“Don’t be afraid, little one. I am Amaza, High Priestess of the Goddess. You will be safe here. This I swear on my life.” She took my hand and led me through the gates of the Temple of the Moon.
My eyes flew open and I found myself sprawled out in my own bed staring at the cracks in my ceiling. I really needed to get that painted. Maybe I could bribe somebody. Brownies. Brownies were always a good bribe.
I rolled over and winced as my head gave a vicious throb. Great, it was going to be one of those headaches. The kind of headache that only sleep will cure.
I sniffed the air. Cinnamon. I sniffed again. Vanilla. Maybe some cardamom. I loved cardamom, but why did my house smell like it? My bedroom door swung open, light slicing across my eyes and sending my head throbbing so badly I thought I’d have to make a run for the bathroom.
“Sorry.” It was Jack. How did he get in here?
“How … how … in here?” Fantastic. I was making no sense whatsoever. Not a good sign.
I felt Jack’s smile more than saw it. “Kabita called me.”
“Kabita?” Kabita called Jack? Had the world ended? I still wasn’t entirely through being pissed at her for killing my Sunwalker and I was pretty sure she wasn’t convinced he wasn’t a monster. Whoa. Wait. My Sunwalker? Where the heck did that come from?
“Yeah, she was worried about you. She and Inigo had work to do, so she called and I came.” Of course he did. He set something on my bedside table. It was my favorite mug. The one that read, ‘I like cooking with wine. Sometimes I even put it in the food.’ I loved that mug. It always made me smile. The scent wafting off it was the same spicy scent I’d smelled earlier.
“I brought you some tea.” He sat down on the edge of my bed, dipping the mattress so I rolled toward him a bit. I didn’t mind. His energy was really soothing. I’d never noticed that before. “It’s my own blend. Something I picked up … well, a while back. It helps when I have headaches.”
“You do this Kissing the Dark thing, too?” He was a Sunwalker, after all. Maybe we had the same weird super powers.
He shook his head. “No. That is something beyond my abilities, I’m afraid. I can channel some energy from the sun, as it is my nature, but Dark is … Dark is hard to channel without … “
“Without?” I took a sip of tea. It was sweet and spicy and tasted like heaven. Seriously, I needed the recipe. My head gave a throb and I winced.
“Never mind; we’ll talk about it later. Here, drink some more tea.” He helped me sit up a bit so I could drink without spilling it down the front of myself. His arm behind me was hard and warm, and places in me went all tingly from his touch. This was so not the time to be getting all hot and bothered. I was going to have to give my libido a serious talking to. Not that I thought it would listen, but I figured I should give it a try.
He took the mug from me and helped me lie back down. “Get some sleep. You need your rest to cure the headache.” I nodded carefully and snuggled back down under the duvet.
His ocean colored eyes caught mine for a minute and his full lips quirked in a smile as he stroked my forehead. I felt myself drifting, sleep stealing closer and closer. Right before I drifted back to sleep I felt him slide under the covers next to me and gather me in his arms.
Chapter Nineteen
“Wake up, princess. We must hurry!” I felt a hand on my shoulder, shaking me. For a moment, confusion befuddled my brain. In the ten years since the Warrior had brought me to the Temple, no one had called me by my title. I was simply another acolyte of the Moon Goddess, nothing more. For my own safety, Amaza told me on that fateful night, no one could ever know my true identity. I’d seen her rarely since, instead spending most of my time training with the other acolytes.
It was Amaza herself standing over my bed dressed, not in the robes of her station, but in full battle armor. “We must leave now. They’ve found us.”
I had no need to ask who “they” were. I knew exactly who “they” were. The acrid stench of smoke burned my nostrils. They were burning the Temple.
The ones who had destroyed my home and my family were hell bent on eradicating every sign that my people had ever called this planet home, and despite my human blood, they were particularly interested in killing me. Which was why the Temple and my survival had been a closely guarded secret; we were the last bastion of our once thriving civilization. No one had known we existed. Until now.
Amaza wrenched open the door of my wardrobe and shoved aside the robes. After a moment of fumbling, she beckoned me forward. Instead of wood where the back of the wardrobe should be, there was utter blackness. My eyes must have been very wide indeed, for Amaza smiled just a little. “Did you think we would leave you without some way to escape, should the need arise?”