Page 34 of The Demigod

“You were supposed to be healing,” she said, taking slow, deep breaths.

“Feeling a lot better now,” I assured her.

I did, too.

Damn near healed, even the deepest of wounds and the most complex of breaks.

She looked a little better, too. There was some color in her face. The bruises under her eyes didn’t look as intense.

Maybe orgasms helped her regain some of her life force.

I wouldn’t pretend to know anything about demigods and what kept them going, but if coming helped, I was happy to be her orgasm dealer.

“Ready to go tiptoe around some bears?” I asked.

“Gods, no,” she said.

“Don’t worry, I won’t let them nibble you. That’s my job now,” I added with a smile as I pulled her back to her feet. She brought her pants back up with her, then took a long, deep breath.

We said nothing as we made our way out of the cellar. The party inside the estate sounded more subdued than usual, so neither of us spoke as we inched away from the house and toward the woods.

Reaching down, I grabbed Nox’s hand, slipping my fingers between hers, silently directing her toward the cave.

“What is it?” I asked, feeling her stiffening, her head cocked to the side and brows pinched.

“I don’t know. You don’t… feel that?”

“What am I supposed to be feeling?” I asked.

“It’s hard to explain. It’s… a pulsing. You know how when you listen to music loudly enough, you feel it in your feet? In the walls?”

“Yeah,” I agreed. “But I don’t feel that.” But I wasn’t part god. It made a lot of sense that she might sense things that I couldn’t. “Where does it feel like it’s coming from?”

She sucked in a deep breath, glancing over at me.

“The cave.”

“That cave?” I asked, nodding toward the one with the snoozing bears. I swear I could practically hear them snoring from here.

“Yes. You didn’t feel it when you went in?”

“No. Nothing. But I trust you. We should check it out. Go deeper than I did.”

“Okay.”

“Alright, hop on,” I said, turning and dropping down to a squat.

“What?”

“Hop on. You’re gonna piggyback it until we are past the bears. Don’t want you accidentally stepping on a paw.”

“Oh, ah, alright. I guess,” she said, stepping closer, then tentatively reaching around my neck.

The second I felt her leg hook around me, I reached back, grabbing her thighs, hauling her up, then starting to walk.

She was stiff for a minute or two. Then, slowly but surely, she melted into me, her head resting against my back, her heartbeat a steady thrum against me.

The beginning of the cave yawned open before us, the air dipping several degrees. Nox curled tighter around me, trying to snuggle closer to my warmth as I walked deeper.

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