The Darkest Secret (Lords of the Underworld #7)(71)
Author: Gena Showalter

Secrets gave a little whimper, and Amun frowned. Did the demon not want to lose Haidee, either? I thought you were scared of her. He was careful to hold the thought inside his mind.

Another whimper sounded.

Understanding dawned. You aren’t done digging through her mind.

The demon gave no response, but a response wasn’t necessary. He knew.

He and Secrets had never had a true conversation, and he could hardly believe they were (almost) doing so now.

Doesn’t matter, though. We can’t keep her. For her own good, we can’t keep her.

As if Haidee sensed the direction of his thoughts, she struggled to sit up. Amun held tight, forcing her to remain against him.

Sleep, sweetheart. We’l talk later.

“Promise?” she asked, the word slurred with exhaustion.

Promise.

“’Kay.” She hadn’t noticed his failure to specify exactly what they’d discuss, and she went limp, slipping into a deep slumber.

CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

SOMETHING HARD AND INEXORABLE shook Haidee from the most peaceful sleep of her life.

She tried to bat the offender away. The shaking continued. She cursed and blinked open her eyes to see Amun looming above her, his expression tense, his black eyes unreadable.

He pressed a firm finger over her mouth before she could utter a single word. Something’s out there, his deep voice said into her mind. Urgency radiated from him, as contagious as a virus. Get dressed.

Of course someone was out there, she thought dryly. She and Amun were in a division of hel ; they weren’t al owed a single moment’s respite. And now, their long overdue relationship talk would have to wait. Again. Stil , this was better than the alternative. Like, say, dying.

As she donned the bra, panties, jeans, T-shirt, boots and countless blade and sheaths he’d laid out for her, she marveled at the change in herself. Only a few days ago, she had jolted to awareness every time she’d awoken, mind already locked on escape. Now, when danger had never been so prevalent, she’d let down her guard. She even had to remind herself not to think about what they’d done last night, how she’d sucked and swal owed him, how she’d ridden his fingers and cried his name.

She shivered as she listened for whatever had disturbed Amun. Nothing, she heard nothing. She wiped the sleep from her eyes and anchored the backpack on her shoulders. When they— Her ear twitched, and she frowned.

Was that a…whistle of wind? No, she thought. Laughter.

Faint but unmistakable now—and coming from more than one source.

Laughter in hel . Not good. No, not good at al . She glanced at Amun to gauge his reaction.

He looked alert, on edge, as he stood guard at the cave entrance, his back to her. He wore a black shirt and black slacks, and each looked buttery soft and flexible. That way, he wouldn’t be restricted during a fight. Silently she moved behind him.

He sensed her approach and started forward. She remained close on his heels as they left her new favorite place in the world. They should have entered another cave, a rocky hal way at the very least.

That’s what had happened every time before. This time, however, they entered—no, surely not. She shook her head, blinked her eyes. She couldn’t be seeing what she thought she was seeing, but the image never varied.

A…circus? Amun asked, incredulous.

He saw it, too, then. A freaking circus. Unreal! After the Realm of Shadows, a circus seemed like a spa vacation.

Seriously. The restrictive wal s of the underground had given way, stretching into what seemed to be a pretty, moonlit night. Stars even twinkled from their perch in the black-velvet sky, a cool breeze dancing past.

A moon…a sky…in a cave. How? She stopped wondering when she saw that several fires crackled nearby, and there were bearded women and jaundiced-eyed men holding their hands inside the actual flames, watching her and Amun with palpable menace.

Okay, so “spa vacation” had been the wrong term to use.

“Amun?”

I don’t know, he said, answering her unasked question.

What the hel was going on?

Too-tal men with legs that knifed toward the sky walked by them, thankful y paying them no heed. The animals they led, however…the elephant whined, its trunk lifting, revealing fangs sharper than any demon’s. Worse, there were several winged lions, two unicorns that were foaming at the mouth and three crocodiles with blades rather than scales protruding from their backs. Each of the animals was bound to the men by a fraying rope—and each was fighting for freedom, their gazes locked on her, the tasty-looking human.

She gulped, glanced away for fear of egging them on. “I don’t like this.”

I won’t let anything bad happen to you.

Just like I won’t let anything bad happen to you, she thought.

Tent after tent lined either side of her, a graveled pathway between them. At the end of that pathway was a booth, and inside that booth sat an obese man in a sweat-stained wifebeater. A neon sign flashed above him. ADMISSION: ONE HUMAN HEART.

I understand now, Amun told her flatly. We’ve reached the Realm of Destruction.

Another realm. She almost groaned. “None of this was here last night,” she said. “I would have noticed on our way into the cave.”

Wel , it’s here now.

No denying that. But how? Did she and Amun not actual y have to hike anywhere to reach a new realm?

Could the realms simply come to them? How odd, if so. Was that normal?

Was anything normal in hel ? she thought with a humorless laugh.

They stopped at the booth.

“You want tickets or not?” the sweating man demanded in a voice so low, so deep, there were echoes of darkness bubbling beneath the surface.

Shuddering, Haidee opened her mouth to shout, “Hel , no,”

but Amun’s next words stopped her. Tel him yes.

Damn it. Why? Just then, she hated that their mind-connection didn’t go both ways. “Yes,” she forced herself to say. “We want tickets.”

Glittering red eyes swept over them both. He raised his arm, fingers opening to reveal a dul , bloodstained blade in his palm. “First, I’l need your hearts.”

“His heart isn’t human,” Haidee said, jabbing her thumb in Amun’s direction.

The big man gave Haidee his ful attention and licked his greasy lips. “Yours wil do. You can pay for him another way.” He stroked himself. “Know what I mean?”

Amun stiffened, and suddenly utter menace poured from him. Take what we need from the backpack, he said. His timbre was flat, but al the more fiery for it.