Rye (Joyadan Mates Book 1)

by Sadie Carter

  Elika nodded. Made sense. As she grew closer, she heard something crackling. A sizzling noise that grew louder the closer she grew to the women. “Do you hear that?”

  “Hear what?” Rye asked.

  She jumped, startled to realize he was right beside her. “That crackling noise. There is definitely a ward set up.”

  “Like the ones Husan had you put up around his compound to keep people out?” Rye asked.

  “Yes, it is a protective barrier that keeps people out and in.”

  “Can you break it?” Steele asked.

  “I don’t know. I need to see it first. Give me some quiet.” She reached in deep for the magic she’d been building up since she’d escaped Husan. It was a long, slow task. She was weak and out of practice. It had taken a month for her to be able to perform anything more than the easiest of spells without fainting afterward.

  “Asain,” she muttered. See. The word burst from her, making her sway as pain swamped her, compressing her head.

  “Elika! Are you okay?” Rye stepped forward, but she waved him back as the ward appeared.

  “I’m fine. Can you see it?”

  “Yeah,” Steele replied. “What is it?”

  It was a kaleidoscope of colors. Red, purple, green, gray and gold swirled around.

  “It’s a Karem ward. Pretty simple spell, actually.”

  “A Karem ward?” Rye asked. “You can buy them on the black market. Never heard of an invisible one, though.”

  “No, this is more elaborate than the one’s commonly sold on the market. I guess the kidnappers commissioned this spell. There will be an object somewhere, where the barrier emanates from. Look for something small. It could be anything. It’s just an object the spell caster used to anchor the barrier. Destroy it, and you destroy the ward.”

  They spent the next ten minutes searching the cave from top to bottom.

  “Can’t see anything,” Steele said. “There’s nowhere in here that it can be hidden. We’ve looked everywhere.”

  “Not everywhere,” Elika said then turned to look at the slumped man on the ground. “I guess it has to be on him.”

  “I’ll check,” Rye said. “You wait here.”

  For once she was only too eager to do what he said. After a few tense moments, Rye returned with a large, flat stone in his hand. It was smooth and gleamed under the lights. “Think this could be it.”

  She reached for it, the sharp kick of its magic biting her as she touched it. She breathed her way through the magic. Slow and steady. In and out. Finally, she managed to force some words out. “Yes, this is it.”

  “So we just smash it, and the force field will drop?” Deacon asked.

  “In theory, yes.” She frowned. “But sometimes there are hidden traps in these. We won’t know until it’s broken.”

  “There’s no other choice?” Deacon asked.

  “None that I can think of. The spell is anchored to this stone. We smash it and deal with any after effects or we try to figure out the password. However, that could be anything.”

  “Doesn’t seem like we have much choice,” Steele said grimly.

  Rye nodded. “I’ll break it. Steele and Deacon, you prepare to grab the women and run. Elika, leave now. Zuma will see you as you leave the cave.

  Elika shook her head. “If anything goes wrong then I’m the best person to be here.”

  “I’m not arguing with you.”

  “Good, then continue.”

  “Elika,” he rumbled.

  “We don’t have time to discuss this, Rye,” she told him impatiently. “You know I’m speaking the truth. If it goes wrong, I might have some hope of containing whatever happens. The rest of you don’t.”

  “You don’t have any power in here.”

  “Much. I don’t have much power, but I have some stored up. Which is more than the rest of you. So just hurry up and smash that thing. Unless you want to leave and I will break it.”

  He glowered at her.

  “She’s right, Rye,” Steele said. “I know you want to protect her. But right now she’s our best protection. Now smash the damn thing.”

  Chapter Five

  What was she doing? This wasn’t her fight. She could just walk away, let Rye break the stone and deal with any consequences. Why was she arguing with him? She had only just gained her freedom, the chance at a life.

  And she was willing to risk all that?

  Seemed that she was. Because when she looked at those poor women, slumped together on the dirt ground, so helpless, it stirred something inside her. Elika had never been someone to help others. But she’d been where these women were, and it wasn’t a nice place to be.

  She had to help them.

  “Okay, let’s do this.”

  Elika readied herself. If things went wrong, then she didn’t know how much help she would actually be.

  Rye smashed the stone. For a long pause, the world seemed to still, nothing happening. Then suddenly, the ward disappeared.

  “Go!” Someone yelled. She wasn’t sure who, she was focused on trying to catch her breath. Because as soon as that ward dropped, magic flooded the cave. Dark magic that clawed at her, freezing her airways. A dark gray mist moved forward, slowly, silently. Frightening. Menacing.

  Where was it heading? The three women!

  “Something’s wrong,” she finally managed to scream as she threw her magic at the dark tendrils. They slowed, and she took another shallow breath. Then another. Once she’d been powerful. Once she would have been excited by this challenge.

  Now she was just terrified.

  Thankfully, none of the men argued, they just grabbed the women, threw them over their shoulders and raced down the tunnel. The mist crept forward once more.

  “Elika, come on!” Rye grabbed her arm, tugging at her.

  Frozen, she stared as the mist morphed into clawed hands. And reached straight for her.

  Just as it was about to touch her, Rye picked her up, slinging her over his shoulder, breaking her trance. She screamed.

  “God damn it, Elika. When I tell you to move, you move!” he roared.

  For once she didn’t even feel like biting back at him. She was just thankful he’d gotten to her before the mist had. Shivers racked her body as her heart beat raced. What would have happened if that dark magic had reached her?

  Thank the Goddess she didn’t have to find out.

  Suddenly, the ground trembled, throwing Rye from side to side. Large stones fell on her back, making her cry out.

  “What’s happening?” she cried out in fear.

  “Smashing that stone seems to have triggered an earthquake! We need to get out now!”

  Fear filled her as he raced forward.

  “Put me down,” she yelled. She was slowing him down; he could have been out by now.

  “No time! There’s the entrance.”

  She couldn’t see from where she lie hanging down his back, but the tunnel had lightened. They were so close.

  The ground groaned, a loud rumbling noise that sent shivers of terror through her body. Rye stumbled as he was thrown to one side. He threw her to the ground, covering her with his body.

  Rye concentrated on trying to calm his breathing. A large rock landed on his shoulder. Hot pain radiated through his back as he grunted, straining to hold himself as still as he could. He waited for the final blow. For the cave to collapse, crushing them. He knew it was pretty pointless to try and shield Elika, but he had to try.

  Finally, amazingly, the groaning noise stopped, and the ground ceased it’s terrible shaking. Still, he laid there for a moment, unsure if he should move or wait in case everything went to hell again. Elika stirred beneath him.

  Shit. She was probably squashed underneath his weight. He slowly rolled, biting back a groan of pain. His back had taken a hell of a beating from flying rocks. He’d be feeling this tomorrow.

  Provided he was still alive tomorrow.

  “Goddess,” she said, sitting up and glancing
around. “What-what happened?”

  Where the entrance used to be was now a pile of rocks. Rye’s stomach sank. There was no way they could dig themselves out. And that had been the only exit.

  He looked over at Elika, wishing it was light enough to make out her face. He must have dropped his glow stick. He reached into his pocket for the other glow stick. Empty. Shit. He started searching.

  “What are you doing?” she asked.

  “Looking for my second glow stick. It dropped out of my pocket.” He half-expected her to scoff or to simply sit there and watch him. Instead, she surprised him by getting on her hands and knees and searching around for him.

  “Here it is.” She shook it, and light flooded the area. She placed it on the ground then glanced over at him. Her hair was a mess, most of it had come free of that hideous bun she’d been wearing, falling around her face in soft waves. It softened the somewhat hard lines of her face. Dirt smudged her face, and her clothing was ripped and filthy.

  And he thought she’d never looked sexier.

  Fuck. What the hell was wrong with him? They were trapped in a tunnel that could collapse at any time, with no way out, no food, no water and he was thinking about fucking her?

  “Rye?”

  “Hmm?” He stood slowly, his shoulder aching, and examined the pile of rocks, looking for a way through.

  “What should we do? Shall we search for another way out?”

  Rye looked back through the tunnel at where they’d come from. Could they have missed another exit? He hadn’t seen any other branches leading off this cave. But maybe the earthquake had opened another way out?

  “This was the only exit.”

  “The only exit? But then we have to get out. We have to move these rocks.” Elika scrambled over to the pile of rocks, pushing against one of them.

  “Careful,” he snapped. “If you move one the rest will could down on us.” Not that he thought she could actually move one.

  “But we can’t stay here!” she cried out.

  “I don’t like it any better than you do. But until someone rescues us, we’re stuck.”

  “No. No. We can’t be.” She shook her head frantically as she ran her hands over the wall of rock. “There has to be a way out.”

  “Elika! Calm down.” The last thing he needed was for her to grow hysterical.

  “I can’t. We have to get out of here!”

  He grabbed her, wincing as the movement pulled at his sore shoulder. He turned her to face him. “Calm down. I don’t like being stuck in here any better than you do, but crying about it isn’t going to help.”

  “I am not crying!”

  No. But she didn’t look far off. Her eyes were wild, her breathing fast and shallow. Shit, was she close to another panic attack?

  “I know I’m the last person you want to be stuck in a small space with,” he said calmly, trying to be reassuring. “I feel the same way. But we’re just going to have to make the best of it. The others will find a way to rescue us.”

  He hoped. He glanced down at his communicator.

  “But we can’t, we can’t stay here. The darkness. It will come for us.”

  “Darkness? What darkness?” Had she hit her head? He studied her closely. Was she paranoid? A tremble shook her, and he took her hands in his.

  “You’re freezing.” He pulled off his coat and placed it over her shoulders.

  “Wha-what are you doing?”

  “Trying to warm you up.”

  “Didn’t you see it?”

  He felt for her pulse. It was going too fast.

  “Sit down.” He pushed her to sit, and for once, she didn’t argue. She really wasn’t herself. He crouched in front of her, taking hold of both her hands. “Talk to me. What darkness?”

  “When you smashed that stone, the cavern filled with this oppressive magic.” She shivered. “Bad magic. It started to creep its way towards the women. I managed to stop it to give them time to get out. But I didn’t have enough magic to push it back forever. It was reaching for me when you grabbed me.”

  “That’s why you didn’t listen to me when I said to run.”

  She blinked, stared up at him as though noticing properly for the first time in a while. “You picked me up. You saved me. Why? I slowed you down.”

  “No, you didn’t,” he replied automatically, even though she had.

  “You should have left me.”

  He gaped at her. “Left you? Are you insane?”

  “You’d be out by now. Not trapped in here with me.” She wrapped her arms around herself. “Why did you do that? You don’t even like me.”

  He didn’t. She was annoying, snappy, and a witch. He couldn’t trust her. Except she’d volunteered for this mission. She’d risked herself to save those women. She was hiding something, though. Sometimes it seemed like she was two different women and he wasn’t certain which one was the real Elika.

  “I was in charge of your safety.”

  Was that disappointment that flittered across her face? Impossible. She didn’t like him any more than he did her.

  “I’ll go see if that darkness is still there.” He wasn’t certain what she’d seen. Maybe her imagination had gone into overdrive, but there was no denying she was terrified.

  “No.” She grabbed his hands tight. “You can’t go down there. What if it gets you? What if you still can’t see it?”

  “All right.” He loosened his hands. Damn, she had a grip on her. “I won’t go down there.”

  She stared at him for a while as though trying to gauge whether he was telling the truth.

  “I promise, and I always keep my promises.”

  “Okay. Okay.” She nodded. “I should go, though. I should go.”

  He thought about if for a long moment. “Tell you what, we’ll both go. If you see the darkness, you tell me.”

  Rye didn’t know what the hell he would do, but he had to do something to ease her anxiety.

  “Alright.”

  Grabbing the light, he moved in front of her, keeping hold of her hand.

  “I should go first,” she insisted.

  No way in hell. “No.”

  “But I can see it.”

  “No.”

  “No is not a full answer,” she snapped.

  “Ah, there she is.”

  “There is who? I have been here all along.”

  “Yes, but for a moment there we almost had a pleasant conversation.”

  She ripped her hand from his, and he turned to face her. “Are you saying I am unpleasant?”

  “Hmm, let me think. Yep, pretty much.” He was deliberately provoking her. He’d rather have her snapping at him than scared and unsure.

  “You are the unpleasant one. You constantly snarl and snap at me. The other day you hit me!”

  “I didn’t hit you!” Although he did owe her an apology. “I smacked your ass.”

  “That is different?”

  “Yes, it is. I thought you had performed a spell on me.” And she’d scared him when he’d spotted her up on those rocks. “You had no business being up on those rocks. You could have seriously hurt yourself if you fell again.”

  “I did not perform a spell on you. That force field was for my safety, something you have no say over.”

  But he wanted to have a say. He ignored that thought. “I apologize for grabbing you like that. I didn’t mean to scare you.”

  “You did not scare me. You annoyed me. You have not liked me from the moment you saw me.”

  “I don’t trust witches.”

  “I cannot help what I am.” She glared at him then pointed her finger at him. “It is unfair to hate all witches because one hurt you.”

  “She didn’t hurt me.”

  “No? Then what is with all your anger towards me?”

  “Oh, that’s simply because of your winning personality, sweetheart,” he drawled, moving closer to her. His gaze zeroed in on her lips. “How come you’re sweet as pie with everyone else and bad-
tempered when it comes to me?”

  “I do not know what pie has to do with anything. But if I act any differently around you then it is your fault. Every time you speak to me, it is to order me around or scold me over something.”

  “That so, princess?”

  “You are very annoying.”

  “Ditto, sweetheart.” Damn it. There went that endearment again. She was a witch, he reminded herself. She was also a pain in the ass. He might have some weird attraction to her, but that didn’t mean he could trust her.

  “Yes, and you are bossy. I do not like the way you call me princess. I—”

  He leaned in, and pulling her closer, kissed her. At first, she stood frozen, but as he brushed his tongue against her lips, she opened her mouth, and he pushed his tongue into her mouth. When he drew back, her eyes were glazed, her breathing rapid.

  Then reality must have stepped in, and she took a big step back. She gaped at him. “Why did you do that?”

  He shrugged. “Good way to shut you up.” That wasn’t the truth. Not even close. And as hurt filled her face, he felt like a complete jerk. “And I wanted to. Come on, let’s go see if this damn mist is waiting for us.”

  He’d rather face some evil magic than deal with the feelings she brought out in him.

  Silently, they moved down the cave until they reached another pile of rocks. Shit.

  “Looks like we’re stuck.”

  “Yep. But the good news is there’s no darkness, right?” Had he really just said that? How did he know she hadn’t made this whole thing up to have a laugh at his expense?

  Because she couldn’t fake being that terrified.

  “Maybe it was crushed in the earthquake,” he suggested as he led the way back to the blocked entrance.

  “It was a mist. Pretty certain it can’t be crushed.”

  “Either way, it hasn’t come for us, so it probably won’t. Let’s not borrow trouble until it comes. We’ve got enough of that as it is.”

  They reached the pile of rocks covering the entrance, and she sat, drawing her legs up against her chest once more. She looked delicate. Scared. Rye paced back and forth across the tunnel.

  “Your pacing is making me nervous.”