I had to focus on the things that were in my favor. And from where I stood, I had two. They were small, but they might be enough. First, I wasn’t completely alone in this. Auriel was still out there. He hadn’t been caught, and that meant he was trying to get to me, fighting to save me. Like Rhyan would have. LikemyRhyan would have …
And second, despite how uncaring the akadim-Rhyan was for my person, however brutal or cruel, he was still just like the Rhyan I knew and loved in one very important way: he would kill anyone who tried to touch me. He already had. So as long as he was with me, no akadim could assault me, no akadim could hurt me.
Granted, that was only because he planned to do so himself—before he turned me akadim as well. My chest tightened. But I breathed through the pain. It was still in my favor, and I had to work with what I could. As long as the akadim under Rhyan’s rule remained defiant, remained hard to control, and as long as they required Rhyan’s supervision to finish their work—I could avoid being alone with him. I could delay whatever he had planned.
And when the time was right, when I had an exit in sight—if Auriel hadn’t come for me first, I’d call onRakashonim.
I just had to survive until then. Gather my strength, my courage and survive. And in the meantime, I’d learn the terrain,learn their systems, their weaknesses, anything. Find a way out of the ropes, and get out.
Rhyan stopped walking suddenly, and I caught up to him, the rope finally not taut between us. I’d been so focused on keeping up, not falling, and watching his back, I hadn’t noticed that the path we were on had led to a sharp cliff. I didn’t even want to comprehend the fall beneath us, or how high up we were. One wrong step and we’d plummet with no chance of surviving.
I swallowed roughly, taking baby steps back from the edge, as far back from Rhyan as I dared. “Is that the mine?” I asked.
“Right outside,” Rhyan said.
And as I looked, I could indeed see the assembly line, a hundred akadim were at work below, grunting and cursing, relentlessly pushing out rocks. Some had stuffed carts full of them, some were carrying the boulders in their arms, and some were rolling them across the ground.
“You’re close to finding the shard?” I asked.
Rhyan smirked. “Very close.”
The walls shuddered around us and I froze. All along the walls, small cracks were forming, spidering into intricate webs. Small rocks spilling onto the ground. Nothing in this cave was stable, not with all the digging and mindless moving of rocks.
“Is this cave going to collapse?” I asked. Even though I already knew the answer.
Rhyan laughed. “Don’t look so worried. The cave will hold until we have the shard. And when it does fall, we’ll be long gone. At least, you and I will.” Rhyan kicked at a loose rock, sending it over the edge of the cliff. It took an absurdly long time before the echo of it hitting the ground could be heard.
Fuck—we were high.
“What about the others?” I asked.
“They’re my soturi,” he said. “I’ll get as many out as I can. But, they’re not a priority. You are, and the shard. Whatever else happens, happens.”
The walls shook again as a large groaning sound rose from below. I frowned, not sure I trusted Rhyan’s confidence in the cave’s infrastructure.
He shrugged. “Let’s get down there.”
“Down?” I asked, panicked. “How?” We’d had to go through a tunnel just to get up here, and I saw no stairs. Our path wound around a curve and vanished. I looked back to where we’d come from. That was lower ground—maybe we had to go back through there.
Rhyan watched me trying to puzzle it out and shook his head. “Alas, no. That way collapsed a week ago. Plus, the giant boulder they just excavated blocks every other way through.”
“So?” My heart pounded.
“You have to cross to the other side to go down.” Rhyan pointed ahead to what I guess technically one could call a bridge. It started across the cave at the edge of another cliff, and then it crossed the drop—but the end of the bridge couldn’t be seen from where I stood. It must have ended around the curve behind us. I shuddered. It had been made of rope with wooden steps laid out to create the floor. It was thin, only wide enough for one person—or one akadim—to walk across at a time. And it was the flimsiest, most half-assed put-together-looking thing I’d ever seen.
“We have to cross that?” I asked.
An akadim was currently on it, barreling across. Unlike the others I’d seen, he wasn’t a daywalker. This one was at least ten-feet tall, a giant even next to Rhyan. His face was monstrous—pale and sharp with all of the classical features of the demons. There was no trace of humanity remaining, not in the shape of his lips, or his eyes. Nor in the way he bared his teeth. I shiveredon sight. Fuck. I’d never get used to them. And I was about to come face-to-face with him while completely bound.
The bridge drooped with every step he took, and a wooden floorboard loosened behind him, shifting out of place. Several floorboards were already missing, leaving tiny gaps. The next person—or akadim—who tried to step on it would fall if they weren’t careful. I held my breath, waiting for him to finish crossing; waiting to see if the bridge would hold.
He vanished from sight, reaching the end around the curve. Heavy footsteps shook the ground and then he appeared, coming toward us.
“Arkturion,” he growled, then stopped as his eyes fell on me. His fangs were out at once, drool dripping down his chin and an erection pushing aside his scrap of loin cloth. “Girl,” he said, already reaching for me.
Rhyan caught his arm in his hand, staring the monster down. “Move along,” Rhyan seethed, shifting his body protectively in front of mine.
“Want,” growled the akadim, his eyes glowing. He lunged forward. But Rhyan pushed him forward, his own fangs bared.
