Page 191 of A Dagger of Ice and Intrigue
But time was against me.
Us.
We needed to act. Fast.
I could have lied. I could have done what I always did, protect everyone alone.
It would have made more strategic sense.
Not even the gods would have blamed me for hiding this mystery from a former enemy. Even one as formidable as Allie.
But I simply didn’t want to.
“Because I’m leaving for the crater’s entry point tomorrow,” I said. “And I want you to come with me.”
Chapter
Forty
ALLIE
Time fractured as I soaked in what he was offering.
One way in.
One way out.
The only access point which could doom this protected, isolated realm, which had been kept a secret from the outside for generations.
In the Clan world, trust was the most dangerous of gambles.
And this…this was the rarest of those precious wagers.
I heard the unspoken worry in those words.
Can I show you?
Can I trust you not to use this against me?
That was a mighty responsibility.
The kind I’d been trained and raised for.
“I’m coming.” I didn’t waver for a second, even as the memories of those voices skittered up my spine, embedding themselves at the edge of my skull, chilling me to the bone.
Fear was there, so potent, I felt it on the tip of my tongue. Acrid. Metallic. Death.
But Ryker managed to soothe those monsters away. He brought my hands to his lips and kissed my knuckles reverently, closing his eyes.
The ice began to thaw as his lips heated my skin.
No more was said for a long time. We stood there, enmeshed in a lovers embrace, but trapped in the middle of political chaos.
“Why do you want to visit the entry?” I asked. “Reinforce it?”
“Study it.” He raised his head, looking reluctant to stop tasting my skin, even in such a simple way. “The star is bleeding. The magic veins are too deep in the ground to be accessed. Nobody has been able to find them all. But the tunnel is protected by the same magic. If there is a wound, that’s the likeliest spot.”
“The voices…” I gulped deeply. “They were horrendous.”
