Page 132 of Cherish

At first, it looks like the Shadow Queen is going to smite her—or whatever it is wraiths with too much power can do. But in the end, she forces her scary, scary smile back into place and concedes, “I’ll have them pull the truck into the dungeon. That will circumvent the need for blindfolds. And since we’ve already struck a deal, there’s no reason to restrain you, either.”

“Is that what you want to call what they did to us?” Jaxon growls. “Restrained us?”

At the same time, Heather whispers to me, “There’s really a dungeon?”

“There’s always a dungeon,” I answer with a sigh.

She shakes her head. “The paranormal world issoweird.”

“You have no idea.”

“Well, that’s that,” Hudson says as he reaches for my hand.

The guards look like they’re more than ready to make us suffer for upsetting the Shadow Queen, but in typical Hudson Vega fashion, he’s not about to give them an inch—even as he takes a mile. “Good, I’m glad you’re here, mate,” he tells the one with the most stripes on his uniform. “Can you show us to the truck that will take us to Adarie?”

“That little town?” The Shadow Queen sounds surprised. “Why on earth would you want to go backthere?”

“I suppose I’m just sentimental,” he answers with a smile that doesn’t quite reach his eyes. Then he slaps the shoulder of the decorated guard. “Lead on, mate. The dungeon waits for nobody.”

72

Hitting Pillow

the Belt

We’re all exhausted by the time we get back to Adarie—or Vegaville, as I’ve grown used to calling it.

The Shadow Guards pull their vehicle up to the gates of the town and shuffle us out of it before heading south across the rocky terrain. Thankfully, someone is still at the guard tower, and—after a very relieved greeting from them—we end up back at the inn within twenty minutes of being dropped off.

It’s been one hell of a day, and I don’t breathe easily until we say good night to the others and Hudson closes the door to our room behind us. And even then, I’m pretty sure I’m going to end up sleeping with one eye open. We may have struck a bargain with the Shadow Queen, but that doesn’t mean I trust her anywhere near as far as Hudson can throw her. Not now, when we still have so much of the journey left to go.

“You did great at the Shadow Fortress,” Hudson says, sweeping me into a hug that lifts my feet clear off the floor.

“Wedid great,” I answer. “I can’t believe we actually convinced her to help Mekhi.”

“Youconvinced her,” he tells me as he slides me down his body until my feet finally touch the floor again.

The familiar heat wells up inside me at the feel of my mate pressed against me, but I don’t pursue it. Not the way I usually would. I’m sweaty and dirty and more exhausted than I’ve been in a long time, and all I want is a shower and bed.

Tomorrow morning, all bets are off, but for now, I settle for a long, slow kiss that gets both of our heart rates quickening. I pull away first and grin at him as he makes a sound of protest deep in his chest.

“Where are you going?” he asks as I start to rummage through my backpack.

“To take a shower. Then to sleep for as long as I possibly can, provided I don’t have nightmares about that woman poisoning me—or all the millions of things that can go wrong between now and when I fulfill that damn bargain.”

As soon as I mention it, the tattoo on my wrist burns—as if I need any reminders of my very necessary folly.

“She’s not going to poison you,” he says. “And nothing will go wrong.”

I pause in my search for my PJs and toothbrush to look at him skeptically. “You sound way too sure about that to be believed.”

He shrugs. “Let me rephrase. None of that is going to happentonight.”

“Again, you don’t know that.”

“Sure I do. The Shadow Queen’s got to keep up her end of the bargain, which means waiting to see if we fail before she takes us out.”

“We’re not going to fail,” I tell him.

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