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Sharpe notices my tension and steps closer, his hand returning to my back. “Everything alright?”
I nod and force a smile. “Just a little cold. No big deal.”
Unconvinced, Sharpe’s touch drops from my back, and he laces our fingers together. “I won’t let anything happen to you. The tunnels are safe now.”
I squeeze his hand in thanks, but despite his reassurance, my unease refuses to dissipate. The memories of being trapped underground with Darius, blocked off by collapsed passages and twisted roots, resurface like unwelcome ghosts every time I come down here.
Claustrophobia tightens its grip, the shadows closing in.
“Let’s speed things up.” Sharpe steps to the side, our linked hands drawing me to follow. “We can splurge on a scooter.”
While a golf cart won’t fit down here, a third of the tunnel is sectioned off, and an enterprising demon rents out electric scooters.
With how expensive they are, the line is short, and Sharpe soon presses a gold coin into the vendor’s hand in exchange for a child’s toy.
He holds it upright and gestures for me to take the front before climbing onto the back, wrapping his arms around me. “I’ll keep you warm.”
The heat of his body chases away the feeling of claustrophobia, and I grip the handlebars. “Don’t fall off!”
His hold on me tightens as we shoot forward, and the heavy, magic-filled air whips by us.
With no exits between here and the Grave Yard, the scooter ahead of us zips along as fast as we do, ensuring there won’t be a traffic jam.
I spot a group of Bone Guards coming up on our left. “Better pick up the pace, slowpokes, or you’re buying the drinks!”
Good-natured boos chase after us as we zip past them, and Sharpe’s laugh fills my ear.
“Woo!” I howl as their voices grow distant. “There’s no way we’ll be last to arrive!”
Sharpe’s chin rests on my shoulder. “We should buy a motorcycle. You’d love it.”
Enjoying the cool wind on my flushed cheeks, I bump my ass against him. “Don’t tempt me!”
All too soon, we pass a caution sign telling us to slow down. Around the next curve, a red stop sign comes up, along with the vendor on this end, ready to reclaim the scooter.
Sad that it’s over already, I glide to a halt at the thick, white line painted on the floor, and we disembark. For a kid’s toy, these sure are fun.
Sharpe catches my hand once more, and we walk toward the stairs up ahead that lead out of the tunnel, into the newer section of the demon-owned city.
The Grave Yard appeared overnight in the torn earth left by the rise of the second Bone Man, a creature far bigger and deadlier than the one that lived within the stone walls.
Without the need to convert pre-existing buildings, this part of the Yard is even more alien, with few touches of humanity dictating the form and function.
It reminds me of the citadel in the Wasteland, the structures brought to life by imagination given life through magic. It makes the area ever-changing, with only the solid cobblestone streets defining order.
Dubbed the Grave Yard, it’s the only nod to the mass burial ground that gave life to the Bone Man. All other traces of death were eradicated, replaced with spindly spires and shops shaped like trees.
The earthiness of pine and sap from the forest that surrounds the Grave Yard’s wall pushes back the heavy ozone that clings to us from the tunnels.
I take a deep breath of moist, ozone-heavy air to clear my lungs as we head toward Darius’s tailoring business.
We cross a short bridge, waves of heat rising from the oozing pool of lava that flows under it. On the other side, the stones become black with threads of gold as we enter the section of the city populated by fire beings.
Even though Darius can’t return to the Black Mountains of his birth, a small part of it now lives here on the human plane.
As we approach Darius’s shop, we find him guiding the last customer of the day out, a spider-like demon with multiple arms.
Darius nods at us, his burgundy hair catching the ambient light as he locks the front door.
