He flexed his fingers. Curl. Stretch.
When that arch of rock had broken beneath Calindria’s slender weight, when she had plummeted into the ravine, when he had sensed her desperate desire to live, it had been like a knife in his chest.
Curl. Stretch.
When she had touched his hand.
He lifted it before him and stared at it. Lost. Disturbed. Half-angry, half-calm. Two voices warred within him, silencing his tongue, and all he could do was trudge behind her as he did battle with himself.
She looked back at him, her sapphire gaze searing him in a way that rankled, had him wanting to snap at her, just as he had wanted to lash out at her when she had touched him.
Touched him.
He gritted his teeth, every muscle in his body tensing as acid poured through his veins, the angry part of himself swift to seize the opportunity to vanquish the part of him that whispered her touch hadn’t been so bad. She hadn’t tried to enslave him. She hadn’t tried to seduce him. It had been a simple brush of her fingers over his.
He almost growled.
There had been nothing simple about it. Simple implied it had been harmless. It hadn’t been. That brief touch of her fingers against his had thrown him into a tailspin, had ignited this battle within him, tearing him between snarling and lashing out at her, hurting her before she could hurt him, and falling to his knees before her, desperate to feel the gentle softness and warmth of her skin against his again.
How long had it been since he’d had contact with another? Since he’d had contact with a female?
Not blows rendered in battle, meant to split flesh and break bone, or playful jabs that were for show.
Real physical contact.
Even his mother, Nyx, had resorted to only touching his wings to calm him when he was agitated, knew better than to risk skin contact between them when his mood was dark.
Thanatos shut down his line of thought, tried to purge it from his mind and focus back on his task, but his head remained foggy, his entire world off-balance.
All because of an innocent brush of her hand against his.
When she looked at him this time, he couldn’t stop himself from lifting his head and pinning her with a black look, a glare meant to scare her away, as it did everyone else in this world. Only rather than averting her gaze, she scowled right back at him, a mulish twist to her lips.
She huffed and muttered, “I am not sure I will ever understand you.”
Good. He shrugged as she turned away from him, her chin tipping up, her strides lengthening. He sensed her anger and refused to feel bad about it. It didn’t stop that wretched guilt from forming in his gut, didn’t stop him from averting his eyes as shame swept through him.
He flexed his fingers. Curled them. Stretched them. Still couldn’t shake the electric tingles that had shot up his arm when she had touched him. Her fingers had been gentle. Soft. Warm. So warm. The caress had been brief, but she had left a mark on him. One that seemed indelible. No matter what he did, he couldn’t erase it.
They walked in silence for what had to be another two miles before her pace finally slowed again. She stumbled on a root and muttered a ripe curse, one that was very unladylike.
Thanatos picked his way through the black leafless trees to her. “You need to rest.”
She huffed at that, tossed daggers at him and continued walking. He thought she would remain silent, but as they reached an area where the trees began to thin, she looked back at him. The darkness that had been etched on her features for the last—gods knew how long—was gone, replaced with something far more unsettling.
A softness that had a thought rising unbidden within him.
She had grown into a real beauty.
Thanatos didn’t just shut down that thought. He killed it and buried it in the black dirt behind him.
Unfortunately, it didn’t stop her from looking at him in that way, with a spark in her clear blue eyes that softened them, that spoke to him. All these centuries later, hundreds of years in captivity, and her heart hadn’t been completely blackened and corrupted.
There was still a light within her, albeit a tiny flicker when before it had been a glow that had lit up her face.
She had shone brightly as a child, like the sun.
Now she shone with strength, with courage, stood tall despite everything that had happened to her and all her fears. And gods, he admired her for it, even when he knew he shouldn’t, even when he knew admitting that to himself was a dangerous thing to do.
“This power of mine—” She cut herself off and glanced back at him again, a hint of fear in her eyes now, one that made him want to close the distance between them and do something unthinkable—like placing his hand on her to show her that she wasn’t alone. She sighed and looked at the trees, at the roof of the cavern high above them. “Is there no end to this forest?”
Thanatos beat his wings and lifted into the air, gaining enough height that he could see for miles into the gloom. Shock rolled through him as he looked the way they had come. Even with his heightened vision, he couldn’t make out the start of the forest. He turned and beat his wings, peered into the darkness ahead of them. Not good.
He gently lowered himself and touched down close to where he had taken off. “The trees continue for at least another three miles, perhaps even more. They extend to the furthest point I can see.”
Calindria rubbed the dirty soles of her bare feet. “Maybe there’s a tunnel we can take somewhere along the sides of this cavern.”
“Maybe you could let me fly you.” He weathered the black look she gave him.
“I will not risk it.” She finished brushing down her feet. “I do not know if my power will harm you.”
He refused to soften upon hearing her concern and seeing it in her eyes. “Then we should at least rest. We must have been walking for more than a day, possibly two since we met.”
“I don’t want to rest.” She started walking again, navigating her way through the trees that were spread further apart.
At least he had that going for him. He had lost count of the number of times he had banged his wings when trying to move between the trees in the dense parts of the forest. Hopefully, the route ahead of them would be more like this, with several feet between the gnarled and twisted trunks that towered over them.
They only made it a few hundred feet before Calindria stumbled on another root and fell, hitting the black ground hard on her hands and knees. She was quick to grip the tree beside her and pull herself up, and even quicker to toss him a look that dared him to say anything.
He sighed.
Apparently, that counted as picking her up on the fact she was tired.
She twisted to face him, a shimmer of crimson in her blue irises. “You could just go a different way to me.”
She didn’t mean that. Her knees weren’t the only thing that had taken a hit when she had fallen. Her pride had too, and when combined with her fatigue, it had been enough to make her snappish again. The spark in her eyes was quick to fade, regret washing across her delicate features before she turned away from him and checked the waterskin she clutched in one hand.
She sipped it as she walked and he noticed she was moving more slowly now, carefully picking her way over the twisted roots that seemed to rise higher off the ground in this part of the forest.
In the distance, something howled and shrieked, and Calindria stiffened. Thanatos closed ranks with her, narrowing the distance down to only ten feet, a small enough gap that he could easily grab her and fly with her before she could utter a protest or even think to run.