“I had no idea.” He sounded thrilled.
“You aren’t worried?”
“I’m not as familiar with fear as I once was.” There was a hint of deception to his voice, and I wondered why.
“That’s not true.”
He looked over his shoulder at me, his face cast mostly in shadow. “Last night, I feared for you.”
“Oh.” That was not what I’d been expecting.
Cursed Mate.
Did he have feelings for me? Was that the mate part of the equation? But what about the cursed part?
He turned back and continued, going deeper and deeper until we had to be underneath the city itself. There were no other tunnels leading off the main one, and the narrow darkness was starting to press in on me. I kept my eyes glued on the light.
“There are many tunnels beneath Guild City,” he said. “Most are managed by the Dwarves. This one must be deeper to avoid intersecting.”
“Wow.”
Ahead, the Devil slowed. “Something happened here.”
I edged up behind him and peered over his shoulder. Spikes protruded from the walls, their tips stained dark red. I recoiled. “That’s blood.”
“Fresh blood.”
I looked again. The spikes protruded from each wall, hundreds of them, their tips touching. There were bits of fabric hanging from some of them where they’d torn at a person’s clothing. There were so many of them that they formed an impassable wall.
The Devil reached out and snapped one off.
“What are they made of?” I asked.
“Iron.”
He broke another, then another, creating a passage for us. Soon, it was completely open. I followed him through, reaching up for one of the taller ones to see if it really was iron.
It didn’t budge beneath my hands.
He shot me a grin over his shoulder. “Didn’t trust me?”
“I do now.”
He turned back, then faltered.
I stopped, mimicking his motions.
“One of them didn’t make it.”
Looking past him, I found a body sprawled in the hall. Blood pooled around it from the wounds. He’d gotten away from the spikes, but not soon enough.
“Let me.” I skirted the Devil and knelt by the dead man, keeping my gaze averted from the worst of the wounds. I searched his clothes and the area around him, finding nothing.
I laid my hand on him, trying to force myself to find something useful.
What are you planning?