Page 11 of The Delver (The Vrix #2)

Callie smoothed her hands down her body and over her silky dress.

It was sleeveless, with thin, double straps that wrapped around the back of her neck, a tight-cinched waist, and a flaring skirt hanging midway down her thighs.

The beautiful cornflower blue material was ruffled at the hem, and it fluttered and caressed her legs with her every movement.

She cupped her breasts, which were hugged by the snug bodice.

The neckline, dipping in a low V, showed off a generous amount of cleavage.

“Wow,” Callie said breathlessly. “Who needs to spend thousands of dollars on a designer dress when you have Rekosh.”

“And who cares that it’s silk from a spider’s ass,” Lacey said, admiring her own green dress. Hers was also a halter top, but the skirt was straight, with a long slit down each thigh.

“Well, yours aren’t made with his butt silk. Only I get to wear that,” Ahmya laughed. “I helped sketch out the ideas for the designs, but he’s literally the master weaver.”

Ivy chuckled. “I’ll be sure not to tell Ketahn you said that.” She brushed her fingers over the embroidered flower patterns on the gorgeous, sheer red dress Ahmya wore. “But I agree.”

Lacey pressed her fingers to her mouth, eyes going wide. “Ohhhh.”

Callie swept her gaze over Ivy, who was the only one wearing something made by Ketahn.

Her white, opalescent dress glittered in the light of Rekosh’s den, almost like it was threaded with silver.

Glowing blue crystals were embroidered along the waist, flowing up the bodice and the single shoulder strap.

“I don’t know,” Callie said. “Looks like Ketahn is still a contender for the title.”

“Their competitiveness is never ending,” Ahmya said.

Lacey grinned and gestured at her dress. “Yeah, but we’re benefiting from it.”

Callie laughed. “Damn right, we are.”

“Oh!” Ahmya stepped away, moving to a nearby table. “I have one more thing for you guys.”

She returned carrying an armful of flower crowns. She reached up and settled one atop Lacey’s head, followed by Ivy’s, Callie’s, and then her own. Each wreath was made with unique flowers laced with silk ribbons that matched their dresses.

“Oh my gosh, did you make these?” Ivy asked, running her fingers along the white ribbons dangling over her shoulder.

Ahmya clasped her hands at her middle and smiled, her cheeks flushing. “I did.”

“They’re beautiful.” Lacey reached up to adjust her crown and smiled in return. “Thank you.”

Callie pulled Ahmya into a tight hug. “You’re so damn sweet. I love you to pieces.”

Ahmya chuckled, voice muffled from her face being squished against Callie’s arm. “Love you all too.”

“Alright ladies…” Lacey walked to the door and held aside the silk curtain. “Shall we join the festivities?”

Together, they left Rekosh and Ahmya’s den, slipping on the pretty shoes he’d made for them.

In the time since the women had gathered to prepare for the celebration, the sun had set, and the real party had begun below Kaldarak’s platforms. The air had cooled, caressing Callie’s skin soothingly, and she could feel the beat of drums pounding an infectious rhythm down on the ground.

Kaldarak itself had been transformed by nightfall. The work Urkot and the other delvers had done was on full display, with hundreds upon hundreds of glowing blue crystals dotting the wooden platforms and rope bridges.

“It’s gorgeous,” Ivy said.

“It is,” Callie breathed. “It’s like a real-life fairy village.”

“Now just picture the vrix flitting around with fairy wings,” Lacey said.

Ahmya laughed and gave the woman a gentle shove. “Stop!”

“What? I think they’d look pretty badass with wings.”

As they trotted down the large, spiraling stairway leading to the ground, the music grew louder.

The drums were accompanied by the twang of string instruments and the clacking of wood, blending together in a joyous, upbeat song.

Callie had heard music being played in the village, but this was the first time she’d heard anything this lively from the vrix.

A huge bonfire burned in a meadow, away from the trees, surrounded by a ring of stones. The fire set everything alight in orange, and where that light failed, the blue glow of crystals held back the shadows.

A large, wooden effigy stood nearby—a female vrix with her arms raised, her body covered in flowers, vines, and bits of colorful silk. Her hair was a cascade of grass and leaves dotted with little buds and blooms. The Rootsinger, who the vrix believed had provided all the jungle’s plant life.

There were baskets and baskets filled with fruit and vegetables, the bounty that the vrix had harvested to celebrate the end of the flood season.

Raw meat had been laid out on huge leaves, but there was a hint of the savory scent of cooking meat on the air.

It touched Callie that the thornskulls had thought of the humans.

Thornskulls of all colors were chatting, dancing, and playing games, all of them swept up in good cheer. Callie spotted Diego and Will dancing together and laughing with the thornskulls. This was just another way that vrix and humans were similar—both species loved a good party.

The women stepped off the stairway and made their way through the crowd.

“ Akean ,” Callie said to every thornskull who greeted her, offering them warm smiles.

Vrix parted, opening a path as a tall, broad, reddish-brown thornskull draped in white silk and flowers approached. The female spread her four arms wide and raised her mandibles.

“Ah, you are here, humans!” Nalaki said, her deep voice full of warmth.

Lacey threw her arms to the sides and spun in place. “Suitably fancy, I hope.”

Nalaki lowered her arms and dipped her head. “Beautiful. Rekosh is blessed by the Weaver.” Her gaze fell upon Ahmya. “Many females favor him, but his heartsflame burns only for you.”

A soft smile spread across Ahmya’s lips as she pressed a hand to her chest. “As mine burns only for him.”

Callie tipped her head back. The crystals adorning the village were as numerous and luminous as the stars in the sky.

She smiled and swept her gaze around, taking in the beauty of those little lights.

She couldn’t help but think of the distance she and her companions had crossed to get here.

All those stars, all those planets, all those possibilities…

And yet they’d ended up here, with the vrix. Even if she didn’t know what her purpose was here, this was where she was meant to be. She knew it deep in her heart.

“This is amazing, Nalaki,” Callie said, fighting back a surge of emotion as she looked at the queen.

The daiya pressed her palms together. “We celebrate the work we have all done to welcome the season of promise and plenty. You are part of that. You are ours, we are yours.”

“We are happy to be part of this tribe,” Ivy said. “Where is Garahk?”

Nalaki chittered and swept out an arm, pointing past the throng of vrix. “My heartsflame is there, as is yours.”

Callie’s eyes followed Nalaki’s gesture to a chaotic scene.

A large group of vrix, adults and children alike, were playing a frenetic game at the center of the clearing.

They all carried sticks shaped into flat, paddle-like ends, not unlike cricket bats, and were using those sticks to hit a leather ball into the air, seemingly trying to keep said ball off the ground.

Garahk was easy to spot thanks to his snow-white hide, but the two shadow stalkers also playing stood out just as starkly—Ketahn and Rekosh, their respective purple and red markings uniquely glowing amongst the earthier tones of the thornskulls.

She also spied a smaller figure amongst the vrix. Cole. Despite his stature and what the vrix considered a lack of limbs, the human seemed to be holding his own in their game, deftly maneuvering between—and sometimes beneath—the larger players.

The ball soared through the air. Cole vaulted up onto Garahk’s hindquarters, stood tall, and gave the ball a mighty smack with his stick.

Callie’s eyes widened as the ball hurtled through a vertical wooden hoop set atop a tall pole.

Half the players cheered as Cole threw his arms up in triumph, hooting and hollering enthusiastically.

As the players shifted on the field, assuming different positions, Callie’s gaze wandered over the crowd watching the game and locked on a very familiar vrix on the sidelines.

A shadowstalker with blue markings unlike anything in Kaldarak.

Urkot.

He wasn’t focused on the game at all, no.

His attention was upon the broodlings who were swarming him—all five of Garahk and Nalaki’s brood, along with Akalahn.

The little ones were climbing all over him, latched onto his legs, hindquarters, and back, chittering as he attempted to pluck them off with playful ineptitude.

“I’m, uh…gonna go say hi to Urkot,” Callie muttered as her feet, all on their own, moved her toward him.

She watched as he spun about, reaching for the little ones on his back with exaggerated clumsiness, and an odd warmth spread in her chest. Just as she neared him, the broodlings converged, climbing over his shoulders to cling to his chest. With a dramatic flair, Urkot fell backward, banding his arms around the little ones to keep them in place.

He landed on his back, legs sticking straight up in the air before curling inward.

It was easily the most spidery thing she’d seen from him, but damn if it wasn’t endearing.

The broodlings swarmed over him happily, as triumphant as Cole had been moments before.