More than half an hour had passed since I’d plopped myself down in the middle of the clearing and cut a six-inch gash across my left thigh to draw out a hunter daemon. It was getting dark, and my boredom was starting to set in. The mild rain hadn’t helped either, as water had soaked into my hair, making my head feel heavy. On top of that, water removed the daemons’ invisibility spell, so, if they were going to attack me, they had to wait it out. Fortunately, it had stopped raining for the last ten minutes. I let out an occasional moan of pain, looking around to catch signs of any movement. But nothing happened.

I stretched my arms out and glanced to my left. Jax was beneath the thick crown of a bent tree, quietly watching me with a rope in his hand. We hadn’t spoken about the kiss, and I felt a little disheartened—not because of him, but mostly because of how the universe had stopped us from talking about it, first by nearly killing Avril and then by blowing up the top level of the mountain and killing dozens of Maras and Imen.

Nevertheless, something had changed between us. I could tell from the way he looked at me. There was a more permanent softness lingering in his jade eyes whenever he did so—a softness that wasn’t there before. I wondered if he would finally get over whatever insecurities were hounding him, and come to me. I’d made it clear that I was waiting, so the ball was basically in his court. The waiting game was a pain, though…

I picked up a handful of pebbles and started tossing them around, moaning louder—but with less conviction. It felt like I was dragging it out, but I figured making some noise might get the attention of one of the horned bastards lurking nearby.

“Somebody help me… Please… I’m in so much pain!” I cried out.

Jax raised an eyebrow at me, and I gave him a shrug in response.

Hey, whatever works, buddy!

One of my pebbles hit something in the air, twenty feet away from me. I stilled, watching the invisible form ripple closer, moving toward me. I cleared my throat, then gave Jax a sideways glance. He nodded briefly and waited for the daemon to get inside the snare trap hidden in the dirt.

I caught a glimpse of the fiend’s glimmering red eyes.

“Oh no,” I said, my tone much too flat. “Please don’t hurt me…”

It stepped inside the snare trap, and I immediately pushed myself back and out of its range. Blaze, Jax, and Harper pulled the strings back, and—snap! We got him, the ropes tightening around his large form as he struggled against their hold.

Caia came out and tossed water from her flask, revealing the daemon in his full, savage splendor. Jax flashed behind him and brought his knife up to his throat, the white blade digging into his tanned skin and drawing a droplet of blood.

“Got you,” Jax breathed. The daemon stilled, cursing under his breath.

Blaze and Harper came out, along with Caspian, and used the lengths of their ropes to further restrict the fiend’s movements. They tied his hands behind his back, wrapping the rope tightly around his wrists.

“Make sure you really tighten those wrist bindings,” Caspian told Harper. “You don’t want him to bend his palms for his claws to reach the rope. It’ll cut off his blood circulation, but you really shouldn’t care about that.”

“You’re all going to die,” the daemon hissed.

“I’d be more worried about yourself, if I were you,” I shot back with a grin.

“Duly noted.” Harper smirked and jerked the rope even tighter, prompting the daemon to grunt from the pain. She measured him from head to toe, and frowned slightly. “He’s not as big as the others.”

“No, he isn’t.” Caspian nodded.

“I can still slit your throats!” the daemon growled, prompting Caspian to give him a hard backhand in response. His head jerked to the right, and he groaned from the pain, his lower lip split. He then opened his mouth, letting out a cricket-like sound, quickly muffled by Caspian, who tied a long piece of torn fabric over his mouth.

“You’re not calling for help,” the Mara said, then glanced at us, while I sized the daemon up for a brief moment.

Harper was right. The daemon was some inches shorter than Tobiah, and his muscle mass was substantially reduced, too. I had a feeling he was a weaker specimen.

“The lower-rank hunters, the weaker ones, that is, hunt on the outskirts of the Valley of Screams. The bigger and stronger they are, the easier their access to the main gorges, where most of their victims travel,” Caspian explained.

Called it.

And then it hit me.

“Damn it, Lord Kifo, you could’ve said something sooner.” I scoffed. “Preferably before we dragged our asses through the main gorge yesterday!”

“I agree, and I do apologize for that.” Caspian nodded, grabbing the daemon’s chin to get a better look at his face. “However, you were following a tracking spell yesterday. I don’t think a side road would’ve made any difference. But I will be more than happy to make it up to you all, and take you to an access point leading to the underground. This fellow here will help us get through.”

That didn’t sound right. I’d thought we were going to compel the daemon to show us the entrance to his city. It turned out that Caspian had known all along where to go. I crossed my arms over my chest and scowled at him, just to get my point across. The Mara gave me an apologetic shrug.

“Care to explain, Lord Kifo?” Jax frowned as he took hold of the daemon, who watched our exchange with a flicker of amusement in his red eyes.

“There’s an access point not far from here,” Caspian explained briefly. “It’s cloaked with swamp witch magic, and it requires a live daemon for us to go through and reach the underground city. It’s why I suggested coming through here in the first place.”

Several seconds went by as we all stared at Caspian—Harper was the only one who didn’t seem surprised. She noticed my curious expression and gave me an apologetic shrug of her own, as if mirroring Caspian’s gestures. Those two were sort of made for each other.

“He told me just now,” she murmured, looking like a kid caught with her hand in the honey jar.

Yeah, two peas from different worlds, fitting perfectly in the same pod, and they don’t even know it. To be fair, I’d noticed the stolen glances already. I saw how they looked at each other, even when they weren’t paying attention. There was something brewing between them—it had looked like quite the storm in the beginning, but Caspian had softened considerably since last night.

Oh, wow. I understood then how similar Caspian and Jax were. They’d both adopted these big, gentle eyes whenever they saw us…

“I just wanted to see how capable you all are,” Caspian said, breaking my train of thought. Blaze finished tying the rest of the rope around the daemon’s torso, holding his arms in place. “You’re all quite adept at killing and ensnaring daemons; hence, I am now comfortable with sharing more information. Don’t take it personally. It’s self-preservation that leads me to make such decisions. But rest assured, GASP continues to surprise me in a very positive way, and I never saw it coming.”

I exhaled sharply and took out a healing pellet from the first-aid satchel mounted on my belt. I popped it into my mouth and chewed, then swallowed the herbal mixture, allowing it to dissolve inside my stomach. It was quickly absorbed into my bloodstream, and I felt my thigh wound tingling as it closed up.

Blessed be that Druid magic!

“Okay then, let’s go,” I replied, hands on my hips, as droplets of water came down from the sky once more. “Chop-chop! It’s raining again!”

Caspian nodded and walked forward down the path. I could hear the rain rapping the surface of the pond just fifty yards away. The sky was dark above us, charcoal clouds keeping the first moon hidden. It worked to our advantage, as we could use the obscurity of trees and stones in this narrow ravine to get to where we needed with minimum exposure to daemon attacks.

Blaze and Jax grabbed the daemon and forced him to follow us, while Caia stayed by their side and Harper moved to the front so she could walk alongside Caspian. Yes, there was definitely something happening between them, and my protective instinct was ringing all sorts of alarm bells.

I decided to keep an eye on them. Not that I disliked Caspian, but given all the secrecy, I had a hard time fully trusting him and an even harder time letting Harper get too close to him. I just didn’t want her to get hurt in any way.

There are few things in this world that are more painful than a heartbreak. One of them is the loss of a child.

And I had experienced both, repeatedly.

No way I’m letting her go through any of it…