Page 19 of Expose Me

The double doors slammed open, and several people rushed inside just as I took Zey’s hand and we stepped through.

I glanced back as the portal closed in on itself. Marina stood among shocked, angry people on the other side. She looked beyond surprised—she looked disheveled and overwhelmed andseething. I almost felt sorry for her.

The portal closed with one last spark of magic, before that too fizzled to nothing.

Chapter6

Ibent over, resting my hands on my knees, and heaved in breaths. That was close—too close. At least I knew I’d made the right call by using the one portal I had. If we’d been caught again, we wouldn’t have been able to escape. Our security would have tripled, and we’d probably be moved to a facility with much stronger containment spells.

“Where are we?” Zey asked, looking around at the forest. Springtime had the area feeling particularly alive and vivacious. We stood on a narrow hiking track, nothing to see or hear but nature—trees swaying, birds chirping, running water somewhere in the distance.

“Very far away from the multiple assholes chasing us.” I stood up straight and propped my hands on my hips, still catching my breath. Zey was breathing hard too, and all he’d had to do was chug water and step through a portal. What the hell had they done to him? I scanned him for injuries. Not that I knew what an injury on someone from his realm even looked like.

“I cannot sense the Lineg at all. We must be far indeed.” He was staring into the woods, his eyes searching.

“Good. Finally.”

“They will find us. It may take longer now, but they will.” He fixed me with that intense look of his.

“Yeah, well—”

He walked off the path into the woods where he’d been staring.

“Hey!” I called after him as I followed. “That’s not where we need to go.”

“I need water.”

I rolled my eyes. “I can summon you more water.”

“No need. There is plenty here.” He ducked under a branch, and when I followed, I found that the running water was much closer than I thought. A small river cut through the dense forest, hardly more than a brook.

Zey dropped his pants, flashing me his annoyingly toned ass. His T-shirt followed, and he waded into the water. It reached his thighs when he was at the deepest section. He dove under and remained below the surface for a long time. If he’d been human, I would’ve been panicking that he’d drowned. Shit! Maybe hewasdrowning. Just because he needed water to repair and whatever didn’t mean he couldn’t get too much of it. Humans needed water to live too, and we could still drown.

“Zey!” I shouted, moving to the very edge of the river and scanning the surface. The running stream splashed against the toes of my boots. “I did not go through all that, saving your ass, only for you to fucking drown in a thigh-deep brook!”

His head popped up a few feet downstream and he flashed me a grin. It was the first smile I’d seen from him, and it was ... startling.

“I’m quite well, Sky,” he said, standing to his full height. Water dribbled down his body, and his hair was stuck to his scalp. He must’ve finally sated his insatiable thirst if his skin was no longer absorbing water.

He started wading towards me, his powerful thighs cutting through the rushing water, his manhood bouncing between them.

I huffed and turned away.Manhood? Ugh! I crouched and scooped water into my hands, having a good drink myself. The water was refreshing, if a little too cold, and felt like silk sliding down my throat.

A pair of bare legs moved into my range of vision, water now flowing around the ankles.

I glanced up, forcing myself to ignore themanhoodmere inches from my nose. Zey was watching me with a curious expression.

“You can only ingest water through your mouth? How do you get enough?”

“We don’t need as much as you apparently do. Can you please put some damn clothes on?” I drank more water.

“Why are you all so bothered by nudity? It’s only your natural form,” he asked. Thankfully I heard the rustle of clothing as he spoke.

“Centuries of patriarchy,” I said as I stood up.

He gave me that curious tilt of his head, his brow furrowed. After a few moments, his brows rose high, and then a look of bewildered disgust settled on his face. “That is a horrible system of society, not to mention inefficient.”

“Couldn’t agree more,” I mumbled, ducking under that tree branch and making my way back to the path. Zey caught up as I started walking up it.

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