Ava patted his bicep. “Don’t worry, we’ll bring you home in one piece. Can’t risk Eislyn’s fury. She has spent too much time in Zion’s underground not to employ a trick or two on us if we don’t.”
“I’ll put it nicely.” Eli unzipped his navy parka for ease of movement. “I don’t like you today.”
“Aww. I understand why Eislyn stole you for herself now.” Standing beside me instead of offering help, Ava batted her eyelashes. “Can you boys pry that hefty-looking thing open? Or is it too much of a challenge?”
Her theatrics lured my lips to quirk, even if my mouth remained shut. I couldn’t bear taking part in their friendly games, not with Gedeon gone. He was the only worthy opponent.
With Zion, it was different. I didn’t wish to argue with him. Rolling around in his insanity had become my preference. He kept me sane, grounded, steadied these days.
He was the one who’d talked me through the process of lighting Gedeon’s funeral fire and then feeding the customary goodbye letter to the flames. Had withdrawn my hand in time so blisters didn’t strew my skin. Dabbed my tears with his shirtsleeve.
Although we couldn’t incinerate Gedeon’s body, I didn’t dare to ask Zion what he’d done with Gedeon’s remains. Nobody could see them anyway. The lies we’d planted drew a picture of Gedeon having been dragged to Ilasall’s prison cells, and nobody walked out of them.
Grunting, Eli and Zion hauled the block of concrete up in the air. Their curses weaved with the creaks and groans of the ancient hinges.
But then the lid slammed onto the forest floor, a cloud of dust marking the end of its journey.
I peered into the open hole. “What now?”
My question echoed,What now, —at now, —now, —ow, and goosebumps sprouted on my flesh from the creepiness.
“You climb down.”
I jumped at the voice reverberating back to me from the depths. Slipping on the rim of the pit, I tilted forward?—
A strong grip on my waist dragged me back to solid ground. My back collided with a wall of muscle, but the familiar sensation relaxed me, and I expelled the near-death experience with my next exhale.
I covered Zion’s forearms secured over my stomach with my own. “Thank you.”
“Your balance is terrible,” he muttered into my neck, probably sniffing my hair again. I’d used that cherry shampoo earlier.
“It’s your fault,” I scoffed. “You’re the one who’s training me.”
“In that case.” He pulled me farther away from the hole in the ground. “We’ll go back to stability exercises once we return.”
“Gods, please,no.” Those workouts were pure torture. And Zion enjoyed them a little too much. Especially when I’d become too exhausted to rise from the gravel littering the training rings. He’d collapse on top of me and lick the sweat off my collarbones, making me curl up from the ticklish sensations and then wail from the burn blooming in my core.
The lunatic clearly knew what he was doing.
“Let me go”—I swatted his arms off me—“or I’ll kick your ass.” The warning might have been empty, but I couldn’t stop myself from issuing it.
His lopsided smile widened. “It’s a deal, then.”
I slapped my forehead. “That’s not what I meant.”
“It’s okay.” Zion tapped his hip. “You can have my butt any time you want.”
Peering into the circular void, his handgun readied, Eli grumbled, “If you’re done talking about backsides, we have a job to do.”
Ezra’s contact was supposed to be waiting for us at the bottom of the shaft.Supposedbeing the key word.
“The moon is high,” Ava recited the first part of the code sentence.
“But the day is near,” someone answered. White light burst out, shooing the shadows away, and a round face came into view at the bottom of the pit. “Welcome. Arlo sent me.”
Arlo. An image of a lanky guard, who was Ava’s friend, resurfaced. He’d led us through theinsideof Ilasall’s wall last autumn, so we could deliver soldier’s remains—a pair of hands and feet, a head, and a dick with a green and black wristbands on it—to the Heads of Military, Ilasall, and Welfare after they’d send him to take out Zion, Gedeon, and I.
Zion looked down. “Don’t scare Kali like that again, or I will sew up your mouth. She could’ve fallen in.”
