Caspian shakes his head. “Being trained by the prince is the best way you’re going to get better. Let’s go, songbird. We need to get to the portal.”
I jog to his side, watching him closely. “So when did you start being trained by the prince?”
“The first time I was here in the trials,” he finally answers.
It’s rare for him to say anything about his own life, and I greedily listen as he finally talks, wanting to know everything about him. The man I live with, who is risking his life for me, I know nothing much about, and it bothers me.
“I didn’t have a partner in my first trials because the one I was partnered with died early on. It wasn’t my fault, by the way, but he was dead thanks to taking on a mission he didn’t have a chance of winning. So it was just me, and I was determined to win.”
“Sounds like you,” I say.
“I kept going out every morning to train and doing absolutely everything I could do to win. The prince saw me, took pity on me, I guess, and trained me. We became fast friends through that.”
“Sounds like both you and Eziel learnt from that,” I point out. “What did you do to get kicked out of the trials that first year?”
He doesn’t answer me.
“Come on, Caspian. You know I won’t judge you for anything.”
“That’s the point. You would judge me, songbird,” he says, and I frown. No, I wouldn’t. “Trust me, it’s part of the secrets we have to keep staying friends.”
“One day I’m going to figure out all these secrets about you. You know that, right?” I tell him.
He looks back and laughs.
“I have no doubt about it. I’m sure Leo will tell you that when we find him,” he suggests. “And I can run to another pack so you don’t have to face me.”
“You think so badly about yourself.” I sigh. “I did ask about you once to Leo. Sometime last year when he came to visit me.”
He looks down into my eyes, surprise coating his gaze. I don’t know why he is surprised. The last time we spoke before he left, I told him I had a big crush on him before throwing up in the sink. I’m sure that left some kind of memorable moments.
“Really? I thought you forgot all about me once I left.”
“No, I didn’t.”
“What did you ask?”
“About you. I wanted to know if you were a demon hunter and if not, what happened.”
“Did he tell you anything?” he asks.
“Nope,” I reply, making him smile.
“That’s called having respect and being loyal. Respect is something that’s growing between us. So when we go out on this mission, can we try something different? Rather than working against each other, we’re going to work with each other. Okay?”
“Okay,” I say with a smile. Take his hand, and he links our fingers, which seems like something he didn’t have to do, but I don’t comment on it as I kinda like it.
We walk through the portal and out onto a wooden staircase. This one I’ve never been to before, and it’s in the middle of burning trees very close to the stairs. The wooden stairs must be magic of some kind to resist the flames that flicker against my skin. A few land on Caspian’ arm when we run up the steps, and he swears under his breath.
“I hate this portal. Always get burned,” he says, just as a flame lands on my hand and nothing happens. He follows the movement and frowns in confusion. I wipe away the ash to reveal my clear skin. “Why didn’t that burn you?”
“I don’t know,” I mutter. “When I first got here, the lava I fell into burnt me.”
“You’re really peculiar, you know that?”
“Are you just noticing?” I question, feeling a little breathless as we continue up the steps that never seem to end.
Caspian looks around us and lowers his voice. “I have been wondering for a while about the alpha and why he thinks you’re his mate. Alphas don’t have fated mates, so to speak, as they can make any wolf their mate with their magic. So why you? What happened to make him think you are his?”
“I only know he made some kind of trade-off with my mum when she was here when I was a baby. I don’t know why she was in Hell, anyway. Overall, I just don’t know enough, but I have a letter from her. I’ll show you when we get back… if you want,” I say.
“I’d like that. Maybe I can read something under the lines that you haven’t seen,” he suggests. “If we can figure out why he is so hell-bent on your death, it might help us figure out a way to avoid it.”
“He seemed so adamant I was his mate until he got close to me and he sort of scented my hair. The alpha made a snap decision at that moment that he didn’t want me. He called me weak.”
Caspian scoffs. “You’re anything but weak, songbird. I’ve always known that. You won’t remember this, but when I was at the academy, I saw two beta wolves sons cornering you.”
I frown, not remembering because it happened so often.
“I was going to help you, but you kicked one of them in the balls,” he says with a grin, “and outran the other into the forest. I was impressed as they were twice the size of you.”
“It wasn’t an unusual thing in that pack for me,” I reply. “But oddly, those two wolves looked like they got a beating and never went near me again. Was that you? I always assumed my brother had intervened.”
“Maybe,” he replies.
“Thank you,” I whisper. “I never knew you had my back.”
“If it helps, those beta wolves cried like girls when I cornered them,” he tells me, and I laugh.
We finally get to the portal.
