Free Out Of The Darkness by Calle J. Brookes Page A

damned portkeys. Rachion’s supposed to be a nasty place. I’m not letting you go there. They’d make a pretty little slave out of someone like you. I can fly in, get the lay of the place and then get back to you before you can even walk a mile.”
    “I get it, I ’m the dead weight.”
    “Don ’t say that.” The word dead and his Rajni did not belong in the same sentence. Ever. It was a Dardaptoan male’s worst fear and had his chest tightening to the point he almost couldn’t breathe. “I’ll keep you safe! I vow to the goddess that.”
    “By leaving me behind while you go play hero.” She’s leaned back in his hold, until she could see him.
    He stopped walking and stared at her for a long moment. His Rajni was so damned beautiful, with those green eyes the same color as the foliage surrounding them. Green eyes filled with stubbornness and determination. “You’ll do as I say.”
     
    ***
     
    She didn’t want to just give in, but what other choice did she have? He was right. He could move faster by himself than with her. Why should she be stupid about it? She wanted to go home, and Nalik could get her there quicker. 
    “I don ’t want to be underground. I can’t breathe like that.”
    “It ’s safer that way.”
    “Is it? What if I go crazy down there? Did you think of that?” She ’d been terrified in that cave when she realized he’d sealed her in. Every bit of rationality had fled out of her head and she’d been a whimpering mess for the first twenty minutes or so. Only her tree had consoled her. As long as she had a tree, she had air. She’d told herself that over and over until she’d regained some sort of balance. And until she’d found the tiny trickle of light coming in from those two small holes in the top of his cavern.
    “I ’ll make it big enough that you can have plenty of breathing room. And you can put a hundred trees down there if you need to.”
    Gee, thanks. His hands were on her rear again. They ’d slipped there quite a few times while he’d been carrying her. Cass really hadn’t minded. It had proven to be enough of a distraction from what they were facing. His hands were strong, the fingers long.
    It had been several years since Cass had been held this close to a male body. She ’d been seventeen then, with a boy she’d known her entire life. They’d been friends long before they’d become lovers. When he’d been lost to a fast growing cancer three months later she’d been devastated. She hadn’t had a lover since.
    Maybe this was her body ’s way of telling her it was time again?
    Why else would she be feeling this heat for a man she definitely didn ’t like? Or maybe it was just the situation they were in causing her to develop feelings that she really shouldn’t?  Either way, if he kept holding her for too much longer she might start to think he didn’t hate her as much as she’d once thought. “I can probably walk now.”
    He dropped her, and Cass ’s foot landed on a sharp rock. She cried out, not meaning to, and the sound echoed off the hills around them.
    “Quiet.” His hand covered her mouth. “Put on your shoes, and stay very close to me.”
    What was he afraid of? They hadn’t seen a single person or animal other than squirrel-type rodents and some strange looking deer. Still, she obeyed and silently put on her shoes.
    “We ’ll make cave here.” His tone left no room for questions and though the idea of going underground again terrified her, something about the way he was acting terrified her even more. What had he heard?
    He did the same moves, said the same words as he ’d said the previous time. The cave shot up out of the rocks fifteen feet away from her. It was just as awe inspiring as it had been the last time, but she managed to keep silent while the cave grew.  When he nodded at her, she tried to force herself to go in. But she couldn’t. She shook her head at him. “I can’t do it. I can’t.”
    “You have to. Or I