I was excited for our future. There were challenges ahead, but Olivia and I could face them together.
What we’d found was a rare, precious thing. And I didn’t intend to squander a moment of our future.
I slid my hand back into hers, and we led the way into the temple’s top level.
It was dim but not dark inside, though I couldn’t immediately spot the source of light. The archway we walked through led us into a hallway, stone walls on either side of us funneling us toward the middle of the building.
Building wasn’t quite the word for it, but that was all I had that fit. It felt like a maze, the walls taller than usual and closing in on the hallway.
Hieroglyphics lined the walls, but these weren’t your usual Egyptian drawings. No, these were of great, fiery birds, with humans worshipping at their feet.
As we walked, the entire life cycle of a phoenix played out on the walls, and I found myself slowing down to take in the details and absorb the beauty. Olivia was by my side, quietly taking it all in right along with me.
“Guys, look at this one.” Shay’s voice was reverent from a little farther down. I hadn’t even noticed them stepping down a side hall, but the hieroglyph she pointed to was of a great, jewel-toned nest, a gleaming golden egg sitting in the middle. “I think we’re close. As far as I can tell, the center of the ceiling is just over there. But the path splits on that branch. Something about this place, though… I don’t think we should separate again.”
She shuddered, and my wolf went on high alert. Her fae senses could pick up different magics than I could with my wolf’s keen senses, and while I only felt or scented inert stone around us… “Olivia, didn’t you say you sensed living plants inside?”
My mate nodded hesitantly. “I still do, but they could be in these rooms. It’s hard to say. I’m still not great at judging distance.”
“The fact that you were able to take brand-new power and save Gael’s life in the middle of a battle was incredible. Normally, that kind of skill would take years of practice, especially based on what we learned about new powers in the fae court.” Shay pointed over her shoulder to where her wings would be in her full form. “It’s okay if it doesn’t all come to you at once.”
Olivia nodded, seeming pleased by the praise.
Does my mate have a praise kink? Food for thought.
We continued walking, arriving at the fork in the hallway slash maze. There were no scents for our wolves to follow, no footsteps left after this place had been so long unattended. It was a toss-up.
“As long as we stay within earshot, we can go a little ways down each and see if one way looks more promising than the other. Neither path goes straight to the center.” Dirge pointed overhead, then followed the line down from the middle of the ceiling toward a spot off in the distance. “We’ll take right, and we’ll both walk for”-he checked his watch–“five minutes before turning around and deciding which path we want to take.”
“I’d say we’ll call, but my phone is a brick in here.” Olivia frowned as she held up her cell.
“Good old-fashioned way it is, then. No biggie.” Shay’s smile was tight and not at all believable.
“Five minutes.” I nodded at Dirge, checked my watch, and then Olivia and I turned left.
The hallway we’d chosen was plain. No paint adorned the walls, there were no doorways, and no additional lights that we could see. We did walk under a skylight way up above, though, so at least the question of where the light was coming from was answered.
“We definitely won’t be hanging out in here after dark. This place gives me the creeps.”
Oli laughed, the sound far too musical for our surroundings. “Really? I think it’s amazing. I feel like a real-life Indiana. Going on archaeological adventures, but without all the spiderwebs.”
I snorted. “You can always see the bright side, can’t you?”
“It’s one of my many talents, actually.” She turned and shot me a saucy look over her shoulder, when all the hair on the back of my neck stood up.
“Hellcat, something’s??”
The ground gave out beneath us, and then we were falling.
I woke to whimpering. My eyes were blurry, and I blinked a few times, only to realize that it was dust floating in the air making the light from above filter through the grime. Scratch that, way the hell above.
I didn’t know how far we’d fallen, but I had the sense we were deep, deep under this temple.
Another whimper snapped my focus back to the present.
“Olivia?” I kept my voice calm, scanning the rubble-filled space with my heart thundering at top speed, not at all calm. When she didn’t answer, I yelled her name.
“Here. I’m over here.”
Her voice was small, terrified, shaking, and in the two-point-five seconds it took me to scale the pile of broken rock between us, one million terrifying scenarios of her being hurt and maimed flashed through my mind. Every last one would haunt my nightmares, I knew that like I knew I needed oxygen.
She was huddled on the floor, dirt dulling her fiery hair’s shine, and my nose picked up the coppery tang of blood in the air.
“Where are you hurt? How bad is it?”
I didn’t mean to bark at her, but my wolf was scratching and clawing for release. He needed to protect her, no matter that the foe was gravity and time.
When she didn’t answer, I dropped to my knees, nearly sighing with relief when I saw the grazes on her palms, a few small nicks on her shins.
Not life-threatening. Not maimed. Not dying.
I took my first full inhalation since coming to and held her to my chest, looking around for an escape route. My eyes were starting to adjust with help from my wolf, and I could see the grayscale outline of a small room. An empty bench lined one wall, and it looked like there was an outline of a doorway, unfortunately behind the pile of flooring stones we’d fallen through.
“It’s going to be okay. I can see a door over there. We must have just found a weak spot in the floor.” I chafed her arms with my hands, but she didn’t respond. “Hellcat? Olivia?” I resisted the urge to shake her, in case she had a concussion or something that her shifter healing was still battling. “Can you tell me where it hurts? Anything, little mate.”
“Too-oo small. Don’t like tight spaces.”
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