Callie tilted her head, giving him a droll look. “Those little squirming things are not going to fill you up.” She moved the meat closer to him. “Please eat it.”
He folded his upper arms across his chest and planted his lower hand on his hip. “I cannot. We do not know how far we must go, or if there is safe food for you on the way.”
She stared at him. Slowly, the corners of her mouth curved down, and her bottom lip puckered. “You would decline a gift from your mate?”
Something sank in his belly. “What?”
“I am gifting you food, as your mate, and you are rejecting it.” Her lower lip quivered, and she sniffled. “Does that mean…you’re rejectingme?”
Urkot staggered back a step, arms spreading reflexively. That weight in his gut coiled his insides, and he felt his heartsthread pulling taut. “What is this? I am not rejecting you. You are mine, Callie. My mate.”
“But y-you’re rejecting my gift.” She turned her face and covered it with her other hand, her curls falling to shield her, and bobbed her shoulders as she let out a series of sobs.
Hurriedly, he took the meat from her hand and shoved it in his mouth. While chewing, he said, “I am eating. See? No more sad, mynyleea.”
Callie dropped her hands and turned back to him with a wide smile. “Good boy. Ready to go?”
His jaw halted mid-chew as he blinked at her. There was no trace of tears in her eyes, and not a hint of the overwhelming sadness she’d just displayed remained on her face. Urkot swallowed the meat and let out a huff. “Not nice.”
Chuckling, Callie looped her arms around his neck and tugged him down. He allowed her to do so; she stopped when their faces were but a breath apart.
“It’s called a guilt trip,” she said. “And it was for your own good.”
She pressed a kiss to his mouth. When she started to pull away, Urkot banded his arms around her and tugged her body against his, latching onto her waist with his claspers.
He growled and leaned his head down, nuzzling her throat, scraping his mouth against the sensitive location between her neck and shoulder where his bite had marked her. She giggled, twining her fingers in his hair as she wriggled against him.
“You will pay for that later, female,” he rumbled.
“I look forward to this…punishment.”
Her tattooed ass flashed in his mind’s eye, and it took all his willpower to resist the urge to makelaterintonow. With equal struggle, he released her, and they collected their belongings—Callie slinging her bag over her shoulders, Urkot his belt around his waist.
Callie stepped into her boots, which made a squelching sound. She scrunched her nose. “I never thought that dry boots would also rank so high on my list of things I’m looking forward to.”
Urkot chittered. “We have many things to look forward to. That is good, yes?”
He moved to the chamber’s exit, spread his arms, and grasped the boulder he’d used to block it. His muscles strained as he heaved it aside, using all his strength to ensure it did not fall and produce a sound loud enough to alert every spiritstrider in the world to their presence.
Cooler air flowed in through the opening, sweeping over his hide and fine hairs. The tunnel beyond was lit by the same crystals and plants as this chamber, granting it ample light. Hestood there for many heartbeats, listening for any movement from ahead, before waving for Callie to join him. Together, they strode into the tunnel.
It was faint, much too faint to be sure, but he swore there was a hint of the Tangle’s scent on the air. Perhaps it was simply his imagination, tainted by hope and desire…
The crystals and plants thinned as Urkot and Callie walked onward, eventually forcing them to take out a pair of glowstones to light their way. Yet that air current remained steady. Its presence diminished the effects the darkness might’ve otherwise had upon Urkot.
They followed that airflow, and he would’ve continued past the large offshoot tunnel without a second thought, just like the many other openings they’d passed, if not for him glimpsing rubble from the corner of his eye. He paused and turned toward the opening. The light of his glowstone reached only a few segments into the passage, falling upon loose rocks and something that seemed uneasily familiar.
After glancing back and forth along the tunnel they’d been traversing, Urkot crept into the side passage. As his light advanced, the familiar shape grew clear—a vrix skeleton, its hindquarters and legs buried beneath fallen rocks.
He and Callie stopped and raised their crystals. Before them was a chaotic mass of stones, the aftermath of a rockfall that had sealed this tunnel. Thick dust coated most of it, including the bones, and it looked like it hadn’t been disturbed in a long, long while.
“It’s a thornskull,” Callie said softly.
Urkot dropped his gaze to the skull. The bony spikes on the headcrest were unmistakable.
He curled his suddenly trembling hands into fists. He did not know this thornskull, couldn’t have, and yet as he stared at it,he could only see the new friends he had lost. He could only see Zotahl and Tahlken, Enikor and the other young delvers.
He could only see the many vrix who had died in dark places just like this. All the delvers he’d known, some friends, some family, who had been claimed by the countless dangers found understone. And he could hear the deafening roars of rocks falling, of stone crashing and crushing, swallowing up the screams…
