Chapter Twenty Seven

NOLA REYNOLDS

The cave hallways were quiet save for our footfalls as we crouched through the fluorescent brightness between the ancient rust-colored rocks.

My back tickled where the strange man’s gaze had no doubt settled as his warm breath tickled the lone brown hairs at the back of my neck.

“How much farther to your room?” The man’s honeyed voice in my ear startled me and I whirled around with a surprised yelp to stare up at him watching me curiously through hooded lime-green eyes.

It was unsavory, the way he looked at me. Like a hungry lion watching a dancing antelope that had flopped itself into the lion’s part.

Now, my mane was not long enough to be a lion yet, so no doubt I felt every bit the clueless antelope I feared I was.

“You scared me!” I whispered, firming my chin and staring right back at him when he didn’t look away.

Kalden was it? I didn’t like him one bit, and something told me the feeling was quite mutual when he bent closer to stare into my face, close enough that o