Task complete, Naasir jumped up onto the ceiling with such ease that she almost gasped. Winking at her, he went inside the cave. Creeping closer on foot, she watched as he dropped soundlessly from the ceiling and took down the wing brother, one hand over the other man’s mouth and a clawed hand around his throat as he used his body weight to pin the armed male to the earth.
Darting in, Andromeda tied and gagged the wing brother. Afterward, she whispered, “I’m sorry,” in his ear.
“Andi.”
Getting up at that low call, she crossed the cave to join Naasir at the mouth of what appeared to be a downward sloping tunnel. When she pushed up her goggles for an instant, it was clear to her that this was the source of the faint ambient light—it seemed to be coming from the rough stone of the walls itself.
Goggles back down, she released a shaky breath. “Yes, this must be it.”
“Start checking for traps. I’ll retrieve the pack.”
She was the one who finally found it, after five excruciatingly slow minutes that ended up with Naasir having to retie a wing brother who’d nearly escaped his bonds. In the ensuing scuffle, Naasir discovered the cave floor was a false one designed to collapse inward should the wing brothers activate the trap.
Depending on the depth of the fall, it would’ve surely broken any number of bones. That is, if the rockfall rigged to come down over the tunnel mouth didn’t bury them first.
“I’m starting to feel sorry for all the cave explorers,” Andromeda muttered, dusting off her arms after they stepped into the tunnel without setting off the booby trap, then deliberately collapsed the rockfall to impede pursuit by the wing brothers.
Alexander’s sentinels surely had other ways in but at least she and Naasir wouldn’t have to worry about danger at their backs—from that source at least. “I know they’ll come after us, but I hope the wing brothers don’t have to wait too long in the dark for rescue.”
“You have a soft heart,” Naasir said with an indulgent smile. “I’ll have to make sure people don’t take advantage of you.”
She should’ve scowled at him, but her heart turned to mush. He sounded so happy to have the task. And since he expected her to fight beside him, used her skills where necessary, it wasn’t as if he was being condescending. No, he was just being protective of the woman he wanted as his mate.
Her throat closed up, her face all stiff and hot. She was glad he’d turned his gaze forward and couldn’t see her. She should tell him she couldn’t be his mate, but the words kept getting stuck inside her, as if so long as she didn’t say them, they wouldn’t come true.
In front of her Naasir held up a hand. She halted.
But the wing brother had already spotted them. He gave a loud shout before they managed to subdue him. Pounding feet thundered in from several directions. Giving up on stealth, Andromeda and Naasir ran full-tilt, her wings getting badly bloodied and scraped in the narrow main passageway and Naasir’s hand locked tight around hers.
When he hauled her into a small cave and indicated another rigged rockfall he’d made sure they skirted, she took out her sword and triggered it. The rocks came down in a noisy crash that sent up clouds of dust.
Coughing into her hand, her teeth gritty from the dust she’d breathed in, she looked to Naasir. “Where?” He wouldn’t have asked her to trigger the rockfall if it would trap them; she knew enough of his senses to guess he’d seen, smelled, or heard something that had eluded her.
“This way.”
She followed the imprint of his footsteps in the sand to find herself in front of another tunnel with rough stone walls that pulsed with that eerie glow. Only this time, the tunnel had so steep a downward incline it was near vertical, the floor slick and shiny in comparison to the walls and the roof. “Damn it,” she muttered, sheathing her sword. “I’ll go first. You can come after me and push me down if my wings get stuck.”
Naasir shook his head. “No. I didn’t realize the sheer gradient from a distance. We’ll find another way out.”
Hearing sounds from the cave entrance that told her the rockfall blockade would soon no longer exist, she blew out a breath and tucked flyaway curls of her hair behind her ears. “No way to do that without