“Well…” Celeste looked away from him and down the tunnel, shadows covering most of her face. Something was wrong, but she wouldn’t say, and he knew he should ask, but maybe with time he would eventually remember and not have to betray the entire breadth of his failure. Or he could get a moment alone with Sid and try to persuade the sword to reveal the details.
It was a little bit like lying, he supposed, but hadn’t Celeste herself suggested that holding back the truth wasn’t exactly the same? His stomach twisted, but if he was to fall interminably through the Abyss for this, there would be plenty of time to worry about it then.
Reeve held onto his pommel with one hand and closed the other fist, casting into it. When he opened his fingers, a small ball of light lifted out of his palm and hovered over them. “At least we’ll be able to see where we’re going.”
When the tarp fell behind them, Reeve’s spell was all that illuminated the way. The tunnel advanced and turned, the echoes of their footsteps scuffing along the uneven ground. Around the bend, there was a sharper jag, and the tunnel split in two.
“I didn’t think we’d have to make a decision so soon.” Celeste squinted into the darkness far ahead of them.
“This way leads east.” Reeve pointed down one side.
“How do you know?”
“The sun.”
“But there isn’t any—” She shook her head. “Okay, well, that would take us out of town then, and it looks like someone’s been coming and going that way.” She pointed out a torch jammed into the cavern wall, still in good shape. “It’s probably how Baylen gets all of his rare goods.”
Reeve willed his light to illuminate the western way instead, narrower, more jagged, and somehow darker. “So, you want to go that way, don’t you?”
“Yes, please.” She grinned, and even though it wasn’t exactly for him, he was too relieved seeing it to say no.
Except it didn’t matter what Reeve was willing to do after a few more yards at a steady decline, there was nowhere else for him to actually go. The tunnel had narrowed itself down, and though Celeste was having no problem, his arms were starting to scrape.
She turned to her side, leading with a shoulder, but was getting too far ahead. Reeve’s heart hitched when he noted how his light was failing to shine on her. He reached out and grabbed her hand, pulling her to a stop.
Celeste looked back, the golden glow of his spell warming her face but not her silvery eyes.
“We don’t know what’s ahead,” he said, voice low.
She looked down at their clasped hands. “No, we don’t.”
“Would you allow me to go first? Just in case?”
Celeste nodded, awkwardly flattening herself against the tunnel’s wall and shimmying by as he attempted to take up less room and failed. They rubbed against one another, and Reeve flicked his gaze upward to avoid looking into the low neckline of her dress—he didn’t need that, not with the feel of her body pressed to his.
“Ah, uh, Reeve?” She’d stopped right in front of him, and it was just the worst place she could have chosen.
He continued to stare at the tunnel’s low ceiling. “Yes?”
“I can’t get past your, um…”
His gaze dropped, but she was only pointing to The Obsidian Widow Maker. The sword had wedged itself at an angle as it hung from his baldric. He fumbled with it, and Sid clicked a nonexistent tongue at the rough handling and banging of his scabbard. He apologized, not sure to whom, and with one more nearly unbearable rub, they successfully switched sides.
Both blew out long breaths they were quite aware they’d been holding, and Reeve focused on his light, which had gone momentarily dim. He pushed it ahead into the narrowness of the tunnel as they continued. It reflected back on the close walls until it broke free of the tunnel and cast out over a wider area.
The only problem was that wider area was just past the narrowest.
Reeve was already going along sideways. It didn’t seem impossible to fit at first, only difficult, but then he tried to wedge himself through and changed his mind.
“You can do it.” Celeste touched his arm which didn’t at all help to make him any smaller.
Reeve cleared his throat and emptied his lungs of air. He eased in another few inches, but it wasn’t enough. “I’m trying to suck it in, but it’s not working.”
“I don’t think you can suck in your muscles.” Celeste’s voice was closer, and when she giggled, her breath tickled his ear. Not only did that also not help, it was making things much worse. With both hands on his arm, she gave him a push.
Once, long ago, Reeve had gotten himself lost. His sense of direction was now immaculate, but that time in the forest surrounding Bendcrest when he had become so turned around that he wasn’t sure he would ever see the temple again came back to him all at once in a panic. He was again five-years-old, and he was lost.
“Come on, big boy,” Celeste said, giving his arm a rub and then pushing her whole body into his side. “Only a little more.”
