Page 145 of Tempting Fate

“It’s got to be this way,” I said, trying to sound confident. “That one looks like it winds back to the lakes.” Underground lakes would be too dangerous, let alone a flooded cave. And if our pursuers caught up to us somewhere like that…

Airida squeezed my hand. “I agree. Towards the mountains.”

We paced up the steep, winding path, my breath coming hard and fast, making brief stops for me to catch my breath before pushing on again. My feet ached, my legs ached, my chest hurt. Sweat clung everywhere. But the marble walls were giving way to something like andesite or basalt, and I’d have known we were approaching the start of the mountains from that alone, even if the datapad hadn’t told us.

The device also showed a cavern ahead. And what could be an exit.

“We are close, my moonlight, can you keep going?”

Nope. It was time for magically teleporting to the softest, most comfortable bed somewhere very, very safe. But I put my game face on. “No problem.”

The next section seemed to take forever, but eventually, the cavern grew closer and closer on the small map.

We turned a sharp corner and froze.

This cavern was enormous, with high, vaulted ceilings and a mix of stalagmites and stalactites so long they met in the middle, forming vast columns. On this side, blue crystals cast their faint glow, but at the edge of our sight, they dwindled, giving way to plain, beautiful grey rock.

A figure slithered their way across the space. They paused at various rocks and plants, collecting things, putting them in a large bag slung across their body. They were too far away for me to gauge their size, other than ‘really fucking big.’

Airida tugged me back around the corner. “What is that?”

“Who,” I said, but I didn’t know. At a glance, the teal colouring and curling horns looked j’tzavi, but their body was that of a snake.

J’tzavi.

Fuck. We’re under that mountain.

J’tzavi mind-husker.

CHAPTER FIFTY-SEVEN

Luminescence

Imani

“WE NEED TO go. Now,” I hissed.

“But we are so close.”

“If that’s who I think it is, she’s really dangerous.”

“Dangerous how?”

I grabbed Airida’s hand and tugged him back down the path. “She could be the person who hurt Orukem. Screamed like a banshee and knocked her out for a whole day without even touching her. We can’t risk it.” If that happened to us, our pursuers would find us for sure, by which time the mind-husker would be long gone.

I could have cried, I really fucking could.

Airida checked his datapad, but even this near to a crystal-free area, we had no signal.

We picked our way down the incline. Small stones skidded under our feet, and I nearly slipped more than once, but Airida kept me from falling. Though my muscles burned, there was no time for complaints.

Once we were what felt like a safer distance away, I released some tension in my shoulders. “For fuck’s sake.”

Airida’s chest rumbled in resignation. “We should be back at the intersection in two hours.”

That meant four hours lost. Four hours closer to our pursuers—if we could keep up the same pace, which, no, I could not.

As we went on, everything got warmer, more cloying, the walls wetter. By the time we got to the intersection, I was a hot, sweaty mess consisting solely of blisters and spite. I slumped on the floor. “How close are the life signs?”