Moontide
Read Along Chapter 32
*Since it’s been a minute, here’s a link to the previous post:
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“What the…” Cindy staggered a step. “What just happened?
“You just flew Krav Air, baby,” Krav said.
“Watch yourself, serpent,” Ronan warned before Cindy even had the chance to respond, then answered her question “he used the gods’ powers to bring us here.”
“Actually, it’s more like physics, but whatever.” Krav mumbled, then more loudly, “Let’s get a move on.”
They walked through the main area of the club which was in shut-down mode so there was no one there to see them. Then they headed into a storeroom in the back of the bar. Ronan’s sudden shift to move in front of her alerted her to the fact that the room wasn’t empty. When she looked toward the back wall, she caught sight of what had to be the most massive human being she’d ever seen in her life. With dark ebony skin, dark clothes, and dark glasses, the giant had just materialized out of the shadows.
Krav addressed him as they got closer.
“Evening, Sol, we’re just passing through,” he said. The man stepped to the side, never uncrossing his boa constrictor arms from the front of his chest. His only acknowledgment of them was a hard silent stare.
Krav opened a door and passed swiftly through without a second thought. Ronan led Cindy, eyeing the guard with suspicion before they all descended down a narrow stairway.
They took a left at the foot of the stairs then walked down another short hallway and under an arch into a light-filled room that looked nothing at all like the club on top. It was a big circular space with several porticos that led into other hallways all the way around. In the center of the great room there was a fountain that bubbled around some statuary.
“Welcome to The Palace,” Krav said, “or, as it’s known in certain circles, Vortex 1.” Then he waved his arm around in a sweeping gesture. “I’d give you the grand tour but we’re a little pressed for time.”
“Are you sure it’s a good idea to take her to the island?” Ronan asked Krav, “Thema…”
“Will be pissed, no doubt,” Krav agreed, “but, now that Cindy has the elixir, every type of otherworld creature for miles around will be coming for her. At least on the island, you’ll have your men for back up. And, you know, the whole not dying thing is a pretty sweet deal on your end too Captain”
He winked at Cindy then and she couldn’t suppress a small laugh even though the situation was anything but funny. Still, he was damn charming for a scamp.
“Cindy,” Ronan searched her eyes, “you’re certain you want to go through with this?”
“I’m positive,” she said, without a doubt in her mind, “you’re not getting rid of me.”
“Never,” he said pulling her into the circle of his arms, “you’re mine forever now.”
Then he crushed her to him and sealed the deal with a heart stopping kiss. Her body, to the point of exhaustion only seconds ago, came instantly alive and she wrapped her arms around him. Krav cleared his throat from the edge of the fountain and they pulled apart enough to turn their heads in his direction.
“Sorry to rush you, but I don’t know if your magic,” he looked at Cindy here, “will get him through another sunrise, so into the fountain with you.”
He jerked his head over his shoulder toward the water.
Ronan grunted low in his throat at the demon, but stepped forward, halting when Cindy neglected to move with him. He looked back at her, one eyebrow raised in question. She brought her gaze up from the water.
“So, we’ll just… poof… and then… gone?” She asked.
Krav shifted and she looked at him. The demon gave her a smile of encouragement and a small shrug as if to say, “yep, exactly like that. Poof and gone…nothing to it.”
“Don’t be afraid, cara,” Ronan said, coming back to her.
She looked into his eyes and that space inside of her opened. It was crazy, but that was all that it took for her to agree to do this incredible thing. She squared her shoulders and nodded. Then he lifted her up in his arms.
“Hold onto me,” he said then stepped into the water with her.
Wind swirled up from the fountain, spraying up into the air around them. The last thing Cindy saw of the palace room was Krav’s dimpled smile as he waved goodbye.
She pressed into Ronan’s chest when a cold mist came in contact with her skin, then suddenly, the whirlwind intensified and shot into the air. It sprayed out in all directions as they were pulled into its center. Cindy clung to Ronan for dear life. All at once, the swirling water opened up forming an archway.
Ronan stepped under the cascade with her, planting his feet on a mirror-like floor. When he did, the mist spun out as the arch closed in behind them like a curtain. Once they were encased in the watery vault, everything blurred and started to spin very fast. Cindy tucked her head into Ronan’s neck, closing her eyes tight against the dizziness that came over her.
Aside from that, she started to get the pins and needles feeling that always follows a foot or a hand falling asleep, but it was all over her whole body. She thought if she could have seen herself right then, she would have looked like a million tiny particles bouncing around inside of a glass dome at high speed.
The prickling and the dizziness grew so intense that she was sure she was going to burst apart and all the atoms that made up her being would be flung into the vortex swirling around them when, as suddenly as it had begun, it all stopped. There was a blessed stillness. She opened her eyes. Ronan turned with her then and, before them, another archway of water opened.
*Note: What do you in-vision Ronan’s island looking like? 🏝️
That ended good again