Page 76 of Obsidian Dream

They had been walkingin silence for at least an hour, with Khalida in the lead, when Kade stopped and waited for him to walk past, motioning for him to stop.

Talik obliged, using the opportunity to check on the charge of the blasters.

Around them, the air was still and musty as if they were the first group to wander through the sacred halls in centuries.He lowered his flashlight, careful to keep the light away from Kade’s face, lest he accidentally blinded him.The muted yellow beam caught the edge of faded carvings on the wall, but on closer inspection, the carving appeared to be talon marks.

Khalida continued onwards, unaware that they had stopped, the gap between them increasing until she turned a corner.

Slightly shorter and leaner than Talik, Kade was a force to be reckoned with and one Talik had learned through training sessions that shouldn’t be underestimated.Hunter genetics made him faster, stronger, and more predatory than the average Atlantean.

“You miss me?”Talik asked, knowing that he wouldn’t get a response.

Kade stood in front of him, arms crossed, his eyes hidden behind his black wraparound shades.

He took a step closer, but Talik didn’t budge.

What game was Kade playing at?

They were best friends, but the Atlantean was weird on a good day.

Kade cocked his head, almost like he was sniffing the surrounding air.That was new for the hunter.

“Your scent has changed.”

Chapter Thirty-Four

KHALIDA

House Aurora Villa

Rome, Atlantean Quarter

Khalida stared at thewooden box they had found in the catacombs lost in thought.They had been back for an hour, long enough for Talik to be given the antivenom.He still moved slowly, but he was a world better than he had been in the catacombs.She took a deep breath, closing her eyes as she shifted through the scents, letting her heightened senses take over.There was something new to Talik’s.

The slow return to the catacombs and the drive back to the villa had not been helpful—not with Talik’s protective presence beside her.It had made her question everything.Watching him lie on the ground unmoving as he had struggled to breathe.The helplessness and despair that had strangled her had been suffocating.She would have done anything to ease his suffering, and it wasn’t because their lives were linked.The more time she spent with him, the harder it was to forget that she was supposed to hate him.That the warmth that filled her was not rage, but something else.

This complicated everything.Trying to wade through her emotions when it came to Talik had always been relatively easy.She’d loved him.Then she had hated him.Plain and simple.Except now, the hate had turned into something else, still in its early days.The tendrils were beginning to wrap themselves around her, just as attraction had wrapped around them both as she’d straddled him in the tunnel.