Page 77 of Of Nine So Bold

His thumb landed on my lips, stifling my words. “Enough.” His face tightened. “Please.” When I didn’t protest, his eyes narrowed, a tad distrusting and a tad playful. “And remind me to repay you later for all this worry you’re causing us, princess.” The pad of his thumb tugged briefly at my bottom lip.

My indignation drowned as my insides turned molten. Gods, first Casimir and now him.

I managed a nod.

Dex’s lip twitched. “Good girl.” His hand released my chin. “Stay.”

Without waiting to see if I obeyed, he turned and strode back to the front of the group, drawing his sword as he went. “Move out.”

I stared after him, my body and mind reeling from what just happened. When I blinked and finally pulled my gaze away, it only landed on the others.

Clay winked at me, grinning like he could guess what had just transpired, while Ozias growled so low with desire, it was more of a sensation prickling across my skin than a sound. Meanwhile, Casimir gave me a wicked smile, undoubtedly having heard every word.

My mate and my dominant vampire were clearly looking forward to helping my equally dominant giant “repay” me, just as Dex promised.

Taking a breath, I turned away, only for my eyes to catch on Roan. He looked stricken. Pained, almost. But before I could ask what in the world was wrong, he buried the expression and spun to follow Dex.

That was… odd.

Promising myself I’d ask him later, I set the worry aside and ordered myself to focus. I would never ignore Roan’s pain, but we all needed every bit of attention and readiness for what was about to happen.

And I wasn’t a dog, so like hell was Istayinganywhere. I wouldn’t let these men die to protect me. I didn’t care what I had to do.

They could repay me all they wanted later—afterthey survived.

“All right, friends,” Clay chuckled darkly as he drew his sword and started toward the mines. “Here goes nothing.”

19

NIKO

Every curse word I’d learned from Clay rattled in my head as I followed the guard toward the western tunnel, so many giants in chains trailing after me. Fear quivered through my gut, and my heart thudded so hard, it choked my throat. With every step, I tried to make myself think like Dex. To observe the resources at my disposal and come up with a masterful plan like he would.

Except there were no resources, and so I had no plan.

Gods, I didn’t want to die down here.

The collapsed section of the tunnel came into view around the turn ahead, and my heart sank. Boulders filled the opening ahead from top to bottom, and in the light of the torches the guards held, the shadows between the rocks danced. I swore they looked like the taunting maws of hungry beasts, as if each little opening between the rocks was just waiting to devour me.

Which, basically, was true.

I swallowed hard, ordering myself to think like Dex. Like Ozias. Like anyone who might’ve known what the hell to do right now. But while I didn’t have Ozias’s skills with the earth—and what gifts Ididhave were suppressed anyway—I’d still done enough mining to know a death trap when I saw one.

It wasn’t just the rocks blocking the tunnel that were the problem. If you knew what to look for, it became obvious that the surrounding earth itself was clearly unstable, run through with traces of water and weaker strata of stone that would crumble the moment they were disturbed. And while someone like Ozias could have held it all steady long enough for people to get through, even he would have needed a significant amount of power, effort, and time to remold the earth around the tunnel into something that wouldn’t collapse again the moment he let it go.

Assuming it was even possible.

“Get in there, runt,” the guard ordered, coming to a stop forty feet from the pile of rubble and stone blocking the rest of the tunnel. “Start clearing that shit out.”

I shook my head. “I can’t just?—”

He tapped the bracelet on his wrist.

Every nerve in my arm screamed like my skin was on fire.

Shuddering racked me as the pain faded, and I blinked hard, somehow now lying on the ground. Chuckling, the guard looked down at me, a contemptuous curl to his mouth. “You were saying?”

I stared up at him, speechless for a moment. “The ceiling will come down if I?—”

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