Page 103 of Winter's Echo
No one followed us.
As we walked through the tunnel, Nicco told me from ahead that it was called a mining shaft. It was dimly lit, but I could see the seams of the gemstones in the rock running like veins through the rock.
“These aren’t ice rocks,” I told Nicco as we walked.
“No. They appear to be one solid thing, more than individual rocks.”
“The ones above are colored.”
“Idle conversation doesn’t suit you, bunny. Are you nervous, or do you have a specific question?”
I flipped him the finger behind his back. The truth was, it was both.
I was someone who lived my life in the open, and I was quite clearly walking down into whatever lay beneath the surface of Iskaeld. “I wanted to ask why Baxley mentioned the ice rocks and why we haven’t seen any ice rocks?”
“Do I look like I work in a mine?”
“You’re a truly wonderful conversationalist.”
He stopped, looking back at me, and raised a brow. “You’re nervous.”
I refused to meet his gaze. “Maybe.”
He stepped back a few steps to stand alongside me. “And here I thought you were fearless.”
Well, that was rude. “I am. Usually.”
“Do you want to go back?”
“No.”
He looked pleased by the speed of my refusal. “Come on then. Don’t think about it. Just pretend it’s the stars above you.”
He pointed upward, and I looked up and saw them. Small, big, medium, all sizes of ice rocks above us, making the tunnel look like the night sky.
“Oh…”
“Yeah, it’s impressive,” said with the most unimpressed tone ever. “You can tell people you were guided down to the underworld by a sky of diamonds.”
“Asshole.”
He grinned.
Diamonds.
“I’ve never heard that word before,” I told him as we resumed walking. “Diamonds, I mean. I know what the underworld is.”
“Really?”
I nodded. I couldn’t take my eyes off the gemstones above us. “Baxley called them diamonds, and it was the first time I’d heard the word.”
“You call them ice rocks?” He smiled, as if that amused him. “I think I prefer that.”
We walked farther down. The ice rocks became less frequent as we descended, and soon, I couldn’t deny that I was pressing closer to Nicco’s side.
“Now I know you’re not afraid of the dark,” he murmured beside me as he moved his arm a little to let me crowd him.
“True.” But how could I tell him that my heart felt like it was coming out of my chest?
