Page 37

37

Unearthing Secrets

*Ren*

A few hours later, with the blanket wrapped securely around my shoulders, I sat on the weird stone chair and stared at the black monitor. The smooth expanse stared back at me, mocking me with its hidden secrets.

We’d spent ages opening dozens of cabinets—all empty—and scouring practically every nook and cranny in the small building for clues. Well, after we put that bed to use, of course.

A blush warmed my cheeks as my mind wandered to earlier. I’d never come as hard as I had with Jalen’s tongue on my clit and my back pressed against the wall. Until he fucked me on all fours on the bed, with one cock in my pussy and the other rubbing against my ass.

The wicked thrill of what might happen next—of what would happen once I gave in to the mating heat—had keyed me up like nothing else ever had. And with Jalen’s dirty words in my ears, and his hands roaming over every inch of me, I’d detonated, screaming so loud it probably scared off every wild critter in a one-mile radius.

But now was not the time to get caught up in reminiscing. I had a job to do, and a hunch that everything I needed was hiding in the one spot we couldn’t access.

“Are you sure we’ve searched everywhere?” I asked finally.

Jalen sighed. “Yes. We’ve been through every room. Twice.”

My lips thinned into a flat line. I knew the answer was on that strange computer. But no matter what I tried, I couldn’t figure out how to boot it up. And for someone who prided herself on fixing broken machines, that knowledge didn’t sit right. No. It really fucking sucked.

How could I go back and tell Arda I had left with nothing? That it was an ancient machine that stopped me from discovering what secrets this old facility held?

“Wait…” Jalen perked up, flashing a grin that made me feel all melty.

“What is it?”

“There is one spot I could never explore, but you might be able to.”

I brightened, bouncing on my toes as I stood. “Really? Where is it?”

“Right here.” He strode across the room and bent beside one of the cabinets set closest to the floor. One we’d already checked and found empty.

The hope brewing within me faded. “There’s nothing there. Remember?”

“Yes, the cabinet is empty. But I nearly forgot about this.” He threw open the door and reached inside, his big body blocking my view of what he was doing. “Grab a lantern, would you? The smallest you can find.”

“Okay.” I spun on my heel, searching. There. With the lantern in hand, I bent beside him just as a loud creak echoed in the room. “What was that?”

Jalen shifted, allowing me to finally see what lay inside. “A crawl space.” I inched the lantern closer, my heart lifting. “This could be it! It looks like this leads behind that crystal monstrosity. If I go in, I might figure out how to fix it.”

“I hope so. Just… be careful. You’re small enough to fit back there, but I’m not. If it comes down to it, I’d tear down the wall to get you out, but I’d hate to destroy this place.”

Adrenaline pumped through my veins. “Don’t worry. I was born for this. I lost count of how many crawl spaces I’d squeezed into before I turned ten.”

“I believe that,” he said with a chuckle. But as I made my first move into the cabinet, the humor drained out of him. “Don’t take any chances back there. We don’t know what that ancient tech can do.”

It was cute how worried he was about me. “Relax. I’ve never let a machine kill me before, and I’m not about to start now.” Sure, I’d been maimed a time or two—or a few dozen, as Zen and Karsen could attest—but now probably wasn’t the best time to be bringing up that fact.

With a parting grin, I slipped into the cabinet. “Fuck. Whatever species made this must’ve been super slim,” I grumbled, forced to hold my breath to squeeze through.

“Are you inside yet?” Jalen asked nervously.

“Yep.” I waved the lantern ahead of me, spotting a bunch of wiring and components I recognized. “It opens up a bit once you’re through the door.” A little, but not much. If I stuck out my arms, I could touch both walls of the narrow corridor without fully unbending my elbows. I wouldn’t have a ton of room to work with, but hopefully it’d be enough to start the screen.

I turned back and thrust a hand into the cabinet. “Can you pass me my tools, please?”

“Certainly.” I heard rustling as Jalen dug into his pack, and then he handed me my portable tool kit. “So, do you think you can fix it?”

“I hope so.” With the kit in hand, I shimmied down the hall. “I’ve gotta say, the stuff back here looks a lot more familiar than that crystal interface.”

Jalen’s voice became more muffled the further I explored, but I didn’t have any trouble hearing him. “What strikes me as odd is why the seat out here is so large, while the space in there was clearly built for a smaller creature to service.”

“Huh. You’re right.” I shrugged. “Maybe whoever built it had a slave race they forced to do their repairs.”

Jalen grunted. “If they were slavers, then I’m glad all they left behind was ruins.”

I frowned, wondering if he was thinking about the Thrin who’d almost sold me. I hadn’t hesitated to tell him how grateful I was he’d saved me. How I didn’t blame him for what happened or regret how he’d chosen to end things. Yet, as I listened to the pounding beat of his pacing footsteps, I almost brought up the topic again to soothe his misdirected guilt. But if I wanted to get any work done, I couldn’t keep up the chatter.

“You mind heading outside to check the weather?” We’d thought we heard the storm tapering off from inside, but the ruins’ thick stone walls made it hard to know for sure.

“You want me to leave you alone in there?”

“Do you mind? I need to concentrate.”

“I’ll be back to check on you soon.”

As Jalen’s footsteps faded, I studied the wiring. Dozens of potential fixes flared to life in my head. I mentally catalogued them all, sorting out which were most likely to work, and a few that I’d save for a last-ditch effort if all else failed.

Then I set down the lantern, opened my tool kit, and got to work. I wasn’t sure how much time had passed, but I kept tinkering until a loud gasp interrupted my flow.

“Ren, get out here!” Jalen shouted.

I hurriedly shuffled out. “What is it? Did the weather take a turn?”

“No. The monitor.” His gaze was glued to the formally black monitor, which now featured a full screen of static. “Look! You got it started.”

“Hm…” I strode back to the cabinet. “I think I can fix that.” Sucking in a breath, I crammed myself through the door. Then I returned to work, detaching wires and swapping their positions.

“Wait, Ren!” Jalen yelled. “Whatever you just did shut it off.”

“I knew that would happen. Hold on.” I chewed on my lip, standing on tiptoe to make a final attachment. “There. How about now?”

“Nothing.”

Shit. Now that I’d had it started once, determination poured through me. This machine wouldn’t best me. I’d stay here for days if that was what it took to figure out how to fix it.

I backed away, studying the components from afar. There! “What about now?”

“Still noth—Wait.” A few seconds passed before Jalen announced, “It’s working!”

I crawled out, and I was willing to bet that for once, the smile on my face was a match for Jalen’s. “What did I tell you? I was born for this.”

Jalen slung an arm over my shoulder. “So you were. Come on. Let’s see what’s on this thing.”

“Sure, one sec.” I grabbed my tool kit and aimed a recorder at the screen. “In case I can’t figure out how to download what pops up, I better get a record of this.”

Jalen tilted his head at the crystals. “Any clue how these work?”

“I think so.” I touched the blue crystal, and it moved easily beneath my fingers.

“Whoa. Those have always been stuck in place before.”

“Booting up the computer unlocked them.”

“Is that what you think this is? A computer?”

I nodded. “I just hope we can find what Arda needs on it.”

After a few experimental moves, I’d figured out how to get the crystals to cycle through screens of text. With the static gone, countless words and the occasional sketch flashed across the monitor.

“Can you read this?” I couldn’t make heads or tails of any of it.

Jalen squinted. “No. It’s not Dionion writing.”

“Damn.”

“Wait…” He clasped my shoulder. “Go back.”

I scrolled the text slowly. “There are a few excerpts written in Dionion here. An old dialect, but I recognize it… mostly.”

“What’s it say?”

He shook his head. “I’m not certain. Try going further.”

I obeyed, and within moments, Jalen pointed again. “Here’s another. I’m not positive, but it looks like… medical research.”

A gasp spilled out of me. “This is it! That’s exactly what we’re looking for!”

His brow wrinkled. “That’s good, though most of it doesn’t make sense—to me, at least. There’s so much medical jargon mixed in with the old dialect that it might as well not be Dionion.”

“That’s okay. We can dig into all that once we’re back on the Verne .”

“Hold on…”

I stopped scrolling. “What is it?”

Jalen strolled forward and pointed to the lower portion of the screen. “Here’s something that I can understand for a change.” He cleared his throat. “Significant findings to note. Use caution when introducing monozygotic twins to the Dionion project. Preliminary results have been destructive to the host species’ mating rituals.”

My hand fell off the crystal as my eyes widened.

“Monozygotic… I wonder what that means?” Jalen mused.

“I know. It’s what Cass and I are. Identical.” A strange tingle shot between my shoulder blades. Why would there be a warning about twins? I blinked, trying to make sense of it all. But then I turned to Jalen and spotted his normal bronze skin looking a lot grayer. “Hey… What is it?”

Jalen gulped. “I need to tell you something. It’s about your sister.”