Chapter 31
Cosimo felt like he had aged a year since watching Marcella go into a trance and stride off into the forest. They had all moved around her, getting obstacles out of her path as much as they could.
They may have found the entrance to the temple ruins, but there was no way in all the dark hells he was going to let Marcella go into the pit first.
"Val, Yelena, and I will go in and look for traps," Cosimo said, taking the rope that Lachlan offered him. He had tied it to a nearby tree with easy efficiency, which made Cosimo worry that dropping into holes in a forest was a regular occurrence for him.
"I haven't encountered such ancient magic before, so this is going to be fun," Valentine said. He took the rope from Cosimo. "Me first, old man."
"Hurry up, or I will push you for that comment," Cosimo replied.
Valentine only grinned wildly and dropped down into the hole.
"Remaining stairs seem okay, just the first ones that are crumbled," he called up.
"Be careful," Marcella said, catching Cosimo by the shirt. "Don't walk into any traps."
"Don't worry, tesoro. Valentine will walk into them first," he said, rubbing his thumb over her chin. He was aware of the others' eyes on them, so he resisted the urge to kiss her and followed Valentine down into the darkness.
There was a spark of light from further down into the tunnel as Valentine lit an old torch he had found.
"Watch where you step. The walls are crumbled in places, and shards of broken pottery are scattered everywhere," Valentine told him.
Cosimo helped Yelena down, and she hurried to catch up with Valentine.
"Look at these pretty pictures," she said, and Valentine lifted the torch higher to where she was pointing. They were murals of Minerva surrounded by devotees.
"Maria is going to gloat about this so much," Cosimo commented. "Let's see where she's hiding."
His heart was picking up faster by the second, wanting to run ahead and find her. It would probably get him stuck in the same infernal spell that she was in, so he resisted the temptation.
"What is that?" A design carved into the wall made Cosimo pause. He brushed his fingers over it, and magic burned in his fingertips.
"Feels like a broken ward of some kind," Yelena said. Her eyes turned a silvery white color. "Move aside, and let me look."
Valentine and Cosimo didn't question her. Out of everyone, only Yelena could feel the echo of the magic in the forest like Marcella. She hummed a little tune, and frost gathered in the air around her.
Valentine's eyes shone with animal keenness and utter love as he watched her work. Cosimo hid his smile. The novelty of seeing Valentine enthralled by a woman wasn't going to wear off any time soon. He hoped he didn't look so besotted whenever he saw Marcella.
Yelena's song got louder, and the frost exploded into complex glowing patterns all over the walls and on the floor in front of them.
"That is where the magic was. Most of it is deactivated, so Maria probably cleared them," Yelena said, looking around at all the patterns.
"That is incredible," Cosimo replied, staring at the glowing patterns.
"You should see when she does it as a dragon," Valentine said and kissed his mate.
"I will go back and tell the others to come down," Yelena replied, her cheeks flushed. "Val, watch the trap at the end, that one is still loaded and is on a pressure plate." She hurried away, and Cosimo let out a soft laugh.
"You two are adorable," he teased his son.
"At least I don't look at her like a hungry dog does a steak," Valentine shot back.
Cosimo snorted. "Not anymore, you don't. Come on, let's see where this tunnel goes."
Carefully not to disrupt the faintly glowing frost of Yelena's magic, they moved further into the darkness. The trap that she had pointed out shone a faint yellow.
"Should we..." Valentine said, staring at it.
"Would be rude not to see what it does," Cosimo agreed. They moved back, and Valentine tossed his torch at it.
Magic flared, their only warning, and Cosimo dropped, dragging Valentine down as something flew over their heads and struck the stone wall where they had just been.
"What was that?" Valentine gasped, pushing Cosimo back and scrambling up. He grabbed his torch and held it up to where a slice had been taken out of the wall. "It was like an invisible blade. Look at this! This is at least an inch deep."
"What was down here worth putting up such lethal traps?" Cosimo wondered, brushing the stone dust off his clothes.
"I can't wait to find out." Valentine hurried off, and Cosimo went after him, hoping that Yelena was right, and it was the only trap not triggered.
At the end of the tunnel, they went down another set of stone stairs. Copper stands filled with oil were at the base of them, so Valentine touched them with the flame of his torch. Light filled the chamber, and Cosimo stumbled back in surprise.
Hanging in the air, wearing moth-eaten jeans and an Evil Dead T-shirt, her dark hair wild around her head, was Maria.
"Bloody hell," Valentine whispered in awe. "She hasn't aged at all."
Cosimo stepped closer and stared into the face of his long-lost sister. "It's okay. We will get you out of there."
Maria's eyes very slowly blinked at him.
"Fuck, fuck, fuck," Cosimo muttered. "We need to see how we can get her down."
"Holy balls, she's just hanging there!" Apollo hollered from the top of the stairs, scaring the hell out of Cosimo.
Bas moved him aside and hurried down to where they were standing. "Is she breathing?"
"No, but she blinked," Cosimo said, fighting the horror of seeing her trapped and aware of it.
"Let me see if I can talk to her," Bas replied, moving Cosimo aside.
"That was the woman I followed here." Marcella came to Cosimo's side and took his hand. "We will get her out, amore. It will be okay."
"I feel like I'm going to be sick. She's been stuck here this whole time..." Cosimo swallowed the salty saliva filling his mouth.
Charlotte handed him a bottle. "Drink this. It'll help."
Cosimo sipped, unable to make out the herby notes in the drink. After a few sips, the nausea lifted. "Thank you, Charlotte."
"Oh! She's alive in there all right," Bas said and smothered a laugh. "She's swearing a lot right now."
"Ask her what she did to trigger the spell," Valentine urged him.
Bas held up a hand to silence him. He closed his eyes for a few moments. "She said there was something shiny on the floor, and she went to pick it up."
They all looked around them at the dirt and rubble. Cosimo's dragon came to the surface, and his night vision flared to life.
"By her feet," Marcella said, pointing. There was the smallest speck of gold. "It looks like an arm band."
"Good spotting. Shotgun not picking it up," Apollo said and looked at Valentine. "Go on. You like to live dangerously."
"How about no one touches it directly," Cosimo snapped.
Valentine looked at Yelena. "What about one of those little ward bags you can make? Would that work?"
"What kind of ward bag?" Reeve asked curiously.
"Later. Maybe I can smother the spell," Yelena said, waving him off.
"Weave it like I do my patches," Charlotte suggested.
"Good idea. Like a magical fire blanket," Bridget added.
"Are you following any of this?" Marcella whispered to Cosimo.
"Yelena can do unique things with her magic that even the fae can't understand," he told her, smiling as Yelena and Valentine worked. "Watch this."
Valentine's magic spooled out of his hands in black and scarlet threads. Opposite him, Yelena's magic came out as bright silver. Starting from the center of the space between them, their magic combined, ducking and weaving to create a blanket of pure power.
"This is insane," Marcella whispered, her eyes wide.
"It makes perfect sense to them," Cosimo replied with a shrug. The blanket grew, and the air in the chamber went hot.
"Be ready, Dad," Valentine said, his eyes shining with magic.
Cosimo let Marcella go and looked at Charlotte and Bas. "Create a shield between us and you all, please. I don't want you getting caught in any backlash."
They hurried to do as he said, and when everyone was in position, he gestured to Yelena and Valentine. The blanket they created slid lightning fast over the golden object under Maria. The magic in the chamber broke, making Cosimo's ears pop hard, and he grabbed hold of his sister as she fell.
Maria gasped in a ragged breath and blinked up at him. "Fuck me, you got old, Cosimo. About time you found me. I thought you would never figure out that damn statue."
"I... You..." he said and hugged her tight to him. "I'm going to throttle you."
"Sure you will," Maria replied, patting him on the back and letting him go. She looked over at the others gathered around them. "Hello. Who are you lot?"
"These are my sons and their mates," Cosimo said, and he cleared his throat. "And this is my... This is Marcella. Friend. Witch friend."
Maria looked up at him and back at Marcella before snorting with laughter. "Witch friend, huh? Still smooth as ever, I see. Can we get out of this hole? I'm starving."