“You’re not coming with me. This is not a field trip.”
He made a swipe through the air to grab her again, but she was too fast for him, ducking into the hedge. She tucked her wings and wriggled through the tightest tangles of it and soon was inside the passage. Only a few rays of light poked through into it.
“Keep talking about how I’m not going to be coming along. No, really,” she called loudly, fully meaning it. Nothing could throw a bucket of freezing river water on her overzealous nethers than a man insisting he knew better than she did.
He grumbled, but took out his ax, and sliced through the tangle of roots in one swift motion. It was enough for him to part them like thorny curtains and duck through. The roots fell back into place, where they had been separated barely visible.
“I’m no chaperone. I don’t protect, I get the job done,” he said, his voice echoing off the narrow walls of the passage.
You protected me in the tavern,she nearly reminded him. Just the thought of him plucking her up by the wings again was enough to make her feel that full body blush.
Damn him.
“I’m not asking you to protect me,” she grumbled, more to herself than him. Stooping to asking for help was bad enough, but his company was quickly becoming intolerable.
At least the underground passage was exempt from the chilly climate of the lower Spinal Mountain’s frosty disposition, warmed by the hot underground river. The reprieve from the weather was little comfort, however. It was a treacherous passage.
The tunnel was long and dark. Nettle already knew how endless it could feel. When it was only her little glow that barely made a dent against the heavy darkness, sometimes she felt she lost track of what direction she was going in.
The addition of Silver’s footsteps, rhythmic and heavy, was somewhat grounding. He lit and held aloft a torch, revealing the narrow halls and the tiles underfoot.
Then, a sound joining the pattern of his footsteps. Stone grating against stone.
Silver stopped in his tracks, but he had already triggered the mechanism. A small series of clicks ran under the floor.
Nettle dove, wings beating harder than a hummingbird’s as she grabbed the front of his tunic and yanked downwards.
Silver followed, falling with her instantly. She let go of his collar, landing in the dirt. He landed just after she did, catching himself on his hands, hovering inches over her as the chamber echoed with metal ringing against stone.
When the noises finally abated, they dared lift their eyes.
Embedded in the stone too close to Silver’s standing height was a rusty bolt, fired out of a deceptive crack in the stonework on the other wall.
Nettle let out a sigh of relief. “That was–”
“–Too close,” he finished for her.
Though she agreed, when she returned her attention to him, Nettle realized that he was nose to nose with her. She watched his throat bob as he swallowed.
“I did say–”
“You’d been here before,” he nodded, the words riding on a breath. “I… didn’t think you’d bother getting your hands dirty for me.”
Nettle couldn’t help but let out a shaky laugh. “Don’t look so shocked. I need you, Silver.”
She watched the way his usually tight, furrowed expression slackened, surprise left behind in its place. She felt her cheeks flush with molten bronze as she realized she had let her guard down around him again.
“To open the door,” she added quickly. “That’s all.”
“Right.”
Of course he wouldn’t be thinking that. He was probably just glad she knew about the traps. The last couple of times she had come down here, there were rats heavy enough to trigger the false plates. She always tried to fly low enough to stay under the path of the bolts, but not so low that the rats found their next meal.
Nettle felt Silver move to get up again, shifting off of the trigger plate.
“Wait–” she started to say, but the mechanism had already started again.
The next thing she knew, Silver’s hand was over her, covering her body entirely when the next bolt fired. It deflected off the stone this time, a cacophony of metallic notes following it as it rebounded down the hall. Finally there was only the sound of it rolling across the stone floor.
