Rosalyn couldn’t help it—she wanted to keep holding his hand. Once she was standing and he let her go, she missed the feel of his skin, and she wanted to slap herself. It was like she’d been transported back twenty damn years, a teenage girl lost in a haze or hormones and need.

She pulled Hemlock from her shoulder instead, snuggling and petting him against her chest as she walked. She tried to convince herself that what drew her to Hex was just a need for comfort, a need for someone in this place to be fucking nice, and that it had nothing to do with her libido.

“What did you say this little guy is?” she asked as they followed Jian through the jungle. He’d taken point without even being asked, it seemed as if there was this unspoken automatic thing between them where he was Hex’s shield defender at all times.

“A Kranok.” Hex looked down at the furball with a touch of misty nostalgia sweeping his eyes. “My mother had one, when I was young. He was ancient by the time I hit my first century, though, and passed on shortly after.”

Something niggled in the back of Rosalyn’s mind at the mention of his mother, but more present and shocking was the second half of what he’d said. “I’m sorry, what? Century?”

He tilted his head forward, as if to get a better look at her from his height. “What are you?” he asked. “You never answered me.”

Rosalyn shrugged helplessly, at just as much of a loss as she’d been every time one of these demons tried to figure her out. “I’m a human, I don’t know if that means anything to you. I’m—what did you say?—small and breakable and made of meat? Average life span of seventy to eighty years.” If years work the same way here as they do in the real world, she almost said out loud, stopping herself at the last second by sucking in her cheeks. She didn’t need to drop that bomb on him yet.

“Time must pass so much slower for you,” Hex said, and somehow it didn’t sound condescending even though part of her felt like she should take it that way.

Rosalyn shrugged. “Kinda a hard thing to compare, but probably. They say the longer you live the faster time flies.” Somehow, in her delirious brain, she thought of Daisy, imagining her watching this, commenting daddy AF.

“They?” His eyebrows rose.

“Human saying.” She tilted her chin up briefly towards his head. “Why do you have four horns and all of the other demons I’ve met only have two?”

He hesitated, features hardening, as if every muscle in his body twitched from a smile to a frown. Then, as quickly as it had happened, it was gone, smoothed back over, his mouth curling into an overly charming smile.

“Because I’m twice the demon?”

Jian snorted, startling Rosalyn. Not only had his movements been completely silent, but he hadn’t struck her as the type to show amusement to something so obviously lame.

“Well, you’re definitely twice as nice,” she said, and what she’d wanted to come out as a witty quip was actually even lamer, and she mentally kicked herself. Please, if there is a god, please let the stream be vaporized. RosieRainbow had a reputation to uphold. She wasn’t a blushing schoolgirl, she was badass and smart and sexy and—

“That’s pretty sad,” Hex cut into her thoughts, shaking his head. “I’m not all that nice.”

Before she could stop herself, she scoffed, “Well, you’re not torturing me or locking me in a cage, so my bar is pretty low.”

Jian glanced over his shoulder then, and they shared a knowing glance as Rosalyn snapped her mouth shut, trying not to look like she was trying not to look at them.

“I hope you’re travelling to somewhere safe, Rose.” Hex smiled, but it held a heavy weight of sadness, and didn’t reach his eyes.

Her heart clenched at the thought of safety, of home. Home that she didn’t know if she could even travel to. “I hope so, too,” she murmured, and cuddled Hemlock closer to her face.

They walked in silence for a while, occasionally pausing to pick some of the ferns to eat. While they weren’t filling by themselves, Rosalyn found that chewing them was slowly nourishing her, the minty finish soothing on her gut. She hoped it would help prepare her for actual food and kept reminding herself that if Hex handed her a plate of meat she would take her time with it so she didn’t barf it all back up.

Hemlock eventually coiled his way back around her neck, apparently having had enough of the intense snuggle session. Rosalyn kept her hands busy with the ferns as best she could, all while looking around her constantly, just in case someone out there was still watching.

Despite her embarrassment, she did want to get the hell out of dodge, and KC had told her to study her surroundings, so if it helped, it helped. In any case, the jungle relaxed her a bit. It was also nice to have two muscular-as-fuck demons strolling along with her that seemed to care for her well-being. Taking the pure intense fear out of the equation made their stroll almost enjoyable.

Something else occurred to Rosalyn then, and she gasped. “There’s no bugs!” She flailed a hand around her head, nearly smacking Hex in the face with one of the ferns. “There’s no like, mosquitoes all over me! Is that normal?” She supposed it was a byproduct of being in a video game. While this was clearly the most realistic game ever while she was in it, some stuff still adhered to gaming convention—like her respawning—which also meant that the programmers probably didn’t bother to code in virtual insects.

“Never heard of a moss-keet, so I guess so,” Hex said with a shrug.

“Mosquito,” she gushed. “They’re the fucking worst, they’re little flying things that suck your blood and leave these itchy spots. They spread disease and they ruin perfectly nice weather.” She took a deep, insect-free breath. “Except for this weather. It’s nice here.”

“You are very loud,” Jian muttered, holding up a hand.

Before Rosalyn could apologize, Hex put his arm out to stop her walking, and they waited as Jian tilted his head back and forth. She wondered if he could hear something she couldn’t. If he had heightened hearing, then maybe that’s why he thought she was loud. Or, maybe he was just annoyed with listening to her yap about mosquitoes.

Or, maybe we’re in danger here and I need to fucking focus, she thought, taking in a deep breath to remind herself that she wasn’t on just some fun romp in the jungle.

“Whatcha got there?” somebody called from up ahead.

Rosalyn stiffened at the same time as her demon squad relaxed, and she glanced between them curiously before realizing that this must be their destination.

“This here’s Rose,” Hex called. “She’s hungry. And we need to see Klari.”

“Gotcha,” the faceless person said, and presumably disappeared.

Rosalyn didn’t hear any movement, but with the way these guys moved like ninjas, she didn’t expect to. Jian kept moving, but at a more casual gait, and soon they emerged into a clearing.

She looked up, expecting to see sunlight streaming in, but the trees stretched across, leaves covering the area in a canopy. It was almost as if the branches themselves were shielding the place.

“Beauty, isn’t it?” Hex asked quietly. “There are a few here that have affinity to trees, and are able to encourage the flow of life. It hides us from anything flying over.”

Flying machines. The thought punched Rosalyn in the gut. Rhizaid’s disgusting contraptions drilled into living flesh. How many of her bugs had flown over this? How many had crash-landed and died just like hers?

She lowered her gaze, looking around to distract herself. “What do you have an affinity for?”

He didn’t answer her, but that was okay, because she was struck with awe at the structures around her. Huts of all shapes and sizes circled the trees, up into the canopy. Some hung from the roof branches, swinging free—how did anyone access those?—and some larger ones stood on the ground, but they had large open walls. They looked more like community spaces, holding large tables piled with stuff.

Everything was made out of nature, it seemed, wood and branches and leaves, vines hanging from everything, large flowers just peeking out to say hello to the morning. Rosalyn put a hand to her chest, for some reason reminiscent of the burning spell there, the contrast of that first forest, the cold putrid-smelling monster breeding grounds, and this, a warm flowery natural place full of life.

“This way,” Hex said, brushing his fingers against the back of her arm to get her attention.

A shiver racked her spine, and Rosalyn’s mouth went completely dry. She was well-aware of the flush of her cheeks heating up as she turned, trying not to look at him, but catching a little curl of his lips out of the corner of her eye. The bastard, she thought as realization twisted her chest. He knows he affects me… She remembered then, about how Rhizaid was able to smell that her body was mostly made of water. If demon noses were so sensitive, what else could they smell?

Her flush deepened at imagining him being able to smell something very particular. If she were to be—

The scent of roasted meat cut through her haze of thoughts, and tears sprang to her eyes. “How sad is it that I haven’t eaten in what, I don’t even know, but it can’t be that long, and I’m almost crying over getting to eat some meat, fucking first-world problems,” she muttered to herself.

Hex cocked a brow, but she didn’t bother trying to explain. They passed around a lattice of branches and vines, into a wide area full of campfires. There were at least a dozen of them, all with something different cooking, spits of meat, grills of what looked like vegetables, and hanging cauldrons and kettles giving off thick steam. So many food scents mingled together, things she couldn’t identify, but all of it smelled delicious.

Hex plonked himself down on a thick log, laying on it’s side to create a bench. He patted the wood next to him, and Rosalyn followed his lead, her gaze following his arm intently as he reached for a kebab.

They were made out of a soft supple wood, so the handle wasn’t hot to the touch when she took it. Somehow, this made her completely forget that the meat had been roasting over open coals, and she bit down into one, enjoying the sensation for about half a second before she burned her mouth.

“Ow, fuck,” she sputtered, jerking the stick away from her face. “That was dumb.”

“Watch it, it’s hot.” There was an obvious note of teasing in Hex’s voice, and she wrinkled her nose, attempting to level him with a glare.

She failed, a smile tugging at her burning lips, and the moment somehow felt so normal, like she was sitting around a campsite by the Salmon River with KC, poking fun at each other and sipping beer and…

But it wasn’t normal at all. She wasn’t sitting with KC, she was sitting with a demon who may or may not be a secret King, in a video game jungle where everyone else seemed to want to kill her.

But at least there were no mosquitoes.