Page 21 of Hunted

“Why did you think these were a good idea?” I asked.

“I’m not sure,” he said. “I admit, I don’t know what I’m doing here.”

“Neither do I. We’re both out of our comfort zones.”

“Lost in a foreign world, surrounded by strange creatures, powerless in the face of our predicament. I wish I could do more for you, Princess.”

I exhaled. “Amara,” I said. “Please, everyone needs to stop calling me Princess.”

“Why?”

“Because I’m not a Princess.”

“But you are…”

“Well, maybe I don’twantto be a Princess, and that’s why we’re all in this stupid mess.”

“I don’t know how we came to be in this situation. The magic that got us here is dark, and powerful. I can still feel it. But you cannot blame yourself for what’s happened to us.”

I had made a little headway into his trousers, but I stopped and turned my head up at him, keeping my eyes closed, of course. “I can,” I said, “And I’m going to. I know you mean well, but you have to let me take responsibility for this.”

“How can I when even you aren’t sure what happened to us?”

My heart wrenched. I knew exactly what had happened to us and why we were here. I also knew I was directly responsible. I hadn’t told him any of this, though; I hadn’t confessed my crimes to him, my sins. He thought we were in the same boat. I hadn’t told him yet that I was the reason he was in the boat to begin with, and that out of my own selfishness, I had been the one to sink it.

“I don’t know why you insist on being good to me,” I said.

“I have no reason not to be. For better or worse, we are in this situation together. We will get back to Arcadia and reclaim what we lost. I’ll be by your side when we do.”

I let my gaze fall away. I didn’t know what to do, or what to say. Without saying anything, I opened my eyes and stared at his abdomen. His muscles were taut, and strong. A line of pale fluff ran from his belly button all the way down into the hem of his pants. It was hard to keep my eyes from wandering, but I did my best and focused on the task at hand.

Wriggling my fingers into the gap between his pants and his thighs, I started to peel them down, realizing a few seconds into it that—of course—he was naked underneath them. That was why they were sticking to his body.

I hadn’t meant to, but I caught a fleeting glimpse of something I shouldn’t have before I rapidly squeezed my eyes shut again. I quickly got to my feet and planted my hands on his chest. “I’m so sorry,” I said.

“Sorry for what?” he asked.

I patted him on the chest. “I think you can take them off the rest of the way, now,” I said, and I slipped out of the changing room as quickly as I had stepped in, only half as subtly. Had Evie been standing outside, she would’ve caught me as red handed as I was red faced.

I hadn’t meant to look.

I hadn’t meant to see the base of his—ahh! Stop thinking about it!

My heart. It felt like it was going to leap out of my throat. I had to move away from the changing room, put distance between myself and Valerian, and go and do something else for a moment. Anything to take my mind away from what had just happened.

But as I spilled out of the changing room area and made my way into the main department store floor, I realized something.

Everyone was gone.

I spent a moment looking around, going on my tiptoes to see if I could spot anyone in an adjoining aisle. Nothing. I walked up to the nearest checkout desk. Empty. The lights were on, the machines, were working, but there was no one here.

No shoppers.

No workers.

No Evie.

“Evie?” I called out, but my voice didn’t carry. “Evie?!”