Page 37 of Shadowed Bond

I remain silent as I move the next boulder.

“Right, I think I’m going to try to push them off now. Eyes closed, Princess,” he says. He shifts slightly, adjusting his arms on either side of me. His brows furrow as he seems to test the weight on his back, and I bite back a gasp when his hips press more firmly against mine, making heat rush through me as I feel something far more obvious this time. His body stills at once, his breathing changing in a way that makes heat crawl up my neck despite it.

“Are you turned on?” I accuse before I can stop myself.

Ares growls, his head whipping to look me in the eye. “No, or you’d fucking know. If this is the biggest you’ve felt, Arden, I fucking feel sorry for you.”

I glare at him, absolutely mortified that I was wrong and that he had the shame to point out what I had obviously assumed.

“Right… Sorry,” I mutter, embarrassed, unable to look him in the eye.

“Just give me a minute. I need a bit of space to push off, and don’t fucking make this weirder than it already is,” he growls, and for once, I am in complete agreement.

“Go for it,” I say, trying not to focus on how he feels. This man is pure muscle.

But even as he tries, a roar rips from his throat that almost bursts my eardrums; the rocks don’t budge.

“Fuck!” he snarls, breathing hard.

“Alright, that didn’t work,” I say. “I think we’re weaker than we both think.”

“Really? Thanks for the insight.”

I sigh but say nothing, trying to think what to do.

For several seconds, neither of us moves. We are too close, every inch of us aware of the other, and there is something almost cruel about being trapped like this when my body is weak, my power dulled, and my mind far too aware of the man who keeps pretending he does not care while still holding half a collapsed tunnel off me.

“Arden,” he says, voice rough.

“Yes?”

“Your power and mine work well together. During the battle… I lent you my strength.”

I force myself to focus. “Yes, I remember.”

“So, I’ll lend you my juice again, and you channel it into your earth element, and smash these motherfuckers off me.”

Juice? How on earth did I think using that word had been appropriate back then?

“So we do it again,” I say smoothly. “But that is incredibly reckless.”

“Reckless, maybe. But we don’t have another choice, do we, Princess?”

His mouth is too close to mine when he says it, and for one stupid second, I wonder if he knows. If he knows how impossible it is to think clearly with him above me… If he does, he is not showing it.

“Fine,” I whisper. “But if we bring the rest of the tunnel down on us, I will haunt you.”

“If we bring the rest of the tunnel down, you won’t have to. I’ll be fucking dead with you.”

Ares shifts first, lifting himself just enough to give me space to turn slightly beneath him. It hurts, but I bite it back and place one hand on his bicep, the other I place flat on the ground.

“Alright, you got this,” he murmurs as his aura surges, far from intense, but still, when it begins flowing through me, it gives me the boost I need. I pull everything from my own strength, my brows furrowing as I reach towards the pile of rocks on top of him, feeling for the weakest part of them. Ares’ power presses in harder, and I take in as much as I can until the intensity makes my entire body spark.

“Let me know if you need me to slow down,” he mutters, and I close my eyes, thinking every sentence is suddenly sounding wrong!

Then I force my power out into the cracks between the rocks and rubble. I feel the weight of it, and then Ares clenches his jaw, his aura flaring in the darkness as water gathers around us, joining me, and then there’s a huge blast as water and rock burst upwards, and Ares is no longer on top of me, and my legs are no longer crushed beneath mountains of stone.

A deafening crack rips through the air, the ground trembling as rocks fly high through the now-open night sky. Cold air rushes in at once, sharp and clean compared to the rank of the tunnel below, and Ares wraps an arm around me as the ground tilts beneath us, and then he jumps out. I hold him tightly; my legs need fixing. I think I’ve broken a few bones.