40. Chapter Forty
Chapter 40
D ante stared into the darkness. The earth vibrated underneath them. He held onto Rieka, breathing in the scent that was uniquely hers. She trembled under his touch. The almost inaudible curses of the others told him they were seeing the same thing he was. Dante had known the Arx had secrets, but he had never expected this. Not hidden within its own foundation.
Rieka was the first to move. She picked up her backpack, carrying only her journal, and glided toward the open tunnel. She turned and reached to take the flashlight from him. Rieka’s eyes were wide with excitement. The reds of her eyes bled into the whites. “Are you coming?”
Dante smiled.
Rieka’s willowy frame vanished into the darkness. Pale blue lights twinkled as she moved back into the light. “We can cover more ground if we go to the left and someone else goes right,” Rieka said. She stared straight at Talik. “If you find the tomb, don’t enter it. It’s likely to be booby-trapped.”
Talik sighed. “Good thing I dressed for the occasion.”
“I will go with Talik,” Khalida said. “But we need weapons first.”
Dante wasn’t sure who was more surprised. Him or Talik.
Talik looked at Khalida, deadpan. “Are you going to try to stab me?”
Khalida rolled her eyes. “I have no intention of dying anytime soon. But Rieka is correct. If this is Vandana’s tomb, her High Priestesses would have ensured that it would not be easy to find.”
“Weapons?” Dante interrupted. He couldn’t quite ignore the feeling that something was wrong. He didn’t believe in coincidences—too many variables for him to find a plan that wouldn’t put Rieka in danger. Whoever was looking for the tomb had no scruples about slaughtering anyone who stood in their way. Unlike Aadya, he didn’t think the old forgotten gods had anything to do with it. It had to be an Atlantean or a human.
Khalida moved back to the entrance of the cavern, disappearing into the dimly lit hallway. A few minutes later, she returned with one of her guards trailing behind her. The auburn-haired immortal who had winked at him at the library. This close he could see the copper hint to her eyes; it matched the freckles that covered her face. Instead of the traditional attire the immortals wore for ceremonial purposes, she wore the matte-black uniform of the guards. The chakram was on her back, and two blasters were holstered at her sides. It was a unique blend of ancient weapons and modern technology.
“Meraki will remain and secure the area.” Khalida nodded at the weapons and then at Talik and Dante. “They are for you.” She looked at Rieka. “Do you know how to use a blaster?”
“I’m not a fan of blasters,” Rieka said, her nose scrunching as she accepted the weapon and the holster. “But I know the basics. Point and shoot. Can it slow down a serpopard?”
“I prefer not to find out,” Talik interjected as he strapped the weapon into his holster.
“For the serpopard, set it to lethal,” Khalida told Rieka. “Shoot until it stops moving, and then get out of there. You are too human for the animal not to shred you to pieces if it gets near you.”
The animal wouldn’t get anywhere near Rieka. “It will not be an issue.”
“Great pep talk,” Rieka muttered under her breath as she moved back to the entrance of the tunnel. She rolled her shoulders. There was a look of annoyance as she glanced down at the weapon before a smile spread across her face as she noticed the knife strapped to Meraki’s thigh. “I will trade you the blaster for the knife.”
Meraki chuckled as she handed the blade to Rieka. “You can have both.”
Rieka nodded as she slipped the blade into her boot.
The pale blue lights twinkled as they flashed in the darkness. The shadows danced along the tunnel.
Rieka turned and flashed Dante a smile. “Let’s go tomb-raiding.”
D ante followed Rieka into the tunnel. The silence continued to grow louder and louder.
It was only punctuated by the sound of Rieka’s racing heart. He could almost taste her excitement as she charged in front of him. Her small flashlight added an unnatural glow to the tunnel.
Nothing had disturbed the area in millennia, where even the air tasted musty. A thin layer of dust covered the walls and floor, and the faint engravings. Rieka sometimes stopped at them, tracing the lines with her fingertips as she muttered something under her breath. Each time, he gave Rieka the space she needed. He could almost see her mind connecting the dots and clues. Dante continued to walk silently behind her. Blue lights continued to flicker along the wall, casting Rieka in an ethereal glow. Every so often she would touch her arm, a flash of pain crossing her features. It had been constant since they had descended. He let her continue the facade that she was hiding it. For now.
Rieka stopped, she kept the white light directed at the ground as she turned to face him, careful not to blind him.
“Why are Talik and Khalida at each other’s throat?” Rieka asked. Her brow furrowed, as if the tension between the two Atlanteans had been keeping her up at night. “Khalida won’t actually stab Talik, will she?”
Dante paused. The question had caught him off guard. “They were consorts.”
“But they hate each other.”
“Khalida despises Talik. I don’t think Talik dislikes Khalida. Not as much as he pretends to when Khalida is in the area,” Dante answered truthfully. Their history was complicated, and even as Talik’s closest confidant, he was not aware of all the intricacies. “They were extremely young and fell out.”
“Consorts mate for life, don’t they?”
“Yes. Their life spans are forever linked. It is rare to go through with the ceremony because there is no way to undo the connection. Forever bound until death. If one dies, it is an automatic death sentence for the other,” Dante clarified. He knew precisely what Rieka was doing. Stalling. “What is on your mind?”
Rieka looked down at her feet before she let out a sigh. “Do you actually think we will find the tomb?”
He pulled Rieka close to him until they were chest to chest. He tilted her face so he could see into her eyes. Dante cupped her face. He didn’t quite understand how Rieka had embedded herself into his psyche as quickly as she had, but he was grateful. “Whatever you find has the potential to change our history.”
It had already changed him. She was his. Even if she didn’t realize it yet.
Rieka smiled. “So, no pressure. Got it.” She stood on her toes, brushing her lips against his.
“Wildfire,” Dante groaned; he was almost powerless under Rieka’s caress.
“Stop distracting me.” Rieka pulled away. “We have a tomb to explore.”
In the distance, there was a glint of metal in the darkness.
They walked in silence for a few minutes before Rieka abruptly stopped in front of a metallic archway. “Are you seeing what I am?”
Dante paused. Metal had been artfully twisted into an intricate design that defied gravity and physics.
“Is it Atlantean?”
If it was, it wasn’t anything he was familiar with. “I am unsure.”
Rieka glanced up, her eyes large like saucers. She touched the blaster as she squared her shoulders and turned around. She muttered something under her breath that he didn’t quite catch, although it sounded suspiciously like, You have this, Sinha .
The minutes passed in further silence. They continued to follow the narrowing path. He glanced at his watch. There was no signal. No link to Talik or Khalida.
A dead zone; the perfect place for an ambush. He almost missed it.
Dante grabbed Rieka, pulling her back against him, his arms wrapped around her. Cursing himself for almost missing it.
“Hey!” Rieka’s flashlight fell to the ground with a loud thud. It rolled before disappearing over the edge. “Oh.”
Dante held onto her for a moment longer before he reluctantly released her. Her body slid along his. He forced himself to focus on what they were doing, rather than how he would prefer to be spending their time.
Hands on her hips, she looked back at him in disbelief. “That could have ended badly.”
From where he stood, the stairs appeared to spiral into the darkness. He used the time to study the steps. The architecture of the staircase was breathtakingly beautiful, but he wasn’t sure how stable it was. Each step looked hardly big enough to fit a child’s foot, let alone him. The stairs also appeared to be detached from the wall. A separate entity from the rest of the building.
“Hell no,” Rieka whispered. “This couldn’t have been easy, could it?”
“Stay one step behind me,” Dante said. He looked down at the abyss before glancing at her. He couldn’t see how far down they needed to go. “You need to move with the shifting. Going against it will make you feel unbalanced, and you will fall.”
Rieka was still, her gaze glued to the rickety stairs. “Dealt with shifting staircases before?”
“Yes.” Dante took another step and held out his hand. “I will ensure you don’t fall.”
Rieka took the first step. The metal beneath her swayed. A dark look of concentration crossed her features as she squared her shoulders.
“Let’s get this over with.”