Page 37 of The Delver (The Vrix #2)

Across the water, the spiritstriders continued their lives—they mended tools, divided meat, scraped hides, braided silk cord, talked and played. In so many ways, they were not unlike the vrix Urkot had always known. But he knew there was no peace to be found here, no friendship.

Whether by the gods’ blessing, his own efforts, or aimless luck, Urkot made it to the tunnel entrance without drawing attention to himself and Callie. The airflow was unmistakable there. The tunnel was connected to the surface somewhere, beyond any doubt, and that somewhere was closer than ever.

After a final backward glance to ensure they’d remained unseen, Urkot stalked into the tunnel. He followed it cautiously. Soon, the sounds from the cavern faded to nothingness behind him, and the tension that had gripped him since discovering the spiritstriders’ hive finally began to ease.

The tunnel wound through a few turns before widening into a chamber where the path curved around the edge of a pool that lapped quietly against the stone.

The ceiling sloped down toward the pool, leaving only a hand’s width of space between it and the water’s surface.

A few clusters of crystal on the walls provided dim light.

“We rest a moment,” Urkot said quietly.

Sighing heavily, Callie relaxed. She lay there, limp atop him, several heartbeats longer before sliding down from his hindquarters. She stumbled as soon as her feet were on the floor.

Urkot’s arm darted out, catching her before she could fall. Alarm flared in his chest.

“I’m okay,” she whispered, patting his arm, before he could say anything. “Just forgot how exhausting it can be holding on to you for dear life. Legs are a bit…wobbly.”

Keeping his hand on Callie to steady her, Urkot turned his body toward hers and crooned. “Ah, my nyleea …”

His legs felt shaky as well, and he doubted his insides would ever come free of the knots they’d been tied into, even after he and Callie were back in Kaldarak.

He lowered his head, brushed his mouth atop her hair, and breathed her in, gladly casting aside the smells of the hive in exchange for hers, which he could detect faintly beneath the dust. She flattened a palm on his chest and leaned into him.

Clicks echoed along the tunnel from somewhere up ahead.

Straightening, Urkot snapped his head in the direction from which the sound had come and listened. More clicking—and voices—growing louder. Drawing closer.

Apparently, the Broodmother’s mercy had limits.

He was beginning to understand why some of the humans so often used the word fuck ; it truly did feel right for so many situations.

That anxious little crease had reformed between Callie’s eyebrows when he met her gaze, and fear again glinted in her eyes.

Grasping her free hand, he led her to the water.

She hesitated at the edge as he stepped in, glancing down at her boots.

A series of growls and snarls from the tunnel made her start.

Her shoulders rose with a fortifying breath, and she entered the water.

The dust she’d covered herself and Urkot with swirled around them on the surface of the water, slowly dissipating in a lingering cloud.

A shiver coursed through her, and her lips peeled back to reveal her teeth. But she continued deeper into the water regardless. Urkot’s jaw clenched tighter with every sound they made as they moved.

A spiritstrider barked something in its harsh language. It was very close now.

Callie tipped her head back to keep her face out of the water, which was soon up to her ears. Urkot pulled her close and curled an arm around her middle. His legs could just touch the bottom as he moved into the shadowy gap beneath the low-hanging ceiling.

The first spiritstrider entered the chamber, followed by three more, all males. Two carried bloodied animal carcasses that were lashed together with silk strand around the legs. Difficult as it was to determine what the creatures were, their fur looked like it belonged to animals from the surface.

Which meant these vrix had exited the cave system recently.

The lead spiritstrider halted near the chamber’s center. When a couple of the others spoke, he snapped his mandible claws harshly with a curt word, silencing his companions, before he sniffed the air. His low growl resonated in the chamber.

Urkot eased back, carefully dipping his head lower into the water. Callie did the same. Her body was rigid against him, wracked by shivers that he could feel her fighting to suppress.

The lead spiritstrider strode to the spot where Callie and Urkot had initially stopped. He sniffed repeatedly, snarling after every inhalation, and said something to his companions, who spread out with their mandibles open wide, making their unnerving clicks.

The top of Urkot’s headcrest touched the ceiling, and he halted.

This wasn’t nearly far enough away, especially with the spiritstriders actively searching, scenting the air for what to them must’ve been two foreign smells.

The water would mask Urkot and Callie’s scents, at least mostly, but all it would take was the faintest hint…

If it came down to it, Callie could remain in the water while Urkot fought off these vrix. He was outnumbered, but as long as she was out of the spiritstriders’ reach, he wouldn’t have to hold anything back.

Callie tapped Urkot’s back, calling his attention to her. The water lapped around her mouth, and her nostrils flared as she breathed through them. She flicked her eyes to the side and back to him several times, as though attempting to look behind herself.

It took everything in Urkot to stop himself from tilting his head and shifting his mandibles. Lips pressed together and brow creased, she stared at him before again flicking her eyes aside. This time, he followed her gaze with his own, turning his head to look.

Light glimmered underwater behind them, past the point where the ceiling met the pool’s surface—beyond the reach of this chamber’s meager glow.

Slowly, he backed toward that light, angling his head to keep breathing as the water deepened and the ceiling lowered. Rough stone raked his hair and his headcrest. Much too soon, he reached a point where he could move no farther without submerging himself completely.

Callie pressed the length of a finger against Urkot’s hide and slid it straight down. Not a means of comfort, but of communication. A signal. After giving her a gentle squeeze, he released her.

She drew in a deep breath, its sound lost amidst the water lapping the stone and the spiritstriders’ grunts and growls, and vanished below the surface.

He felt water being displaced as she swam down, but he forced himself to wait for eight heartbeats so she would have enough room to move. Filling his own lungs with air, he dipped under, and all sound was replaced by the muffled churning of water.

Urkot turned to see Callie. She was a dark form against the glow coming through a circular opening in the rock, legs kicking to propel her forward.

Once she was through, he followed. The gap was tight, but his shoulders and torso cleared it.

Callie swam toward the rippling surface, through which that blue light was streaming, and he couldn’t help but admire the beauty before him—her beauty.

With that lighting and the encompassing quiet, the moment was strikingly serene.

His momentum halted abruptly as his legs and hindquarters lodged in the opening.

He pressed his hands to the surrounding stone and pushed.

Rock scraped his hide, and his muscles trembled with exertion, but he couldn’t get enough leverage to free himself, couldn’t bring his full strength to bear.

Bubbles escaped his mouth and nose as he struggled.

Fuck.