He was trying, though—or he seemed to be. In the days since their post-sex showdown he hadn’t given her any new reason to distrust him. He was still stubborn and prone to shortcuts, but he listened to her, argued patterns with her, and had even won a few of those arguments, reminding her what it was like to debate someone who thought so far outside the box. But through it all she had been aware that a part of her was standing back and watching him, trying to figure out whether it was real or part of an act, even one he wasn’t aware of putting on. He’d always had a knack for talking himself into doing what he wanted, after all.
“Look,” he said, pausing to point through a spot where the dark tree branches gave way to the horizon. A streak of light crossed the night sky. Then another. The meteor shower had begun.
She suddenly was very aware of being alone with him in the darkness, attuned to his breathing and the soft click of his weapons as he shifted his weight and glanced over at her. But all she said was, “We should go.”
“Yeah.” But he looked at her for another long moment before he moved off toward the covered wooden staircase that led down to the cave. She followed him down, nearly piling into him when he stopped on the first landing and turned back to her. “Listen. If this turns into a firefight . . .”
“I’ll stay close to you so you can shield me.”
“But if you can’t get to me, or if things get really bad, I want you to call in the cavalry.”
She raised an eyebrow, trusting that he would see the move with his augmented vision. “What happened to ‘I need to do this on my own. We can’t involve the others’?”
“You happened,” he said. And suddenly, the air between them held more than just the shield magic.
“Don’t,” she said, then couldn’t get another word out, because he was lifting a hand to brush a strand of hair away from her face and tuck it behind her ear.
“It’s one thing to risk my own life, another to risk yours. I couldn’t . . . I don’t want you hurt again because of me.”
Her heart went thudda-thump and her breath thinned in her lungs, but she lifted her chin. “It’s my choice to be here. I’m not your responsibility.”
“Promise me you’ll call for backup if things get hairy.”
She nodded, because what was the point of arguing about something she was already planning to do? “I promise.”
Without another word, he turned and moved ahead of her, pulling his .44 as he headed down the stairs toward the cave mouth, which was a huge, rounded opening the size of a highway underpass. Pulling her .38, Reese followed. And as she did, she told herself not to make the moment into something more than it really was. Which was nothing, really. Or at least nothing that could truly matter.
The air changed, the temperature decreasing with each step as they passed into the cave and descended the final short flight of stairs to where a wide observation platform overlooked the frozen lake. The night vision robbed her view of color, but it was still impressive. The frozen surface was roughly circular, edged with jumbles of rock and curving cavern walls that dripped with more ice, some of it in icicles, some as cascading waterfall formations.
That was all the same as it had been last night and the night before. Now, though, there was also a line of starscript glowing blue-white on the far wall, where the ice ended and the stone began.
Adrenaline kicked through her at the confirmation that they were in the right place at the right time. “Nice,” she whispered under her breath, feeling a beat of optimism.
Dez swung over the railing. “Come on, let’s take a closer look. Keep an eye on the door for me, though.”
“Hell of a door.” The cave mouth was a huge, gaping opening with multiple time-worn rock trails leading down. It would be far too easy for Keban to find a sheltered position up there and shoot down into the cave. Which is why I’m sticking close to the guy with the magic, Reese thought. She traded her .38 for the heavier firepower of the autopistol as they walk-slid across the frozen pool to the other side, then climbed over jumbled rocks to the starscript. Two outcroppings protruded slightly out into the pond; one was marked in blue-white starscript with half a man’s face, the other with half a screaming skull. Behind them on the wall, running roughly between them, was a squiggling, serpentine line.
Dez kicked at the ice between the two marked stones. “Doesn’t look any different than the rest of it.”
“The cave adds ice every year. Depending on when the artifact was hidden, it could be pretty far down.”
“Lucky for us, we’ve got—”
Without a buzz or hum of warning, the air cracked nearby and twenty men materialized in the center of the cave. Or not men, Reese saw even as she pivoted and brought up her autopistol, blood icing at the sight of glowing green eyes. “Makol!”
They wore long loincloths, quilted armor and feather-trimmed demon-faced masks, and they carried buzzswords—wooden staves edged with spinning black blades that could detach like throwing stars. Her heart seized on a crazed thought of Ohmigod they’re real, but then Dez shouted something and amped his shield to a blue-white latticework of energy, snapping her out of her shock.
She fired a panicked burst through the shield and a makol sprayed black blood and went down writhing. And for a second she froze, flashing back on another cavernous space, another gunned-down body lying twitching on the floor in a pool of blood.
“Reese!” Dez jerked her behind him and let rip with a blast of purple-white as their attackers spread out and rushed the shield, swords buzzing a high-pitched bee swarm of sound. The magic tore into the oncoming line, knocking back three of the makol, who went down twitching. “Reese! There’s too many of them. Make the call.”
She jerked from her paralysis and slapped her armband, but nothing happened. There was no little red light, no acknowledging beep. No reception, damn it. “We’re too deep underground! We need to get closer to the door!”
“Wait. Close your eyes.” Dez grabbed her, stripped off her goggles and got an arm around her, so her face was pressed into his chest and covered with the edge of his coat. Then electricity raced over her, through her, and the world went bright white as he unleashed a massive bolt of magic into the ice near their feet.
The blast was deafening. The ice heaved beneath them, cracking and tilting, and she clung to him without meaning to.
Then he let go of her, shoved the goggles into her hand, and snapped, “Get the mask and we’ll make a run for it.”
For a terrifying second, she was lost in a surreal world of pitch blackness lit only by luminous green eyes and his shield magic. Then she jammed the goggles into place and everything snapped back into focus: The makol had concentrated their efforts at one point on Dez’s shield and were trying to hack through with their swords. He stood opposite them, channeling lightning with one hand and firing an autopistol with the other, keeping them off balance and floundering. Bleeding.
“Move!” he bellowed.
Reese moved.
Spinning to where he had blasted away the ice and part of the rock near the starscript, she dove into the ragged chasm he had created. Her night vision was blurry at close range, but her fingers found a lumpy object wrapped in frozen cloth. She tried to pull it out, but the cloth tore and her fingers brushed a smooth, sleek, and intricately carved artifact. The mask! She fumbled, trying to get hold of it.
“Reese!” His voice cracked with the strain of holding the shield.
“Almost there.” Her fingers found an edge and the disk popped free. “Got it!” She lunged to his side, held it out. “Here.”
“Keep it.” He jammed the autopistol into his belt and grabbed her free arm. A tingle ran through her at his touch, a sign that his magic was running hot. He grated, “Close your eyes on three. One. Two. Now!”