Chapter 24 #2
“Wait, that’s it?” I asked. “Just ghosts from my past, pushed off a cliff, a conversation about ethics and sacrifice, and a bomb-drop about your love life?”
The massive wolf made a sound like a chuckle. The trial reveals character. Many who sought my treasure came with weapons drawn and tactics planned, never understanding that the true test lies within. Besides, the greatest challenges await you beyond this crypt.
“Great,” I sighed, suddenly exhausted. “Thanks for the ominous warning.”
You’re welcome. The Wolf Queen rose to her full impressive height with a toothy grin on her wolf face. The artifact you seek is both problem and solution, like a blade that cuts both ways.
The great wolf began to glow with increasing brightness, her form expanding until the blue luminescence filled my entire field of vision.
You have earned the right to my treasure, Luna. Use it wisely, for its power flows from the space between wolf and vampire—the very boundary you and the night-son have begun to bridge.
Her voice seemed to come from everywhere at once, surrounding me as the light grew blindingly intense.
When you leave this place, you will find the first piece. But remember, the Shadow Fang is more than the sum of its broken parts. Its true power lies in completion, in the reunification of what was divided.
The light consumed everything, dissolving the forest and the Wolf Queen herself into pure radiant energy that surged around and through me.
I do hope the Shadow Fang is not your ruin as well, Luna Rookwood.
Then there was nothing but light, a rushing sensation of ascent, and the brief, disorienting feeling of existing in multiple places at once.
I gasped awake to find myself lying on the stone platform beside the Wolf Queen’s sarcophagus, the spectral guardian nowhere to be seen. Across from me, Damien regained consciousness as well.
“Luna,” he said, his voice hoarse as he pushed himself upright. “What happened? Are you all right?”
“I think so,” I managed, taking stock of my body. Apart from a lingering sensation of weightlessness, I seemed physically okay. “The trial—“
“Was unexpected,” he finished, coming to my side. “Did you also—“
“Journey to someplace else for a psychological evaluation? Yeah.” I took Damien’s offered hand and rose shakily to my feet, noticing that the sarcophagus had changed during our trials.
The massive stone lid had shifted, revealing a narrow opening just wide enough to glimpse something glinting within. “Look.”
Together, we approached the sarcophagus. The opening was deliberate—not wide enough to access the Queen’s remains, but positioned to reveal a single object nestled upon what appeared to be a silken pillow that had somehow remained intact after all these years.
There, exactly as depicted in the carvings we’d studied, lay a curved silver fang mounted in an intricate housing of gold and crystal.
About the size of my palm, the artifact emanated a subtle energy I could feel even before touching it, some kind of vibration that seemed to resonate with something deep inside me.
“The first piece,” Damien murmured, his eyes reflecting the artifact’s gleam. “I believe the honor is yours. Plus, you have smaller hands.”
He nodded toward the narrow opening.
Point taken. With a deep breath, I reached into the opening, half expecting to trigger some final death trap or alarm.
Instead, my fingers closed around the Shadow Fang piece without resistance. As I lifted it from its resting place, a shudder ran through the entire chamber, not violent enough to suggest collapse, but as if the crypt itself was acknowledging the removal of its treasure.
The artifact felt warm in my palm, its weight suggesting a density beyond normal bone. Microscopic runes caught the light as I turned it.
“We did it,” I breathed. “The first piece of the Shadow Fang.”
Damien stepped closer to examine the artifact, careful not to touch it. “Remarkable craftsmanship.”
A distant rumble echoed through the chamber, followed by the unmistakable sound of voices. Marcel and his team, no doubt. Based on the echoes, it wouldn’t take them long to reach us.
“Time to go,” I said, storing the Shadow Fang piece in the specialized container Theo had prepared. “Please tell me you spotted an exit during your trial.”
“No, but look,” Damien said, already moving toward the far side of the platform. “There are more passageways in here than when we entered.”
As we hurried toward an exit, I cast one last glance at the Wolf Queen’s sarcophagus—the resting place of a being whose power and wisdom had bridged worlds long before I was born.
“Thank you,” I whispered, though I knew the spectral guardian was gone.
For a moment, I could have sworn the blue fungi illuminating the chamber pulsed once in response—a final acknowledgment from a queen to a wayward wolf-daughter who had passed her test.
Then we were moving through the narrow tunnel, the first piece of the Shadow Fang secured in my pack, and Marcel’s team’s voices growing louder behind us.
One fragment recovered.
Four more to find.
This wasn’t even that hard.
Famous last words?
Yeah, probably.