Evalle got over the shock of Storm trying to send her away and kept her voice soft to keep from alerting demon central even if they shouldn’t be able to hear her. “I came here to find you, Storm.”
His voice normally had a rich tone, but now his words were deep and gravelly. An unearthly sound that raised the hair on her arms.
“I know. That means you survived the Medb and whatever happened on Treoir. I’m glad. Now go back.”
That was it? All he had to say?
Why would he send her away?
Did he think she would shy away from fighting demons? No, but Storm would suffer anything before he’d risk her life. He didn’t get that choice.
Not now that he belonged to her.
Putting steel in her voice, she said, “I’m not leaving without you or some way to get you out of here.” She floated closer.
“Stop.” He hadn’t even turned to look at her yet, but she froze where she was and waited for him to speak again.
“Ask whoever brought you here to take you back. Get out of this place before you’re discovered.”
“No. I don’t even know where this is. Why are you here?”
He heaved a deep breath that sounded as if he’d resigned himself to answering her questions. “I underestimated Nadina.”
That bitch would die, but not until Storm got his soul back and he returned home. Evalle asked, “Where is she?”
“Gone. Waiting somewhere safe until she gets word to come back.”
“We’ll deal with her later. How can you get out of here?”
He chuckled, the sound so empty and flat it could have come from a corpse. “I can’t.”
“Storm, look at me. Why are you not trying to leave? I don’t understand you giving up. That’s not like you.”
The silence piled up and up until Evalle feared Storm had built an invisible wall between them that she wouldn’t be able to pierce.
He finally said, “I never wanted you to see me like this.”
Naked and looking as if he’d barely survived ten battles with demons? Did he really think she cared when he’d seen her shift into a monster born of her Alterant genes? She wanted to tell him how she was now a gryphon, but they could catch up later, once she had him out of this pit.
When he spoke again, her heart jumped with relief that he was still talking, until he said, “And now that you’ve seen me, I need you to leave, never come back and forget about me. Go on with your life.”
Tears burned her eyes. She covered her mouth to keep from screaming at him to stand up and fight. Don’t upset the spirits.
Nadina might have tricked him into this place, but how had she stolen his will to live? When Storm had battled back from death after Sen tried to kill him, Storm had told Evalle he’d pleaded with Kai to help him live so that he could hold Evalle one more time. She’d never known love, not the kind that happened between a man and woman, but those words had wound around her heart and held it safe.
Storm loved her. She knew this and he knew she loved him. Her Storm would never quit on them. Whether they were mated or not.
Didn’t matter. In Evalle’s heart, Storm was her mate.
That was all she needed to know. She’d find a way to get him out of here regardless of what Nadina had done to his mind. Evalle waited until she calmed down to keep from giving the spirits a reason to snatch her away.
Her words were quiet, but commanding. “You listen to me, Storm of the Navajo. I am not going back and forgetting about you because I love you.”
His muscles tensed. He buried his face in his arms, shaking.
His pain wicked out and brushed her face.
She reached a hand toward him but pulled back, afraid of causing him more anguish. If only she could go to him and find a way to rally Storm to fight with her. But he’d drawn an invisible line that all her instincts were telling her not to step over, that it was important to him she not push that boundary.
The last thing she wanted to do was draw the attention of the demons who might attack Storm. Or wake up that creepy guy on the throne. She had to respect this limit until she found out what was going on with him. Had something changed once he came here to make him no longer want to be with her?
Too impossible to even consider.
She swatted away her insecurities. Storm had proven himself time and again to her. It was time to show him that she would come through for him.
He’d only said he didn’t want her here.
What if she questioned his feelings for her? Could she strike a nerve and force him to show some life? “Are you telling me to go because you don’t want me any more?”
Storm raised his head in a bold profile. Straight hair hung past his shoulders in black streaks. His eyes were closed. Thick lashes rested above proud cheeks. His lips were taut, forced together as if holding back a torrent of words. Muscles rolled and pulsed along his arms still wrapped tight around his knees.
His throat moved with a swallow.
Nothing prepared her for the guttural pain in his voice that was a harsh whisper. “I will always want you. I will always love you.” A tear ran down the side of his face. “But every time I shift into my jaguar in this place, I slip further away. I barely returned to human form the last time. My Navajo heritage–my human blood that once drove me to strive for a life of honor–is losing the battle to the blood I inherited from that Ashaninka witch doctor. Nadina bore me to be a demon. She has finally won.”
She was Storm’s mother?
The hits just keep on coming.
He took a breath that racked his body. “I will never return to your world. Some things can’t be changed. Please, I beg you to please go so I can find a way to live without you, because life without you is worse than death. They will never allow me to die ... or I would.”
Tears were streaming down her face. How could he quit now after he’d survived to this point? There was always hope. Without him, she would die inside. She was shaking with the need to go to him.
Chilly fingers touched her arms.
No, she wasn’t ready to leave this place. Not yet.
She forced her mind and voice to be peaceful while she considered all he’d said. This was too important for her to lose her grasp on it.
Storm was fighting Nadina and everything in this place. He did not want to become a demon, but Storm would rather face that than put Evalle in danger. That was the man she loved and she would go up against any power in any realm to rescue him. He might think the witch doctor’s blood ruled him now that Nadina had him imprisoned, but the fact that Storm cared enough to send Evalle away proved to her that his Navajo genes still held a grip somewhere inside him.
There was no point in arguing any more.
She just had to get him out of here before he lost what was left of his humanity. Evalle needed a game plan. To create one, she needed information.
Sounding as compliant as she could, she said, “I understand, but at least tell me who that guy on the throne is and what this place is or I’ll spend forever wondering.”
After another long moment of silence, Storm spoke in that rough voice again. “This is Mitnal and the ruler is Hanhau. He rules demons in an underworld from the land where I was born. Nadina made a deal with him that included getting me here so he could turn me into a demon to lead his army.”
Storm thought he was doomed to only one destiny.
The Storm that Evalle knew would fight giving into the dark side with his last breath. If Nadina and Hanhau weren’t going to allow Storm to die, then this had potential. Evalle just needed him to not give up in the meantime.
Nothing was impossible.
“I hear all that you’re saying, Storm, but think of all the power I have at my disposal back in Atlanta.”
There was that dark chuckle again. “Who in their right mind in the Beladors or VIPER would stick their neck out for me besides you, Evalle? Just go.” He rubbed his forehead. “I’m sorry.”
He sounded so beaten. The man she loved was larger than life, greater than the gods and goddesses. She’d seen him overcome the impossible time and time again.
Frustration burned through her. If she had to leave him in this place, she wanted to make damn sure he could kill everything that dared to attack him until she could return. To do that, she needed to tap into his inner angry child.
She’d beg for his forgiveness later, but right now she wanted to see her warrior.
“How can you give up on us, Storm? You’re willing to let Nadina win? Is she that much more important than me?”
His muscles tensed again and he started growling, a deep rumble of warning.
That was more like it.
She pushed again. “I gave you more credit than that. I pretty much told Macha to eat my boots when she tried to stop me from finding you. I’m here and I’m fighting, because I love you. I won’t ever give up on you, but you’re giving up on me and your father.”
“Get. Out!” he snarled.
“Make me.”
“Done.” That ugly black chuckle rolled out of his throat then he lunged, body shifting into a jaguar the size of a bear with eyes glaring at her.
They were demon red.
Jaws opened wide enough to snap her head off.
Evalle shoved her hands up and screamed, “No!”
Could he touch her?
She had no kinetic power.
Howling erupted out in the demon parlor.
Icy fingers snatched her backwards before Storm’s massive jaws would have slammed shut. The frigid spirit dragged Evalle through a tumbling vortex of dark swirls. Howling filled her ears then piled into every corner of her mind. She grabbed her head, screaming at the sensation of twisting and spinning through nothing.
All at once, the spinning and noise stopped.
Cold seeped deep into her bones and formed an icy layer on her skin, but it was blissfully quiet.