Page 274 of Caelum

Two, God was a seriously good tattoo artist.

The amulet on my stomach was beyond surreal. Large enough that its triangular peak rose between my breasts, wide enough that it sat across my not insubstantial hips. It was craggy, formed from bricks in a style that, when he’d seen the ink, had Dre frowning.

But then, Dre was a frowner.

He was going to get premature wrinkles from the way he was constantly puckered up. He continuously looked like he was either getting his tooth yanked out at the dentist or as if Eren had tricked him again and given himsour candy instead of the regular kind—not that we were supposed to have that stuff, but freedom came with the chance to makebadchoices.

Anyhow, the sides of the amulet were the least detailed of the markings. Around the inner rim was the clue to finding Raum, but also the wish we had to utter to take him from this world.

Unlike before, we had more to go on than just a mountain range. In the foreground of the amulet, there was a temple. Or, I supposed, a pyramid. It just wasn’t like the ones I’d seen on the National Geographic channel documentary about Egypt’s ancient edifices. It had a flattened top that had four solid lines sticking out of it.

In the background, there was a map, and when Dre had seenthat, he really had turned grumpier than usual.

Still, there was no need for a lot of heavy planning. No need to stop off anywhere or grab gear that we might need.

The second we’d returned to our hotel in Romania, Sam had taken pictures of my stomach and had sent them to Bartlett and Avalina. We’d all crashed, had a good night’s rest to preempt the storm that was about to hit us—and I wasn’t just talking about with Raum, but with millions of folk spontaneously self-combusting, there was bound to be trouble brewing—and had woken up to a call from Bartlett with their translation.

Now, an hour later, I’d showered and was waiting on the others to get ready as well.

Though we could afford a larger hotel room or even several on the same floor, Frazer and Samuel only ever requested the largest suite available. I’d come to think that was down to the hotel size itself, but when we’d first landed in Bucharest late at night, they’d done that, and then, when we’d found a smaller hotel in Ploie?ti, they’d done the same thing.

I wasn’t complaining, but all eight of us taking a shower really took a long time.

“It’s like GPS, isn’t it?” I mumbled to Reed, who was lying beside me on the bed, his attention on the TV that was detailing the mass panic and the chaos outside these walls.

Piles of dust were everywhere, inside and out of buildings the world over. Each one was a fallen Ghoul, one that we’d destroyed, and something the humans should be grateful for if they knew the threat those ashes represented.

“What is? The ashes?” His brow puckered, and his blond hair tumbled down over his forehead. I reached over, so happy I had the right to move the strands out of his line of sight, and brushed them aside. As my hand moved away, he sneaked a kiss to my wrist that had me thinking about last night.

His eyes darkened at the sight, and he grumbled, “Behave.”

“Like you did in the bathroom last night?” I teased, biting my lip as I thought about how he’d taken me against the wall after we’d returned from the bar.

“I did what any respectable citizen of the world should,” he retorted.

That had me snickering. “Oh, what’s that?”

“We conserved water, didn’t we?”

He was being serious.

My snickering turned into a belly laugh that had me rolling onto my side as his seriousness hit home. After a few guffaws that gained the others’ attention, and earned me a few grins and a smirk here and there, I managed to bite out, “We wasted more water than we saved!”

He shook his head. “Nope.”

“And you’re unanimous in that statement, huh?” I wheezed. More water had gone down the drain last night than had hit us, for God’s sake. Plus, whenever I’d tried to keep things PG, he’d soaped up my boobs and things had derailed.

I mean, I wasn’t about to complain… I’d had three orgasms, and that was like a law. You couldn’t bitch at a man who’d given you three orgasms during a twenty-minute shower.

Or could you?

I was still new to this man-woman stuff. Or, in my instance,men-woman stuff. What I’d learned at the compound taught me that they could beat me if I didn’t fall into line, and that I’d have to cook for them and wash up after them every day of my life.

Thus far, we’d eaten out every day, and the hotels did the cleaning. It wasn’t an example of how the rest of our lives would be, nonetheless it boded well, in my opinion.

“I’m definitely unanimous. We saved the Earth last night, even while I rocked your world.”

I hooted at his cocky grin then slapped him on the stomach to shut him up. “Don’t. Seriously,” I wheezed; my own belly was aching from laughing so hard.

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