Page 38 of The Delver (The Vrix #2)

Callie broke the surface slowly, allowing only her head to emerge, and drew in a deep, quiet breath. Taking care to disturb the water as little as possible, she wiped her face and opened her eyes.

There were no spiritstriders in sight.

A flood of relief crashed through her.

Though her heart was still racing from that terrifying trek through the spiritstrider hive, she and Urkot had made it through. But…now what?

The large, circular chamber was brightly lit, with blue crystals of all sizes growing along the walls and the water-covered floor and glowworms crawling on the stone. But there were no openings, no tunnels leading out.

Callie tipped her head back.

No way out except for the wide, round shaft overhead going straight up. That was something. It was a way.

Smiling, she turned to face Urkot. “It’s saf?—”

Her heart stopped, and her stomach sank like a rock.

Urkot hadn’t come up. He wasn’t here.

Bubbles broke the surface beside her.

“Oh God, Urkot.”

Taking a deep breath, Callie sank back into the water and looked down. Through the blur, she caught sight of him, a dark shadow amidst the blue-tinted stone, struggling at the opening that had led them into this cavern.

Stuck.

Oh no, no, no, no…

Callie surfaced, refilled her lungs, and dove back down, propelling herself toward Urkot. More bubbles escaped him, making her panic rise. Was he drowning?

No! I won’t lose him, not now, not ever.

When she reached him, his bright eyes met hers. There was no mistaking the fear in his gaze. She wasted no time, inspecting the rock around his body, looking for a way to loosen it. Maybe if she used the knife, she could…

No. There wasn’t time to chip away at the opening, hoping to fracture the stone just right, and she certainly wasn’t going to pry him free with the short blade.

Frantic, she dropped the knife, planted her feet on the stone, wrapped her arms around his waist, and pushed with her legs, using every bit of strength she could. Urkot worked with her, his lower hand on the ground and body wriggling.

He lifted but caught once more.

Bubbles spilled from her lips, and her lungs burned with the need for air.

Urkot fought the stone, wiggling harder. One of his hands caught her arm, and he tried to pry her away, but Callie tightened her grasp. She would not leave him. She refused to leave him.

Heat blazed through her thighs with the exertion. She only poured more strength into her efforts.

Please! Please, let him get loose! Don’t…don’t let me lose him.

Callie was not religious, and she never prayed, but she did now. She prayed to whoever or whatever was listening, be it God, the Eight, or some other unknowable force.

Please help him!

More air escaped her, and darkness encroached on her vision. Internally, she screamed, she cried, she railed as terror gripped her heart.

Just as her body threatened to give out, just as her strength was about to fail, Urkot broke free. Water churned as he grabbed hold of her and kicked off the stone. They shot upward like a rocket.

Breaking the surface, they took in loud breaths that echoed within the chamber. Coughing and gasping for air to fill her needy lungs, Callie clutched Urkot’s neck as he swam toward the shallow water. Her entire body trembled.

I almost lost him. I almost lost him.

Tears spilled down her cheeks.

When he reached the shallows, Urkot’s legs wobbled and gave out. Water splashed around them as his hindquarters dropped. He sat, chest heaving, and banded his other arms around Callie, holding her to him.

“Callie,” he rasped, nuzzling her hair. “My mate, my nyleea . Are you okay?”

Was she okay? Was she okay?

Callie jerked back and caught his face between her hands, meeting his gaze. “Me? What about you ? You almost fucking drowned, Urkot!”

Narrowing his eyes, he growled and slid his hand into her hair at the back of her head, grasping it. “So did you! You should not risk yourself like that, Callie.”

“I got your spider butt out, didn’t I?”

“Yes.” He pressed his headcrest to her forehead and closed his eyes. A shudder wracked him. “You will not risk yourself again.”

“Don’t tell me what to do,” she said, gentling her voice.

“I am bossy.”

“You are. Doesn’t mean I have to listen.”

Urkot let out a long, low, rumbling growl, but he followed it with two quiet words. “Thank you.”

They sat there for a time, simply holding each other and breathing each other in as their hearts calmed. The water rippled around them, lapping against their bodies and the nearby stone, its soothing sounds accompanied by the occasional drip from above.

Despite the cold, despite the fading terror and adrenaline, despite everything, this cavern was tranquil. But Callie recognized that it was only possible because they were both alive, because they were holding each other.

She refused to contemplate what could’ve happened. Refused to think about what it would do to her if she lost Urkot.

“We must go,” Urkot said. “The spiritstriders caught our scents. They know something is in their tunnels, and they will hunt.”

“Okay.”

Callie adjusted her stiff legs, letting them drop until her boots touched solid stone.

She released Urkot and stepped back. Her eyes immediately went to his hindquarters.

Once more, something clamped around her heart in a viselike grip.

Deep scrapes on his hindquarters and upper legs oozed blood.

A small whimper escaped her as she attempted to hold in her tears.

He slowly rose, his body language making every ache and pain he must’ve felt apparent, and twisted to glance back at his hindquarters. Tentatively, he gave his back half a wiggle. “Too much spider butt?”

Callie looked up at him. His eyes were on her, his mandibles lifted in a smile. A smile for her. To reassure her that he was okay, that his spirit wasn’t broken, that it wasn’t even cracked.

I love him.

I fucking love this spider man.

It was a realization that had snuck up on her, that had caught her completely off guard.

But it had been there the whole time, hadn’t it?

The friendship they’d formed had always been deeper than it seemed on the surface.

He’d cared for her from the very beginning.

He’d constantly gone out of his way to ensure she was safe and comfortable, had always taken the time to make her smile and laugh when she was down, and even though she never appreciated it in the moment, he’d been there when she’d needed a little kick in the ass to get moving—like when he’d dumped water on her face to wake her up during their journey to Kaldarak.

But he’d always been there.

Until he wasn’t. Because he’d left for Takarahl with Rekosh and Telok, and he’d been gone a whole month. And though she’d kept company with her friends, she’d always felt like something was missing. Like someone was missing.

It’d been him.

And I almost lost him.

Callie threw herself against him, hugging him, as more tears slid down her cheeks. But even through those tears, she smiled. “Your spider butt is perfect to me.”

Chittering softly, he hooked a finger under her chin and tilted her face toward his. His touch was so light, so delicate, as he slid his hand up to brush the tears from her cheeks. He crooned. “No more leaking eyes. Save your water.”

A soft laugh escaped her. “I’ll try.”

With Callie’s assistance, he tended his wounds with sticky silk, and then he helped her get the excess off her fingertips.

Seeing him patched up helped calm her a bit more.

Vrix healed fast, and they tended to ignore most minor wounds, but all she could think about was the germs and dirt that they were exposed to while traipsing around the jungle.

Of course, all her things were soaked again, but she’d take sopping clothing over death any day.

There was only one way for them to go. Callie had to bite her tongue to keep herself from trying to talk him out of it, from urging him to rest, because she knew he was right.

They had to move. She wasn’t sure if the spiritstriders would figure out that their quarry had fled underwater, but it would be for the best if she and Urkot weren’t here to find out.

So she climbed onto Urkot’s hindquarters again, mindful of those freshly covered wounds, and assisted him in binding their bodies together with a silk strand. Rather than simply looping it around their waists, they created something much closer to a makeshift harness.

It reminded Callie of the way skydiving students were strapped to their instructors on their first jumps—a thought she quickly pushed away, because she did not want to fill her head with images of people freefalling through the air when Urkot was about to carry her up a vertical shaft.

She clung to him as he climbed. Her muscles screamed whenever they tensed, sore from the strain of trying to free him from the underwater passageway.

Not going there.

The sooner she could forget that moment, the better. She never wanted to experience that fear again.

The shaft led straight up. Crystal formations of various sizes grew from its walls, filling it with light, and moisture trickled down the stone. Urkot’s muscles flexed and stretched as, foot by foot, he ascended.

As they moved higher, the air warmed, and soon patches of lichen and viny plants were scattered amidst the crystals and stone.

Callie didn’t look down. She was aware of the chamber below getting farther and farther away, and that would’ve concerned her had she been with anyone else. But she felt utterly secure with Urkot.

Above them, the light was even brighter, as though wherever this shaft led was absolutely flooded with the blue glow that she was coming to appreciate so much. Of course, her appreciation was likely due to the fondness she’d developed for the color even before getting trapped in this cave system…

When they reached the top, Urkot hauled himself onto solid ground, moved away from the edge of the shaft, and let out a heavy breath. The air was heavier here, warm and humid, a welcome change after the cold that had settled into Callie’s bones.

Callie gasped as she peered around, eyes widening.

Of all the wondrous sights she’d seen down here, this cavern made the top of her list. It had a high ceiling covered in stalactites and glowworms so numerous that they resembled the stars in the night sky.

Stalagmites rose from below, most of them beneath their inverted counterparts.

Lush plants grew in many places, giving off glows of their own, and huge clusters of crystal shone on the walls, again making her feel like she was standing inside a geode.

Raised pools of steaming water covered nearly half the cavern floor, from which a few more rock formations rose.

Hot springs. Fucking hot springs!

Urkot sliced away the cord binding them together, and Callie hurriedly slid off him, stepping forward to look around in awe.

She approached the nearest wall, one of the few without crystals. Its surface glistened with moisture and was shaped in bulbous, smooth tiers that cascaded down to create something resembling cresting ocean waves that had been flash frozen. “I think this is an active flowstone!”

Urkot moved up beside her, regarding the wall with his head cocked. “Flowstone?”

“Yeah! The water is depositing tiny traces of minerals that have been building up over eons, forming the stone. That makes it look like…like melting wax.”

He extended a hand toward it.

“No!” Callie grabbed his arm and halted it before he could touch the flowstone. “You’ll kill it.”

Turning his head, he blinked at her. “It is stone, Callie.”

“I don’t mean literally. The oils in your hand—well, I’m not sure about a vrix hand, but definitely a human hand—will disrupt the flow of water and stop the deposits from building up. So it would basically stop the stone from forming.”

Turning his attention back to the stone, Urkot lowered his arm and leaned his face a little closer. “I have seen stone like this. Sometimes, we call it bleeding stone. But I did not know it is still…growing.”

She leaned forward to look more closely, bracing her hands on her thighs. “It happens so slowly that you’d have to live for thousands of years to notice any real change.”

He hummed thoughtfully.

Together, they stepped back and surveyed the rest of the chamber.

There seemed to be only one exit apart from the shaft, a tunnel opening just tall enough for Urkot to fit through if he stooped down.

In a show of impressive strength, he shifted a slab-like boulder from nearby and, with much grunting and grumbling, positioned it in front of the opening, effectively covering it.

“We will rest here,” he declared, wiping his hands together to brush off the dirt.

Callie glanced back toward the shaft—the very open shaft. “Is it safe?”

“Yes. We will hear if spiritstriders come…but I do not think they will swim.”

“Because they can’t see well?”

He nodded. “Their clicks will not help them in water.”

She didn’t have the heart to bring up the many Earth creatures that used echolocation in the sea to great effect. Maybe it wouldn’t work the same for the spiritstriders because they hadn’t adapted to using it underwater?

Callie set her bag down and strolled toward the nearest steaming pool. “So…you’re saying we’re safe-safe for now?”

Urkot approached her slowly, head again tilted. “We are.”

She bent forward and held her chilled hand over the water. Pleasant heat radiated up from the surface, and it felt so nice, reminding her of just how cold the water below had been.

Callie grinned, hopping in place as she yanked off her boots and tossed them aside. “Good, because I am getting in this water.”