal, so I stuck with her. Taking a shaky breath, I twirled the end of my braid around my pointer finger, mirroring the unease that was rolling off of the statue.
Off your statue. I gulped.
“Shut the fuck up. Now is not the time, bitch,” I muttered out loud. Shit.
“What was that?” Confusion pulled Coal’s frown deeper. The thundering of my heart roared in my ears. I shook my head. Get it together.
Scylla raised a brow, looking at me like I was just plain crazy. Which I was, but I didn’t need the snide remark that I was sure was waiting on the tip of her tongue.
“Nothing. Sorry. Let’s just get this over with.” My voice was shaky and weak. I took a deep breath to steady myself as Coal made his way over to me, reaching for me. My shadows stirred, and before he could make contact, I removed myself from the room.
Let’s hope I could make it through what these caves had to offer.
20
Coal and Scylla arrived in the caves right behind me, and I had to suppress a growl jumbled in the back of my throat at the fact that her arms wrapped around his narrow waist. She held on just a little too long for my taste. But that didn’t matter because Coal efficiently peeled her arms off him, one by one.
“Alright, gangs all here, lead the way.” I hated that that was my only option. To follow a woman I barely knew to my, and Coal’s, possible death. My nerves were frayed. I didn’t like not being in control, even though lately I was quickly learning to live with it if I wanted to survive. That being said, I still would only let her get away with so much.
The way Scylla’s ass swayed was an excellent distraction to the claustrophobic crowding the caves provided. I did my best to take short, sure steps, thankful that living a third-shift lifestyle had allowed me to adjust my human eyes to the blackness of the caves. Taking a quick look back at Coal, I felt bad for the giant. If I was feeling closed in, I could only imagine how he felt.
My heart squeezed in my chest. He was walking tall, well, as tall as the cave would allow, which was more like a hunchback sort of look. His face was a mask of confidence. Though I had learned his eyes well over his time with me, I knew he was worried. He nodded, reaching out to steady me with his hands on my waist when my foot hit an uneven part of the terrain, and my elbow crashed painfully into a lethal part of the wall. I winced, breathing through the sharp pain. It was pain that you could only rub, nothing else would make it go away until it decided to sort of pain.
“Eyes forward, stay alert.” His voice was strong, demanding, and a total turn on, but his eyes were consumed with anxiety, and I couldn’t help but mirror those feelings. I hadn’t realized just how dependent on his strength I had become through all of this. At this point, I was sure that if I had fed from him, I would find that fear I had searched and searched for. I wasn’t sure what terrified me more, the fact that he feared losing me or the fact that I liked the idea that he was scared for me.
His hand started to make its way to my face, but he stopped himself and let it fall to my hip, where his fingertips lingered, digging into the skin. Goosebumps littered my flesh, and my breath caught in my throat. It was so intimate, warming. It had me wishing he hadn’t stopped himself from bringing his hand to my face.
Turning back to follow Scylla, I cleared my throat. “Yep, sorry, won’t happen again.” The roughness of his warrior’s hands scraped against the exposed skin of my back. Though I didn’t need his guidance, he kept his hand there, leading me. I wondered if it was more for his comfort or mine, but I didn’t argue. It helped with the whole trust aspect, and I desperately needed someone on my side.
“Keep up,” Scylla ordered, earning a scowl from me. Coal’s grip tightened slightly, and before I was able to comprehend what I was doing, I reached back and laced my fingers with his. His hand was much larger than I anticipated, making mine feel utterly inferior. He grunted and moved closer to me. A twitch moved my lips, but I worked to keep my smile to myself, blaming my need for his touch entirely on the situation we in.
I ducked around a jutting rock formation and slipped again; combat boots were proving not to be the best fit. How the hell was Scylla walking through here in heels when I was doing nothing but proving to Coal that I would have indeed made the wrong decision in dressing myself?
“So, where are we going? Why couldn’t we have blinked any further into the caves?” I asked after what felt like hours of walking and tripping over my own two feet. These boots were starting to make my feet blister, and I could have used a drink. The coolness of being underground started to wear off, and the heat from being near the core of the earth, which would have probably fried a human by now, was getting to me.
“Not sure,” Scylla called from at least ten feet in front of us. “Every time I’ve been down here before, I’ve always landed right here. Probably something magical to keep us away from the actual entrance of the caves.” Bullshit. I reached back to scratch a pesky itch on my shoulder blade.
“Glad we’re a team. How many times have you been down here exactly?” I mumbled sarcastically at her lack of truthful response. She stopped and rocked on her hip.
“I told you I’ve been searching for a long time for this dagger. Do you want it or not?” Irritation bubbled below my surface. She speared me with a look that said I was only here because she genuinely thought she needed me, not because I meant anything to her. I didn’t let it bother me. I wouldn’t. The feeling was mutual, and Coal seemed to have a spell of hatred for her that solidified my feelings.
“Do I want to live, you mean? Yes. Now you haven’t exactly given me a reason to trust you, and you seem to kn—” Coal squeezed my hand. Right, less is more. “We’ve been walking for forever, getting deeper and deeper into these caves, and you still have no idea where we are going. For all I know, you’re trying to kill me. I’m not going any further until I get some damn answers.” I wanted to call her out on her lies, but I didn’t want to thicken the tension.
She laughed darkly, and something flashed in her eyes, fear, maybe dread? It had my nerves fraying just a bit. It was hard to think of her as a victim, but I guess it was possible. Who would be pulling her strings, though? Several people could be involved in trying to find the dagger. I was sure it would bring in a pretty penny to someone who caught wind of its existence.
Perhaps I was looking all wrong at her involvement. There was a possibility she had more at stake in this than she led on.
In a matter of seconds, her eyes went serious. “Look, I’m not trying to kill you. I may harbor some jealousy at the fact that you had had my father your entire life when he tried to have me killed, but as far as I see it, we have the best thing out of all that in common. We want him dead. That’s what I fully intend on doing. So no, I’m not trying to kill you.” Behind me, Coal snorted. It was slightly different from his usual grunts, which I was starting to decipher, but this one had me a bit undecided.
I’m not sure what had me feeling sympathetic. Maybe it was the hurt in her eyes or the fact that she admitted she was jealous. I took her for the kind of person that didn’t admit things so easily. “To be clear, trust me, you’re not missing much on the Daddy front.” Coal’s grip strengthened, and I fought the thought of turning to look at him. There would be pity in his eyes, as I’m sure there was pity in mine for Scylla. We didn’t need pity. We needed a dagger to make Daddy pay for the things he had done, and well, the things he hadn’t.
She forced a sharp breath through her nose. “Easy for you to say, he raised y
ou.” Ouch. If only it were that easy. I just nodded my head—no need to get petty with her.
“If you could even call it that.” I released Coal’s hand and took a step forward. “Just answer me this, why are we searching for a dagger? If you’re his daughter, the only being that can kill him, then why haven’t you?”
My vision started to blur the deeper we traveled into the caves, but I could see those gorgeous green eyes flood with shame and fall to the floor. I waited patiently, not interested in a lie, but I couldn’t blame her if that's what came out. “I don’t have any powers.”
Coal chuckled, shuffling closer to me and pressing his arm against mine. I almost pushed away but decided against it. His touch was more than comforting and gave me the confidence I needed to continue.
“Look, you can laugh all you want. I wouldn’t be admitting something like this if it weren’t true.”
“I’ve seen you in other realms,” Coal accused her, his voice strong, dominating. It sent shivers down my spine. I had heard the tone before but couldn’t appreciate it because he was using it against me, but now—yum.
“Yeah, that's right, you have. I know who you are, Coal. I knew as soon as I saw you.” There was some sort of pissing match happening here that I wasn’t privy to. I would have to ask Coal about it later. They had a history.
“So, you have powers,” I stated, my voice bland. She didn’t owe me any explanation. I would try for the dagger whether she was here or not, but if she didn’t want me to kill her, then she had better start telling the truth.
“Not anymore. Long story short, I’m sure my reputation precedes me.” She glanced to Coal, and he grunted in return. I guessed this one was a shameful grunt, the way his eyes had that ‘you’re disgusting’ look. “For that reason, a witch turned me back to a human. I was on a power high, and I finally decided to start using my powers and learn magic. Screw Daddy, if he found me, then so be it. I was tired of running. I did some things I’m not proud of, made some shady deals, and was cursed. Lost my powers, and now my age is slowly starting to catch up with me.” Coal chuckled in disbelief.
Pawns Daughters of The Underworld Book 1 Page 20