Midnight's Seduction (21 page)

Camdyn straightened and rubbed his hand over his jaw as he tried to get control of his heart pounding in his chest. “There’s just three more stones to find.”

“Three?”

He heard the horror in her voice and gave a hard nod. “Aye, and I’ll get you through them. The next one is two to the left and two up.”

“You know they didn’t exactly place these so they’re in order.”

“I know. Count the ones in the row first.”

She threw up her hands, but did as he asked. She leaned as far to the left as she could. “One … two.”

“Nay. Doona count that small one after the first one. It’s part of a larger stone behind you.”

Saffron’s nostrils flared as she gave him a hard look. “Fine. Then that means the second one is there,” she said and pointed.

“Aye. Now, two up,” he coaxed.

She squatted down to try to see. “Are there any stones I shouldn’t be counting?”

Most of them, but he didn’t want to frighten her more than she already was.

“Screw it. Here goes nothing,” she said as she stood and took the step.

Camdyn knew the instant before she chose the stone that it was the wrong one. “The next one up!” he shouted.

With her nimble feet she was able to quickly move to the right stone with her other foot. Yet, the entire area of the trap began to tremble and rock.

“Give me your hand,” Camdyn called.

She stretched out her hand, but she was still too far away.

The stones began to crack and fall away around her, and Camdyn knew he had to do something quickly. He took a few steps back, his eyes trained on her.

Then he ran and leaped into the air. He planted a foot on the right-hand wall and shifted his momentum to the opposite wall. When he did, he grabbed Saffron up in his arms as he pushed off from the wall.

They landed where he had been waiting for her as the stones fell away to leave a huge gap in the floor.

But Camdyn’s attention was on Saffron. He held her, his arms wrapped tightly around her while her head was buried in his neck, and she trembled in his arms.

“I’m not going to live through this, am I?” she whispered.

Camdyn cupped the back of her head. “Aye, you are. I willna let anything happen to you.”

“Some things are out of your control.”

“Some things are no’.” He pulled back to look at her and saw her exhaustion.

He lifted her in his arms and started down the hallway. Camdyn wanted to find a place where she could rest. He didn’t want to think about how right it felt to have her head on his shoulder or her arms around his neck.

He didn’t want to think about how right it felt that he was the one protecting her.

Camdyn turned the corner and paused. The air seemed clearer. There was a spot in the corner where water didn’t seep through the stones.

He set Saffron down and sighed. She needed a fire, but there wasn’t any wood, nor a place for the smoke to vent to either.

“Sit,” she said, and patted the spot beside her.

Camdyn did as she asked, thinking he’d only help keep her warm.

And knew it for the lie that it was.

CHAPTER

TWENTY-THREE

Fallon paced from one doorway to another, his gaze going again and again to the entry where Saffron and Camdyn had ventured through.

“They’ll be all right,” Hayden said.

Fallon raked a hand through his hair. “I hope you’re right. I just wish we were there to help them.”

“So do I,” Larena said as she pulled him down to sit beside her. “Wearing a hole in these stones as you pace isn’t going to help them though.”

“There has to be another way to get to Laria,” Arran said as he punched a stone.

The rain of the rock falling onto the stone floor echoed around the cavern.

“We’ll awaken Laria,” Logan said.

Broc grinned. “And watch her defeat Deirdre.”

Fallon met his brothers’ gazes. If for some reason Camdyn and Saffron failed, their one and only way to kill Deirdre was gone.

After all the heartache and death Deirdre had given them, Fallon wanted her to suffer as they had suffered. He wanted her to feel the pain as they had felt pain.

Fallon kissed the back of Larena’s hand. They had waited over four centuries to have their gods bound so they could have children and have the family both so desperately wanted.

Larena smiled sadly, her gaze telling him she knew exactly what he was thinking. They had spoken many times about the family and the future they wanted.

Now everything rested in Camdyn and Saffron’s hands.

Fallon was a doer. He didn’t like waiting for someone to do a job for him, yet in this instance, he had no other choice. The magic wouldn’t let any of them pass to follow Camdyn and Saffron.

Dani had used her magic to look into each doorway. She had been insistent that none of them force their way into any of the other doorways. What awaited them if they did Fallon didn’t know. And he’d rather not find out.

*   *   *

Camdyn wasn’t surprised when Saffron fell asleep almost immediately. Her head had lolled to the side to rest on his shoulder.

He would have been content to stay just like that if he hadn’t felt a shudder run through her. The water might not have been leaking through the stones there, but the air was damp and cool.

Camdyn shifted so that he wrapped an arm around her and pulled her tighter against his body. She slept like the dead after that.

All the while, his thoughts went over everything they had endured since stepping into the labyrinth. If it was any indication, there was more in store for them. How much more was the question.

There were three more artifacts to use. Which meant three more perils at least. Could his heart take it? He knew it couldn’t. Every time Saffron’s life was threatened, he felt it like a blade in his gut.

He was responsible for her safety. He alone. Before, he might have been looking out for her, but then again so had the others. If she died, it would be his fault.

Camdyn didn’t know how long he sat there with that mind-numbing thought rolling through his mind. But the next time he glanced down, Saffron was staring at him.

“What’s wrong?” she asked.

Her voice, rough and seductively low from sleep, sent heat pooling into his aching cock. “No’ a thing.”

She sat up and yawned before raising her arms over her head and stretching, her back arched so that her jacket parted and her breasts pushed forward.

Camdyn tried to look away, but desire had him in its grip. And it wasn’t letting go.

“You’re a very bad liar,” Saffron said with another yawn. “How long did I sleep?”

He shrugged and hurriedly rose to his feet. The fact he missed having her pressed against him, her scent filling his senses, he did his damnedest to ignore. “I doona know.”

“We need to get moving, I suppose.”

“Nay,” he said, and held out his palm to stop her from rising. “Eat something. You need to keep your strength up.”

The fact she didn’t argue with him told him she must be starving. While she pulled yet another bar from her jacket and peeled back the wrapper, Camdyn looked down the hallway to where they had to go.

“The labyrinth is taking back the artifacts,” Saffron said around a bite of food.

Camdyn turned his head to her. “What do you mean?”

“I mean that every artifact we’ve brought down here that’s been used has been taken back by the labyrinth. The next three will have to be used in that same fashion, is my guess.”

Camdyn nodded. “Of course. We have the Tablet of Orn—”

“That’s not really a tablet,” Saffron interjected.

“True. It’s a cylinder case. Then there is the cylinder that was inside the Tablet of Orn.”

She wiped her mouth with the back of her hand. “And the key.”

“Aye. The key. That could be used in any number of ways. It’s the other two artifacts that have me thinking.”

The crinkle of the wrapper as she wadded it in her hand and stuffed it in her pocket drew his attention. “Let’s find out, shall we?”

Camdyn’s appreciation for her courage and fortitude rose. He should have known she would rise to the occasion. She was a strong, independent, and amazing woman.

He waited until she caught up with him before he started down the corridor. The tunnel narrowed, forcing Camdyn to have to turn his shoulders to be able to fit through.

“I have a feeling this won’t lead to anything good,” Saffron said.

“Has anything else?”

She gave a snort of laughter. “No. I thought getting us into the maze would have been the greatest feat. But, come on. It should be easier to find and wake Laria than this.”

“The Druids never did anything halfway. They wanted to be sure Deirdre wouldna be able to get to her sister.”

“They certainly succeeded. We’re lucky to have gotten this far. What if there hadn’t been any more Druids in the world? Did they think of that when they built this? Nope. Then were would we be? In this shit, that’s where.”

Camdyn coughed to cover his laugh. She was agitated, which anyone would be, but he knew women well enough not to let them know he found their annoyance humorous.

He kept in front of her to knock away the spiderwebs he found blocking their way. If she was afraid of being belowground, then spiders could very well send her over the brink.

“Ick,” he heard behind him. Then it turned into a gasp before he felt her rubbing her hand back and forth on his back.

“What?” he asked as he turned around.

“I … I…” she stuttered as she tried to get something off her hand.

It was obvious by the way her eyes had grown large that she was indeed afraid of spiders. Camdyn saw the web and hurried to help her in order to keep her calm.

“There,” he said when it was off her hand and arm. He looked up to tell her not to be worried when he saw the spider on her shoulder.

He inwardly groaned as his mind raced to come up with a way to get it off Saffron without her knowing it. The fact they were in a cramped tunnel didn’t help.

“I need to get out of here,” she said as she pushed against him. “Keep going. If there’s a web, there’s a spider, and I don’t want it anywhere near me.”

“Why be afraid of a little insect?” Although he had to admit, the one crawling on her was anything but little.

She shuddered, her face scrunching in horror. “All those hairy legs crawling. And the eyes.” Saffron scratched her head. “Just thinking about them makes me feel as if they’re crawling all over me. Are they crawling on me? I know they’re crawling on me. I have to get them off. Get them off!”

Her hysteria grew with every word, and Camdyn had no idea what to do. He didn’t want to tell her about the spider and make things worse, but neither could he ignore the fact that it sat on her shoulder.

Since the spider was getting closer to her neck, Camdyn knew he needed to do something immediately. He flicked it with his hands and pulled at her hair.

“What?” she screamed and tried to get away, only succeeding in bumping into the wall. “Do I have one on me? Oh, God, please tell me it’s not on me.”

“It’s no’,” Camdyn answered with all honestly. “Just a bit of webbing in your hair.”

She gave him another hard push. “Thank you, but I really need to move away from this place. Now. Move!”

Camdyn faced forward again and continued along the tunnel, his shoulders constantly hitting the wall, even though his torso was turned sideways. He grinned at her demand to get moving. She really was afraid of spiders.

He was thankful that he had got the spider off Saffron before she noticed it. As scared as she was, she’d probably have climbed over him to get away from it.

“Declan used them against me,” she said softly into the silence.

“When we found you, you thought they were crawling on you.”

“Before he took my sight, that was one of the ways he tortured me. He knew it was the one thing I was truly petrified of. I always have been, even as a little girl. He had them all over me, and the spell used was one where I couldn’t move. It was horrific. I cannot even look at spiders now.”

Camdyn was rapidly beginning to hate Declan as much as he did Deirdre. “Larena said when she first discovered Declan was keeping you that you thought the spiders were on you. But they weren’t. He knew it would scare you.”

“Is it wrong that I want to find his greatest fear and make him suffer again and again?”

Camdyn glanced at her. “Nay.”

“I want to kill him.”

“As I want to kill Deirdre.”

There was a pregnant pause before Saffron asked, “Did Deirdre hurt you the way Declan hurt me?”

Camdyn sighed. “Deirdre is evil like Declan, but Deirdre came from a different time. She did things differently. Declan tortured you, but Deirdre had nothing stopping her from killing our families if we didna do as she wanted.”

“Did she…?”

Camdyn rubbed the back of his neck. “It’s a long story.”

“I suspect we have enough time.”

He opened his mouth to begin the tale when the tunnel suddenly widened and torches flared to life.

“This place gets freakier and freakier,” Saffron said as she peered around his arm.

The light danced upon the wall, flickering over the stones in a wild dance. Camdyn let his gaze slowly move around the widened part of the tunnel. “It gets narrower ahead.”

“Ah, but is that where we’re supposed to go? Look,” she said and nudged his left side.

He followed her finger as she pointed to the wall.

“It looks like the stone has been hollowed out in the shape of a cross.”

Camdyn made his way to the cross and peered at the stone. “It’s a Celtic cross,” he told her. “See the carvings?”

“Stunning,” she said as she ran her finger along the markings.

“But why hollow out the cross? Why no’ just carve the cross as they did the knotwork?”

She fumbled in her pocket and produced the Tablet of Orn with its gold cylinder. “Maybe because this goes in there?”

Camdyn looked from the Tablet of Orn to the cross. Both the horizontal and vertical areas of the cross were the same exact shape. “Aye. But which way?”

“Just once I’d like them to make this easy,” she muttered.

Camdyn had to agree with her. He spotted something in the hollowed stone. “Look. There’s something here.”