Page 47 of Over the Emerald Valley
“Are you sure you want to keep going?” asked Temaj, still hoping they could back out together.
“I must,” said Solon predictably. “You could wait here if you prefer?”
“No way. We stay together.” Temaj fisted the linen of Solon’s shirt. “Let’s get it over with.”
As they crept forward, another door came into view, this one made from stone and also carved with frightening demons. They looked hungry. Skeletal and winged, part animal, part man. Temaj ran his finger over the image. “This should be the false door.”
“But we’re at a dead end. There’s no other door.”
“Look down.” Temaj had already spotted it. A hole in the ground before the tunnel stopped at bare rock. Blacker than black. “Please, let’s turn around. Come back with your army and torches. This isn’t safe.”
Solon took his hand and laced their fingers together, a minor comfort when panic threatened to freeze his limbs and overwhelm his mind.
“Agreed.” Solon squeezed his palm. Relief washed through him as he tugged Solon backward and toward the exit.
Leaving was tense but infinitely better than the approach had been. They climbed the stairs, and the tunnel got progressively lighter and wider. Temaj picked up the pace, eager to be free of this underground deathtrap.
By the time they reached the narrow passage behind the silk curtain, they were practically running.
Temaj flung the curtain aside, ready to take a deep breath of fresh air. He gasped.
Before him stood Ottah—flanked by two other guards, their weapons drawn—a crooked smirk on his smug face.
CHAPTER15
Solon
“What have we here?My favorite little troublemaker and his precious army general.” Ottah stepped forward, far too confident for Solon’s liking. “You definitely aren’t supposed to be here.”
They were outnumbered, three to one really, since Temaj wasn’t trained for combat. Solon’s muscles coiled with tension, ready to fight. He couldn’t kill these guards. He didn’t know if they were complicit in Abasi’s crimes or not, and more importantly, Temaj wouldn’t approve.
Incapacitating three men while not getting injured himself wasn’t impossible, but Solon didn’t like his odds.
“Ottah, darling,” Temaj crooned, meeting the guard as he approached and daring to step directly into the man’s strike zone.
It was everything Solon could do to resist yanking Temaj behind him to safety. But the silver-tongued concubine was already tracing his fingers from Ottah’s collarbone to his sternum. Solon couldn’t see Temaj’s face, but he could picture it. A sultry upward gaze from beneath lowered, fluttering lashes, pouting pink lips, sparkling eyes.
Damn near impossible to resist. Solon would know.
“We were only looking for a private location to have a little fun. Care to join us?” Temaj flicked his gaze to Ottah’s men. “Send them away. They aren’t invited.”
“The general’s rooms aren’t private enough for you?” barked Ottah.
Temaj lifted a shoulder in an elegant shrug. “We tire of the same old rooms. Besides, we’ve already done it every which way on every available surface there. Perhaps you have a suggestion? Take me somewhere new.”
Solon repressed a cringe. Surely, Temaj didn’t mean what he said…wouldn’t go through with it. Not with Ottah, whom he’d previously called a bowlegged banshee and expressed no uncertain distaste for on Solon’s first night in the palace.
“What are you up to?” Ottah narrowed his gaze, his pupils wide in the dim light of the windowless hall.
“Wouldn’t you like to know?” Temaj dropped his hand to Ottah’s thigh, precariously close to the man’s groin. “I could show you.”
Ottah looked past Temaj and glared at Solon.
Solon glowered back. With every fiber of his being, he itched to stop this charade, to haul Temaj to his side and insist they’d done nothing wrong.
The other guards still clutched their daggers, awaiting Ottah’s decision. Whether or not the men bought Temaj’s ruse, Solon couldn’t say.
“Send them away,” Temaj repeated, turning his back to Ottah and arching his spine to press his ass against the man’s skirt. Temaj caught Solon’s gaze and made a shushing shape with his lips, urging Solon to keep quiet.
