Tate nodded as she started after him. “Uh huh. Sure, it is.”
“Fascinating group you’ve aligned yourself with,” Tyne told Ryu.
“You’re alive so we can use you as bait.” Ryu grabbed Tyne’s shoulder and shoved him forward. “Get to walking before I change my mind about your usefulness.”
Tate and Dewdrop brought up the rear as Tyne took the lead, Ryu slightly behind him keeping a careful watch on the other man. The dark embraced them as they moved deeper into the connecting tunnel.
The passageway widened and narrowed at unexpected intervals, forcing them to go single file at certain points. It wasn’t long before they left behind the faint light of the Deeps in favor of almost complete darkness. Another sign of how different this tunnel was from the original.
In the past, Tate thought the glow that normally emanated from the walls of the labyrinth tunnels was a natural phenomenon. A feature belonging to the black rock they were built from. Only, the tunnel they were currently in burrowed through the same type of rock, yet there was no glow to light their way. There was no way to tell why there was such a difference between the two tunnels. More evidence pointing to how much was lost after the deaths of the first few generations.
Tate extended her senses as far as they’d go, prepared for an attack at any moment.
No one spoke as they felt their way blindly. One minute passed into the next, Tate’s nerves pulled to the breaking point. Dewdrop’s breath shortened, becoming faster and more labored the longer they walked.
After a much shorter time than she’d expected, a faint glow greeted them in the distance, marking the beginning of the original tunnel sections.
“Hold,” Ryu ordered in a low voice. There was a vague impression of Ryu’s face in the darkness as he stopped and listened, only the sound of their breathing keeping them company.
“I smell more blood.” Without waiting for a reaction, Tyne ghosted forward on quiet feet.
“Your friend seems to know a great many things,” Tate observed in a neutral voice. “Why is that?”
A long silence answered Tate as Ryu kept his gaze trained forward. She waited, knowing that pushing wouldn’t get her the information any faster. Judging by the way the two interacted she had a feeling they had a complicated relationship. The knowledge made her all the more interested in Tyne’s history.
“Tyne is dragon-ridden,” Ryu finally said, following the other man before Tate could recover from her shock.
Dewdrop moved closer to Tate. “That’s unexpected news. Did you know about this?”
If she’d known, did he think she would have asked?
“I didn’t think it was possible to contain a dragon-ridden in a prison,” Dewdrop said.
Tate was silent. She’d known that those dragon-ridden who couldn’t control themselves were either killed or shut away, but she’d been under the impression that all of them were sent to Devos. What one was doing in the Deeps was a mystery that would have to wait to be solved.
“Why is it this information doesn’t make me any happier about his company?” Dewdrop asked when Tate didn’t speak.
“Because you’re smart.” Tate followed Ryu, so many questions bubbling in her brain. But now wasn’t the time to ask.
Dewdrop heaved a sigh before chasing after Tate. Visibility grew better with every step forward, their eyes quickly adjusting to the growing light.
They caught up to the other two where they’d stopped at the intersection of the two tunnels, their gazes fixed on something on the ground of the tunnel to their left.
“Tate,” Ryu said softly as she moved up to his side.
She didn’t respond as she caught sight of Christopher lying in the middle of the corridor on his side, his back facing them. Ryu grabbed her arm when she would have started forward.
“It could be a trap,” he warned.
Tate’s gaze swept over the area, carefully checking for anything that didn’t belong. Nothing stood out but that didn’t mean this wasn’t exactly what Ryu feared. A trap intended to lure her in. It wouldn’t be the first time Christopher had done such a thing.
She tapped his hand. “I know. I’ll be careful.”
Whether it was a trap or not, they needed to know if that was Christopher.
“He’s still alive,” Tyne said abruptly.
Tate shook Ryu’s hand off and started forward ignoring Dewdrop’s, “Careful.”
