Page 67 of Violet Legacy

Rieka stopped, she kept the white light directed at the ground as she turned to face him, careful not to blind him.

“Why are Talik and Khalida at each other’s throat?” Rieka asked. Her brow furrowed, as if the tension between the two Atlanteans had been keeping her up at night. “Khalida won’t actually stab Talik, will she?”

Dante paused. The question had caught him off guard. “They were consorts.”

“But they hate each other.”

“Khalida despises Talik. I don’t think Talik dislikes Khalida. Not as much as he pretends to when Khalida is in the area,” Dante answered truthfully. Their history was complicated, and even as Talik’s closest confidant, he was not aware of all the intricacies. “They were extremely young and fell out.”

“Consorts mate for life, don’t they?”

“Yes. Their life spans are forever linked. It is rare to go through with the ceremony because there is no way to undo the connection. Forever bound until death. If one dies, it is an automatic death sentence for the other,” Dante clarified. He knew precisely what Rieka was doing. Stalling. “What is on your mind?”

Rieka looked down at her feet before she let out a sigh. “Do you actually think we will find the tomb?”

He pulled Rieka close to him until they were chest to chest. He tilted her face so he could see into her eyes. Dante cupped her face. He didn’t quite understand how Rieka had embedded herself into his psyche as quickly as she had, but he was grateful. “Whatever you find has the potential to change our history.”

It had already changed him. She was his. Even if she didn’t realize it yet.

Rieka smiled. “So, no pressure. Got it.” She stood on her toes, brushing her lips against his.

“Wildfire,” Dante groaned; he was almost powerless under Rieka’s caress.

“Stop distracting me.” Rieka pulled away. “We have a tomb to explore.”

In the distance, there was a glint of metal in the darkness.

They walked in silence for a few minutes before Rieka abruptly stopped in front of a metallic archway. “Are you seeing what I am?”

Dante paused. Metal had been artfully twisted into an intricate design that defied gravity and physics.

“Is it Atlantean?”

If it was, it wasn’t anything he was familiar with. “I am unsure.”

Rieka glanced up, her eyes large like saucers. She touched the blaster as she squared her shoulders and turned around. She muttered something under her breath that he didn’t quite catch, although it sounded suspiciously like,You have this, Sinha.

The minutes passed in further silence. They continued to follow the narrowing path. He glanced at his watch. There was no signal. No link to Talik or Khalida.

A dead zone; the perfect place for an ambush. He almost missed it.

Dante grabbed Rieka, pulling her back against him, his arms wrapped around her. Cursing himself for almost missing it.

“Hey!” Rieka’s flashlight fell to the ground with a loud thud. It rolled before disappearing over the edge. “Oh.”

Dante held onto her for a moment longer before he reluctantly released her. Her body slid along his. He forced himself to focus on what they were doing, rather than how he would prefer to be spending their time.

Hands on her hips, she looked back at him in disbelief. “That could have ended badly.”

From where he stood, the stairs appeared to spiral into the darkness. He used the time to study the steps. The architecture of the staircase was breathtakingly beautiful, but he wasn’t sure how stable it was. Each step looked hardly big enough to fit a child’s foot, let alone him. The stairs also appeared to be detached from the wall. A separate entity from the rest of the building.

“Hell no,” Rieka whispered. “This couldn’t have been easy, could it?”

“Stay one step behind me,” Dante said. He looked down at the abyss before glancing at her. He couldn’t see how far down they needed to go. “You need to move with the shifting. Going against it will make you feel unbalanced, and you will fall.”

Rieka was still, her gaze glued to the rickety stairs. “Dealt with shifting staircases before?”

“Yes.” Dante took another step and held out his hand. “I will ensure you don’t fall.”

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