Herakles

It didn’t take long for Riza and me to find the maps we needed to cross-reference against the rosy fish sanctuary locations. As expected, we wound up with a clearer search area—eight sites across Cerix that we could comb through until we found Eirexis.

Of these eight, three were near mountains and rosy fish sanctuaries, best matching what Fallon had remembered from Kabbah’s memories. Riza notified everyone via Telluris, giving them the names of the locations, as well. None of them matched Medina’s initial suggestions, and that just added to the suspicions we’d already been fostering about her.

Riza pointed at the first location. “The BemHur Temple should be the first on our list. It’s closest to the White Peak mountain chain, and there’s a rosy fish colony literally passing through the ruin complex.”

“If that one doesn’t pan out, we’ve got Mollyn,” I said, pressing the tip of my finger against an ancient city on the other side of the continent. “One of the oldest settlements unearthed by the Hermessi, and less than a mile away from the ocean shore. The mountain range here kept it isolated from the rest of the mainland.”

“And then there’s Sigmar,” Riza replied, moving her attention to the farthermost western coast of Samotarcis. “Also an ancient complex, two miles south of the Ferren rosy fish sanctuary. Built around the base of this single, solitary mountain.”

“You don’t think that’ll be it, huh?” I asked, noticing the descent in her voice. I’d learned to pay attention to all the subtle changes in her demeanor—the way she spoke, the way her eyes and hands moved, even the way she breathed. Riza smiled.

“My money’s on BemHur. I don’t know, call it a gut feeling.”

“At least we know what we’re looking at tomorrow, whether Medina likes it or not.” Taeral’s voice resonated through both of us, reminding me that he was still active on our Telluris link.

“I’ll see you in the morning, then,” I said, relieved to feel him go away from my mind and looking forward to being alone with Riza, once more. I’d been looking for another private moment with her, and I was hoping this might be it.

She carefully rolled up the map and tied it with leather string before she stuffed it in her backpack. My eyebrows were up, wondering. Riza noticed and shrugged. “Just in case Medina tries to… I don’t know, mess with us, somehow. It’s best to be prepared, especially since we don’t know what she’s after.”

“Good thinking,” I said. The memory of our Shade dinner came rushing back, making my blood boil. How stupid I’d been. How clumsy, to miss out on such a golden opportunity to bring myself closer to her. I had to make it right, and this felt like my last chance before whatever fresh hell we’d be walking into tomorrow. “Riza, I wanted to talk to you about something…”

She stilled, one arm only halfway looped through the backpack shoulder strap. I had her full attention, and, for some reason, it caused fire to spread through my skin.

“About my botched date invite from last night,” I added and cleared my throat, hoping I’d find the right words to convey everything that I’d been feeling from the moment I’d first met her. Despite accepting the challenge, however, my brain failed to assist me on this. “I… I should’ve been more attentive… or creative, I don’t know. Thing is, I find you… I like how you… Okay, let me try again. You’re special, and I’m—no, going down the wrong track here. Hold on, I’ve got this.” I chuckled nervously.

In a terrifying contrast, Riza was quiet, her amethyst gaze fixed curiously on me. It made it even harder to speak in coherent sentences, which wasn’t just unlike me, it was simply unacceptable. And yet, I couldn’t clamp down on the babbling.

“I wanted to ask you out more than once, but I never found the right moment,” I droned on. “You know, since we’ve been constantly… running and fighting… and swimming through pink water, and kicking Shill ass… and dodging Hermessi. It’s a mess out here. It’s a big fat mess, but in this mess, I found you, and I was hoping I’d… I was hoping I’d get another chance to ask you to—”

“Okay, stop.” Riza giggled, her hands finding mine. I didn’t even realize she was this close to me until I felt her touch. She’d seemed like a distant dream, something I’d been desperately trying to find and hold on to.

“But I—”

“Herakles, stop,” she said, her pink lips drawn into the sweetest smile. My heart fluttered frantically, waging a battle inside me. She pushed her heels up until she reached me and dropped a soft kiss on my cheek.

She stepped back quickly, while I was left standing, my knees weak and my eyes closed. I tried to relive that moment, to remember the sensation that her lips provoked, but it had happened so quickly that I only had a thunderous heartbeat to go by.

“You’re absolutely adorable, Herakles,” she said, turning around and walking toward the door. “You still have a shot at this, in case you were wondering. Just find a way to ask me out, a way that means I can’t possibly say no.”

I watched her move away from me, her hips swaying in the dim candlelight, and I felt an urgency come over me, tackling me away from my momentary dream state. There was no way I’d let her walk out of here with that kind of last word. I instantly realized that she was playing a game with me. While it was cute and all, it did awaken something more primal inside me. The fighter. The conqueror. The deserving lover. She’d turned this into a challenge, and I was eager to deliver. My ego couldn’t allow tonight to end like this, and neither would my heart.

I dashed across the room and caught up with Riza. Moving in front of her, I caught her face in my hands and pulled her into a kiss. My lips crashed against hers, and she moaned softly—not in protest, but with sheer pleasure. I kept it short, despite every fiber in my body screaming for more. It took every ounce of self-control to step back and catch my breath.

She was speechless, her lips wet and plump, secretly begging me for more. Her eyes were wide and round, twinkling with astonishment. Riza had not seen it coming, and I felt like I’d achieved a tiny, precious victory.

“Yeah, so, see you in the morning,” I said and walked out the door, unable to hold back a devious cackle. This type of self-satisfaction will be my undoing someday.

I left Riza in the meeting room, still unable to utter a single word. I’d had the last laugh, too. Finally, I was no longer inferior in this dynamic of ours. I’d set some kind of boundary, and she’d gotten the message, loud and clear.

“Oh, no, you don’t!” Riza shot back from behind me.

A split second later, she appeared in front of me. Catching me with my guard down, she threw her arms around my neck and kissed me. She tasted amazing, like sugar fireflies looking to turn me into a bumbling mess. White sparks ignited before my eyes, as I caved in and deepened the kiss. I held her tight, her petite figure perfectly molded against me, and I savored it all, allowing my tongue to explore and discover everything she had to give.

My reaction to Riza was disconcerting, to say the least, but the more I fought it, the harder I fell. I chose to instantly surrender instead, relishing the way she felt in my arms. But she was still playing with me, I realized, as she pulled back, laughed in my face, and rushed back to her room, down the hall.

“Seriously?” I croaked.

She giggled, but quickly froze when I reached her again and pressed her against the wall. Breathing heavily, we gazed into each other’s eyes, trying to figure out what this would lead to. We both knew, deep down. We understood the connection. We observed the chemistry. It was palpable, the air thickening between us as we tried to inhale and exhale without getting dizzy. It was incredible.

I kissed her again. I put bits of my very soul into it, soft and tender in my approach, as I felt her stir against me, her hands moving slowly until they settled on my hip muscles. I felt her fingers dig in, while I brought a hand up to gently cup her face as the kiss deepened and took on a whole new dimension on its own.

The palace vanished. The floor beneath us disappeared. Everything dissipated into billions of colored flakes. Everything that was left was me and her. A Faulty and a jinni, intertwined somehow forever, without even realizing it. Her fate was tied to mine, and my heart had run off and hidden inside her, unwilling to ever come back.

I was falling for Riza, so fast, so profoundly, that it scared and thrilled me, all at once. And she reacted to me in ways I hadn’t thought possible. Her breath hitched in protest as I paused for long enough to just look at her, to take her in, to revel in the amethyst pools of her eyes, which darkened with every second that went by.

“I didn’t see this coming,” she whispered. “Not so fast, anyway.”

“I still need to formulate an official date request,” I said, trying not to smile as broadly as I would’ve wanted. Joy filled me up, from top to bottom, and it took an enormous amount of restraint to stop myself from jumping around like a buffoon.

“Mm-hm. We… We should really get some rest,” she managed, her voice barely a whisper.

“I agree.”

“And I don’t think you need to formulate anything anymore,” she added as I stepped back and allowed her to reach her door. She turned around to open it and threw me a glance over her shoulder. “You got your point across fairly well, I think.”

I swallowed, my mouth parched but my lips still buzzing. I watched her go inside and close the door behind her. Left on my own, I welcomed the silence, just so I could listen to the savage drumbeats coming from my chest. A few minutes ago, I’d been struggling to find a way to ask Riza out. Now, the taste of her lingered on the tip of my tongue, and my heart was irrevocably stuck with her.

Tomorrow, we’d go out into the great unknown in our desperate attempt to stop the world from ending. But whichever way that went, the changes she’d made in me were irreversible.

I was in love with Riza, the gemstone-eyed jinni, and she seemed partial to me, too.

Harper

We had our plan hashed out and Zane’s daemons prowling through the city, constantly paying attention. As a native of a daemon city himself, Ledar was bound to take advantage of the underground settlements and his own nature to move around undetected. However, it was one thing to be a daemon in a city of daemons, and a whole other thing to be a half-daemon expected to show up by a whole city of daemons. Something else entirely…

“I still don’t like this,” Ramin said to me, telepathically.

“He’s your son, I know. But it’s the only way for you to survive,” I replied. “We’ve been over this already.”

Caspian nodded firmly. “Neraka needs a true and faithful Fire Hermessi, not one of Brendel’s lapdogs.”

We’d picked out a rather isolated area of the city, on the southeastern border, that overlooked one of the surrounding lava lakes. It was hotter than the palace, given our proximity to the lake. The air rippled, scorching our throats, but we wiped the sweat off our faces and held our positions. Ledar was bound to sense Ramin’s presence the moment he arrived on Neraka.

Zane and Fiona were with us, hidden behind a stack of crates. To our right, old huts had been huddled together, their inhabitants temporarily relocated—daemon soldiers had taken their place, lying in wait for Ledar. Caspian and I had taken over one of the huts closest to Zane and Fiona, and Ramin had settled on a window perch, occasionally preening his fiery red feathers.

“What’s he saying?” Zane asked, glancing at Ramin.