I practically moan at how comfortable it is to be pressed down the side of his body without worrying he might kill me.
My head settles on his bare chest as my eyelids start fluttering shut.
“I’ll take first watch for two hours. I’m still a little wired,” Gage says. “The three of you should sleep. Near her. Get the best rest you can, because tomorrow we do the impossible and beat these fucking trials or get lost in here forever.”
“Wired from what exactly?” Kai asks with a taunting smirk.
Gage winks at me, flips Kai off, and walks out as Ezekiel and Kai laugh lightly.
“I’m sure none of you will regret those decisions,” Jude states dryly, ever the Scrooge.
He lies down and closes his eyes, staying far away from me.
“Just remember you would have died if that black ice had spread all over you,” Ezekiel tells him like he’s defending me.
I pat his chest even as I yawn again, and his arms tighten around me as I snuggle closer.
Another body slithers up to my other side, and a set of lips graze over my shoulder.
“Sleep, little spirit. We find out our fate tomorrow, and it seems you’ll be stuck with whatever decision is made,” Kai says against my ear.
“As long as you four are still safe,” I say in a sleepy rumble, not really stringing together the sentence I mean to.
Just before I fall asleep, I feel a gentle, almost ghost of a touch at my ankle, but I can’t open my eyes to see who it is.
For the first time, I allow them be the ones to look over me while I sleep.
“Goodnight,” someone whispers close to my ear.
Chapter 6
The loud pattering of rain is what wakes me up, and I lift my head, peering over at the cave entrance where Ezekiel is staring out at the black rain pummeling way harder than it was the last time I saw it.
I’m not sure how long I’ve been asleep, but Gage is where Kai was, and Kai is now where Ezekiel was, his arms wrapped loosely around me as he sleeps peacefully.
I’m assuming that means I’ve slept six hours, which would be three guard-duty rotations, but I’m not certain if Jude has taken a shift. I’m currently smirking at him as he lies at my feet, his arm draped loosely over my ankles as he sleeps hard.
That small touch on my ankle before I drifted off must have been him, and he subconsciously got even closer in his sleep.
He’s going to be so mad that I saw it.
A huge grin splits my face, and I carefully go phantom, letting all their touches pass through me as I stand without disturbing them and go whole on my way to Ezekiel.
I blame the extreme circumstances for my questionable comfort level with Ezekiel when my hand travels over his shoulder, and I step into his side.
He looks down at me, a heavy expression on his face.
“Sorry,” I say, withdrawing my hand.
His lips twitch, and his arm goes around my shoulders, drawing me against his side. Happily, my arms slide around his waist, all domestic-like. We could be mistaken for a couple instead of just a creepy stalker girl chasing after a crush.
“There’s someone watching us,” he says quietly when his lips touch the top of my head. “Don’t change forms yet.”
“Why?” I whisper.
“Because they’ve seen you already, and they don’t know you can vanish. It could be a very important weapon when they finally make their move. Just act casual and calm.”
Did they see me vanish to get out of the sleep pile?
My breath comes out shakily, because what if it’s the Devil watching us? What if he’s studying us the way I used to study my quad?
“It’s not Lucifer,” he tells me like he’s in my head.
“How do you know?” I ask, confused.
“Because there’s no light shrouding you.”
“That makes no sense.”
“I don’t know for sure, but I think it’s the blind tribe. They’re rumored to stalk these woods for food. And we might just be on the menu,” he says instead of explaining the light.
“Lovely,” I state dryly. “At least they’re blind. I’m assuming they can hear every word we’re saying, though.”
“They actually see things in signatures. Hell’s belly, as you’ve noticed, is very fucking hot. They see cooler signatures instead of heat signatures,” he goes on. “And they don’t exactly speak English. They speak the language of the damned.”
“Is comoara trădătoare a damned language phrase?” I ask idly, looking out on the very neon blue forest, and wondering where this blind tribe is hiding.
“No, that’s Romanian,” Ezekiel states as though it should be obvious.
“Why do you think it’s them?” I ask quietly. “The blind tribe, I mean.”
“Because I’ve seen glimpse of a couple of humanoid figures since the lights came on, and the only humanoid figures down here would be competitors or tribesmen. We’ve managed to avoid the other tribes. They prefer to feed on the monsters and stray from any interlopers. But the blind tribe—”
“Are savage, hungry, fearless, cannibalistic barbarians in the mood for some flesh. Got it. I take it they’re immune to black ice?” I interject.
He nods, his eyes still on the land in front of him. “Another reason I’m certain it’s not the other competitors. They’ve been in the storm for the past hour at least.”
“Just fucking great,” Kai says around a yawn, drawing my attention back to him.
Gage and Jude are already awake, and Gage is stretching, looking well-rested.
Jude avoids my eyes.
“How’d you sleep, Death Punch?” I drawl, grinning like the cat who ate the canary.
He doesn’t even look at me before speaking directly to Ezekiel. “If the blind tribe is waiting on us to leave this cave, we’re going to have to fight our way out of this.”
I start to move to the doorway, but Ezekiel tugs me back.
“Save your strength. You have to be able to hold your invisible form. I think shielding yourself from Lucifer in the open is draining you faster. There’s no telling how much power that requires.”
I look at him like he’s crazy.
“I’m not shielding myself. I don’t even know how to do that.”
“Most of your power runs on survival instincts. You’re only starting to gain some control,” Gage says, moving closer as he props up and peers out as well.
“In other words, if Lucifer seeing you makes you feel threatened,” Jude says, moving just to the rim where the black rain misses his foot by mere centimeters. “The light surrounds you every time you feel his eyes on you when you turn whole. The light never shines under coverage from his watch.”
Good to know. I guess.
“So if you’re naked, the rain won’t hurt you, right?” I ask, suddenly very intrigued by how distracting this fight will be with a lot of swinging equipment.
A small grins curves at my lips, and Kai arches an unimpressed eyebrow at me as he moves around to be diagonal from me.
Clearing my throat and wiping away the juvenile grin, I pretend to have some class.
“That’s the theory,” Ezekiel says absently.
“The theory? You spouted facts about it.”
“We knew it would freeze us to the core if it penetrated the skin,” he goes on conversationally. “It’s liquid when it connects, and if the surface is not hot enough to keep it liquid, it immediately freezes everything, spreading outward. It evaporates immediately into the ground, and turns into glowing blue residue on the plant life. Your temperature has to continuously rise to battle it, but it cools you if it’s able to attach. Double-edged sword.”
“The clothing provided a cooler layer that it attached to and grew strength, chilling the surface of our skin enough for the ice to find a weak spot to attach to,” Gage adds.
“We assumed our skin would run too hot for the temperatures, and Kai was shirtless. His pants got wet, but didn’t touch skin before he stripped out of them. However, the black ice ran off his body, never freezing on contact. Unlike it did when Jude was drenched and it attached to his middle in numerous spots. Or when my arm was infected under my drenched sleeve,” Ezekiel goes on.
“My boxers fucked me,” Gage says. “The theory is that none of our skin can get infected if there’s no barrier to help chill it before it penetrates the skin.”
“Not an agony I’m in any sort of hurry to revisit,” Jude inserts dryly, taking a wary step back. “Someone else can play guinea pig.”
They keep talking about how hot hell’s belly is, but the heat isn’t quite so intrusive to me. I suppose that would just sound like obnoxious bragging right now, so I keep it to myself.
“I’m going to go out there and see if I can determine how many we’re dealing with,” I tell them, stepping behind Jude.
He covers as much of me as possible, understanding what I’m doing without me having to explain.
“What am I looking for?” I ask as I change forms, hoping the phantom version of me is hidden from their cooler-temp seeking eyes.
“I have no idea. I only saw humanoid shadows just as the forest started illuminating. Since then, I haven’t been able to spot them. The books we read had no description of them other than what I’ve already told you,” Ezekiel tells me.
“We might have learned more about hell’s belly if we had ever foreseen a visit here,” Kai drawls.
“Save your energy. We can fight this time,” Jude says quietly to me.
“Well, don’t any of you go trying to die, and I’ll let you be men. But the second I see you not pulling your own, I’ll totally emasculate you. Again,” I state as I pass through him and start stalking into the woods.
“Her fearlessly wicked tongue is what surprises me the most,” I hear Jude huff under his breath.
“You have no idea how wicked my tongue can be,” I assure him, putting my sassy Devil costume back on as I strut a little in my red heels.
A few snorts follow that.
“Guess her hearing is better than we realized,” Ezekiel muses.
“Finding out new things about me is what gives me all those bonus mystery points,” I call out as I move farther and farther into the neon woods, even as the rain continues to pour through me.
I’m not worried about being too loud, considering these blind guys can’t actually hear me so long as I’m in this form.
I’m expecting to find ten or so tribesmen as I continue to move on.
Yet I’m starting to wonder if Ezekiel is just being paranoid, because I can’t even see the cave anymore, despite the heavily illuminated forest.
Sighing, I turn around, and halt.
I finally spot one guy slinking through, and an eerie sensation slithers over me.
He’s blending in with the streaks of neon blue and the black background of the tree. As he moves, the shades and colors on his skin adjust, changing as well, making him the perfect chameleon.