Runes of Truth (A Demon's Fall #1)(24)

“Are you hurt?” Trex’s gruff voice comes from behind me, and I turn around to see him picking himself up off the ground. I spot Connor on the ground near us, but Trex spots him, too, and goes over to wake him.

“I’m fine, nothing I can’t heal myself,” I reply, slowly pulling up my sleeve to show my white rune.

“Good, get on with it. I’m going to wake Connor up, and find Nix. He can’t be far,” Trex tells me firmly. I don’t argue with him, knowing I need to fix my arm to be able to fight, and get us to the gate. I call my rune, feeling the healing power slam into my arm, and slowly healing it. My wrist snaps back into place, and I bite back a scream.

“Blue, shit, I wish I had my rune powers to do that for you,” Connor says, getting to my side. I give him a tight smile as I finish healing my arm and cutting off my power, then falling on my butt, worn out. Connor offers me a hand once I get my breath back, and I get up, looking around. I can see the yellow light of the gate behind us, just out of these rocks and the small stream of water that flows towards it.

“We need to follow the stream and get to the gate,” I point at it with my newly fixed arm and Connor looks at where I’m pointing.

“I think we should dry off first and have a rest,” Connor replies, giving me a worried look like he thinks I need to rest like a weak girl or something.

“No, I want to get to the next level. There have been way too many things looking and waiting for us on this level of hell. I’m ready to leave,” I tell him firmly.

“It’s a good plan,” Trex says from my right, and I frown at him as he walks over with Nix at his side.

“You’re agreeing with me? Seriously?” I ask with a laugh that even surprises me.

“Don’t count on it often, but this time, yes,” he says as he crosses his arms. Nix pushes his hair off his face, showing me the long cut on his cheek that is bleeding.

“Grab the bags and weapons. I’m going to heal Nix’s face,” I tell them, and they nod, doing as I asked. Nix smirks as I place my hand on his face, covering the cut.

“You just wanted to touch me again, didn’t you?” Nix asks, and I shake my head.

“Shut up, and stay still,” I mutter to him with a small smile, and call my white rune by simply closing my eyes this time. I don’t need to touch it, I still have some of the power connected to me.

“I made you smile, that’s enough for me, love,” he states, and I open my eyes to see him staring down at me with his own smile. He has a really sexy smile, too, and the memory of his lips makes me want to test kissing him again.

“Your cheek is healed,” I say, clearing my throat, and stepping back. I look over at Trex and Connor talking quietly, and to the stream of water.

“We are ready,” I say.

“What about the demon?” Trex asks.

“Azi will portal to the gate, he knows that’s where we will be heading,” I tell them, and walk ahead, knowing they will follow. I walk down the stream quietly for a while, drinking some of the water from my bag, and eating another breakfast bar and some crisps from my bag. Unfortunately, only one bag of crisps survived the journey and the rest are too wet to eat. Trex catches up to my side, with the others behind us, and I give him a questioning look.

“I’m sorry,” Trex bites out, looking like it was difficult for him to say it.

“What for?” I ask.

“For not listening to you, and running out to those demons. It was stupid, and my mother taught me to say sorry for doing stupid shit. So, here I am,” he admits, and it’s the first time that I don’t find Trex to be a total asshole. Colour me shocked.

“Apology accepted, I expect you back to your dickhead self any time now,” I say, making him laugh. He has one of those deep, sexy chuckles that could get any girl into bed, and I find I want to hear it more.

“Sure.”

“What are the princesses like then? What’s your fiancé like?” I ask, curious about who we are going after, and needing to remind myself that he is going to be married.

“They are triplets, Emily, Esther, and my fiancé, Erica,” he explains, walking around a large rock as I go the other way and comes back to me. “Erica has black hair, blue eyes, and she is sweet . . . like her sisters are, too. That’s why we have a trial coming up to decide a new queen, it’s a fair way to choose a queen without just choosing the eldest like most do. Their mother died while we were under attack by demons, and our king died a few years later because of a great injury he got when he defended the children from another attack.”

“So, there are no other royals?” I ask.

“They are all of the royal family we have left, and we need them. Every race has its strongest, and the royals are the strongest of our blood,”

“Wait, did you describe your fiancé as ‘sweet’?” I ask, taking in all of his history lesson. Of all the words I expected him to call his fiancé, sweet wasn’t it, and I notice how he talks about the royal family’s past, rather than saying nice things about the woman he is meant to be in love with.

“Yes, ‘sweet’,” he replies, “Why, what’s wrong with sweet?”

“I just didn’t think sweet would be your type, that’s all,” I shrug.