King Cave (Forever Evermore, #2)(64)

Rolling my shoulders, I grumbled, “Fair enough.” A sideways glance toward him. “But you should really get back out there if it has been that long.” At the beginning of school last year, under Ezra’s power, King Fergus had said it had been a few years since he’d had sex.

He snorted. “I didn’t say I wasn’t having sex, Ms Ruckler.” He peered around the interior of the cave. “I’ve found many partners here.” His gaze found mine, his eyes searching. “The many acts of sex can be pleasurable, but it’s often empty pleasure.”

I held his regard as we weaved through Mysticals. I knew exactly what he was talking about. Often, the pleasure was fleeting, quickly leaving after the act. Sometimes, during. Only when you found a partner you cared about did it hold meaning. By the surety of his tone, I now knew he had once loved. Whether it had been with a mate or another Elemental, he had definitely found love once. And lost it somehow.


Guzzling my water, I grinned, pointing at King Fergus around the bottle to let him know it was his own fault. It had been a week since I emerged into the world, and every day, after helping the kitchen staff or training with Elder Merrick, we went into the woods above King Cave where King Fergus would provide one hell of an obstacle course for me. But today, at the end of our session, he had gone a little hog-wild by blowing up parts of the earth, trying to make me stumble. And it had backfired on him. Literally.

We both had chunks of dirt/mud and grass and twigs all over us as we made our way into King Cave. Swallowing my mouthful of water, I laughed outright at the scowl on his face. “Christ, I’m never gonna forget how you screamed.”

“I did not scream,” he grumbled in short, terse words.

I laughed harder. “When I had to shift to catch you, you sure as hell screamed.”

He sniffed, tucking his dirty green hair behind his ear. “I had dirt in my eyes, so I couldn’t see the ground coming.”

My chuckle was a deep belly laugh as we entered the top section of the cave, where I stopped and bent to hold said belly as it was starting to cramp from my laughing.

He actually kicked my leg. Not hard, but not exactly soft, either. “I wasn’t the only one screaming.” He paused, his own chuckle erupting. “I wasn’t sure if you were coming on to me or trying to escape.”

My head fell back, my laugh joining his. “I was naked.” I slapped at the wall a few times, shaking my head, bits of dirt flying everywhere, at remembering how he had frozen for a moment after he had freaked out at opening the ground beneath us, just as I caught him, burying us inside a dark hole of the ground.

“I noticed.” He wiped tears from his face, making the dirt on his cheeks streak darker. “You sat on my damn face at one point.” He arched back, mouth open wide in raucous laughter at my saucer-eyed glance, as I paused, realizing I had freaked out a little down there. He hooted it up, pointing at me. “Like I said, I didn’t know if you were hitting on me or trying to escape.”

My lips trembled and my chin quivered before I busted up, picturing his reaction in my mind. “Oh, God. That’s f*cking hilarious.”

“What the hell happened to you two?” King Kincaid bellowed, off to our left.

Our attention swung his way, both of us wiping our eyes, making our faces look that much worse, as we continued snickering. I pointed at King Fergus as King Kincaid, King Venclaire, and King Nelson moved up the incline. “He prematurely blew a load.” King Fergus stilled, and then started snorting hard as the Kings stopped moving altogether, their eyes going wide. I blinked, realizing that hadn’t come out quite right. “Of dirt. I meant dirt.” My hands went wide. “Big explosion.” A head tilt toward King Fergus. “And a screaming King left in its wake.”

King Fergus kicked me again, almost knocking me on my ass. “Not to mention a screaming Prodigy.” He shook his head, trying to dispel some of the dirt, and pointed at King Kincaid, as I stepped away from him and out of his damn leg’s reach. “And you need to teach her where her ass should properly be sat.”

I scowled at him. “That’s just wrong.”

He grinned, white teeth gleaming through the dirt. “Revenge for your premature-crack.”

King Kincaid blinked. “So you’re both fine?”

“Of course,” King Fergus mumbled, taking a swig of his own drink. “I didn’t harm your precious Prodigy.”

I snorted. “He was too busy harming himself.”

“I told you there was dirt in my eye!” he exclaimed.

“And yet, the ground still swallowed us,” I muttered, raising my eyebrows over the rim of my drink bottle. “And still, you screamed.”

King Venclaire clapped his hands in front of our faces, his eyes still wide as he stared at us. “We were coming to look for you two. There’s a meeting planned.” His gaze darted to our dirt-streaked clothing. “There’s no time for you to change.”

I shrugged. “I’ll blame it on him since it was his fault.”

“You came out of nowhere,” he griped even as we started to move down the incline behind the other Kings. “My aim was only a little off.”

I jumped back and forth, grinning. “I was trying something new.” I chuckled. “And it worked.”

He huffed. “Won’t work again.”