Blue Blood (Series of Blood Book 3) Emma Hamm (digital e reader txt) 📖

if he wanted that. There wasn’t much good left in her. Her mind was a rat’s nest of monster and human twining together. She wasn’t certain which side of her was worse.

“Precisely,” she told him. “I’m speaking from experience. Come on, we have to go.”

“We’re safe here.”

“No, we aren’t.”

He scoffed and stood up. She had forgotten how large he was. He stood a head taller than her with a grim expression and bulging biceps.

Biceps? Mercy wanted to knock herself over the head. She wasn’t going to pay attention to his arms, his eyes, or other body parts. Not when he made her want to plunge a burning fist into his chest cavity to feel his beating heart against her palm every time he opened his mouth.

“We’re leaving as fast as we can,” she added.

“Do you have no mercy at all?” Jasper asked.

“Ironically, no. You can follow me if you want. I’m going.”

She spun on her heel and stormed away. He could fend for himself, this forest was no place for someone who didn’t know the rules. Hell, it wasn’t even a place for her, and she had lain dormant here for over two centuries.

Heat spread along her spine and neck. Ignes. He was always there when she needed him. He was much more than a brother or a guiding spirit, but a part of her soul. Unfortunately, he was also very young, which meant they fought just as much as they enjoyed each other’s company.

“Mercy!” Jasper called, his voice carrying through the forest. “Wait!”

She wasn’t going to slow down. He could hurry and catch up, or she would leave him. They had a long way to go with intelligent men hunting them. Time was not on their side.

The forest was dense here. Trees grew without any human interference and, as such, had made themselves formidable. Mercy brushed a branch away from her face. She smirked when she heard an answering grunt as it snapped back and struck Jasper.

“Ouch,” he growled. “Why are you in such a hurry to get away?”

“Because Malachi has Trackers. I saw them. And they’ll know exactly where you teleported us to.”

Jasper swore. So much so that she wondered how far his vocabulary stretched.

His feet crunched through forest debris as he hurried to catch up. “I didn’t think they’d be so quick.”

“You don’t think much at all do you?” she asked. “I’m not convinced you’ve used that giant head of yours even once since I met you.”

“Hey!” Bluebell shouted. “We found her!”

Jasper wholeheartedly agreed. “I was using it when I found you in the center of the maze.”

She snorted loudly. “Right. That was your giant head, not the forest allowing you to find me.”

Twigs snapped underneath her bare feet. Every time she stepped on something other than dirt or moss, she flinched. Mercy had thought this would be an easy journey, it would have been in her youth, but she was weaker than she had imagined. By the time she reached her destination, her feet would be bloodied.

It was a small price to pay, she decided. Freedom was not handed out to people like her. She had to take the chance when it was offered.

Jasper stumbled along behind her like a child learning how to walk. Mercy began to knowingly walk them through stinging nettle patches. Her own pain was well worth his continued grunts and groans.

She smiled. An honest smile that wasn’t with anger or pain. A smile that came from true humor.

Who’d have thought it would be a Fairy to make her smile?

“Hey, can I ask you a question?” Jasper asked as they crossed through a small clearing.

“No.”

“I’m going to anyways. What did you mean by the maze assisted me?”

She blew a strand of hair out of her face. “The maze doesn’t open to just anyone. It wanted you to find me.”

“But why?”

“Beats me,” she paused for a moment to search the area. The clearing was slightly more confusing when she wasn’t watching the images Ignes showed her in the Dream World. She had thought she knew where they were. She was wrong. “Something about you made it like you.”

“Ah.”

He stopped next to her, breathing hard. For such a muscular man, he didn’t seem to have much endurance. His breath sawed in and out of his chest, Mercy’s did too. She had set a brutal pace, and hadn’t considered she had been comatose for two hundred years.

He planted his hands on his hips and watched the edge of the forest. “So where are we going?”

“Somewhere safe.”

“Which is where?”

“Giant territory.”

Jasper burst into laughter. Great, heaving laughs curled his body inward until he was holding his sides. Mercy waited for him to finish, an impatient expression on her face.

He finally wiped tears from his eyes. “That was a good one! Giant territory.”

“Yes, Giant territory. Be wary and on your guard.”

“Giants aren’t all that intimidating. Hell, I’ve met a few who were only a couple inches taller than me. Not to mention they don’t have a territory.”

“You know so little about this world.” She shook her head. “City boy.”

“I know plenty about this world!”

His cheeks reddened into a pleasant ruddy color. His hands started clenching into fists and releasing. Maybe he wanted to wrap them around her throat and squeeze. Good. The feeling was mutual.

Instead of giving into her baser instincts, Mercy rolled her eyes dramatically. “I’m not arguing with you. If you want to know more, then you can follow me. Otherwise, make your own way.”

She hadn’t quite caught her breath yet, but she was going to continue walking if it killed her. Better than death at the hands of Malachi’s Trackers.

Ignes curled at the nape of her neck, keeping her warm. She needed to maintain a higher body temperature than most people, or the fires that fueled her magic would wane. Mercy and Ignes would both die if that happened. Neither wanted that fate.

Mercy could hear Jasper’s clomping footsteps from a mile away. He was following her. Damn it, she had hoped that he wouldn’t.

“Giant territory?”