Chapter 10
A Sudden Drop
As soon as they were outside, it was almost impossible to imagine that the exchange in the cave had been real. Calixto was back to his usual cold self. Bree looked around and saw that they were not at the base of the mountain as she had thought, but somewhat higher up.
She turned, “How did we get so far from the base?”
“I carried you.”
“Did you transform?”
He looked at her out of the corner of his eye, then returned to scanning the mountain for a way up. “Would you be disappointed if I said yes?”
“I would be for two reasons – because we should not be using magic and because I missed it.”
He waved her to him and put a hand on her shoulder. Calixto’s face was near hers as he pointed toward a very narrow path. “We can go up that way.”
She turned to look at him “You still haven’t answered my question.”
His face turned to hers. A slight smile spread across his face and instead of answering, he leaned over and kissed her. His hand slid down her arm and grabbed her hand. “We need to move before they realize we are on the move.” He pulled her along behind him.
“Demons don’t have a lot of power around mountains.”
“What about volcanoes?”
“That would be a complete disaster for us.”
“Then we need to get moving.”
Bree squeezed his hand, “You don’t need to be paranoid. This area hasn’t been active for so long that they may as well just be mountains.”
“And you don’t think that demons can change that?” There was a hint of sarcasm in his voice.
“Ok, that was clearly sarcasm. You are getting down right feisty Calixto.” Bree beamed as she squeezed his hand. “But I get what you mean. More speed less talk.”
He turned and gave her a quick smile, “We don’t have to be quiet as long as we don’t allow conversation to slow us down.”
“That is rather magnanimous of you.”
“I’m trying.”
Bree couldn’t keep a light laugh from echoing around them. Pressing a hand to her mouth, she collected herself, “Sorry. I’m surprised you know how to be funny.”
“I wasn’t trying to be.” He pressed ahead without looking at her.
“So how did you know that these used to be active? That knowledge was lost eons ago, back when there were a lot more of my kind roaming Letera.”
“I can feel the magma.”
“You what?” The pull of her hand reminded her to keep moving.
“I can feel it, but now is not the time to explain that.”
Bree watched the muscular back of her companion and she wondered just how much there was to learn about it. Practically everything, she thought. “I thought that changing form was the only magic a shifter could use.”
He turned his face toward her a little as he dodged a tree branch, “We have any innate abilities of our original form.”
“So a wolf shifter has a keen sense of smell, even in human form?”
He nodded.
“I’ve still never heard of any species having any magical a-Oh god’s!” Bree exclaimed as she realized there were plenty of species that could have two forms. “So if there is a fairy shifter, you could potentially have a person that could fly?”
She bumped into him as Calixto came to an abrupt stop. He turned and gave her a look of disbelief, “A fairy shifter? That’s ridiculous.” He pulled her hand and started back up the mountain. “Humanoids aren’t shifters. They have their own kind of magic.” He shook his head and Bree could hear him mutter, “Fairy shifter. Unbelievable.”
Bree smiled at his back. She had known about humanoids and shifters, but he was so closed when it came to talking about his abilities, she wanted to see if there was any way to get him to open up. Now she knew that there was a way – a way that she knew well. All people loved to feel smart, so all she had to do was play dumb and he was bound to let it slip up. Otherwise, she might never find out what his real form was.
They were relatively close to the top of the mountain by that point and she thought it best to focus because down was usually a lot harder than up.
Calixto stopped and checked out the other side, “Alright, I think-”
Whatever he was thinking, he never got to say, the ground below them shifted and a large crack formed beneath their feet. Calixto immediately grabbed Bree and pulled her to him as the mountain crumbled. Bree put up a field around them as they slid into the yawning opening that went down for miles, well below the base of the mountain. As they tumbled down the mountain, she buried her face in Calixto’s chest.
They landed on a ledge some ways above the magma flowing under them.
Bree looked up into Calixto’s handsome face. His eyes were darting around, his attention clearly focused on finding a way out.
“I’m sorry Calixto, but getting out of here is not our biggest problem.”
His eyes looked down at her.
Bree pointed a finger to their left, “The demons are here.”