I felt a rough breath pulse against my shorn hair. “You are not easy to replace.”
That doesn’t answer my question. I squeezed my lids, wondering why I had to torture myself with this question. Have you been with anyone else in the time I was gone?
“I have been too consumed by indignation and despair to do much more than pick fights with people, in and outside the Octagon.”
Was that what Menawa had meant about his brother being bothered?
Kajika snorted, then glided his long fingers up my spine and seized my neck, tipping it back so that my face was turned toward his. “That is putting it mildly. You broke my fucking heart.” His thumb stroked a spot behind my ear. “You will excuse me if I break your brother’s fucking nose the next time I see him.”
Two curse words in a row. I take it you’re a little mad.
He grinned, and that smile burned away the rest of my anger. “You have no fucking idea.” He gazed long and hard at me.
I suddenly worried he hated what he was seeing, and I untangled my arms and diffidently palmed my bristly scalp. I wished I had taken the time to buy a wig; I wished I hadn’t trusted my brother. He’d probably lied to me when he said I looked okay, hoping my shaved head would be so off-putting to the hunter that the latter would reject me. I lowered my eyes to his chin, unable to stomach the attention.
Kajika pushed my hands away, then slowly drew his palm over my head and back down to my neck, where he kneaded my pinching tendons. “You are even more beautiful than I remembered.”
My gaze crept back up to his. He lowered his mouth toward mine but didn’t touch my lips, just held them tauntingly close. I could smell the mints he must’ve crushed with his molars sometime before I’d arrived. I could smell the leather on his fingers and the sweat that had dried on his skin. I licked my lips, then tried to slant my mouth over his but he tightened his grip on my neck and held my face away.
“I am sorry Cruz died, Lily,” he murmured.
That made me stop panting.
“But I am also not sorry, because I am a selfish bastard. I do not know if you will be able to forgive me for thinking this, but I wanted to be honest with you.”
My heart stiffened, along with the rest of my body.
“Do you detest me now?”
Of course not, I whispered into his mind.
He released my neck and grazed my jaw with his torn knuckles, making me shudder. Cruz’s face materialized behind my closed lids. I saw his lips move, heard him utter how he loved me in a hundred different ways, how he was sorry to have taken me for granted. I felt my heart shred all over again.
A tear slid down my cheek, and Kajika brushed it away. Why did you have to bring him up?
“Because he will linger in your heart for a long time. And I do not want you to ever compare us and find me lacking.”
I would never, Kajika.
He ran the pad of his thumb over my bottom lip, then over my top one, and it raised goosebumps on all the parts of my body he hadn’t touched. “Am I still allowed to kiss you?”
I nodded.
His mouth finally rested upon mine. For a while, we breathed each other in, and then his lips pried mine apart.
“Kajika, it’s time for the press conference.” The door behind us snicked open.
Without breaking away from me, Kajika smacked it closed, then pressed my body up against it to keep it that way. He leaned into me, one palm planted on the door and the other on the small of my back.
His kissing turned so rough it made me gasp. He pulled away. I tugged him back against me, inviting the roughness. I clawed at his shoulders, and he growled into my mouth. My fingers dug deep into his back, and he ground into me.
He had shown me tenderness. He had shown me honesty. And now he was showing me something else.
Something raw and carnal.
Something almost painful but that caused no pain.
“I have missed you, ma mika. Gejaiwe, how I have missed you,” he murmured against my neck, embedding kisses into my skin.
A smile curved my lips as I let my head rock back against the door. I can feel how much you’ve missed me.
“What you can feel is how much my body has missed yours.” He bucked his hips into me, then put some unwelcome space between our bodies.
I straightened my neck, a complaint teetering on the edge of my mind.
He dragged my fingers off one of his shoulders, then pressed them against his chest, right over his pounding heart.
“This is how much I have missed you.”
The hand that gripped mine smoldered with my W.
44
The Page
Although it ripped me open to break apart, the pounding on Kajika’s locker room door was relentless, and so was the accompanying barking that he was being completely unprofessional.
Kajika huffed as he peeled himself off me and readjusted himself. “One minute, Sam!”
The man stopped barking. “You have thirty seconds to get your ass out here.”
I laughed quietly.
Kajika stared at me through his scruffy bangs. “You think it is funny?”
Your jaw is covered in my lipstick, so yes, a little.
His lips curved. I stepped toward him and hovered my hand over his jaw. Don’t freak out, okay?
“Why would I—” He bounced away from my flaming palm, but not before I’d managed to burn off the red stains. He rubbed at his jaw as though I had scorched it. “A warning would have been nice. Do I still have skin?”
I rolled my eyes. No, I burned it all off.
“Might want to use some on yourself, smart-ass.”
The slang sounded funny coming from the hunter. I raised my palm to my jaw and ignited it again to burn away any lingering red smears.
“Your thirty seconds are up, Kajika. I’m coming in. Don’t you dare stop me!” The door flew open, and the suit-clad man I’d seen earlier barreled inside. He looked at me, and then at Kajika, and then back at me.
Even though Sam wasn’t giving off any dangerous vibes, Kajika stepped in front of me.
“Who’s she?” he asked.
“My mate,” Kajika said, which made my cheeks burn.
“Your…mate?”
I tossed the word girlfriend Kajika’s way, but he must not have heard me, because he repeated, “Yes, my mate.”
My heart spiked. People don’t use that word, Kajika.
“My future wife,” he said.
Oh, skies, I was filled with fire, but I was pretty sure I was also on fire.
Someone whispered, “Isn’t that Lily Wood?”
“Who?”
“Oh, Jake, you know nothing about everything.”
I peeked sideways and spotted the girl with the glasses and clipboard standing beside the young boy Kajika’s manager had talked with earlier.
She caught me looking and jerked her gaze down to her clipboard.
“I didn’t know you were engaged,” Sam said.
“Because it is none of your business. It is none of anyone’s business.”
I palmed my head, wishing I had hair to hide behind. Couldn’t you just have told him I was your girlfriend?
“Girlfriend does not encompass what you mean to me, Lily.”
“Oh my God, I was right,” Clipboard-girl hissed. “It is Lily Wood.”
Kajika glared at her. She backed up, lost her footing, but caught herself on Jake’s arm.
Sam sighed, then extended his hand toward me. Kajika didn’t move, and I didn’t reach around him to shake it, so Sam lowered his fingers. “Well, nice to meet you, Lily. I apologize for interrupting your…reunion, but I have to borrow your fiancé.”
“I do not feel like speaking with the press.”
Color rose on Sam’s face. “You signed a contract, son. You may not feel like chatting with journalists, but you’re legally bound to do so, so come on.”
Kajika grumbled.
I placed a hand on his back. Go. I’ll wait right here.
/>
“Because you think I am letting you out of my sight?” He spun and took my hand before it fell back alongside my body.
“Am I going deaf? Did she say something?” Sam asked Jake, or maybe he was asking Clipboard-girl.
The latter whispered, “She’s mute, Mr. Hodge.”
Kajika was looking down at me. “Unless you mind being around journalists?”
I’ve spent my life around them. Bring it on, mate.
A smile surged on Kajika’s face. He tucked me under his arm, then told his manager that we were ready.
The press conference was interesting. The sports journalists acted like gossip columnists. Reporters asked me a hundred times when my brother’s wedding would happen, and what had happened to my hair. I told Kajika to tell them I’d been sick, and that was the reason the wedding had been delayed. I hated to use a fake illness as an excuse, but it wasn’t like I could tell them I’d been running low on fire.
After a half hour, we were finally ushered out of the press room.
“I’ll see you in training in three days,” Sam said.
“I am taking a week off.” Kajika gripped my hand tighter.
“Fine.” Sam huffed. “One week, but not a minute more.”
Kajika nodded.
I almost suggested he quit, but that would be implying he could live off me, and I didn’t see the hunter agreeing to that.
“Damn right.”
So much slang coming out of that mouth.
“I am trying to learn to speak more like a thug.”
I chuckled. I’m pretty sure thugs use contractions.
“I will work on that.” He smiled. “Let me throw on some clothes, and we can head back to my hotel.” He steered us into the locker room, then released my hand to grab a black t-shirt and black cargo pants from a hanger.
Kajika… I traced the new stamp on my wrist.
He tugged on his pants, then the shirt. “You do not want to go back to a hotel with me?”
No. It’s not that at all. It’s just… I’d like to take you someplace before that.
He eased a black fabric belt through his pants’ belt loops, eyes cemented on mine.
I grabbed the paper from the bag, and extended it toward him, barely daring to breathe, so afraid he would refuse.
He took the paper from my shaky fingers, then smoothed it out. “Huh.”
Is that a yes?
“Is your brother back in Neverra?”
Yes.
“Then show me the way.”
Even though trepidation zapped up my spine, I smiled.
He stepped toward me and looped his arms around my waist. “Ma mika, I will not shoot an arrow through your brother’s chest, but I do intend to give him a piece of my mind and perhaps a closer look at my fists, even if it wins me a stay in one of your cupolas.”
Cupolas have been abolished.
“Then I have nothing to fear.”
Catori might have some objections.
“I do not fear Catori’s wrath. Only yours.” He kissed the tip of my nose. “Only yours, aabiti.”
Aabiti?
“Mate.”
I blushed, and he laughed.
The man who never laughed, laughed.
45
The Runa
We stood in front of the portal to Neverra. My feet ached from the fifteen-block walk in spiky heels, and I was short of breath, although that had more to do with nerves than exertion. The hunter observed the fuse box as though it were an Egyptian hieroglyph.
“I was wondering where my page had gone. I am relieved that you were the one to take it,” he said, his white teeth gleaming in the semi obscurity.
I didn’t take it from your house. My brother gave it to me.
He gave a soft grunt. “So he was the one to take it. Figures.”
I tipped my eyebrows up. Would Ace have done that? I supposed my brother was capable of it. He liked to control people, and what better way to make sure that Kajika wouldn’t arrive in his kingdom unannounced than to steal his ticket?
My irritation rose another notch. He was no better than our father…
Kajika tightened his grip on my hand. “That is not true, ma mika. Ace is not Linus. Linus would never have allowed my tribe to enter Neverra or settle there. Your father would have gassed us the minute we stepped out of our graves if he had not been too much of a coward to travel to Earth.”
But Ace made you believe I was engaged!
“I know, and that is wrong, but I have had some time to think about it, and I believe he was protecting you from me. Sometimes it feels as though he considers you his daughter more than his sister. That is not to say I am not angry…I am furious, but a part of me understands.”
A train full of evening commuters squealed onto the tracks next to us. In a couple seconds, the doors would slide open.
“How does this work?” He flapped the square of paper. “Do I have to press it against one of the fuses?”
This was really happening. Any fuse. And, Kajika…don’t let go of my hand, and don’t move once you get through.
“Why?”
I shot him a teasing smile. You’ll see.
“I do not like to see. I like to know.”
Just go.
Gaze cemented to mine, he touched the yellowed page to one of the fuses, while I pressed my hand against them. The symbol on my wrist ignited at the same time as a spark lit up the darkness, and the portal swallowed us whole.
Kajika didn’t heed my words. The second we emerged from the portal, he lunged, and my hand ripped out of his. Pulse accelerating, I dove off the platform after him. Kajika said he couldn’t die from a bad fall, but I didn’t want to test his theory.
He fell faster than I could fly, and for a second, I thought I wouldn’t be able to catch up, but then he smacked into another portal. He grunted as I reached him, face as pale as the paper crumpled in his bruised hands.
I told you not to move off the portal.
He grunted again, pushing himself up to his feet. “But you failed to mention why.”
I bit my lip, worried he was angry.
“I am not, Lily.” He raked his hand through his long bangs.
The sun was at the apex of the sky. Barely an hour had elapsed since I’d left, even though several had ticked by on Earth.
What do you think?
Faeries, who had been gliding nearby, approached. The hunter glared at them, and they backed away, but like fish around a lure, they didn’t leave.
“It is…it is”—he tipped his head up—“the sky is purple.”
Didn’t I tell you that?
“And those trees.” He gestured to the calimbors.
I reminded him their name.
I let him take in my birthplace, feeding him the names of the places he looked at—the Pink Sea, the Five Cliffs, the Glades.
Your family has settled in the Valley between the Five—that’s what we call those five cliffs for short.
“Where do you live?”
I used to live in the palace, but it fell when the mist fell. Cat and Ace built me a house on the Pink Sea. I pointed out the tiny bobbing edifice.
The hunter squinted at it. I couldn’t tell what he thought. He was no fan of water, that I knew. Besides, if his family had settled in the Valley, he’d probably want to live there too.
“Lily, I do not care where I live as long as you are by my side.”
A blush warmed my face.
“So tell me, how do we get down from here?”
I extended my arms.
He cocked up an eyebrow. “You will carry me down? I weigh two of you. Not two, three.”
Don’t be cocky, now. I wiggled my fingers, and he stepped into my embrace.
He was heavy, and I wasn’t able to fly, but I was able to slow down our descent. We drifted as though attached to a parachute. Kajika’s heart drummed frantically against my cheek, but soon it quieted, and his wound-up muscles relaxed. He pressed me harder to him, but it was n
o longer out of fear. At some point, he brushed his lips against the top of my head, and bliss overwhelmed me.
When we landed on the moss, I unclasped my arms from around his, but stayed close.
See, I didn’t drop you, I said, feeling triumphant.
He offered me one of his rare smiles before craning his neck to behold the copse of portals. “It is unreal.”
And yet it’s real.
“Kajika! Oh, Gejaiwe, Kajika!” Magena leaped out of a runa that had been about to take off and raced toward the hunter. Limbs blurred with speed, she launched herself into his arms. He caught her and returned her hug.
Jealousy reared its petty head. Especially considering Magena had been Ishtu’s sister.
Kajika set Magena down, then picked the hand that I’d balled at my side and pulled me against him.
“I cannot believe you managed to get him here,” Magena sputtered, winded and grinning.
“She made sound arguments.”
Magena snorted. “Uh-huh.” She winked at me, and then gestured to the runa. I noticed Dawson standing beside the volitor basket. “I was just about to head to the Valley to see Negongwa about something. Want to hitch a ride?”
Kajika shot a scornful look at the runa. “In that thing?”
Magena smiled. “Dawson, think you can handle this guy?”
Although Dawson’s face colored with a crushing blush, he nodded.
“The boy does not seem very certain,” he muttered. “Besides he is almost as scrawny as Lily.”
“The basket is made of a special wood that floats. He just controls the direction.” She whipped around and started running, but halted when she realized we weren’t following. “Come on, grumpy.”
Would you rather I whistle for a lucionaga to carry you? Or maybe you can climb onto Silas’s back…
The hunter narrowed his eyes, then pinched my waist. I laughed and rose onto my toes to kiss him. That elicited gasps and whispers from our thickening audience. Even though no faerie had strayed too close, they were watching us closely.
I think they’re having a collective heart attack right now.
A corner of the hunter’s mouth curled in satisfaction. Finally, casting piercing glares around him, he followed Magena.
Raging Rival Hearts Page 26