“I’ve also gone to you and asked if you were up for us having a drink together, just you and me. You said no.”
Atticus snorted. “I’m supposed to cancelmyplans when you’re prepared to make time for me?”
“Okay,” Seneca cut in, shoving a hand between the two male Phoenixians. “Let’s just drop this once and for all.”
“Dropit?” echoed Atticus. “It doesn’t bother you that he avoids us?”
She sighed. “It’s not avoidance. He just made some friends and likes spending time with them. It’s natural.Youdid the same.”
“It’s different,” Atticus maintained. “I didn’t drop him when I befriended people, I just—” He jerked back when Talon crossed to him.
The Cardinal pointed to a spot a few feet away.
Outrage flared in Atticus’ gaze, but he obediently moved.
“If you were out here on patrol, you’d have given away your location and been so distracted by your own bullshit that you would have missed vital signs of danger and trespassers,” Ajax told him. “This is no time to air out your dirty laundry.”
Watching as Atticus’ flush deepened, I tied my pouch and pocketed it.
A low grating growl came from somewhere within the fog. Someone near the back of our line cursed aloud. Talon was gone in a flash of movement, and Ajax swiftly followed.
Something roared. Energy crackled. Screeches split the air as—oh, hell—a colony of bats zipped through the sky, as if fleeing from whatever activity was going on.
They swooped down low, rocketing toward us. Cursing, I backpedaled to avoid them, ducking my face to protect it. Mere seconds later, they were gone. I sighed, relieved.
And then the ground beneath me fell away.
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
Fear jumped in my belly as I reached out blindly to break my fall. I dug my fingers into the mud for purchase, my legs flailing, my knees scraping a hard dirt wall.
Wide-eyed, both Atticus and Bevan dived at me and gripped my wrists tight.
My pulse galloping, I peered down. I found myself staring at the bottom of a long-ass pit. Fright seized me tight and cramped my stomach.
I must have staggered backwards onto some sort of ledge that hung over the pit. A ledge that had then given way.Shit.
I snapped my gaze back to the two males above. “Pull me up!”
“We’re trying,” Bevan gritted out as he and Atticus began heaving me upward, their skin flushing with the effort.
The mud shifted beneath my elbows, and my heart leapt. Their combined weight was making the earth begin to sink. They scrabbled backwards slightly but didn’t release me.
“Get Talon or Ajax, Seneca!” Bevan called out. “Now!”
She disappeared from my sight, but I wasn’t sure why she’d bother—neither Talon nor the Marshalls ever helped during such situations. Candidates had to help themselves.
Still clinging to my wrists, the two male Phoenixians again tried dragging me toward them—something that wouldhave been easier if our skin wasn’t muddy and slippery with sweat. But the ground began to shift once more, sucking my elbows down with it.
Dread clutched at my throat, threatening to steal my breath. Little stones tumbled down the hole, and light splatters of mud dotted my face. Oh gods, I might—
My body abruptly dipped, but Bevan and Atticus tightened their grip before I could drop.
Both males again tried yanking me upward. I had no way to help them; had no crevices in the wall to stick my feet into—all I could do was dangle there, while terror raced through my system as fast as the heart pounding in my chest.
The world seemed to stop as my slippery hand all butflowedout of Bevan’s grip. Atticus, however, held tight—his entire body straining with the effort to keep me from falling. But then a devious light lit his eyes. A light that made me tense.
And he eased his hold just enough for my wrist to slide from his grip.
