“Break through one for me.” She walked toward the vent. “We’re going through.”
“What?”
“Our options are not good.” She walked to the round shaft and smelled the fresh air flowing into the room. “This is why the air is fresh everywhere.”
“Yes. Tenzin, you may fit through these ventilation shafts, but I don’t think there’s any way—”
“We couldn’t do it with Ben.” She examined the earth vampire, who was built in far more slender proportions though his height was substantial. “His shoulders are much broader than yours.”
“You shameless flatterer.” Daniel had his hands on the wall, shifting the stone to create a channel large enough for Tenzin to fit through. “Whatever will Ben say?”
“He’ll say nothing, because he’s with Saba.”
“Wait. That was Saba back there?” Daniel was gobsmacked. “I thought you were talking about who was following… How did she get—?”
“You think she doesn’t know these tunnels?” Tenzin shoved Daniel to the side as soon as the shaft was clear. “Give me your hands. We need to get out of here and back to Bêta Merkorios.”
“Why?”
Tenzin climbed into the ventilation chamber and floated there, taking a deep, longing breath of the fresh air and the promise of sky. “Just give me your hands.”
Daniel glanced down into what looked like an endless hole. “If you drop me…”
“I’m not going to drop you!” she hissed. “He’s almost here.”
Daniel tossed the rope candle into the black hole where Tenzin was hovering.
It fell, and it kept falling.
“Fuck me…” Daniel groaned. “Tenzin—”
“We do not have time for any other options.” She could smell the smoke of Arosh’s amnis and knew they had to hurry. She hung upside down and reached for his hands. “Saba has Ben isolated with that scroll. The night sky knows what she’s doing to him or saying to him. Just before the door closed, he said we were back under Merkorios. We have to get under that church and get him away from her.”
Daniel thrust his arms into the empty shaft; Tenzin grabbed his wrists and jerked him into the stone hollow just as a lick of fire crept around the doorway of the cave where they’d been hiding.
“Tenzin!”
She ignored the Fire King’s enraged voice as she held Daniel’s wrists in her hands, pointed her feet upward, and closed her eyes.
“What the hell are you doing, Tenzin!” Daniel was panicking.
“There’s not enough room for us to fly side by side.” She closed her eyes and asked the wind to guide her. “And I can’t turn around in this space. Don’t look down; just trust me.”
She had to hold on to his wrists and back them out, wiggling through the narrow parts of the passageway and pulling Daniel behind her. She could feel him subtly shaping the rock to clear the passage in the tightest spots.
“Do you smell that?”
Tenzin hadn’t been paying attention to anything but the shape of the air around her, the expanse and shape of the void, and the nascent bond she could feel from Ben’s blood in her system. “What?”
“It smells like bread.”
“The sacred bakery?” She reached out with her amnis, searching for heat and the scent of bread. “I think I can get us there.”
“Just don’t land us in the middle of an oven or something.”
“Don’t be ridiculous.” She twisted through the last of the passageway until she felt her feet hitting stone. Above that stone, there were footfalls that spoke of humans walking back and forth above her. “Daniel?”
“Yes?”
“I think I feel a door of some kind, but it’s stone.”
“Is there air around it?” he asked.
“Yes. It’s not a perfect seal.”
“Then you can get it open.” He squeezed her hands. “You don’t know stone, but you know air, right?”
“Right.” Tenzin felt the fine tendrils of air that whispered along the seams of the rock and focused on them, pushing more and more air into those crevices until she heard the rock move.
“Yes. You’re doing it, Tenzin.”
“With my feet.”
“With nothing, you brilliant woman.” The smile was in his voice. “Keep going.”
“Can you widen it?”
“If I widen it, it will fall and probably give us a very nasty bump on the head, darling. I think your way is far more promising.”
“Okay.” It was slow, but it was working. She felt the stone creak as it gave way, and small pebbles and particles rained down on them, falling into her nose and eyes.
Daniel coughed and sneezed when the dust reached him. “Almost there.”
Almost there.
Almost to Benjamin.
And if Saba had harmed him, Tenzin would be going to war.
36
Ben stalked around the room, which smelled of earth and decay, his eyes locked on Saba, who sat on a stone bench, waiting with an enigmatic smile.
She’d placed candles around the room, so he could see her clearly, and his teenage memory hadn’t done her justice.
Objectively, she was the most beautiful woman he had ever seen. Her features were dramatic, and her jawline and cheekbones looked as if they’d been sculpted from marble. Her skin was the color of dark mahogany, and her eyes were so dark they appeared to be solid black. Her eyelashes were thicker than average people’s and curled around her eyes, framing them like kohl.
She wasn’t tall, but she was well proportioned and powerful with straight shoulders and a regal bearing.
Which made sense for the mother of the immortal race.
“Saba.” He finally spoke her name.
“Benjamin Amir Rios Vecchio,” she said, her voice resonant in the earthen chamber. “You are everything I wanted you to be.” Her eyes fell to the scroll. “Does it call to you?”
Ben had almost forgotten about the wildly dangerous object he was carrying around like a football. “No. It’s a scroll. I don’t think it has any of these rumored magical powers people are so excited about.” He was trying to keep focused, but he couldn’t keep from blurting out, “You ordered me injured so badly that I would have to turn.”
Saba sat back, her shoulders resting against the wall. “Yes.”
Ben nearly sputtered he was so angry. “Just… Yes. Yep! Sure did. You wanted to end my fucking life, so you did. Is that who you are? A murderer? I thought that you were… I don’t know. Greater somehow. Above all the stupid shit that modern people worry about. I thought you were wise. What the fuck did I ever do to you, Saba?”
She cocked her head and frowned a little. “Are you angry?”
Ben finally paused in his pacing. “Um, am I angry that you ordered a fucking sword put through my body so that I would have no choice but to become a vampire? Yes, I’m a little angry about that.”
She nodded. “But just a little.”
Ben rubbed a hand over his face. “Oh my God, you’re worse than she is about the literal stuff.”