Page 76 of Another Man’s Treasure

Wilder

The small cave Oz just found is maybe ten feet deep and ten feet tall, and every inch of the red stone walls are covered in the same flowery markings we found in Sipan’s “lair.”

“Shit, we can’t read these,” Oz murmurs as he runs his big fingers over the wall. “Not without Kohdiy, I guess.” He turns to me. “Do you suppose that might mean Kohdiy’s the new Keeper? But why now? And also, that’s very disconcerting. I can’t imagine he’d want that job.”

I shake my head. “Ain’t that part of the problem? Nobody here really wants the job, and everyone HQ sends sucks at it?”

“Yeah,” Oz muses, staring around. He walks to the back of the cave, running his hands over everything he can reach. I follow him with the light, but there’s nothing obvious until we reach the singular large rock at the back of the cave. It’s as tall and flat as everything else, but when Oz touches it, the symbols on the wall glow a bright green.

“Get back!” I bark as the symbols appear to move and morph and expand.

Oz leaps backward into my arms, and I pull him behind me. The symbols melt into one another as green streaks swirl outward from the center of the stone. I back Oz and me against the far wall, ready to shove him out of the entrance if this is something dangerous.

Minutes later, though, all the symbols have joined to form a glowing green surface.

Oz peeks out from behind me, emitting a little gasp. “What does that remind you of, Wild?”

“Portal. Or the protective ward.”

“Let’s go in.” Oz pushes past me and heads for the portal.

I grab his elbow and halt him. “You can’t just go through there not knowing where this leads, Oz. That’s foolish.”

He turns and gives me a sassy look, pulling his arm carefully from my grip. “Willa told us Sipan had created a secret network of portals, remember? They work two ways, so we can always come back if we need to.”

I don’t know enough about the portal tech to argue with him, but I run a hand over my mouth as I consider what he’s saying.

“C’mon, Wild,” he says, waving me toward the portal. “What’s the worst that could happen?”

I shoot him an exasperated look. “You get taken straight to a jail cell at Hearth HQ for violating their portal protocol. This isn’t supposed to even exist, remember? Sipan was breaking all the headquarters’ rules when he created this, assuming he’s the one who created it, and this isn’t some rogue portal.”

Oz chuckles as he walks to the portal and stops, glancing over his shoulder at me. “I didn’t peg you for such a cautious male, Wilder Lane. You always this way?”

Joining him, I place my left hand on his waist, gripping him so we can walk through together. “Just when there’s something I care enough about to protect it.”

He rubs his ass against me, cooing as his cheek brushes mine. “I’ve got a good feeling about this, baby, so let's go, okay?” Taking my hand, he steps forward and pulls me through the glittering green surface.

It’s a relief to find the interior of the portal looks like every other portal I’ve walked through—a long green tubelike hallway with a flat portal at the opposite end. Oz walks easily down the length of it, seeming unbothered by the fact that we just walked into an illegal portal on the property I’m signing for sometime next week, assuming the deal doesn’t go totally sideways when I next talk to Emmer.

At the far end, Oz halts and looks up at me. “Step through together? If it doesn’t look good we’ll just…I dunno, run back this way?”

“Deal,” I mutter, staring at the portal and wishing there was a way to see through.

Oz grabs my hand and drags me before I can think too much more about it. We step through, and I hold my breath until we fully emerge.

Willa, Lemon, Bluebell and a male who looks a lot like Bluebell all jump up from the seating area inside Sipan’s lair.

“The fuck?!” Willa shouts. “You discovered one of the portals!”

Oz bursts out laughing and doubles over with his head between his legs. “Gods, girls, we really thought we might be stepping into a mess.”

Willa snorts and looks at him. “And you willingly dragged my grumpy big brother into it?”

“Could barely hold him back,” Oz says easily.

“Where’d it lead from?” She stares at the green portal.

“New place,” Wilder says. “A cave down by the river.”