Skyla Dawn Cameron - [Livi Talbot 05] - Yampellec's Idol (retail) by Skyla Dawn Cameron

Author:Skyla Dawn Cameron [Cameron, Skyla Dawn]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2022-05-08T16:00:00+00:00

18

A Conquistador’s Grave

Iluka shouting my name was lost in the sound of the ground crumbling.

I thrust down with the branch, caught something with it—no idea what, wasn’t looking, just had to get up—and launched myself forward with the momentum like a pole vault. Hands thrown out, heart in my throat, grasping for anything—

My fingers caught a jagged board.

I latched on, feet kicking and scrambling to gain purchase below, and screamed from the effort as I got a toehold to brace against and fingers squeezed the board. The wood groaned, and I fought not to close my eyes and pray to deities I didn’t believe in—I could do that later, just had to get up and out.

Iluka landed to my right and ahead of me, immediately dropping to his knees to grasp my wrist. While that didn’t entice me to let go, it helped to have him latched on and pulling while I tried to get my arms up higher. He leaned over and snagged the strap of my pack, tugging me up so I could get my elbows on solid ground and pull up the rest of me.

Once on my knees above, I dropped forward, heaving great panting breaths in time with my galloping heartbeat, and tried to calm myself again. Sweat slicked under my hardhat and dripped into my eyes, and I tore off the mask so I could breathe unobstructed—potential air risks be damned.

“Liv...” His hands were on my back; it sounded and felt like he was leaning over me, holding onto me, but I just let my eyes close and breathed there for a moment, all the dank mustiness filling my nose.

You fall, I fall.

Fuck, why wouldn’t he just get out of my head?

I sat up abruptly. Iluka fell back, out of my way, and my sudden movement left the air briefly cooling my sweaty face.

He sat on his heels and tipped his head toward the pit we’d crossed. “Small platform in the middle. You were saying about a lack of sophistication?”

I glanced over to see—that was what my branch had caught to thrust me forward, the narrow wall separating the two smaller pits. It had wedged right down the middle, and if this pit had been any wider, I’d be impaled.

Happy thoughts.

“You told me so,” I said. “I get it.”

“Liv!” Thomas boomed from the other end, his echo bouncing along the walls of the narrow passage. “Liv!”

“No one calls for me,” Iluka said thoughtfully.

“You’re not the one paying them.” I raised my voice. “We’re fine. Lost the branch but might’ve found that final pit the hard way.”

“Doesn’t look like it was the last one.” Iluka pointed ahead of us.

I followed the gesture several feet ahead where my headlamp caught the edge of a pit already collapsed—and beyond it, the dusty dead end of the tunnel.

“The wood must’ve rotted,” he said as we climbed to our feet.

I stepped forward and looked down into the other pit. “Or...maybe not.”

The pit had an occupant.

Bone was bright and white against

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