“It’s fine.” He slipped the stone back into his pocket, shrugging. “The tunnels are old, that’s all. We just don’t want to disrupt the architecture.”
“Will we run into anyone else?” I asked.
“No.” Sebastian’s wing rubbed up against my shoulder in a comforting gesture. “There shouldn’t be anyone else down here. It’s the middle of the night, and the tunnels are usually only used during the day. But even if someone does come, I’ll keep you safe.”
His words sent a flurry of warmth through me, and my core tightened. I never would have thought of myself as one of those females who swooned over a male ready to fight someone for her, but apparently, I was wrong.
This moody vampire prince was making his way into my heart. With every passing day, it was becoming more and more difficult to see him as just an ally. He was my friend… and maybe something more?
It certainly felt like we could be something more.
As though he read my mind—something which, after spending weeks together, I was fairly certain he could not do—Sebastian pressed a kiss to the top of my head. I wanted to stop moving, to pull him against me and feel the press of those lips against mine.
Julieta’s death had already taught me a valuable lesson: life was too short. I couldn’t just sit around and wait for things to happen to me. I had already been forced into this marriage, and now, we were hunting a murderer. But if I waited for the right time for everything, there was a very real chance life would pass me by.
There was no right time in life. It was just the here and now.
I wanted to know how Sebastian kissed. Would he be gentle? Considerate? Would his lips be soft and kind against mine? Or was he all-consuming in the way that he loved?
Based on the way he already made me feel, I was fairly certain that kissing Sebastian would be like nothing I’d ever done before. I dreamed about the way his lips had felt when they brushed over my neck, the way he had pinned me against the wall in the alcove.
What did that say about me? My friend was dead, and I was dreaming about the way my husband’s lips would feel against mine. Some people would probably say I was coping. Others might take offense and say I should have been grieving Julieta.
I was fairly certain if I grieved her anymore, I would lose myself entirely. At least now, walking through the tunnel with Sebastian and dreaming about his lips on mine, I was moving. I was living. The numbness was out of sight. For now.
Sebastian was my ally, and we were going to find out what happened to Julieta. Allies didn’t kiss other allies, did they? I didn’t think that was the case. The way his hand gripped mine and his wings brushed against me didn’t feel like we were just allies.
I would have to pay attention the next time he kissed me. For research purposes, of course.
As we continued our trek, the structure of the tunnels changed. Interspersed between dark gray stones, as though someone had purposefully put them there, were long thin white strips.
At first, there were just a few of them, but soon, the majority of the tunnel was made up of the mysterious white material. I reached out with a hand to touch one of them when Sebastian pulled me back.
“I don’t think you want to do that, Luna,” he warned, tightening his grip around my hand.
I raised a brow, coming to a stop in front of one section of the wall.
Raising my lantern, I peered closely at it. “Why not? What kind of minerals make up that stone? I’ve never seen anything like it before.” When he didn’t answer, I asked, “Why don’t you want me to touch it?”
“It’s not that I don’t want you to,” he said. “I just… advise against it.”
I huffed. “That’s not a good enough reason. I want to know what they are.”
Sebastian released my hand, only to throw his arm over my shoulder.
He leaned close to me, his breath tickling the back of my neck, as he whispered, “Fine, then, darling.” The tone of his voice made my core tighten in ways that were definitely not appropriate, considering our surroundings. “Touch them. I just thought you might not like to because they, like me, used to be humans.”
Understanding flooded through me, and I gasped.
Bones.
They were bones.
Hundreds of skeletons, stripped of flesh, made up the structure of the tunnel. Now that I knew what the white strips were, I couldn’t believe I hadn’t figured it out earlier.
How many humans lost their lives to build these tunnels? I looked around. The walls, the ceiling, and even the floor beneath my feet were made of the same material. My stomach curled in on itself and I hastily pulled back my hand.
“That’s what I thought.” Sebastian chuckled darkly. “Come on, Luna. We need to keep going.”