A grin tugged at Cam’s mouth. Ana really did love technology. Probably because there was nothing like it in Otherworld. Her happiness and fascination were magnetic. He glanced at the other woman whose golden eyes were so like Esha’s.
“Your sister?” he asked.
Esha nodded.
“Here.” Ana handed the tablet back to Aurora, reluctance in her voice.
“Thanks. Hey, Esha? I’m going back to my place. I left the instruction manual over there. I’ll see you tomorrow.” After saying goodbye to Ana and looking at Cam questioningly, she departed.
Ana looked at Esha. “I’m going to get a shower, okay?”
“Sure. Hang on a sec.” Esha turned and rummaged through her fridge, then spun back around and handed over a bottle with a grin. “Here’s a beer.”
“Score. Shower beer is the best.”
“True story. Sorry I don’t have any donuts or we’d have the perfect dinner.”
“Well, I saw you’ve got the Die Hard movies on your shelf, so we could still have the perfect night.” Ana waggled her eyebrows.
“That I do. We can watch one when you’re out.”
“Awesome.” Ana shot Esha a grin over her shoulder that hit Cam in the chest, punched through his ribs, and yanked on his heart. Seeing her at ease, in her element with her friends. Shit, it did something to him. Something dangerous. She took so much joy in life and in other people. He loved that about her, but it gave him the strangest empty feeling. Like loneliness. He shook the thought away. He might be a loner, and his life might lack the joy Ana felt at being with her friend, but he wasn’t lonely. That was ridiculous.
“Can I get you something, Cam?” Esha’s voice cooled when she addressed him.
He turned to catch her still eyeing him suspiciously, then caught sight of the cat doing the same, his citrine eyes offering threats along with distrust. He was big, with a tomcat face and disheveled fur.
“Ah, beer. Thanks. Mind if I take a seat?” Cam shifted on his feet, feeling eerily like he’d stepped into the den of some kind of predator.
“Sure.” She snagged a beer out of the fridge and handed it to him. The sound of water singing through the pipes emitted from the bathroom. Esha sprawled in the chair across from him, but it wasn’t hard to see that the sprawl was an act. “So you and my friend have a history.”
Here it comes. He sipped his drink. Nodded.
“A fucked-up history, from what I’ve heard.”
He nodded again and she gave him an appraising look.
“Hmm. Didn’t expect you to admit it,” she said.
“Well, you’re right. It’s fucked up.”
“You gonna unfuck it up?”
“What do you mean?” But shit, he knew what she meant. Exactly what he’d been fearing since Ana showed up on his river.
Esha’s amber eyes now glowed with the same aggression that shone from her eerie cat. “Get her the fuck out of Otherworld. She hates it. No.” She shook her head and gestured. “She doesn’t just hate it. It’s killing her, from the inside out. She was a fucking mortal. Skilled and driven and strong enough to be a god, but not built for it. Not inside. She’s so lonely in Otherworld that her soul is withering.”
Cam’s grip tightened on the beer bottle as some invisible force squeezed his ribs. At first he thought it was her magic, just a hit to convince him she was serious. No need, lady.
But then he realized it was him, because he was fucking agreeing with her. Guilt was a live thing in his chest, filling him up until he nearly strangled on it. He was responsible for what had happened to Ana. For all the loneliness and misery in her life.
He’d made the decision before he’d ever set foot in Esha’s tower, but only now was he accepting it. He’d go back to Otherworld to save her. No question. He could hardly live with himself now, knowing how lonely she’d been in Otherworld. She was too bright and fun and lively to be in a place like that.
But the idea of going back, to that place where he’d tried and failed, made him sweat. He prayed that Logan Laufeyson was strong enough for the task and wanted the job, because if he wasn’t, Cam’s own life was about to get a hell of a lot more miserable.
Going back to Otherworld—well, shit. He supposed he’d been headed in this direction, he just hadn’t wanted to acknowledge it.
“I’ll fi