Page 37 of Spirit Storm

"Solid life choice," Asher says.

The tunnel is wide enough that we don't have to bunch together. The walls are rough-cut and old, fitted stone in some places and bare rock in others.

Wylder's light picks up the glittering texture of it, as well as long horizontal lines where something was once cut through.

The first fork comes into view, and I check the map as Freya points left.

We follow her direction.

As we progress, I watch the map, keeping a mental idea of where we are based on what we’re seeing.

I slow when we reach the edge of what the Order team has been able to map out. “Okay, guys. This next section is part of the daily mystery. Everyone be ready for anything.”

“What deterrents did your teams already come across?” Orion asks from the center of the group. “What are we looking for?”

Freya stops, panning her headlamp along the left wall, across the ceiling, then down the right wall, and finishes by illuminating the packed earth and stone grit of the passageway floor. “Well, a paralytic powder pushed out of a crevice in the stone and took down one of our guys. A false floor dropped another into a bed of spikes. And the last injury was a volley of poisoned darts.”

“Brutal,” Rowan grumbles behind me. “Is everyone okay?”

“Mostly, though the lad that triggered the darts saved his face by throwing his hands up. The nasty things went right through his hands and severed two fingers. There’s not much a healer can do about that.”

I guess not.

Wylder shakes his head. “Shields up. Orion, take the front. Your wild side has the keenest senses. Rowan, you’re on shadow watch.”

I cast a protective shield around us, and Freya gives me a smile. “Asher, if you see anything coming for anyone, portal them back to the entrance.”

Asher arches a brow at me. “My priority is you, but if you’re not in immediate danger, I’ll do my best.”

I frown. “I get that you feel that way, but no one is expendable.”

“Agree to disagree, Pops. The Goddess Mother wouldn’t have put me on Poppy patrol if she wasn’t serious about you surviving what’s coming at us.”

“The Goddess Mother?” Freya’s eyebrows rise so high that they disappear beneath her bangs.

“It’s a long story,” I say.

“One that can wait until we’re sitting in a pub having a pint,” Wylder adds.

Agreed.

Orion’s massive white tiger pads between Wylder and me, and he gives me a little hip check. I sink my fingers into the fur at his shoulders and chuckle. “Yeah, yeah. Out of your way. We’ll let you do your thing.”

Freya’s intake of breath has my smile widening. “I mentioned he was a shifter.”

She swallows. “You did. I’ve just never worked with a white tiger before.”

Orion’s tail swings with a little extra swish. “Yes, you’re from a very rare and powerful bloodline. Now, do your thing and make sure we’re safe. I want us all leaving here with all our fingers and toes.”

“How morbid is it that that’s our high bar?” Rowan asks, sliding past me.

“Yeah, well, we go with what we’ve got.”

Rowan snorts, gesturing to Freya’s forehead. “Do you mind pointing that somewhere else? It kind of negates everything I am and my shadow manipulation offers.”

She tilts the lamp so the beam angles up toward the ceiling. “Have at it.”

It takes time before Orion and Rowan have worked their way to the other end of the corridor, discovered nothing deadly, and are waiting for us fifty feet ahead.