Page 19 of The Delver (The Vrix #2)

Water sloshed around Urkot’s legs as he strode along the stream. The aches wracking his body had deepened, making his muscles stiff, but he ignored them as best he could. Better some soreness than broken bones.

The thornskull delvers flashed through his mind—their faces, their colorful hides, their voices and chitters.

Swallowing fresh guilt, he forced the memories away.

What had happened could not be changed. What was lost could not be reclaimed.

Guilt would not bring back the thornskulls, and neither would it carry Urkot and Callie to safety.

Callie stroked her thumb over his abdomen, calling his attention to her arms, which were wrapped around his torso. He curled his lower arm over them, holding them snugly in place.

She was here with him now, holding him, and she was as much the reason he was still moving as his own toughness or the grace of the gods. He needed to protect her. Needed to save her.

Yet her presence left him conflicted.

She was a comfort to him. Her warmth and weight upon his hindquarters and back, her gentle breath against his hide, her hold, so tender and needful; all of it calmed him. Callie had dragged him back from looming panic more than once.

But she shouldn’t have been here. Shouldn’t have been in this dangerous situation, shouldn’t have faced the hardships, the horrors, that she’d experienced today. Right now, she should’ve been safe in Kaldarak with the rest of their tribe.

The stream flowed along a gradual downslope. He was not happy about journeying deeper understone, but the airflow, subtle though it was, led in this direction.

Somewhere far, far ahead, there was an opening to the surface.

Please, Gods, let it be one we can use.

And let the path to it be clear.

The Eight would tire of his prayers before this ordeal was through…and he would surely tire of making them. He’d always honored the Eight, especially the Delver, who watched over all vrix who plunged into the unknown, be it in the depths of the ground or the jungle.

“So, are you going to say I told you so?” Callie asked, her voice scarcely loud enough to hear over the sound of water.

Urkot tilted his head. “What did you tell me?”

Callie chuckled. “I mean, are you going to tell me that you were right. That I should have listened to you and stayed out of the cave. You said it was dangerous and well…here we are.”

He never wanted Callie to be in danger, never wanted her to suffer, and he would’ve preferred it had she avoided all of this by heeding his warning.

And yet…some part of him was glad she was here. Was glad he did not have to endure this alone. He wasn’t sure if he could do this without Callie, lost in this darkness without her light.

“I was right,” he said slowly, making sure he chose the correct words, “but you were right too. Danger is everywhere. We cannot hide from it all. And it is better that we are here together than here alone.”

He gave her arm a squeeze. He enjoyed the feel of her skin, enjoyed how soft and pliant it was.

She eased closer, pressing her chest firmly against his back. “Speaking of hiding… In case there are spiritstriders down here, couldn’t we have done that while waiting for the others to try and dig us out? I thought when you’re lost, you’re supposed to just sit tight and await rescue.”

“No one will know we are missing until next suncrest. And even if they come most fast, it will take days to clear the stones without delvers, if they are able to at all. Perhaps eightdays, if the rockfall went beyond the crystal garden.”

“Oh. And the food was?—”

He heard her mouth snap shut, cutting off whatever words she might’ve said, but he understood where her thoughts had gone.

The food she and Ahgratar had brought was buried beneath the rubble.

Lost, along with their thornskull companions.

He and Callie had nothing except themselves, whatever she carried in her pack, and the few tools on his belt.

“We must go on,” he said, instilling the firm words with as much gentleness as he could. Because he knew, in the end, the gods wouldn’t do anything for them. Urkot and Callie had to keep moving forward, had to search, had to fight, had to survive, through their own strength and willpower.

The only thing that would get them out of this place was each other.

Eventually, the sound of the stream changed, becoming layered with an echoey hissing. Urkot discovered why when they reached the end of the tunnel.

There, the water flowed over a cliff, pouring into a deep crevasse.

Bracing his hands against the wall, he peered over the edge. Darkness shrouded the bottom.

Callie made a distressed sound and tightened her grip on him. “Um, the plan is to not go down there, right?”

“Right,” he agreed, easing back.

A faint air current flowed from somewhere above, caressing his hide and the hairs on his legs. He raised the crystal in his hand, scanning the walls of the pit.

“So what’s the plan now?” Callie asked. “Do we need to go back and follow the stream the other way?”

His gaze halted on an opening across the gap, several segments higher than their current position.

He dragged his eyes up to the ceiling, which was another couple segments higher.

Its stone was fraught with crevices and irregularities that would make for ample grips.

It would be a long, slow climb across, but they had no other choice.

“We go on,” he said.

“You said we’re not going in the pit.”

“We will not. We go up and across.”

“Wait, what? What do you mean across ?”

Urkot pointed up at the opening on the other side. “There.”

Callie rose and leaned over his shoulder, her curls tickling his hide as she squinted to see. Urkot held the crystal higher. He often forgot that humans had poor vision in dim light.

“Oh fuck,” she rasped. “You want us to go up there? Like, across this gaping pit?”

“Yes.”

“But there’s no path! And it’s too far to jump, even for a vrix.”

“Not jump. Climb.” Urkot backed away from the edge and stepped onto the solid cave floor.

“Climb? Urkot, I can’t climb that. There’s nothing to even climb.”

The fear and uncertainty in her voice was like a thorny vine constricting his hearts, squeezing and piercing deeper with each word. Reaching an arm back, he offered her a hand. She took it; he felt her arm trembling before he helped her down from his hindquarters.

Once she was on her feet, he turned to face her, placing his hands on her shoulders. She met his gaze with wide eyes.

“You will not climb, Callie,” he said.

Her eyes flicked toward the chasm.

He hooked a finger under her chin to draw her attention back to him. “Hold me. That is all you must do.”

“Won’t you be holding me?” Her voice was uncharacteristically small.

Urkot lifted his mandibles and chittered. “Not enough arms.”

She scowled at him. “That’s not funny, Urkot. This is…it’s…”

“It will be fine,” he said, withdrawing his upper arms from her to hold up both thumbs in a gesture he’d learned from Cole. “Two fines, see?”

That earned the ghost of a smile from her, barely more than a twitch of her lips—but it was something.

Collecting a wad of sticky silk, he attached it to his glowing crystal before pressing that crystal to his headcrest. He tipped his head toward Callie. “Say good?”

He felt the crystal slowly tipping forward, stretching the silk.

She laughed, shaking her head. “Goofball.” She held out her palm. “Give me some sticky string.”

Chittering, he produced a small strand and handed it to her, ducking lower so she could secure it around his head, fastening the crystal in place.

Callie lowered her arms. “That should hold.”

“Thank you.” He straightened and began drawing silk from his spinnerets, passing it to his hands in a thick strand. “My silk will hold you, and you will hold me. We have climbed together many times, yes?”

She nodded. Her pink tongue slipped out briefly to wet her lips, and it took everything in him not to fixate on the gesture. Everything about her fascinated him, called to him, but her mouth, her tongue…those were especially alluring.

He wrapped the rope around his waist and tied it tight before reaching around Callie’s waist to do the same. He gave it an extra, playful tug, drawing her closer and disrupting her balance. She chuckled as she fell into him, her palms slapping his chest.

“We are bound, female,” Urkot rumbled. He settled his upper hands on her hips and lifted her up against his body, cradling her ass with his lower hand to keep her steady. “Now wrap yourself around me.”

Cheeks darkening, Callie stared into his eyes as she wound her arms around his neck and her legs around his midsection. He felt her thigh muscles tense as she drew herself closer.

Urkot’s breath caught.

Heat—delicious, tantalizing heat—caressed his abdomen where her bare slit pressed to him.

His fingers flexed, digging into her giving flesh as a shudder coursed through his body. He became even more aware of her warmth around him, of her sweet, delicate scent, of her soft, smooth skin. His claspers stretched upward, curling around her thighs.

He never could’ve guessed how right it would feel to have her in this position, how tempting it would be, how thrilling.

Nor could he have known how difficult it would make everything.

How would he safely climb when all he could focus on was the press of her slit, the feel of her body?

How was he meant to think when her scent filled his mind in a fog?

“You promise you won’t drop me?” Though Callie’s breath was delightfully warm on the hide of his neck, her words brought him clarity.

He held her tighter. “Never.”

Rather than succumb to the temptation to remain like this, just the two of them, Urkot returned to the cliff’s edge.