City of Cruelty and Copper (Temperance Era) by Rhiannon Paille Read Free Book Online

something but I sat down on the dusty rock and swung my legs over first. I inched to the edge and felt for the next platform with the toes of my boots.
    “I bet you’d rather be doing this with David.” It was more like four feet down. I half slid, half jumped off the first ledge and landed on my feet. I turned around and looked up; realizing that without a boost there was no way I was getting back up there.
    “Okay your turn,” I said looking up at Isaac. I couldn’t see his face so I pulled out my flashlight and clicked it on, accidentally shining it in his eyes. He recoiled, but didn’t immediately move towards the ledge. For a moment I had this horrible thought that he only brought me here to leave me and that we weren’t friends at all. I had trouble telling who really liked me and who only paid attention to me because of my name.
    “Move over, I don’t want to jump on you,” he said. I cast the flashlight around to find out where I could move to then went left. He jumped off the ledge and landed with a loud thud. The shale rocks covering the path jiggled, resettling. I looked up to make sure none of the stalactites were going to fall and impale us. Shining my light at the calcium deposits I sheepishly realized they had rounded tips, and none of them were remotely dangerous. I glanced back at Isaac who was again giving me that look like I was crazy and paranoid all at the same time.
    “What?”
    “Nothing just, I wouldn’t take David here.”
    I shone the light at the ground, away from Isaac and his brown eyes. “Why not? It’s great if you want to be alone with someone.”
    Isaac moved towards the part of the cavern I was avoiding because it looked scary. For the first time since I had met him he looked nervous, like he had a rebuttal to my snarky comment and was holding it in. That wasn’t like him. He stood in front of the slab of rock that hung over another three foot high tunnel and put his hands on it. He would have to crawl and I would have to crouch to get through that. I wasn’t sure I wanted to do that so instead I shined the light on his back and waited for him to turn around.
    “There’s a better place for that further down,” he said. He took his hands off the stone and pulled at the fabric against his thighs, readjusting it. I crouched down and shone the light into the tunnel. It wasn’t long. The light bent around the edges and curiosity got the best of me.
    “Are you going in first?” I asked.
    Isaac looked back at me and nodded. He lowered himself onto all fours and then laid flat against the ground, face first. The way he moved made me wish we were more than friends. He slithered back and forth like a snake. I followed like a frog, my fingers gripping the rock, my head ducked, my legs bent at awkward angles. Isaac pushed himself to his feet the moment he was free of the tunnel and I followed, wanting to know what was on the other side of it.
    I was speechless.
    We were in an atrium, the only exit a darkened tunnel on the other side of a bed of rubies. They glittered along the walls as my flashlight darted across the chamber. The ground was uneven, obsidian rocks jutting out at odd angles. I stayed near the walls, examining the pretty colored rocks. I turned and Isaac was facing the wall on the other side of the tunnel we had come through. He was looking nervous again. I laughed in an attempt to ease the tension between us.
    “You’re right. This is a better make out spot.”
    Isaac looked at me dead on and something in his expression changed. “That’s exactly what I was thinking.” Something about the way he said it made me think that he meant me, and he meant now. I shuffled foot-to-foot and twirled the flashlight around in my hands. Light fractured off every surface forcing Isaac’s face into the shadows.
    “You should bring David here sometime,” I said swallowing a big lump in my throat.
    Isaac sighed. “I’m not with David anymore.”
    I knew that but I was trying