Empire of Shadows (Raiders of the Arcana, #1)

by Jacquelyn Benson

He would not achieve sainthood while shrieking like a maniac. As a row of insect bites on his back took up itching again, he determined that he would meet his end with dignity.

If his death took place in this devil-haunted underworld, Salavert found himself terribly afraid that God might fail to notice it.

During each and every encounter, he simply neglected to bother remembering who she was.

One might almost think that tossing high-ranking public officials against their office doors was the sort of thing Jacobs did all the time.

Constance had a rather terrifying taste for adventure.

How was I to know it would be an honest-to-goodness melee instead of another of those desperately boring standing-about sorts of affairs?

“Sometimes I am just so very tired of it,” she admitted quietly. “I know, darling,” Constance replied, smoothing a hand over her hair. “It is dreadfully unfair.”

employ both a housemaid and a cook, which gave Ellie’s stepmother, Florence, less things to be loudly overwhelmed about.

“He’s a bit dashing,” she commented. “How on earth can you tell that from the top of his head?” Ellie shot back.

It did not include being squished into a corner by a beastly American in his shirtsleeves.

He turned the animal’s face toward his own and gave it an affectionate little wiggle. The man was entirely insane.

She would rather face down a live crocodile than ask Adam Bates to guide her into the interior.

She’d get them both eaten by a jaguar in five minutes. She had that jaguar bait air about her.

She could hardly expect to succeed in what she was about to attempt if she had to conceal the fact that she knew things.

I’ve also never been considered a debaucher of proper young ladies. I’m not sure that’s a distinction I’d like to earn.”

“You,” Bates replied, pointing at her with a spoon full of beans, “are stalling.” He ate the beans.

When I get to the end of my day, I don’t want to worry about what connections I should be making or which of my friends might be out to get me. I just want to take off my boots and watch the sky change for a little while.”

Books were like breathing for her—an extension of her being. She hardly had to think about the fact that she was reading when she did it.

Once she was standing again, he released his grasp. It left her feeling oddly like she had just lost something.

“Fight with me,” Bates abruptly ordered. Ellie looked up with surprise. “What?” she blurted. “Fight with me,” he repeated, calling out the words over the relentless cascade. “Tell me why we should keep going.”

“Being in charge means you make the call.”

She chucked the rock over the side. The water swallowed it. Bates stared after it with an expression of blank horror.

NOT HIS ROCK

“What am I supposed to do if I see one?” Ellie protested as he moved away. “Walk the other way!” Bates called back to her.

“Dear God!” she exclaimed wonderingly. “Gloria in excelsis Deo,” Bates comfortably agreed.

There was something deeply, wildly appealing about that forearm.

All it had taken was a few sips of rum to send her moral fiber shrieking into the abyss.

“But I am sure you are perfectly qualified to wander into an unknown and potentially dangerous area of the forest with nothing more than a lady scholar, a machete, and a reasonably nice Winchester,” Kuyoc neatly concluded.

“He said there are monsters that bite people’s skulls,” Adam cheerfully elaborated.

The gesture still made Ellie think of stories of knights errant rescuing maidens. Slaying dragons, she thought distantly.

They were colleagues. Colleagues didn’t kiss each other. Her heart didn’t seem to care about that logic.

Dawson had apparently brought a library into the bush with him so that it could get infested by termites or turned to a pulp by the damp.

If confirmed, will require immediate investigation to explore possible connection to the Staff of Moses… Adam blinked. He’d definitely heard of the Staff of Moses—what with all the plagues of locusts and parting the Red Sea.

Is this an indiana jones reference

Don’t get killed, he reminded himself again. The phrase was becoming something of a mantra.

Raising a spinster was one thing, but a whore…

Screaming

The ways of Lessard were a mystery you didn’t really want to get close enough to solve—but

“Maybe without getting caught,” Charlie returned crossly. “But not without somebody noticing their knife is gone. And who you think they gonna figure took it?” “Probably the guy without a knife,” Lessard pointed out helpfully.

They were usually a type that he threw his drink at. He didn’t have a drink at the moment, which was probably for the best.

“What the hell is mirror sized?” Adam retorted.

A. Mirror.

She approached the unknown with the twin weapons of knowledge and rationality. She knew better than to pay heed to something as illogical as a hunch.

“Hey weasel,” he said by way of announcing himself.

“You want to blow up the bullets?” Charlie cut in with a look that managed to be both horrified and vaguely impressed. “I like this woman,” Lessard announced happily.

“I don’t think so,” Adam said flatly even as another, saner part of him groaned in the back of his head.

I’ve got much better things to do with four rounds than waste one of them on you.”

An idea snapped into place inside his mind. It was a very, very bad idea.

“Stay perfectly still, Mr. Bates.” “I’ve had my tongue in your ear,” Adam cheerfully reminded her. “Pretty sure we can drop the ‘mister.’” Ellie shot him a glare.

For the love of God, in Iceland there’s even a mythical pair of undergarments that produce an endless supply of money.

Ellie ran her hands over her face, unsure whether she wanted to break out into hysterics or simply lie down on the ground.

Why not both

“Didn’t you say Xibalba had a cave of razors?” Adam asked.

Just realized I’ve been reading this name like he’s Silbulba from the phantom menace

“Could they be animal bones?” Ellie pressed hopefully. “Sure,” Adam replied a bit too quickly.