Page 13 of Brought to Light
I lunged after him, but my fingers only brushed his jeans-clad leg. Linden had already shot to his feet and trotted past me, straight into my line of fire. I jumped up and chased after him, grabbing for his arm. “Damn it, come back—”
Linden cut me off with a stream of happy-sounding words in a language I’d never heard before.
Two voices answered, surprised and pleased, and then the footsteps started again and picked up speed, the light bobbing down the tunnel toward us. Cursing under my breath, I finally got a hold of Linden and shoved him behind me. “You don’t get between the gun and the target,” I hissed at him. “And—will you stay put for fuck’s sake—”
“They’re my friends!” Linden said, trying to dodge around me. “They came to find me! No shooting.” He managed to get an arm across my back and wrap his fingers around my wrist. “Callum, no shooting anyone. They can get us out of here. And they don’t mean us any harm.”
Right. Because our track record so far that day stood at zero for two.
Still, I lowered my weapon a little, enough that Linden might think I was giving in. I could still aim and shoot more quickly than they could react, but he wouldn’t necessarily know that.
The light grew closer, and two men finally became visible. One of them was built sort of like Linden, tall and slim, only he had dark hair and was wearing something like a short dress over a pair of pants and big ridiculous boots. He looked like a refugee from a kids’ book, one of the ones with talking cats and people with titles I could never pronounce. He also had some kind of stick in one hand, the light coming from a glowing bulb at the top. The other guy wore similar clothes, but he was built like a brick shithouse with long, flowing black hair, and had a sword hanging by his side that was big enough you wouldn’t carry it unless you knew damn well how to use it.
The first guy kind of made me want to laugh. The second guy wasn’t fucking funny at all.
He got a lot less fucking funny when Linden let go of my wrist, slipped out from behind me, and ran to fling himself into big sword dude’s arms, speaking in a stream of that strange language and interrupting himself to kiss the guy on both cheeks.
Close to his mouth. A little too close to his fucking mouth.
The back of my neck prickled with irritation, and my gun came up again. That guy could snap Linden in half…and that was for sure what I was pissed about.
But he didn’t. He hugged Linden back, his big hands careful as they slid up and down Linden’s shoulder blades and then settled at his waist. My finger tightened a little on the trigger.
Linden finally, finally moved on to boots dude, hugging him too, though not as closely. More of a magic bro-hug. This guy’s hands didn’t linger quite as much, but he still managed to cop a decent feel.
And that was enough of that. “Linden,” I said, low enough to be almost a growl, making sure my sights were right in the middle of the bigger guy’s chest. “You going to introduce us, or what?”
“Oh,” Linden said, sounding surprised. Like he’d fucking forgotten I was even there. He let go of his “friend” and spun around, his pretty lips curved in the first genuine smile I’d seen on his face all day and his blue eyes sparkling in the glow of the…glowing thing. “Callum! These are two of my closest friends. Kaspar and Oskar.” He gestured first at the thin friend, and then at the too-muscled friend. “Kas, Oskar—” And then he waved his hand at me, going back to their language. I caught my name, and Oskar’s frown. That told me more or less all I needed to know.
I nodded at them, and I finally lowered my gun. Appearing friendly had to be my better move at this point. If they made a wrong move of their own, though…I could aim and shoot a lot faster than Oskar could draw that sword of his.
Kaspar smiled brightly and said something that included my name. “He says he’s grateful to you for saving my life this morning,” Linden translated. “And for saving it again when the kaadus attacked me.”
I hadn’t done it for fucking Kaspar, and I couldn’t bring myself to say he was welcome. “Can they get us the fuck out of here?”
Linden’s smile faded, his lips curling down at the edges in a way that made me feel guiltier than him yelling at me would’ve done. He turned back to Kaspar, and they exchanged a few words. “Yes, they can,” Linden said to me. “And we were going the right way, actually. The thin point between this place and my world isn’t too much farther down the tunnel.”
Well, score one for our random wandering. “Let’s go, then.”
I stood aside, waving them along. I wasn’t putting Oskar at my back. He obviously felt the same way, and we ended up in a back-and-forth game of chicken.
“Tell Oskar to lead the way,” I said, without taking my eyes off the man. “I’ll take rear guard.”
It was the safest way to go, and also the most practical. And it put Linden and Kaspar between my gun and Oskar’s back, which might make him likelier to go along with it, though it made me twitchy as fuck. Oskar grunted agreement after Linden translated, gave me the stink-eye, and took point.
Linden and Kaspar actually linked arms, strolling along in the middle like we were in the park or something. They chattered away, laughing now and then. Their language sounded vaguely Scandinavian, but it wasn’t one I could place.Not a human language, the back of my mind supplied.Because they’re not fucking human.
At least they weren’t made out of murderous Jell-O. I stalked along behind them, glowering at nothing in particular—especially not the way Linden kept tipping his head until it almost rested on Kaspar’s shoulder.
Oskar stopped abruptly, and the rest of us barely avoided a pile-up behind him. I almost ran into Linden’s back, and I felt the warmth of him. His hair brushed my nose. I got another hit of his body’s fresh scent. Fuck, it was like a drug. I forced myself to take a step back.
Tweedledee and Tweedledum bent their heads together, muttering over a flagstone that looked exactly the fucking same as every other flagstone.
In the light of the glowing staff thing, anyway.
I pulled out the flashlight and shone it onto the stone they were looking at. Sure enough, it lit up with a twisty, glowing symbol like the others I’d seen.
All of a sudden three pairs of eyes were fixed on me, two in obvious suspicion.
