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

by Jacquelyn Benson

Ellie didn’t want a husband. Marriage would mean the end of any occupation for her besides managing the household—a fate even less desirable than being eaten alive by a boa constrictor.

Adam clamped his mouth shut before it could do anything even more stupid. Had he actually just offered to take this woman into the mountains? She’d get them both eaten by a jaguar in five minutes. She had that jaguar bait air about her.

“Is making money really so terrible?” she asked. Bates ran a hand through his hair, tangling the cropped length of it a bit more than it was already. “I don’t like pretending to be something I’m not,” he finally replied, his tone short. “I don’t like looking for ways to take advantage of people. 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.”

“You’re angry,” Ellie noted a bit numbly. “Yeah—I guess maybe I am!” Bates’s tone rose to nearly a yell. “I guess maybe it’s occurred to me that if the museums weren’t so happy to buy whatever trinkets turned up on offer without asking the right questions about where they came from, there wouldn’t be so much of a market for looted antiquities. And maybe I wouldn’t have to keep stumbling across places like this!”

“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.” “I… I’m not sure that we should,” Ellie admitted, stammering out the reply. “Wrong answer,” Bates returned flatly. “You said it was a bad idea!” she accused, rising from where she sat at the bow. “What do I know about it?” “A great deal more than I do!” she shot back as her frustration rose. “Since when has that ever stopped you?” he tossed back.

“Excuse me?” she seethed. “You love telling men when they’re wrong about things,” Bates returned cheerfully. “Only when it happens to be true!” she retorted.

“What is holding me back,” Ellie shouted as she took a step toward him, “is an entire society built on the implied superiority of men! A society that refuses women any sense of agency or competence! What is holding me back,” she continued as she drove a firm, pointy finger into his sternum, “is a legal and professional system designed to systematically exclude women in order to force them into lives of domestic slavery! I can’t just walk away from whatever isn’t working for me. I don’t get to bounce into any job tacked up onto the postings board. I can’t just give up, secure in the knowledge that there are a thousand other options out there for me. I can’t afford to roll through my life like nothing in it really matters!”

“Well, I don’t think we’re going to sink,” he said. “Hull feels intact. Can’t say the same about the propeller.” “What do you mean?” Ellie stumbled over to drop to her knees beside him. “What’s happened to it?” “It’s not there anymore.” Bates flopped himself back to rest against the remaining portion of the rail. “Can you fix it?” “Not unless you’ve got another prop stashed in that corset of yours,” Bates quipped in reply.

“It is all a load of superstition,” the priest continued. He hesitated as he took another puff. “Probably. Of course, none of my people are willing to go there.” “Yeah. Sure,” Adam replied. “Makes sense.” “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.

“You and me,” Adam replied. “Against ten guys with guns. A murderous bastard with an infallible nose for lies.” “An imminent monsoon,” Ellie added, barely fighting back a giggle. “And one really sweaty professor,” Adam added wryly. The giggle burst out. Ellie clamped her hand over her mouth to contain it, conscious of the men just outside the tent. “No problem,” Adam whispered confidently.

“You pushed me under the water,” Ellie cut in, her words razor-edged. “Huh?” Adam returned, obviously thrown. “Wait—you’re upset about that? What’d you want me to do? Let you backstroke while they were shooting at us?” “That is not what I meant,” Ellie snapped in return as she drove a finger into the flat, solid surface of his chest. The fabric of his shirt clung to him like a jellyfish. “I told you not to pull that rigidly masculine, protect-the-weaker-sex nonsense—” she began. “Rigidly…?” Adam cut in awkwardly. “—with me less than five minutes before we fell in here, and what do you do? Shove me down and put your big, self-importantly male body—” “Rigidly masculine,” Adam muttered as though confirming it to himself. “Sure. Why not?” “—between me and the bullets as though somehow your person is expendable whereas mine has to be cherished and coddled like a… a prize Pomeranian!” “You’re nothing like a Pomeranian,” Adam countered. “Oh? Then what precious, oh-so-vulnerable creature that is completely incapable of taking care of itself do I resemble?” Ellie demanded with a hiss. “How about a wolverine?” he offered. “Arrgghhh!” Ellie growled.

“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.

“I’ll be back in a minute. Well… maybe a little more than a minute.” “Bates…” Ellie protested. He tossed the other boot at her and she caught it awkwardly as he moved away. “Adam!” He paused, and then turned back to catch her by her belt and haul her closer for a sudden, firm kiss. He smiled at her through the dark. “That sounds nice,” he concluded, and then dropped below the surface.

“I have become inordinately fond of you, you know,” Ellie abruptly admitted. “Well, then, we’re gonna have to do our damnedest not to die,” Adam replied as he gazed down at her warmly—very warmly. “While we navigate our way through a deadly cave and prevent an army of thugs from looting an immensely powerful magical artifact,” Ellie replied. “Piece of cake,” he declared. He made a gentlemanly gesture with his arm. “Shall we?” “Why not?” Ellie returned, and allowed him to lead her into the unknown.

“If Neil is tangled up in it, he can’t possibly understand the real implications,” she insisted. “He hasn’t the imagination for that. And even if he figures it out, he’s not remotely equipped to handle this sort of thing. This is Neil we’re talking about. He gets lost in libraries!”