21. Tempi

CHAPTER 21

TEMPI

W hen I wake up Midas for his watch shift and lay down to catch my own rest, he lets me sleep the rest of the night. I wake up the next morning well-rested and annoyed that he didn't get more sleep than he did. When he explains he doesn't need nearly as much sleep as I do, I ease off my annoyance a little, but still. I think he's full of shit. If we're going to be partners through this experience, we need to help each other. I don't need someone babysitting me. I can handle myself.

"Calm down, little crucible," Midas tells me when I explain all that. "I really don't need as much sleep as you do."

"It's easy to claim that," I grumble, crossing my arms. "Surely, you needed more than an hour?"

We've yet to continue trekking through the jungle, only because we'd stopped at a tiny stream near where we camped to wash our faces and prepare. There's no way to know how long we'll be walking before a magic portal finds us, so we have to assume we may be walking all day.

"Believe me," he answers, his eyes flicking to me. "I can stay up all night with no trouble."

His voice takes on a rasp to it that only highlights his implication, and I scowl. "A sex joke? Now?"

"It wasn't a joke," he shrugs. "I was being honest. Perhaps, I'll be able to prove it at some point."

"Don't count on it," I grumble, but even to my own ears, my words don't sound convincing. I've softened to the big asshole and that only pisses me off more. "We should keep?—"

"Hi there!"

Both Midas and I whirl at the same time when the voice interrupts my words. Neither one of us had heard anyone approach, so we're both equally surprised and on guard for any threat. When someone is so silent to sneak up on you in a forest, you prepare for the worst. What we find when we turn though has me straightening in confusion.

"Is that. . . Are you an egg?" I ask.

The man. . . egg man is large, about the same height as me. His body is literally an egg, and he has arms and legs sticking out of that. His face is in the center of the egg right above where he wears strange clothing around his middle. A piece of bandage is across his. . . forehead? As if he has a wound there.

"Humpty," he says with a bow. "At your service!"

"Humpty?" I repeat in disbelief. "As in Humpty Dumpty?"

"The very one!" he declares with a grin. "Pleased to make your acquaintance, m'lady."

Midas stares at Humpty with narrowed eyes. "What do you want?" he asks rudely.

I glance at him, sensing his unease, and unconsciously move a step closer to Midas just in case. Perhaps I'm wrong for talking to this thing without thought. This isn't my world. This place has magic and monsters that I've only ever dreamed of. Though what harm can an egg do?

Humpty grins. "Ah yes. I heard your voices on the wind and came to investigate. I'm quite hungry. Do you happen to have any food?"

"No, sorry. We don't have any food," I say. On cue, my stomach grumbles, proving my statement.

"What a shame," Humpty says. "So you have nothing to trade then?"

"Trade for what?" Midas asks, watching him carefully.

"Why, your lives, of course," Humpty answers cheerfully. "You have nothing to give me in exchange for letting you live."

I tense, but I've never been one to back down from a fight. Rule number one on the streets is to never appear like the prey. "Listen here, egghead. You can go on your way and nothing bad will happen to you. Got it?"

Humpty laughs. It's a full-bodied laugh where he nearly topples over backward. "How cute," he says, as if I'm a child. "I can't wait to crack you open and see what you look like on the inside."

He leaps forward before I can even respond. I shriek and leap to the side to avoid the extremely large knife suddenly in his little hand. Midas immediately moves, grabbing Humpty and jerking him backward. Before I can do anything but stumble and blink, Midas slams Humpty onto the ground with a crunch and has his boot on top of him. There's the sound of cracking as Midas pushes his boot down slowly that echoes like gunshots in the forest.

"You meat suit!" Humpty screams. "I'm going to enjoy cracking you open!"

Midas leans more heavily on his leg and spider web cracks begin to climb outward from his sole. "It looks like you're the one doing the cracking, beast. You have two choices. You can either leave here and live, or you can die here."

"I do not surrender! I will never surrender!" he screams.

"Midas," I murmur, my eyes widening. He doesn't even look over at me. His gaze remains on Humpty.

Humpty swings his knife and catches Midas on the other leg just enough to make him bleed. Midas grunts but doesn't move other than shifting his leg out of reach.

"I will never surrender!" Humpty screams over and over again. "Heathens! Specimens! Give me your innards!"

"Choice made," Midas growls and presses his full weight down. The resounding crack is loud. I gasp and cover my mouth as Midas' foot disappears inside the egg. The yolk begins to run out of the cracks around his leg, staining the grass around him. Humpty goes completely silent. No sound comes from him, his faced cracked and shattered.

"What. . . the actual fuck," I whisper, staring in horror at the scene before me.

Midas scowls at the yolk and egg white on his boot as he pulls his foot out. He starts wiping it on the grass like he stepped in mud. The egg falls into two pieces, the tiny arm flipping on the ground in a way that reminds me that thing was alive and trying to kill us.

"You're bleeding," I point out, my eyes going to the bleeding wound on Midas' leg.

"I'm fine," he counters, his eyes not on me.

"We should bandage?—"

"I said I'm fine," he repeats. This time he looks up at me, his eyes hard. There's a cruelty reflected in those golden eyes now where it hadn't been before. While I agree that Humpty was a threat, there might have been another way to handle him. He was an egg, for fuck's sake. Surely there could have been a way to disable him without killing him? But Midas doesn't look like he cares one way or the other right now.

" Gracias ," I murmur, looking down. "For protecting me."

Even if I would have probably figured things out on my own, I can appreciate not having to, thanks to Midas. Who knows how badly I could have been hurt had Humpty Dumpty stabbed me with his knife.

He sniffs, uncaring. "I have to save you. You're my ticket back to Under."

His words are a kick in the gut. Suddenly, the moments we shared the night before were nothing but him passing time, and he's back to being the cabrón I can't stand. Anger fills me. I should have never lowered my guard. I should have known better.

I harden my expression and meet his eyes. "Good to know where we stand then," I growl before moving around him and taking off into the trees.

"Tempest, wait," he growls. "We can't be far apart."

"Then I guess you better hurry up," I spit, not pausing my steps. Stupid, stupid Tempi, thinking this being, this god, might like me a little. I should know better. Men. Son todos iguales . No matter which world they're from.

I hear him hurrying behind me, and just in the nick of time, too. The whooshing sound of a magic portal opening interrupts my cursing of him just before we're both dragged inside.

Thank god. Let's hope this takes us back to Under and I won't have to deal with this pendejo ever again. Que cabrón . I make sure we don't touch at all as we fall through the blackhole this time. There will be no more touching.

That's for damn sure.