She wriggles against my embrace immediately, but I keep hold. “Pell,” she complains. “Let go.”
“No. Not yet.”
I wait for the battle, but my effort pays off. Or maybe I’ve just worn her down. Because she gives in with a long yawn. And then, without another word, she just drifts off to another place.
A place without me. Perhaps that dream world she claims she saw?
It’s weird how she could describe the woods around the forest temple in detail. Right down to the color of the leaves and the tree trunks.
Was she there?
I mean, that’s a dumb question. We were in the hallway fantasy rooms. That’s all it was, just another room.
But it didn’t act like another room. I didn’t go with her, for one. And it was in the middle of us having sex. All of that is confusing enough. But there’s more.
Much more.
Things I haven’t told anyone.
Things I haven’t even thought about since… well, since I was a child. Since Tarq and I used to run in those forests. Things like what Ostanes did to me. How she made me.
What she turned me into.
I think about this for hours. Because I know there’s something there. And not only that, something has changed around here since Pie came.
Of course, I felt this change immediately. And at first I thought, Well, Grant’s gone. That’s what’s different. But that’s not it.
It’s Pie.
I didn’t lose something, I gained.
I just haven’t figured out what it means yet. That’s why I need that book in Tarq’s tomb. I know it’s in there. It has to be in there. He was Saturn’s chimera. Who else could have it but him?
It has to be there. And Pie will be fine inside his tomb.
If it were anyone else, I wouldn’t let her go.
I would forbid it.
Wouldn’t I?
CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX - PIE
When I wake up the next morning, Pell is standing in front of the window with his back to me.
“Hey.” I try to rouse myself but I’m still pretty exhausted from the previous day. “What are you looking at?”
He doesn’t turn to face me. But he does answer. “The lake. I was thinking… we should go out there.”
“Out there… for?”
Now he turns and I can’t stop myself from studying his chest. His face. The curve of his shoulders. His horns.
We had sex yesterday.
I had sex with a monster.
I hate that thought. I do. I hate it. He’s not just a monster. In fact, he’s not a monster. He’s just… something else.
“Just to see it,” he says. “Walk around it. There are birds out there. I’ve seen ducks on that lake. And deer in the woods.” He shrugs. “It’s been a while, that’s all.”
“Oh.” I shove the covers off me and swing my feet out. His eyes track down my legs, then back up. But he’s studying me too. Just like I was studying him. And I wonder if he’s thinking… I had sex with her yesterday. A human.
But he doesn’t say that, he says, “So what do you think?”
“About the lake?”
He just stares at me for a moment and I swear to God, I hear him thinking, Stupid. Naïve. Cute. But I’m not sure which one he chooses today. Everything feels different for some reason. Yesterday he felt like my best friend but today… he’s just my monster. “About the tomb, Pie. Do you think you’re up to going inside?”
“Do I have a choice? I mean, if the sheriff comes back—”
“Oh, he will. He thinks he can come and go at will. He probably has no idea that he’s not supposed to be able to get in. I think that’s working in our favor at the moment. He’s not under the impression that his ability to get inside might come with conditions.”
I sit on the edge of the bed and nod, looking down at my feet.
Yesterday, I had hooves. They were pretty too.
“So.”
I look back up at Pell. He’s waiting for me to say something. “Yeah. Sure. I’ll go inside the tomb and grab the book. But… you said I can’t go in. You said I can see the doors, but only you can enter. So how do I get in?”
“I have a way. But we need to go to the greenhouse. There is a plant in there called bloodhorn that Grant used to grow so he could go inside the tombs.”
“Wait. Grant used to go inside them?”
“No. He never did get it to work. But that’s because he needed my help, and another, more important, ingredient. But he didn’t understand that, and I never did offer up that info.”
“Hmm.” I walk over to the closet and peruse through my new selection of clothes, choose a pair of dark jeans and a red t-shirt that says Come Hell or High Water across the tits. Then I go into the bathroom, wash up, change, and when I come back out, Pell is downstairs messing around in the kitchen.