Rosalyn didn’t know what she expected when she took Hex’s hand, but the fast/slow blur wasn’t it. A random column of flame blowing over their heads was the last of their worries, it seemed.

The two demons moved like dancers through the woods, and though she had no clue where they were going or what they were running from, all she could do was hang on. When Hex swung her into his arms, she was briefly reminded of being carried by Rhizaid, but there was a different level of care here.

Sure, Rhizi had cared for her as a zookeeper would care for their livelihood, or a scientist for their specimen. But Hex seemed to care that Rosalyn was a living thing. He seemed to care for living things in general. And in that vein, he held her somehow firmly but gently at the same time. She didn’t feel like she was at risk of falling, but somehow his grasp betrayed her fragility.

She clutched Hemlock, and though she somehow knew that the little furrball was buzzing to run free, she kept him close. She wasn’t sure yet what the extent of the little guy’s abilities were, but she didn’t want to test him out on whoever their attackers were. After the scare of him becoming barbecue, she wanted him close to her.

Another blast of heat hit the back of her shoulders, and she curled into Hex’s firm chest. She kept her body as stiff as she could, to make it easier to be carried, though he didn’t seem to be having any trouble at all.

Jian’s presence wove around them, as if he were darting back and forth like a moving shield. She supposed he was. The right hand of the Prince—King? Technically if he’s the heir then he’s the King, right?—and his lover to boot, it made sense now why Jian was ready to beat the shit out of Hex rather than let him go back for Klari.

Rosalyn wanted to squeeze her eyes shut, take comfort in the chat, in the fact that she still had a link to home, but she was afraid to take her eyes off of the battlefield. Despite knowing she was a fleshy meatsack in the middle of a bunch of strong-ass beasts, paying attention might be useful. It might not, but it might, and the potential was worth her not shutting down.

Plus, if KC was still watching, then recording whatever she saw here could be useful to the outside, too.

Hex pitched to the side, and Rosalyn squeaked at the sudden change in momentum, a branch catching on her wet hair and snagging. She wasn’t sure if she left a chunk of scalp on that branch, but it was over before she could register any pain, and she wasn’t about to let go of Hemlock to check.

Shouts and snarls echoed, and at first she thought it was behind them, but it was quickly clear that it was not, it was everywhere, it was almost inside her own head.

“We’re not going to make the south cave.” Hex’s voice reverberated in his chest.

“The mines,” Jian replied from their left, but then he popped from behind on the right, steering them.

A scream erupted from somewhere too close. An explosion rattled the ground, sending Hex stumbling, the aftershocks rumbling in Rosalyn’s guts.

“Up, up!” Jian cried, but they were already up, and she realized he was talking to somebody else, because there were more running with them now.

Some silvery, some smoky, but sharing the same soot-filled wide-eyed panic as their cloven feet pounded the dirt.

“Can you swim?” Hex asked, and it took Rosalyn a few beats to realize that his quiet huff was directed at her.

She didn’t like where this was going. “Uh, yeah.” She looked up at the slope of his jawline, the dip of his cheek up into that almost delicate-looking cheekbone. From this angle, his eyelashes looked a thousand miles long.

“I’m going to keep hold of you as best I can.” That jaw clenched and unclenched. “But you might have to swim. If I can’t.”

A million questions quivered at the tip of her tongue—why would he even think that he couldn’t? Were they about to cross a raging river? Jump into a lake with some sea monster in it? She didn’t like the prospects.

She didn’t have long to wonder, though.

“So much for toweling off,” she joked, a note of hysteria in her voice as she let out a nervous laugh, and then Hex flung them off of a cliff.

***

On one of the rare occasions that KC and Rosalyn ventured out into the world for something other than internet content, they drove for five hours up to the north side of Cape Breton. There were swimming areas closer to home they could have gone, but it was KC’s birthday, and he wanted to see the Gypsum Mine Quarry.

Despite neither of them being overly religious, the Accolade retreat campground was a beautiful place, and the Quarry was one-of-a-kind apparently, with turquoise water and beautiful cliff sides. Though Rosalyn liked to joke that they were vampires, sitting at home all night bathed only in the light of their computer screens, they did enjoy fresh air too, and it was nice to unplug for a bit.

So they went camping for KC’s birthday, and found themselves sitting on a large rock overhanging the water. The evening air was crisp and fresh, but not salty like it was on the coast, and it was easy to forget that they were on an island in the Atlantic. Being surrounded by old thick woods and cliffs with the aquamarine blanket below…it felt like they were way more than five hours away from home. It felt like a whole other world.

“Should we jump?” KC asked, playfully bumping her shoulder.

Rosalyn extended her bare legs, wiggling her toes in midair, having left her shoes and socks behind her. “Would be a long climb back up for our clothes.”

“We could just wear them, they’ll dry.”

She chuckled. “Yeah, right.”

She knew he wouldn’t. For all their daredevil ways in-game, for every clutch cheered on by thousands of live viewers, for all their bravery in a pixelated world…neither of them were about to jump off of a cliff.

“You’re right,” KC said, shuffling behind her. “Swimming with clothes on is hard as fuck.”

Her breath caught in her throat as he peeled off his shirt. “You’re not actually serious about jumping.”

He unzipped his pants and let them fall to the rock, revealing bright red boxers beneath. “I am. And you’re coming with me.”

“Like hell I am.” She laughed, leaning back on her hands. “I’ll walk your clothes down, though, so you don’t scar any campers with that neon chest of yours.”

His eyebrows rose, and she didn’t like the pleading, pouty look in his eye. “It’s my birthday.”

Rosalyn scrunched up her lips, grunting in defiance.

“It’s my birthdayyyy.” KC dragged out the word in a singsong.

“Don’t.” She pointed a firm finger at him as he popped out his lower lip and batted his eyelashes.

“It’s my birthday!” he whined.

“You’re a monster.” Rosalyn refused to look at him, turning her head away. “I’m not a strong swimmer.”

“We’ll go together.” He knew he’d already won. If she was making excuses, then she had already caved, and the bastard knew it. “Come on, tits out.”

She snorted. “I’m wearing a bra, you perv.”

He gave her the side-eye as if to say really? because they were far past the point of comfort with each other’s bodies. Rosalyn could be completely naked in front of him and feel both safe and not scrutinized or creeped on, and vice versa. Aside from the occasional ribbing that was all in good fun, of course. But that was the nature of pure comfort with another human being.

“Okay, jeez.” Rosalyn sighed and peeled off her tank top, groaning as she got to her feet. “We’re not twenty-five anymore, you know.” She shimmied out of her capris and left them in a pile on the rocks.

“I know, thirty-two is ancient, we’ll surely die from swimming for a few minutes.” He held out his hand.

She slipped her fingers through his, and against her better judgment, leaned over to look at the drop. Somehow, it looked way farther down than when they’d been casually sitting there.

“Are you sure about this?” Her heart thumped double-time. “We can’t just go back to the campsite and get stoned and roast marshmallows instead?”

KC grinned, that lopsided boyish smile that made him look a decade younger. “We’ll do that after.” He gave her hand a reassuring squeeze. “We jump together, but let go of my hand before we hit the water. Keep your body stiff and straight, so you’re like, piercing the surface instead of slapping any of your body on it. And that way you’ll keep your bearings, all you have to do is swim up and you’ll find the surface.”

She tilted her head back and forth, bouncing on the balls of her feet a little. It had been a long time since she’d been for-real swimming, and not just hanging on a beach or something. Most of the time if she’d gone ‘swimming’ really it was just to chill in a bikini water-adjacent. And the last time she’d jumped off of something into water was a diving board into an in-ground pool when she was a pre-teen.

“Hey,” KC cut into her thoughts, bringing their clasped hands up to his chin. “If you really don’t want to, we don’t have to. I don’t actually want to guilt you into it, I’m just fucking around.”

Rosalyn laughed, shaking her head. “Do I look that scared?” She raised her chin, jutting it out in challenge. “We’re doing it, birthday boy. Just promise you’ll drag me out if I fail spectacularly.”

He grinned and pecked a kiss on her knuckles. “Of course.”

“Happy birthday, asshat,” Rosalyn muttered, and they left his laugh up on the cliff as they leapt.

The vivid memory of the pleasantly cool water enveloping her, surfacing and sputtering and laughing with KC, all of that flitted through Rosalyn’s mind as she plummeted through the air in Hex’s arms. The fall was so long she had time to really contemplate her life choices, and wonder if a human could even survive from this height.

She wondered if she should have voiced this to the demon, held hands with him and made herself a stiff arrow like KC had taught her, because her best friend was the only person she truly trusted, in their world and this.

But it was too late, and she took a deep breath, with no choice but to trust Hex as they plunged into unknown waters.