Page 57 of Hunted

I turned around to look at him, pulling my furry blanket around my shoulders. “Yeah,” I said, “I think that’s enough magic for one day. Something tells me I’ll need my strength tomorrow night.”

Valerian emerged from inside the cottage with a steaming mug in each hand. “I made chocolate.”

“Chocolate?”

“Hotchocolate. Tallin has his own mug.”

I smiled at him. “I bet he appreciates that, as do I.”

Valerian approached, handing a mug over to me as he did. I held my blanket around my shoulder with one hand while with the other I took the mug and brought it up to my nose. “I love chocolate,” I said. “We don’t get enough of it in Arcadia.”

“Or any of it. I hadn’t tasted chocolate until I got here and Pepper made me one of these. I can’t get enough, now.”

“Thank you grandmother Pepper,” I said, raising my mug to him.

Valerian clinked my mug and took a sip of his warm hot chocolate. He turned his eyes up at the night sky, which was entirely clear of clouds. There were only stars up there. Hundreds, thousands, maybe even millions, all of them visible to the naked eye.

“Makes me wonder,” he said.

“What does?”

“If your grandmothers engineered this place to look like home, or if there are genuinely places on Earth that have such a strong connection to Arcadia that they feel like home.”

“I wouldn’t be surprised if it turned out we were close to the location of the portal my grandmothers have told us about. That may be why we’re so connected to this place.” I took a sip of my chocolate. After a moment, my eyes locked with his. “Wow…” I said, from across the rim of my mug. “This isn’t just chocolate, is it?”

“No, it is,” he said, with a little twinkle in his eye.

“But it’s… different. Why does it taste so good?”

“Pepper taught me a secret.”

“What is it?”

“Salt,” he said, smirking. “A pinch of salt.”

I took another sip. It was warm, and creamy, and sweet, but that hint of saltiness threw it over the edge. “I’m never going to take chocolate any other way, now. You’re going to need to stick around to make me hot chocolates.”

Valerian chuckled. “I just might.”

Our eyes locked again, but something passed between them this time. A current that I knew I had felt, and I had the feeling he had felt, too. We had talked about connections a moment ago—I was feeling ours coming to the forefront of my attentions, now. I licked my lips lightly, unconsciously.

“Don’t do that,” he whispered from behind his mug.

“Do what?”

“That thing you just did with your lips.”

“I was just making sure I didn’t have any chocolate on them.”

“And I’m supposed to believe that?”

“Believe what you want,” I said, adding a smirk of my own. I hadn’t been lying to him, but I was enjoying what had just happened. It made me think of last night, and all of the things we had done together. He was, too. I could see it in his eyes, I could feel it through our bond. It was eerie, but now that we had both been intimate together, I couldn’t escape how irresistibly sexy it was, too.

I was about to open my mouth to speak, to ask him a question he was very likely to agree to, when something caught my attention. Not a feeling this time, but a sound, like the snapping of twigs in succession. I turned my head, hot chocolate in my hand, and scanned the darkened tree line at the edge of the property.

“What is it?” Valerian asked.

For a moment I didn’t speak, carefully watching the trees for signs of movement. “We’re safe here… right?” I asked.