Page 47 of The Delver (The Vrix #2)

As Urkot reached the incline, Callie made a grave mistake. She looked backward.

Her heart lodged in her throat, and her fingers dug into the hide of Urkot’s abdomen.

Not a single ray of sunshine from above reached this far down, but the diffused light was enough to allow her to see the spiritstriders clearly.

She counted six pale monsters rushing down the short drop and gliding over the debris, which had given Urkot so much trouble, like phantoms unimpeded by the corporeal world.

And they were gaining. Fast.

Fuck, fuck, fuck.

She faced forward, uncertain of whether she’d thought those words or muttered them under her breath.

Muscles straining, Urkot raced up the slope, leaning forward and using his hands to climb as the path grew steeper.

Behind them, the spiritstriders had finally ceased their terrifying clicking. But it was no comfort to Callie.

Her heart raced, her breath was ragged, her left calf throbbed with a deep ache, and her stomach flipped and churned. Even holding so tightly to Urkot, she was trembling.

Adrenaline was likely the only thing keeping agony at bay, the only thing keeping her conscious and functioning. Well, that and sheer terror, but the two were closely related.

Callie looked up. They were so close to the freedom they’d sought, so close to escape. Fate wouldn’t be so cruel, couldn’t be…

And if it was, it could go fuck itself. She and Urkot would make their own damn fate.

Stone scraped beneath Urkot’s claws and legs as he scrambled higher, half crawling. The opening was getting closer.

Suddenly, he pitched forward, coming down hard on his arms with a grunt and jolting Callie. She gasped, finding herself practically lying on his back, her pack heavy on her shoulders.

Something had snagged him.

She looked back again.

A spiritstrider held one of Urkot’s hind legs, its claws buried in his hide. The pale vrix opened its mouth, spread its pincers wide, and snarled, its beady black eyes looking directly at Callie.

Oh, God.

The spiritstrider’s companions raced up just behind it, clacking their pincers and growling like ravenous beasts.

Dragging himself onward, Urkot shook and kicked his leg. He dragged the spiritstrider along with him despite its struggles. But Urkot’s pace had definitely slowed.

Rocks tumbled down the slope, their clatter echoing through the cavern.

Another spiritstrider vaulted over the first, launching itself at Callie. She cried out and ducked her face against Urkot’s back. A heavy weight came down on her bag and yanked back on it. Her shoulders strained as she clutched Urkot’s middle, battling that frighteningly powerful pull.

She had to get the bag off. Had to, or she’d be ripped right off her mate to become the spiritstriders’ next meal.

Urkot snarled and bucked his hindquarters, but he could not dislodge the unwanted passengers. Callie felt the pull on her bag strengthening. She squeezed her legs around Urkot’s waist, gritting her teeth against the fresh, hot wave of agony in her calf. Her grip would not last long.

“My bag, Urkot!”

His lower arm clamped down on her legs, his big hand closing on her left ankle. “Have you, nyleea .”

That grip was crushing, painful, unbreakable, and she trusted it—trusted him—more than anything else in all the universe.

Callie released her hold on him with one arm.

She was immediately jerked backward, her right shoulder on the verge of dislocating from the strain.

With a pained cry, she fought her left arm free of the bag’s strap.

The increased pressure on her right arm broke her hold on Urkot’s middle.

Her torso tipped backward hard, aided by the steepness of the slope, and her arms flew over her head.

The remaining strap abruptly slipped off as her back slammed atop Urkot’s hindquarters, and she found herself in an inverted world, staring downslope at the pursuing spiritstriders.

The vrix that had latched onto her bag growled as it fell away, tumbling over the spiritstrider holding Urkot’s leg and knocking it loose. The two rolled down the slope. Only Callie’s legs—and Urkot’s iron grip on them—kept her in place.

Free of the excess weight, Urkot lurched forward. Several spiritstriders rushed up the slope just behind him as the two that had fallen struggled to right themselves. More were farther down, crawling up with alarming speed.

Callie’s eyes widened. There were too many spiritstriders, and they were too fast. Another delay, even a small one, and…

“Callie!” Urkot’s grip on her ankle tightened. “Are you hurt?”

“I’m fine,” she grated. “Relatively…”

She growled through clenched teeth as she sat up, her abs burning with the extreme exertion.

Would it kill you to do a few crunches every now and then, Callie?

As soon as she was high enough, she wrapped her arms around Urkot again, sliding her hands down to his pouch.

She reached in and felt around until she found the collapsed lantern.

Pulling it out, she switched to a one-armed hold, drew the lantern to her, and snapped it open with a sharp flick of her wrist.

Please work. Please , fucking work…

She switched the lantern on. She slitted her eyes against the intense white light and twisted, thrusting the lantern toward the vrix chasing them.

Callie saw unsettling spiritstrider faces and gaunt, bony bodies, saw the nearest of them recoil from the sudden light while the others hesitated, hissing and snarling. One turned away with such abruptness that it lost its footing and slid at least ten feet down the slope.

For once, Urkot gained some distance on their pursuers. She faced forward to find the cavern’s opening directly ahead, blindingly brilliant compared to the lantern’s glow. Urkot darted through it.

Callie closed her eyes against the glare. Her eyelids glowed red, and sunshine, deliciously scalding, baked down on her skin. With her next breath, the jungle’s scent filled her lungs—rich, cloying, complex, verdant. Nothing had ever smelled so good.

Nothing apart from her mate, anyway.

“We made it!” she breathed. “We fucking made it!”

They’d reached the surface, had accomplished what had seemed impossible.

But all the warmth and joy flooding Callie was snuffed out by the inhuman, rage-filled screeches of spiritstriders behind her, amplified by the cave’s mouth.

She opened her eyes as Urkot spun to face the cave. His lower hand caught her arm and pulled her down from his hindquarters, setting her on her feet.

Pain shot through her leg, and Callie hissed as she stumbled, but his hold on her prevented her from falling. “Urkot, what are?—”

He pressed something into her hand, something heavy, and guided her back with a leg.

She staggered backward, fresh pain searing her calf, and stared down at what he’d handed her—his hammer, with its short haft and its worn, blunt stone head.

Callie closed her fingers around the grip and lifted her gaze.

A large, pale form leapt out of the cave. Urkot swung his right arms, slamming them into the spiritstrider while it was in midair and batting it aside. It crashed into the cliffside from which the cave opened and fell to the ground, stunned.

Another pale vrix charged out into the light, and another. Urkot’s left arm hooked around one’s throat, catching it in a headlock, pinning its mandibles to the sides of its face. The other spiritstrider scrambled over his hindquarters, clawing his hide, huffing the air in search of a scent.

Its head snapped toward Callie. The vrix reached for her, blindly flailing its arms.

Growling, Urkot grabbed the spiritstrider’s stringy hair, yanking its head back. Despite restraining two thrashing males, Urkot’s legs barely budged. He looked more solid than ever.

Her rock.

The spiritstrider he held by the hair spun toward him.

Its sudden change of direction finally disrupted Urkot’s balance, and it took advantage by lunging for his throat.

Urkot’s muscles bulged beneath his hide as he fought to hold the spiritstrider’s head back while its mandibles snapped the air mere inches from his face.

“No!” Callie rushed forward without thinking. As she planted her left foot, she felt warm blood trickling down her leg and a deep burn beneath the silk enwrapping it, but she was already committed, swinging the hammer in a downward chop with all her might.

The stone tool struck the spiritstrider’s skull with a dull thud . The impact made the hammer bounce, breaking her hold on it, and it fell to the ground even as the vrix’s legs buckled.

Urkot tugged on the spiritstrider’s hair again, forcing its head back. As Callie stumbled and fell back onto her ass, Urkot hammered a fist into the spiritstrider’s exposed throat thrice in quick succession. Something crunched on the third blow.

He shoved the limp spiritstrider aside. It collapsed in a heap partly inside the cave mouth. The vrix he held in a headlock was clawing at his arm, making choked sounds. But more movement from the cave meant more spiritstriders about to join the fray.

Callie could only watch, feeling immensely small and helpless, as Urkot punched his foe until the spiritstrider’s struggles ceased and its only movements were its involuntary twitches with each heavy blow.

Effortlessly, Urkot hefted the vrix over his head. Powerful muscles flexed in his broad back and shoulders. In that moment, he looked bigger and more fearsome than even the massive yatins—beasts that made elephants seem petite—that had once attacked their tribe.

And despite everything, despite her pain and fear, it was not lost on Callie just how fucking hot he was.

With a bellowing roar that must’ve made the very stone before him quake, Urkot threw the spiritstrider into the cave. Callie saw it crash into a pair of its comrades. All three spiritstriders fell down the slope, vanishing from sight.

A voice echoed from within the cave, repeating a set of commanding, indecipherable words. The first spiritstrider to have charged out of the darkness dragged itself onto shaky legs using the cave wall for support.

Keeping her eyes on the spiritstrider, Callie felt around on the ground until her fingers found the fallen hammer. She lifted it into her hands, holding it before herself as though it could somehow ward off her enemy.

Shoulders heaving, Urkot placed himself between the other vrix and Callie, watching as the spiritstrider felt along the wall and clumsily retreated into the cave.

Clicking sounds came from below. Were they…were they retreating?

Urkot stood vigil at the cave mouth for several heartbeats. Blood glistened on his hide from numerous cuts and scratches, including fresh claw gouges across the scar on his left side.

He turned to Callie suddenly, strode to her, and sank down onto bent forelegs. Though he was right in front of her, her eyes fell on the lifeless vrix lying only feet away, the sun beating down on its pale, dirty hide, worried it would spring up at any moment and attack.

“Callie.” Urkot caught her chin and, with a delicateness that shouldn’t have been possible after the brutality with which he’d fought, tilted her face toward his. “Are you hurt?”

She dropped the hammer and covered his hand with both of hers, shifting his palm to her cheek and pressing her face against it. “No. At least…not any more than I already was.”

He glanced down at her leg, and an unhappy buzz escaped him. The white silk he’d wrapped around it was saturated with blood.

“Ah, my sweet suncrest…” Carefully, he gathered her in his arms, lifting her against his chest as he rose. She hugged his neck.

“We must go,” he said.

Pain radiated in her leg, growing with each heartbeat, and she felt blood running into her boot. “Will more of them come?”

Urkot strode forward, leaving the cave behind. “Not while the sun shines.”