Page 144 of Tempting Fate

“What is it?” I glanced at the disembodied datapad.

“I just needed this.” Confident hands caught my chin. He tipped my face to his and pressed a gentle kiss to my lips. Then he gave a rumbling purr. “Come on.”

I laughed as he tugged me onwards. Sweetest man.

We walked in easy quiet through stretch after stretch of blue crystal tunnels, just the touch of our hands and the sounds of our footfalls, until Airida blurted out, “Kimivha!”

“What?”

“Not what. Who.” He materialised in front of me, headspines writhing in a frantic halo. “I am a fool for not thinking of it before. I have been thinking about it, over and over. I have to get a message to Rokharu.”

“What about? I thought he couldn’t help?”

“But he can! If he can speak to Kimivha about Mother... This is what he needs, our family steward, I know it in my bones.”

I swallowed. “Then we’d better press on and find some signal. Cloak up, it’s not worth the risk.”

He shimmered into a mirage again. “There was a patch the other way, closer to where we came in.”

Go backwards? “That’s got to be a half day’s walk! And it’s too dangerous. If anyone’s sniffing around, it will be near the village.”

Something slammed against the rock wall, probably his hand, sending plant and rock dust drifting to the floor. “But they will keep coming unless I get a message out! We don’t know what’s ahead, and we know there’s a place back there.”

“We could get caught if we take an unnecessary risk,” I said softly.

Airida gave a low growl, and I imagined him pushing his glasses up his nose. “Worst case, I get the message out, the contract gets cancelled, and if I am captured, I will be returned once I get delivered to Orkri.”

Captured? Returned? I crossed my arms over my stomach. “Don’t be fucking ridiculous. No, I can’t lose you. Not now.” I love you. The truth burned in every part of me, terrifying and wonderful.

“Getting this message out is the only chance.”

“And if you’re caught before you send it?”

Airida growled again. “I hate that you’re right.” He paced between the tunnel walls, scuffing his feet in the loose stones until his heaving breaths returned to normal. I felt his warmth before he touched me, drawing me into his arms with gentle care. “Very well, we press on.”

After a few hours, we stopped in a small cavern to eat, this one with sparse patches of vibrant green foliage, a higher altitude than we had been. But still those agate-like crystals all over the ceiling, and nothing but a matching blue light on all our devices.

The datapad let out an ominous bleep.

Airida refreshed it three times, as if not wanting to believe what it said, and we stared in horror.

Life signs. Inside the caves.

“What do we do?” I asked.

He swiped across for more detail. “Two kri’ith. Could it be your friends?”

Maybe Reskavi and one of his crew? “Wouldn’t they send a message?”

“But it wouldn’t get through.”

Fuck.

Fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck. “We have to assume they’re hostile,” I said, heart pounding. “Stalker uses mercenaries. We need to press on. Keep moving, quick as we can.”

The passageways all blended together, tunnel after cavern after tunnel, all smothered with signal-blocking crystals. We’d check the datapad without stopping, and as we got deeper towards the mountains, so did whoever was following us. And it was clear they were tracking us, taking the same turns we had.

We reached another fork. Yet more precious minutes to decide where to go.