My Fated Mate Can Have Her-Chapter 203: Underground City III

Violet

The breath rushed out of him in a grunt, and I felt his body absorb the shock beneath me. For a moment, we just lay there in the darkness, tangled together, both of us breathing hard.

"Are you alright?" His voice was strained.

I nodded against him, then paused, remembering when he had fallen from the waterfall. "That was risky! Why—"

"I am fine and this was shorter than that one."

Then he just laughed, his chest bouncing as he did so. The movement shifted my body against his, and I became suddenly, painfully aware of how we were positioned. His arms were still locked around me and my face was pressed against his chest.

I frowned, slightly pushing myself up to glare at him. "It’s not funny. I don’t think your back has even fully healed to—"

"I am fine. Really," he said softly.

I became acutely aware of every point where our bodies touched. His arms around my back, my forearms splayed against his chest, and the way my stomach was pressed flat against his abdomen sent a fluttering sensation from my belly to my chest. My legs were also tangled with his.

The darkness made it worse somehow. Without sight, every other sense sharpened.

I could feel his heart slamming against his ribs. A rapid, heavy rhythm that seemed to pulse directly into my own body. The heat of him seeped through the cloth, warming my skin even in the cool underground air.

No...

This was Kael all over again.

Kael...

I pushed myself to get up and my palms only pressed deeper into his chest. I felt the firm muscle beneath and immediately jerked away, tearing out of his grip.

He sat up. "Sorry, I—"

My face burned and I just turned away. "It’s okay."

I had washed nearly his whole body before, seeing or even touching him should not be having me feeling like this.

I got to my feet in the darkness, my pulse still racing, and my skin still warm where it had touched his.

"How much further?" I asked, reaching out to have our bags float again after they had crumpled to the floor.

The space around us was larger this time.

"A bit far but not too far off." He got to his feet.

"How were you even able to monitor the small animals in this dark space?" I couldn’t resist. "How exactly do you control them?"

"I can include extensions of my consciousness in them or seep some of my lunar instinct into the animals. That way, I share their traits and characteristics. The ones I sent down here use echolocation to navigate the dark. I was able to map this place out because of that."

"Oh..."

We continued downward.

The path became a very steep slope that that we had to brace ourselves against the walls to keep from sliding. At some point, I started to wonder how we would ever find our way back out. The twists and turns had been so numerous that I wasn’t sure I could retrace our steps back.

And also there was the issue of going back up.

I shook the thought away.

There had to be another way out. A city this size wouldn’t rely on a single hidden fissure, and I doubted everyone remained boxed in forever.

We passed through a curtain of roots at one point, thick ropey strands that dangled and also dug into the surrounding earth, creating a dense wall across the passage.

"Should we pull apart or cut—"

"Don’t," he said quietly. "There should be a way to push through. If we tamper with it too much, someone or anyone checking would know someone forced their way through."

I hesitated, then slowly followed his lead. The roots dragged against our clothes as Rowan pushed, shifting aside some of the roots with his bare hands so I could pass without much friction.

Beyond the roots, the passage widened, and after a few more steep falls, there was finally light.

Along with noise.

My pulse quickened. The light was dim at first and coming from the distance. It grew brighter and warmer as we climbed up another narrow slippery slope until we found ourselves on a wide stone ledge.

I couldn’t believe my eyes.

The cavern stretched out before us, so vast it seemed impossible. I never knew this much space existed underground. The ceiling soared high above, and the space extended in every direction further than I could see.

And filling that space was a city. 𝚏𝐫𝚎𝗲𝕨𝐞𝐛𝕟𝚘𝐯𝚎𝗹.𝕔𝐨𝗺

Buildings rose from the cavern floor in clusters, built into the curves and loops of the rocky terrain. They followed the natural contours of the stone, some carved directly into the walls, others standing free in impossible towers that stretched from the ground all the way to the ceiling like massive stone pillars.

I had never seen buildings so tall.

In the Capitals I had visited so far, the tallest structures had been maybe four or five stories. These were easily triple of that, some even higher, their upper levels disappearing into the bright lights above.

Flat crystals were embedded nearly everywhere. In the walls of buildings, in the stone pathways, in the ceiling itself. Some glowed bright white, others a softer amber, and some barely flickered at all, dim and faded. Together with the scattered lamps that lined the streets, they filled the underground city with a warm, diffused light that made the whole place glow.

The streets were busy. Wolves moved through them in human form, going about their lives. Shopping, talking, laughing. Children ran between the buildings. There were large wide bridges operating as streets connecting one structure to the next with layers of streets rising and falling down into the bright depths.

None of the capitals looked remotely like this and it was as if we had entered an entirely different world.

I crouched low on the ledge, also shielded from above with an overhanging stone, hiding us from the upper layers. I couldn’t even find the words to describe what I was seeing.

"This is..." I started.

"Yes," Rowan said quietly beside me. He sounded just as stunned as I felt. "It is."