“Hel hounds can’t pass over a salt line. The mouth of the mine must stil have enough salt in the dirt to keep them out.”
“But why salt?”
Lucius shrugged.
“I don’t know. Something about the purity of the mineral, of the rock salt.”
“I guess that means Devon is here. I mean, why else would those things be guarding this mine?”
“No reason I can think of,” Lucius replied.
“My question is this: why would Sebastian put him in a mine like this?”
“Maybe he was afraid something would be able to get to him elsewhere.”
I looked down at Bo. His eyes were closed, but I could see his color improving, lightening from sooty to his normal pale pink. Despite the fact that he was on the mend, I stil didn’t want to leave him to go search the mine.
“Would you two mind walking a little farther in to see if you can locate Devon?”
They both agreed quickly. Obviously they didn’t mind being in each other’s company, which made me believe that if Annika was trying to make Bo jealous, it wasn’t her sole reason for being so attentive to Lucius. But, real y, who could blame her? It was Lucius after al . What’s not to like?
As they strol ed off into the inky blackness of the mine shaft, I turned my attention briefly to the hounds pacing at the boarded entrance and then back to Bo.
His eyes were open and he was watching me. One corner of his mouth lifted and he spoke in a dry, raspy voice.
“Hi, beautiful,” he said, reaching up to brush my cheek with his fingertips. My heart melted right inside my chest.
“Hi, handsome,” I responded, returning his grin. Looking into his healing face, hearing his familiar voice, feeling his incredible touch, I felt like al was right with the world and that we could take on anything, any one, and win. As long as Bo was near, no odds seemed too high to overcome.
“I’m sorry about al this,” he said, regret and the heaviness of responsibility shining in his eyes.
“It’s not your fault.”
“Yes, it is. If I had stayed away from you, none—”
“I’d be miserable,” I interrupted quickly. “I wouldn’t trade you and the time we’ve spent together for anything.
Anything! Do you hear me?” I was adamant and I wanted to make sure he got the point.
Bo grinned.
“Me neither. You’re the best thing that has ever happened to me.”
I couldn’t help but smile. I would never tire of hearing him say things like that.
“I think we happened to each other.”
Bo opened his mouth to say something, but then snapped it shut as if he thought better of it.
“What?” I prompted.
“Nothing. I…” He trailed off, obviously having changed his mind about tel ing me. Unfortunately, that just made me al the more curious to know what it was.
“What, Bo? Tel me.”
He raised himself into a sitting position, bringing his face within an inch of mine. Even beneath the smoky odor of fire that clung to his hair and clothes, I could smel his clean, citrusy scent and it made my abdominals tighten in response.
Bo searched my eyes as he deliberated tel ing me. He was so close I could see the golden flecks that made the near-black of his eyes look so warm and chocolaty. His were the most beautiful eyes I’d ever seen.
“I’ve been having dreams for a while now, more than just the one about the orphanage,” he confessed, holding my gaze.
The bottom dropped out of my stomach. The dream about the orphanage is when I’d first heard him say Annika’s name. Bo having other dreams couldn’t possibly be a good thing.
“How long has this been going on?”
“On and off for as long as I can remember, which is what?
A little over three years?”
I nodded, saying nothing as I wil ed panic away.
“At first I thought they were just dreams. Mostly anyway.
That’s why I wasn’t completely honest with you when I told you about the night I saw you, the night you and your sister wrecked.”
I hesitated. “What do you mean?”
“Wel , when I saw you that night, I think I’d seen you before. Several times in fact.”
“When? Where?”
“I think I’ve been dreaming about you on and off al my life.”
My chest swel ed with pleasure and relief at his words.
“Real y?”
Bo reached out with his hand again, lightly dragging his index finger across my forehead, down my nose, and around my lips to my chin.
“Your face was so familiar to me, as if I’d seen it every day for as long as I could remember, though I knew nothing about you that would suggest that we were acquaintances. But, deep down, I had no doubt that I knew you. Real y knew you, like you were the missing piece of my life. When I saw you through the windshield, I was so consumed with final y getting to see you outside my dreams, final y getting to touch you and smel you that I couldn’t walk away. It was so surreal that you were actual y real.”
I doubted he could’ve said anything that would have thril ed me more.
“Why didn’t you tel me before now?”
Bo shrugged, seemingly absorbed with tracing the details of my face.
“I didn’t want to scare you.”
“Scare me? Why would that scare me?”
“I don’t know. It scared me a little when I saw you. I thought maybe you were an angel come to take me away.
But I didn’t care. I was wil ing to risk it. I knew that I’d die happy if I could just touch you one time. Just one time,” he repeated quietly.
I was struggling for words to adequately describe the wings he’d given my heart when the intimate scene was ruined by the return of Lucius and Annika.
“Alright you two love birds, break it up. We’ve got some planning to do,” Lucius said as he walked around us and came to a stop a few feet from the prowling hel hounds that waited just outside the mine.
“Did you find Devon?”
“Present and accounted for,” Devon said from somewhere to my left.
I closed my eyes in relief.
“Devon, thank God.”
“Thanks for coming for me, Ridley. I assume Savannah cal ed you?”
“Yes. She was hysterical.”
I could almost hear Devon smiling.
“I see this wasn’t exactly an easy extraction,” he observed, no doubt referring to Bo’s bedraggled appearance. “Are those things what got a hold of Bo?”