Page 39 of The Delver
He kept his attention on the tunnel. “I do not know if the marks were made by vrix or by beast. But if there are spiritstriders in these tunnels, they may have heard the rockfall. They may come. We must be away.”
“Are we going to die?” she asked against his palm.
He turned his face toward her, and those bright blue eyes locked with hers. “No,” he said vehemently. “I will protect you.”
Urkot stroked her hair with his hand and caressed her cheek with a thumb. “Nothingwill harm you, female.”
They continued onward silently, Callie with a fresh batch of anxiety, following the uneven tunnel as its downward slope brought them deeper and deeper into the earth. Urkot kept her close, helping her over some of the looser stones and larger boulders. Though he didn’t speak, his presence alone was calming.
There were crevices in the walls, too low and narrow for Urkot to fit through, but that didn’t stop Callie’s imagination from running wild. She expected to see glowing red eyes staring back at her from those shadowy openings, or clawed hands reaching out to grab her and drag her into the abyss.
Stop it, Callie. That’s not helping. You’re just freaking yourself out.
A new sound broke the silence. It was faint at first, but constant, and grew in volume as they walked. Soon, she was able to identify it—the burbling of running water.
She was glad to have something to counteract that stifling silence besides their echoing steps.
When they reached a section where the ceiling hung low, Urkot stopped and held a hand up to her. “Stay. I will see.”
Callie grabbed the wrist of his lower right arm. “I don’t want you to go alone.”
His eyes softened as he looked at her hand. Gently, he pried it from his wrist and gave her the lantern. “I will be much fast, Callie.”
“Pleasebe careful.”
He reached into the pouch on his belt and took out a chunk of glowing blue crystal. Brushing his knuckles over her cheek, he offered her a vrix smile. “I am most careful.”
That touch, combined with his smile—no matter how different it was from a human’s—made her heart flutter.
And then his warm fingers were gone from her skin, leaving her feeling cold as he turned away, dropped low, and crawled beneath the ceiling. She clutched the lantern to her chest, keeping her eyes on him until he was out of sight. Over the sound of the water, she heard the crunch and scrape of his hide against the stone and loose pebbles. Those sounds disappeared too soon.
Callie bit down hard on her bottom lip as she waited, looking once more down the tunnel behind her.
The lantern’s glow was a blessing and a curse, warding away the dark but making everything beyond its light impossibly, impenetrably black. She felt like she was in the last pocket of existence in a vast void, surrounded by nothingness.
“Callie, come,” Urkot called.
She knelt on the rough stone and peered under the low ceiling. He was crouched on the far side, dimly lit by the crystal in his hand, the blue markings on his limbs glowing in its light.
“Okay,” she breathed. “I got this.”
She removed her backpack and set it before her, opening it up. She switched off the lantern and flattened it into a compact disc. Her heart leapt at the darkness that enveloped her. With shaky hands, she slipped the lantern into her bag and closed it up.
Ducking down, she looked toward Urkot. The crystal’s blue glow was stronger now that it wasn’t overpowered by bright white light.
“I’m coming.” On hands and knees, she crawled forward, pushing her bag along before her. She did her best to ignore the bite of the stone against her palms and legs.
“Good, female,” he said. “Come.”
God, this wasnotthe context in which she wanted to hear those words in his deep, rumbling voice. She would’ve preferred hearing them while he was above her, thrusting his big, thick co?—
Not the time, Callie!
Why not? It’s a good distraction from the possibility of this ceiling collapsing on me, and from the claustrophobia, and the danger of being eaten by a vicious cave vrix.
Bring on all the kinky spider sex!
“Now you are a delver too,” Urkot said as she neared, derailing those spicy thoughts.
