Page 55 of Obsidian Dream

Her yellow eyes filled with agonizing pain.She pieced herself together, one emotion at a time, and like a switch, she was back to the Atlantean he was used to seeing.The Khalida in front of him was now an impeccable soldier, who would do anything to execute her mission.Not the grieving mother, who had believed for a moment that Sidra was alive.

She looked at him slowly, likely trying to see if any part of his armor had been as affected as hers.He shook his head.He couldn’t let her see the damage, not without hurting her again.

She stared into the darkness, a glint of ice in her gaze.“Promise me I get to kill Ninhursag.”

Talik blinked, his mouth suddenly dry.“She is a god.”

“Not to me.”

***

TALIK

“That is the third timewe have passed the carving.”Talik pointed out.He was tiring of the senseless walking.It had only been thirty minutes since their “discovery,” but it felt like hours.“And the second fresh apple core we have found.”

He took a breath and counted to five.The air was still musty and stale, and they were no closer to finding their way out.He had thought Dante had exaggerated how he and Idris had gotten lost, but now it was clear it had been undersold.

Tapping his watch, the bright screen flashed.According to it, they still had comms with the surface.He didn’t believe it.They had heard nothing for the last hour.Not even static.

“What does your watch say the time is?”

Khalida turned her wrist.Talik shook his head.“The analog one.”

“We have been in the catacombs for just over three hours, give or take a few extra minutes.”

His stomach panged, the edge of hunger biting into him.As if he hadn’t eaten anything in more than twenty-four hours.Something wasn’t quite right.It hadn’t been that long since Khalida had commented about how far they had come, but there was something off.And it was just not that they were walking in circles but stopping meant that they were giving up.They needed to find a hint or a clue as to how to break the cycle and actually return to their original path before whoever was fucking with them got tired and stopped playing with them.

Khalida had yet to lose the perfect soldier façade, instead she wore her rage like armor.He knew more than most how much the pretense cost her, and he did not dare challenge her.In this mood, he was likely to get stabbed.

Khalida pushed the core away with her sword, a scowl on her face.“I don’t think the wayfarers or gods eat apples.”

“Neither do I.”

It meant that someone else was down there with them.

“Can you find a scent on it?”Khalida asked as she rolled the core toward him.

Talik lowered himself to the ground and closed his eyes.He sniffed the air near the core and instantly sighed.After the day they’d had, they should have earned some points or a minor win at the very least.But lady luck was not on their side.“No.There is a distinct absence of a scent.”

“Familiar?”

“You also, unfortunately, got acquainted with him last week,” Talik answered.Out of all the people, both human and Atlantean, there was only one who could cover their scent like this.“Lucien.”

Her scowl deepened.“Are you positive?”

He stood, putting his hands in his pockets, and kicked the core to the closest wall.“Yes.”

The bastard was watching them.Lucien was someone who could help them find a way out.But he was clearly not that way inclined.

“Prickly bastard is probably playing both sides,” Talik mused, loud enough that his words echoed through the tunnel.Let Lucien hear him, and then maybe they’d have a chance of convincing him to help them.Or at the very least, Khalida could vent some of her frustration out on Lucien and test how well his mixed Atlantean and Anki genetics healed.Lucien may be the forgotten son of Queen Vandana, but there was likely a reason he’d been erased from their history.Rieka’s long-lost biological uncle was a mischievous bastard.And Talik was positive that everyone who’d encountered Lucien last week would have preferred if he had remained a long-lost relation.

“What is the charge on your blasters?”

He unholstered Rose, rereading her charge.Seventy-eight percent.He glanced at Blanche, scowling as he read the numbers a second time.She was at sixty-two percent.

That shouldn’t be possible.He hadn’t used them at all, and the blasters could maintain their charge for months.He double-checked the four magazines.

“They are lower than they should be.”