Primal Pleasure: Pendragon Gargoyles, Book 3 (18 page)

“We’ve never been introduced before, no.”

It wasn’t really an answer, but he didn’t care, not when his mate’s leg brushed against his.

The Fae nodded in the direction she’d come from. “Best to get far away from the lake before you’re tempted to take another dip.”

Had that been what he’d been trying to remember earlier? That they needed to take a swim?

“The longer you’re dried off,” the Fae continued, “the sooner your memories will return.” She turned, then stopped. “Maybe you didn’t understand me?” She crossed her arms. “We’re leaving. Now.”

“Wait. I know you.” His mate—Emma?—sat up, crossing her arms over her breasts. “I saw you…somewhere.”

The Fae’s eyes widened. “You marked her?” For a moment he thought she might faint. “I’ll worry about fixing that later.”

He growled low in his throat.

She rolled her eyes and glanced at Emma. “And that does something for you, really? I’ve never understood the attraction to gargoyles myself. I prefer my men more…submissive.” She grinned, adjusting the bow strapped to her back. “I really meant it when I said it was time to leave. The lake’s guardian tends to visit every few hours, and you don’t want to tangle with him. He’s six feet plus of mean dragon. The Forgotten,” she added.

“Why are you helping us?”

She motioned to Emma. “I’m helping her. You just get to tag along.”

Wary, he hesitated to let his mate go anywhere with an unfamiliar Fae. “Help us how?”

“By showing you how to get out of here.”

Emma glanced at him. “We need to go. I just can’t remember where.”

“It’ll come back to you.” The Fae motioned to a pair of boots and clothing he had stripped off Emma earlier. “I’m fairly certain you’re going to want to get dressed.” She stared at the ground, then sighed. “You cats and your need to be naked.”

A pair of pants materialized next to him.

“Better get a move on. There are others in the catacombs and you’ll want to stay ahead of them.”

Dragging his gaze away from Emma, who quickly pulled her clothes on, Cian yanked on the pants the Fae provided. “What others?”

“Less talking. More walking.”

“If someone wants Emma…” He trailed off, something tugging at his memory.

“They’ll have to go through you first. Got it.” She glanced at Emma. “He is less chatty when he’s doing his feline impression, right?”

He reached out and caught Emma’s hand before the Fae got it into her head to try anything.

“Relax, puss, she’s safe with me.” Her bored expression said,
you, on the other hand…

“My sister.” Emma blurted. “I need to find my sister.” Relieved, she smiled at Cian, and he felt a little dazed by the full intensity of it.

When they reached the edge of the woods, he stopped, wondering if he and Emma were better off returning the way they’d come.

The Fae nudged Emma. “Take the next tunnel you come to, then the one on the left. Follow it until the vines start to thin and the blossoms are blue. Take the next right tunnel you come to. Stay in that one all the way out. Even when it looks like the tunnel ends, stay on it.”

“Thank you…”

“Amelina.” She stared at Emma a long moment, then held out a charm. “You can use this to summon me, but seeing as it’s a one-shot deal, I’d save it for an emergency.”

Emma tucked the charm in her pocket, frowning at the Fae.

“What if—” He stopped. Amelina had vanished, and he was left staring after Emma, who’d started ahead.

When he caught up to her, she wouldn’t meet his eyes, and panic crept through him. She glanced back the way they’d come, and he stopped her.

“You’re remembering, aren’t you?”

“Some. You will too.” She carefully touched his mark, her skin still healing.

“We don’t have to leave.” If leaving meant losing her smile, he’d stay and fight whatever monster came their way.

She turned on her heel, following the Fae’s directions. “We can’t. Even if we could, you wouldn’t want to.”

He picked up his pace, intent on catching up with her. “What is that supposed to mean?”

“It means to forget it.”

“Forget what?” He caught her arm, jerking her to a stop.

“This. Everything.” The sadness she tried to mask cut into him.

Running his fingers across his mark, he shook his head. “Neither of us will forget that.” He flinched as the words left his mouth, as if suddenly uncomfortable in his own mind, and then everything came rushing back.

His hand dropped away from her, but not his gaze. He was too busy staring at his mark as if seeing it for the first time.

Fuck.

“Welcome back.” She shot him a sideways glance and then started into the tunnel.

He almost didn’t follow. He’d made it official, claimed her as his mate, something no magic could ever take back.

Losing sight of her, he sprinted to catch up. His muscles, like his brain, felt weighed down, but he didn’t say anything when he caught up with her. Couldn’t.

“You’re glaring at me.”

“No.” He was just trying to figure out what the hell he was supposed to do now. Permanently bonding with her hadn’t been part of his plan at all.

She snorted. “I can practically feel the daggers digging into my skin.”

Would he ever understand her? “I’m not even armed.” And if he was, there was a good chance he might have hunted down the Fae who was somehow responsible for his present situation.

“Well, you’re looking at me like you’re stuck with me forever.”

He didn’t say anything.

She stopped and faced him. “What?”

“I marked you.”

“So things got a little out of hand. I’ll get over it.”

A little out of hand? “Maybe you will, but I won’t. I marked you. Claimed you as my mate.”

The blank look on her face finally gave way to understanding. Her lips parted, but it took another few moments for her to respond. “But what happened between us… We were…you and I…”

“Were acting on instinct.” He didn’t mean for it to sound so harsh, but she flinched anyway. Damn it.

She turned away from him. “Blue flowers.”

He followed her gaze as they passed another tunnel branching off from the opposite side. He paused, backtracked. The seductive pulse of magic licked up his spine.

“Where are you going?”

A hundred times more potent than before, he couldn’t ignore the pull of it any more than he had been able to ignore his attraction to Emma. “This way.”

She sidestepped to block him. “That’s not the way out. Look, I get that you’re mad, but if we don’t follow Amelina’s directions, we’re going to end up lost. Again.”

Not lost. Found. “We need to go this way.”

“Why?”

He had no idea, but admitting that would doubtfully earn her cooperation. “You need to trust me, Emma.” He almost missed the narrow passageway that blended right into the vines. “It’s in here.”

Her grip on his arm stopped him from going any farther. “What is?”

He frowned, searching the darkness within. “Something we need.”

“There aren’t any vines in there.” She eyed the walls skeptically. “I wish I could say I had been exaggerating earlier when I mentioned my issue with the dark, but I wasn’t.”

“You’ll be fine, but if you’re too scared, you can wait out here.” Leaving her alone wasn’t truly an option, but neither was ignoring whatever called to him.

Emma’s shoulders snapped back, and she preceded him into the tunnel, reaching back at the last second for his hand.

His eyes quickly adjusted to the dark, his gaze drawn toward something twenty feet in that threw off its own glow. More blossoms?

“Whoa.”

He paused next to Emma, staring at the weapon lodged in the tunnel wall. The silver hilt of the dagger pulsed brighter with every step he took toward it.

“Is that one of Constantine’s?”

“I think so.” He reached a hand out, but she stopped him inches from touching it.

“Maybe you shouldn’t. Maybe it’s some kind of catacombs booby trap and if you touch it spikes come out of the walls before they close in on us, or the ceiling starts to lower.”

“It’s not a trap.” Without waiting, he pulled it from the wall, much the same way he imagined Arthur had once drawn Excalibur from the stone. “Incredible.” The glow of the dagger was bright enough to hurt his eyes. He turned back the way they’d come, anxious to examine it in better lighting.

The ground underneath his feet shook, slamming him into the wall. Rocks rained down on them.

“Cian!”

Above them, the ceiling caved in, and he pitched forward, pushed from behind. He whipped around as the passageway collapsed behind him, sealing Emma inside.

Emma staggered back, the earth shaking so hard beneath her feet she went down hard. Her head struck the cavern wall, and nausea gripped her stomach and wrenched hard.

Fighting the urge to empty her stomach, she glanced at the light slipping away with the slide of rocks and earth until the tunnel sucked up every last bit of it, plunging her into darkness. In a heartbeat she was a child again, terror thick in her throat as the dark came alive around her.

“No!” Her heart slammed against her ribs, and she sprang forward, clawing at the barrier.

“Emma!” Muffled by the earth separating them, she could barely hear him.

The stranglehold fear had on her lungs eased up just a bit. She wasn’t a child anymore, wasn’t alone. Vibrations carried across the barrier, and relief made it a little easier not to give into the panic tearing through her bloodstream. He was trying to dig her out.

“Hang on.”

“Hurry!”

She must have sounded worse than she thought, because he quickly came back with, “Talk to me, Em.”

“About what?”

“Who taught you to count cards?”

“Leah.”

“The one who painted the mural?”

“Yeah. She’s probably half out of her mind with worry by now. Not that she’d ever admit it.” Leah was far too good at masking her emotions. Right now Emma wouldn’t mind possessing a little more of that particular gift.

Light speared through the darkness, and hope flared in her chest. She scrambled up, pulling rocks out of the way until she caught a glimpse of his face.

“Just a little longer, okay?”

She nodded. “Okay.”

He continued to dig, and more earth slid down to replace what he’d cleared away. The light was instantly extinguished, and she coughed from the dust released into the air.

“How long have you known her? What’s she like?” She heard him start again, but refrained from trying to dig on this side, afraid she’d cause it to cave in again.

“Twenty years.” Though sometimes it felt like forever. “She makes me laugh all the time and she loves Karaoke as much as she does gambling. And her favorite thing for breakfast is cold pizza.” She shuddered. “I couldn’t carry a tune to save my life and I prefer burgers to pizza any day of the week.”

He groaned. “Let’s not talk about burgers.” She smiled at the longing in his voice.

“Move back!” He barely got the warning out before more of the ceiling started to come down.

Again, she heard him digging, but he didn’t get far before the earth above them trembled.

“You don’t need me to save you, Emma.”

“And who will? The catacombs fairy?” He didn’t laugh at her joke, which she took as a very bad sign.

“Every time I try to dig, it collapses. You have to do this.”

“I’m not strong enough.” She hadn’t been strong enough as a child either, had needed her mother to find her.

“Yes, you are.”

The conviction in his voice, a warrior that wouldn’t let anyone admit defeat, almost made her grin. “You don’t understand. My magic—”

“Is more than enough.” He shoved more earth and rocks out of the way, and she blinked at the light that cut through the darkness “Here.”

It took her a second to recognize the feel of the dagger as she withdrew it from the small opening, then memories assailed her. She staggered under the overwhelming flashes as she felt the heat from the flames Constantine used to forge the weapon, her heart breaking at the knight’s regret for failing his king. Then the brush of powerful magic as the Lady of the Lake enchanted the dagger…

“Emma? Emma!”

She finally got her voice working, the memories fading as she concentrated on the sound of Cian’s voice. “I’m okay.”

“What happened? You weren’t answering me.”

“I think I forgot to mention that I can relive the memories tied to an object when I touch it.”

“Interesting trick.”

Not interesting enough to get herself out of the tunnel. “Cian, I can’t use this. There’s no way to predict what will happen.”

“You’ll be fine.”

His confidence in her, while insanely misplaced, nevertheless touched her. He almost made her feel like she could actually do it. “And what about you?”

“I’ll get out of the way.”

She shook her head. There had to be another option, one that didn’t involve using a powerful weapon to channel her hit-or-miss magic. “Cian—”

“Do it, Em.” That trademark arrogance was back in full force.

“Go back down the tunnel. You need to be clear just in case.” The other side of Avalon probably wasn’t even far enough away. This was Elena’s thing, not hers.

She closed her eyes, tightening her grip on the weapon. The power of the dagger crackled across her skin. It would be crazy to try something she’d never attempted. Better to use it to strengthen something she’d done before.

Holding the dagger in her left hand, she pulled energy into her right palm, let it burn hotter and hotter—and threw it at the rock barrier.

The purple flames dispersed on impact, the force of the blast knocking her backward. Not waiting to see if it would trigger another cave in, she scrambled to her feet and lunged through the opening.

She ran straight into another barricade, pushing it over as she toppled forward. Breathless, she raised her head and found herself looking down at Cian.

Her mouth fell open. “You didn’t go farther down the tunnel?”

“I stood to the side.”

“Are you out of your mind?” She didn’t even know why she asked when he clearly was. “I could have blown you sky high.”

Cian shrugged as though being reduced to kitty pulp wasn’t a big deal. “I trusted you.”