Korrin

KORRIN

I stirred awake slowly, my arms still wrapped possessively around Denna's slumbering form. The need to claim her, to keep her as mine and mine alone, lingered even as sleep's haze dissipated. Carefully, reluctantly, I disentangled myself.

My heart clenched at the claw marks marring her pale skin. Not deep, but numerous. Bruises in the shape of large, brutal handprints painted her hips. With a feather-light touch, I brushed her tangled hair back from her face, not wanting to wake her.

She could have been seriously hurt. My Valti didn't grasp that human females were delicate, fragile. Nor did he seem to care. Right now, I sensed little of his presence. He rested, sated and quiescent, in the recesses of my mind.

Unease churned in my gut. My recollection of our joining was dim and dreamlike, but I knew it had been rough. Savage, even.

I was torn between the satisfaction of claiming my mate and the horror at my lack of control. How could I protect Denna if I couldn't even protect her from myself?

I ran my hands lightly over her, and she sighed sweetly as she rolled in her sleep, a gentle smile on her lips. My chest unbound. No deeper injuries, then.

I sat up, gingerly testing my injured leg. The restorative sleep had done its work—while lingering soreness remained, the pain was gone. My knee flexed smoothly, my ankle bore weight with only minor protest.

Rising, I headed for the lakeshore, seeking the soothing heat of the mineral-rich waters. Only belatedly did I realize I'd left my walking stick behind, unneeded.

Wading in, I marveled at the muddy bottom, almost unbearably hot against the soles of my feet. What manner of fire boiled beneath this place? I sank into the water, wincing as it scalded my skin before my body adjusted.

Surfacing, I pushed dripping hair back from my face, blinking stinging water from my eyes...and startled as gentle hands landed on my shoulders. Denna stood before me, naked and glorious, the necklace that had drawn us together now serving to draw my eyes to her breasts, brow creased and lips pressed tight.

"Are you angry with me?" Her voice was tentative, almost meek. It didn't suit her.

"I should ask you that," I answered as I pulled her to me. "The Valti...it doesn't understand concepts like gentleness or restraint." I continued slowly, tasting the words, trying to articulate the drives of my other half. "It is selfish, ravenous, straining against its fetters, seeking to run rampant. In my case, it has physical form...but in truth, everyone has a Valti. A needy, impulsive shadow-self that craves its own gratification above all else."

I met her gaze squarely, trying to impart my hard-won understanding.

"We hide it, deny it, ashamed of its primal hungers. But to forever quash it is the path to madness. I'd say you set a bit of your own Valti free last night, tempting my beast as you did."

Denna looked away, shoulders tensing. "Why do you say that?"

"Because here you stand with me, chest-deep in the very heated water you profess to loathe."

Her lips quirked, a rueful half-smile. "Perhaps I merely wanted to soothe my...battle wounds."

"Or perhaps shattering your fetters, even briefly, has emboldened you," I countered softly.

She absorbed that, worrying her lower lip between small white teeth. "You make me feel bold, . Brave in a way I've never been before."

Gripping her shoulders, I ducked my head to hold her gaze. "You are the most dauntless woman I've ever met. There is a fire in you I would gladly worship."

Her eyes sparked with something dangerous and thrilling. Challenge and invitation. "Then fan my flames."

I hauled her against me, reveling in the slide of slick skin on skin. "The Valti had its turn in the darkness. Now the man will have his in the light."

Much later, drowsing in our crude shelter, I watched Denna dress through hooded eyes. The way she smoothed her rumpled robe, tugged on boots over lithe calves, buckled her sword belt with deft, economical motions. Donning her armor literally and figuratively.

I pushed to my feet, began dressing myself. "I'm ready to be shut of this place. My leg is healed enough."

She cast one last long glance over her shoulder as we set out, face pensive. "Eerie as it is, I'll miss it. Is that strange?"

"No," I assured her, letting calloused fingertips graze the delicate skin of her inner wrist. "This place is...significant for us both. I won't soon forget it, either."

She didn't pull away from the caress.

We stood in silence, the weight of our journey ahead pressing against the cocoon of safety we'd found in this underground haven. Part of me longed to stay, to explore this newfound connection between us without the looming threat of our mission.

But I saw the same resolve hardening in Denna's eyes that I felt in my own heart. We had come too far, risked too much, to falter now. With a shared nod of understanding, we turned our attention back to the task at hand, the warmth of our touch lingering as a silent promise of what awaited us when our quest was done.

Denna led around the lakeshore, picking her way across the mist-shrouded ground. Structures materialized out of the gloom, ponderous and ancient. She touched the weathered stone flank of one as we passed. "Here...I think this is the one with the stone tub inside. Everything else crumbled to dust."

"And the road?" I asked, eager to be gone.

She pointed. I squinted, just making out the dim outlines of paving stones set flush with the earth, leading around the structure to the next.

"I followed them as far as I could, but they only led to the last standing building."

I frowned, pacing the circumference of the final edifice. No other stones were evident. "Could the rest have disintegrated over the centuries?"

Denna bit her lip, considering. "The buildings are of similar composition and still stand. Only organic materials seem to have decayed here."

My eyes tracked back the way we'd come. The path seemed to originate at the lake edge, not continue past it as logic suggested.

"If these buildings cluster so close to the water, why construct a redundant road to it?"

She shrugged helplessly, but my mind whirled with possibilities.

I had a hunch. A reckless, half-formed inkling. Stripping off my clothes, I ignored Denna's startled yelp of protest and plunged into the water, gasping as the scalding heat engulfed me.

Kicking hard, I dove, squinting through the churning sediment.

The mineral-rich water stung my eyes, and strange, ghostly shapes of submerged structures loomed in the murky depths.

There, nearly obscured...regularly spaced marks. Stonework? A submerged causeway, perhaps serving some long ago age when the lake was far shallower?

Lungs straining, I surfaced near a jutting spar of rock, sucking in great whooping breaths. Denna crouched at the water's edge, hands extended in alarm. ", what?—"

"I think...I found...the reason...for the road," I panted. "And I'm afraid it means another soaking for us both."

Before she demanded an explanation, I launched myself back into the water, striking out with powerful strokes for the stone protrusion I'd spotted from below.

It came into focus as I approached—not a natural formation, but a hewn slab.

A frame of some kind, set right into the steep side of the submerged bank. The inky blackness visible through the opening hinted at depths beyond.

I swam closer, squinting into the narrow gap. Was that a faint gleam ahead, a suggestion of an air pocket?

Only one way to find out. Sucking in a massive breath, I squirmed into the opening...and nearly cracked my skull on unyielding rock above as it forced me under.

Kicking hard, I swam blind, one hand extended, until my questing fingers broke the surface. I surged upward, expelling stale bubbles as sweet air rushed in to replace them.

More blackness greeted me—I'd emerged in a pocket of pure darkness. The faintest phosphorescent glow behind me suggested the opening was the only source of light. I treaded water, straining to get my bearings but there was only utter darkness.

Filling my lungs again, I swam back to where I had started.

Denna stood on the edge, putting a hand on her chest as I rose. "I thought you were tangled in roots."

"There is a cave just below the road," I said, gulping air. "The path is a way from the water, not to it."

"A cave with air to breathe?"

I nodded. "Do you still have those glowing crystals?"

"Aye." She took them from her belt pouch.

"We'll want them." Then I found a place to climb back out of the water. "Looks like we're going to get wet."

"Do you really think you found the way out?"

I shook water off me. "It could be that the ancients who built these structures were amphibious."

"Even so, they would still need air," she said. Denna sat on a rock, removing her boots.

Suppressing a smile at her eagerness, I wrapped my things with hers, fastening our swords securely within and tied the bundle around my chest.

She moved to the edge of the bank and jumped in.

"Let's go," she said, spitting water as she rose.

I leapt in beside her, then swam to float above the doorway. "Let me have a glowing stone that I might lead the way."

Denna handed one over.

"Take a few deep breaths. Let me know when you're ready."

She breathed deeply. "I'm ready now."

"Follow me." I sank back down, searching the bank for the dark hexagon. Thick stone edges appeared, limned with the stone's glow.

Casting a look behind, I saw her swimming toward me.

I crossed the threshold. Moved out of the way. Surfaced.

In a moment, her head bobbed up beside me.

"It angles up," she pointed.

Now, with the glow rocks in hand, I could make out a rocky ceiling slanting upward.

Half wading, half swimming, we followed the rising cave. We reached a spot where the ceiling vanished into darkness. "This must be beyond the wall of the cavern."

"Do you see a way up?" Denna asked.

We continued on. Bit by bit, our bodies rose from the water. Eventually, we walked up a slope, another water's edge.

Denna immediately began examining the walls, her fingers tracing faint, worn carvings I hadn't noticed. ", look at this," she whispered excitedly.

The weathered stone bore faint traces of intricate carvings, depicting scenes I couldn't quite decipher. Whoever built this place, their culture was far more advanced than I had imagined.

"Caves within caves," Denna said. "How do we find the way?"

"I can't feel the touch of a breeze," I said, turning my wet body.

Denna faced the other way. "I do feel something. Heat."

"The source of the hot lake?" I wondered aloud.

"I can't say," she said. "But the floor does slope up. And we did pass a heated section on our way down."

I remembered. It seemed like years ago.

"Might as well try that way. At the least, we can get our things dry again."