Total pages in book: 51
Estimated words: 49441 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 247(@200wpm)___ 198(@250wpm)___ 165(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 49441 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 247(@200wpm)___ 198(@250wpm)___ 165(@300wpm)
“Come again?”
“I will be with you. In the labyrinth.”
“But… how?” I asked, waving toward the outside of the window where the sun made it impossible for him to move around without becoming crispy.
“The labyrinth doesn’t work with our rules,” he said.
“But you said it’s spelled.”
“Not necessarily to keep me out. Simply to make it impossible for me to move through it on my own.”
“What if it’s a trap?” I asked.
“It’s worth the risk.”
“Why?” I pressed.
I mean, the vampire seemed to have everything anyone could ever want. All the money in the world. Super strength and speed. A library full of ridiculously boring books. Immortality.
Though, the whole not needing or enjoying food thing would be a major downside for me.
Why would he risk all of that?
“That is inconsequential for you,” he said.
Clearly, he was back to his grumpy ways. I shouldn’t have expected anything to change just because he put an arm around me while I slept on him and then covered me with a blanket.
It wasn’t like he was suddenly going to fall in love with me.
Vampires couldn’t love.
You needed a soul for that.
Something evil creatures were lacking.
“Fine,” I huffed, reaching for the bag he’d left the plane with. As I suspected, it was full of my snacks.
I picked an iced tea and a cherry breakfast pastry, glad that I’d always been too lazy to get up and pop them in the toaster, so I’d long since learned to enjoy them uncooked.
I was halfway through the second one when I’d noticed Nathaniel’s gaze on me.
No.
Not even on me. On my mouth. Like he was watching me eat.
“Ah, do you want one?” I asked, digging into the box to grab another of the foil packets. “I mean, I know you guys don’t need to eat, but that doesn’t mean you can’t, right?”
“Right,” he agreed, looking down at his lap when I tossed the food there.
“And, you know, it’s bad manners to let someone eat alone,” I claimed, not knowing if there was any truth in that or not.
But he nodded, reaching with those long, masculine fingers of his to pull open the foil, then produce one of the pastries, sniffing it tentatively before taking a bite.
“Good, right?” I asked, nodding.
Nathaniel swallowed, then rubbed his tongue across the top of his mouth.
“No.”
“Gee, sorry it’s not some fancy 1700s pastry made by someone who came from a long line of bakers. But this is modern-day America. We like our food fast, cheap, and full of sugar.”
“You think I’m a snob,” he concluded, passing the foil back to me. I wasn’t about to let good food go to waste, so I went ahead and ate his portion too.
“I mean, yeah,” I said over a mouthful.
“I ate peasant food when I was alive,” he said. “Flaky bread. Stews with cheap vegetables and the occasional bite of meat. If I was lucky. This has nothing to do with snobbery. And everything to do with that… pastry tasting like cardboard covered in sugar and filled with jam of some undetermined fruit.”
“It’s cherry.”
“If you say so,” he said, shaking his head.
“How long of a drive do we have?” I asked after a few silent moments.
“Three hours until we are in the general area. From there, we are going to stop at a hotel.”
“Why?”
“Because humans have needs that vampires do not,” he said.
“Right,” I agreed, capping my iced tea, not sure if my bladder would hold out for three hours if I finished it. “But, how can you stay at a hotel?” I asked.
“Drapes,” he said, making a surprised laugh escape me. “We will stay there just until sunset. And then we will make our way to the labyrinth.”
Adrenaline skittered across my nerve endings, wondering what, exactly, the maze might have in store for me. What kinds of challenges had been used to keep vampires and other witches away from… whatever was at the end of it?
Along the drive, all I could focus on was why the heck a vampire of Nathaniel’s knowledge and means had settled for a witch like me.
I wasn’t exactly a motivated witch.
And I wasn’t a highly skilled witch, either.
So why me?
I glanced over at Nathaniel, seeing none of the openness I’d glimpsed in him in rare moments since we’d met.
I had a feeling there was no use asking for details.
He wasn’t going to tell me the truth. Not when something was waiting at the end of the labyrinth that he was willing to risk both our lives for.
CHAPTER EIGHT
Nathaniel
Roxy was unexpectedly quiet on the drive to the hotel. The only noises she made were the rustles of snack bags as she opened and absentmindedly picked at them.
She seemed lost in her own thoughts, her gaze focused out of the window, eyes looking far away.
I debated explaining about the labyrinth, about the curse, about the cure I was willing to risk everything for.