Immortal Rider_ Lords of Deliverance Series_ - Larissa Ione [53]
“I don’t think you’re a slouch.” Her hand fell off him as he straightened and turned to face her. “You managed to knock me off my feet once, if I remember right.”
A glint of amusement flashed in her eyes, and he snorted at the memory of gripping her ankle and tugging her feet out from under her so she landed on top of him.
“There are some serious holes in my memory, some doubts about what’s been real and what hasn’t, but I do remember that.” He inhaled a shaky breath. “Was the stuff you told me about your… fiancé… real?” Limos’s gaze skittered away. “Horseman?”
Her eyes shifted back to him and narrowed. “Say my name.”
“Answer my question.”
“Say. My. Name.”
Frustration spiking, he bent down, getting right in her face, nose to nose. “Answer the fucking question.”
Clearly, they were at an impasse, and he was not going to back down. If two dozen ugly-ass demons with meat hooks, sledgehammers, and skinning knives couldn’t make him say Limos’s name, she didn’t stand a chance.
She must have realized that, but not wanting to concede defeat, she flipped her hair over her shoulder and stalked to the edge of the crystal pool at the base of the waterfall, where she looked down at her fingers. “Dammit. Broke a nail.”
“Jesus.” He threw up his hands in frustration. “Can you ever focus on one subject or take anything seriously?”
“I take my nails very seriously.” She huffed. “When you’ve lived as long as I have, you learn to enjoy the little things. Speaking of which, I have something of yours. I don’t know how important they are to you, but I’ve kept them with me.”
She held out his dogtags, the silver chain dangling from her closed fist. He took them, another small connection with reality, and when he looped the chain around his neck, he almost felt whole again. Now he needed his weapons and Army ring, and he’d be good to go. Unfortunately, his captors had taken his ring, so there was no getting it back.
“Thank you.” His voice was humiliatingly hoarse.
Limos had guarded the dogtags, which he could replace for a few bucks, as if they were a treasure. And she’d treated him equally as well, he realized. She could have dumped him off at Underworld General or handed him over to the R-XR or The Aegis, but instead, she’d nursed him back to health herself. She’d done what she had to in order to get him to eat. She’d engaged all his senses to bring him back to reality.
Arik had no doubt that if she’d left him with the military or The Aegis, he’d be strapped to a bed, attached to IV lines, and doctors would be poking, prodding, and digging into his brain. Hell, they could have made him worse.
“You still don’t believe this is real, do you?” She looked down at the water swirling around her feet and bubbling around the smooth pebbles.
Reaching out, he hooked his finger beneath her chin and lifted her face to his, needing the sensation of touching her warm skin to make absolutely, one-hundred percent sure that he would be telling the truth. “I believe it. Nothing in that hellhole was as warm as you.”
She swallowed. “Then why won’t you say my name?”
“I can’t take the chance that anyone will hear it. You said it has to be uttered while I’m in misery, but I won’t risk it.”
“Why? After everything you’ve gone through because of me, why don’t you want to say my name and watch me get what I deserve?” Her words were bitter, her voice hard, and he wondered what kind of life she’d had to make her think he’d do something like that.
“I won’t tell you I didn’t think about it,” he admitted. “When I was in Sheoul, all I could think of was revenge. But I know you didn’t mean for what happened to happen, so no, I can’t do that to you.”
She reached up to play with her Seal pendant. “And why, when you were dreaming of revenge, did you turn the demons down when they offered you a deal… my torture for yours?”
Ah,