Page 31 of Dark Stars
Snickering, Bobby took his hand, and theyheaded off, hastening by the altar when they passed it yet again,retracing their steps to the tree they'd used to hide and thencarrying on farther still.
"How does so much forest fitunderground."
"I mean, to be fair, there's a lot ofunderground," Bobby said. "Wonder if there are like, mini-forestsor something in smaller spaces. An entire bonsai forest!" Helaughed. "Wonder what else is down here that we'd never think of.What a shame it's been overtaken by great-grandmother's stupidcultists."
Alejo grunted, and they walked on insilence, comfortable with each other but wary of every shadow andsound. When they at last reached the end, the trees petering outinto shrubs and then moss, Bobby was relieved to see they had notone but two options in front of them. No, three. There was adoorway even further down.
"Too many options," Alejo muttered. "Doesone of them smell more promising than the others?"
"Stay here, I'll take a closer look. Sniff.Whatever." Bobby squeezed his hand and then strode off, examiningthe furthest doorway first, then the other two. "They all smellabout the same. The middle one has a slightly stronger scent ofwater, so it might double back to the river or maybe a small streamthat connects to the river."
"Well, we know the river current flows outof the caves, so if we follow the water, we might get out of here.On the other hand, that might lead us right into the arms of thepeople we're trying to avoid." Alejo sighed. "I'm tired, hungry andcompletely sick of this."
"Let's take the far tunnel, see where thatgoes. Its odd placement makes me think it's a bit separate fromeverything else. If we wind up stuck, I'll just risk exposure anduse arcana to get us somewhere safe." As hard as he was trying tokeep his presence unnoticed, he had just devoured several of hisstupid cousins, so they hadsomeidea of what they weredealing with. It wasn't a matter of if at this point, just whenthey discovered what he truly was.
Taking Alejo's hand again, threading theirfingers together, he led them into the third doorway, whichimmediately started to descend on a slightly sharp incline. As theyseemed to be alone, he created several lights to guide theirway.
"How far down can I go before oxygen becomesa problem, do you think?" Alejo asked. "Not a problem I ever had towonder about before."
"You don't have to worry about it now,either," Bobby said. "For one, caves tend to be all right on theoxygen factor. Openings let it come in from the outside, there wasplenty in that forest we were just in, and I think I read once thatrocks release oxygen as they're worn away. Something like that. Butif you start to feel off, tell me."
"Right."
They walked on, though walking soon turnedmore into climbing as they worked up, over, under, and through thecave system, which clearly had not been smoothed out like theprevious one they'd used. Bobby kept an eye on Alejo, guiltchurning through him at how increasingly exhausted and worn helooked, but he'd put Alejo in far more danger by revealing himself,so he simply pressed onward.
Eventually, they came to a divide, exactlythe kind of problem he hadn't wanted. "Which way, you think?"
Chapter Twelve
"No clues as to which way we should go?"Alejo asked, and the exhaustion in his voice was agonizing. Bobbywasn't normally so sloppy or careless; he should have gotten Alejoout of here a long time ago.
Bobby stroked his cheek and kissed thecorner of his mouth, then turned around and said, "Climb on myback. I'll carry you for a bit."
"I don't need—"
"Alejo, please."
"You are theworst," Alejo muttered,but did as requested, arms warm and solid as they wrapped aroundhis neck. Bobby kept hold of his legs as they gripped his hips, andcontinued on, picking the right path as it smelled slightly fresherthan the left.
Eventually, thankfully, they started toclimb up again. At various points it was a slippery and steepclimb, but that was only a problem for creatures that couldn'tadapt to their surroundings at their pleasure.
Bobby almost laughed in relief when he sawshreds of light slipping into the dark. Weak light, probably asetting sun, but light all the same. On his back, Alejo had longsince passed out from exhaustion.
Outside, in a part of town he definitelydidn't recognize, Bobby continued to walk until they were well awayfrom the caves and standing on a lakeside beach. There was adistant fog steadily rolling in, the water and the sky were gray,and the last dregs of sunlight were fading fast.
A beautiful night, spooky and delightful, ifnot for the fact he'd worn his lover to exhaustion and they had hisgreat-grandmother's cultists after them. Not his best work, to besure.
It was time for a break. Rest, regroup,think up a proper plan of attack.
Risking the arcana necessary, he folded themaway into the dark and reappeared in his own home, along with alltheir belongings. The vehicles he'd worry about later, as they werewell-hidden and the cultists wouldn't know to look for them anyway.The cultists would have felt the disturbance for certain, butthey'd have no idea where it had promptly vanished to.
Gently shifting Alejo, still out cold, offhis back, Bobby laid him out on the bed and got his shoes andjacket off, made certain he was comfy—as comfy as anyone could besleeping in jeans, but he wasn't about to strip and change the manwhile he slept.
Sitting on the edge of the bed, he rested ahand on Alejo's temple and cheeks. Warm, but not feverish, so itreally was just exhaustion. All the climbing, walking, arcana,fear, and adrenaline had taken him right out.
His father would strangle him for being socavalier with a delicate human.
Leaving Alejo to rest, he fetched his phoneand texted Harold and Jones a quick summary of all that hadhappened and that he was home again for at least a day or two.
