There was nothing but silence and inky black beneath the city streets. Erinna gripped each rung of the ladder as she descended.
The moment her feet hit stone, light exploded behind her.
Erinna whipped around, heart pounding. Kane cupped a ball of fire in his palm like it was nothing. The flames cast restless shadows on the tunnel walls, painting his face in amber and darkness.
A conjuror.
The pirate was a conjuror.
The kind of mage who could call upon an element with a thought, bend it to their will. One who could burn you alive before you even drew breath to scream.
Of course his element would be fire. Reckless and unrelenting.
Kane caught sight of her poorly concealed distress and smirked.
“Let’s go,” Erinna huffed, brushing past him to continue their journey through the underground.
They moved in tense silence. Winding through tunnels that grew more narrow with every turn. Erinna counted the intersections to maintain her bearings—twelve, thirteen, fourteen turns with only a few dozen more to go.
The air grew thicker, and eventually the walls pushed them so close, Kane was nearly walking on top of her. The proximity of his body warmed her as he followed behind. It was simultaneously comforting and unwelcome.
Nothing but the echo of their footsteps and the dripping of water along the walls could be heard as they moved.
For the first time, Erinna wished the pirate had something to say. Something to chase away such choking silence.
Of course he would be quiet now, when she couldn’t ignore every drop of water, every scuffle of small paws across the stone, and wind that sounded a little too much like whispers. The kind of whispers that usually came with the cold touch of the dead.
It’s not them, she told herself as another damp, cold gust of air breezed by her cheek. The last time she was down in the abandoned vein, the experience was far from pleasant.
Those achingly frail shadows with their barbed whispers of vengeance had found her. It was the last time she felt her Talent, thank the gods. That night had been the first time she tasted her father’s whiskey and drowned herself to blackness in hopes offorgetting. It had worked for the most part. One random bloom in the last ten years was a fluke.
Erinna shivered at the memory and tried not to startle as a damp gust of air brushed past her cheek. She chanced a look over her shoulder, eying the man who held the flame in his hand aloft like a torch. Small breaths came from Inez as she drifted to sleep on Kane’s back.
Gods, how Erinna craved a good night’s sleep and perhaps a strong vintage to help her get there. Any reprieve from this madness. Her body was tense and sore, unable to relax given the circumstances.
Kane was the opposite. He looked far too at ease for a man who had just escaped the gallows and who was the most wanted pirate in the kingdom. Erinna didn’t know why that bothered her so much.
Eventually, Kane’s footsteps grew louder as he scuffed his sole across the stone, sending small rocks skittering in his wake. One bounced harmlessly off Erinna’s own boot as he settled himself beside her.
“You’re doing that on purpose,” she accused, refusing to look his way.
“Doing what, exactly?”
Erinna didn’t have to see Kane to know the smile that graced his face. She could practically feel it as he looked at her. “Walking like a wild horse in a library. You’re drawing too much attention.”
“There’s no one down here. Unless it’s ghosts you’re scared of bumping into?” He knocked his knuckles against the tunnel walls.
Now Erinna did turn. “Afraid of cave-ins, actually. But I suppose pirates are more familiar with drowning than being buried alive.”
Kane’s smile grew. “We’re adaptable folk.” His shoulder brushed against hers in the narrow passage. The heat from the flame in his hand, and the proximity of his body, flushed her cheeks.
Erinna would be more irate if she wasn’t internally grateful to have something else to focus on.
“Which way?” Kane asked as they came to another intersection. Erinna studied the junction, noting the rusted iron markers someone had driven into the rock decades ago. “Left, the right passage is already flooded.”
They continued.
The passage finally widened, and yet Kane remained just as close to Erinna as he was before.
