Chapter 31 #2
We stared at a small opening, dark and narrow, with heat radiating outward. I wiped my brow against my tunic. Jax nodded forward, about to continue, but I reached out and grabbed him by the shoulder. “Look, if something happens to me, you have to make sure you get back to Lana.”
“Ian.” Raya reappeared hesitantly in my mind.
I have no intention of not making it back to you. Just a precaution.
I didn’t even want to think about what could happen.
The thought of leaving Raya behind made my skin crawl, but Lana losing someone else made me sick.
Nevertheless, this was war, and the possibility had to be discussed.
“Do not play the hero. If it’s a choice between me or escape, you choose escape.
One of us must live to be able to fight another day. ”
Jax chuckled. “If you think Raya would let me live after leaving you behind, you’re a greater fool than me.”
“Accurate,” Raya added.
“Jax,” I said sternly. “I need you to promise. The information gets to Lana, no matter what.”
He looked at me skeptically before rolling his eyes. “Can’t she see any information we find out anyway?” He pointed to my head.
“Tell that idiot I can only see what you do.”
“She said she can only see what I see,” I relayed.
“Fucking mates,” Jax sighed. “All right, you got it. I will risk certain death returning home without you, should you fall. It’s not going to come to that though. This is a simple reconnaissance mission. We’ve got this.”
“Careful,” I grumbled. “We don’t need to tempt the Fates.” Despite cursing them for years with Lana, too many things had come together, making it impossible to deny their influence. A shiver ran down my spine. “Let’s go.”
As I waited for Jax to shimmy through the crack, the sweet notes of Raya’s voice whispered in my head.
“Stay alert.”
We’ll be back before you know it, I replied.
Once Jax disappeared into the volcano, it didn’t take me long to make my way through the entrance. The hard rock scraped against my back as I pressed through to enter and stand next to Jax.
I exhaled forcefully, taking in the enormity of the volcano. Huge walls of stone cascaded upward in a vortex, almost making it impossible to notice anything else.
A soft glow cast toward us from a pathway to our left, the ground littered with fresh footsteps in the dirt. “Only one way to go,” Jax said quietly.
We stuck to the edge of the pathway, trying to stay in the shadows as much as possible to conceal ourselves along with the footprints we left behind.
The dirt transitioned to stone eventually, and the pathway bent sharply on an incline.
The random sounds of rumblings deep down beneath the Earth’s surface accompanied by the distant sound of marching footsteps echoed in the chamber.
They seemed far enough away that we wouldn’t immediately run into anyone, and I was grateful as we made our way forward.
We climbed up the spiraling path, not meeting another soul along the way. There was only one way forward, with no additional rooms or trails diverging from it. If someone did come, we’d have to kill them quickly, or the sound would echo. Besides, there was nowhere to hide.
Lucien trotted behind us, but his expression didn’t inspire any sort of confidence. His snorts, normally arrogant and unbothered, came out short as he panted in the humid air.
Ten minutes later, we finally heard a deep, gritty voice coming from down the hall. Jax put up his hand and we slowed our speed.
Inching forward, we edged along the spiral pathway.
Jax peeked his head around a bend in the corner, turning to me and indicating it was safe to continue.
We remained silent as we rounded the corner.
An opening lay ahead, and my patience wore thin as we had yet to discover anything.
Agitation was a living, breathing entity crawling through my veins.
At least I knew Raya was still with us, her steady presence strong in my mind.
By this point, the sweat dripping down my back was a constant flow, soaking every piece of clothing.
I shifted my shoulders, attempting to find any sort of comfort.
My palms were slick, not just from the heat but from my anxious nerves as well.
It didn’t matter how many battles I’d fought or missions I’d completed, any time I got close to my intended target, adrenaline coursed through my veins.
I spread my fingers wide and gripped them into fists again before shaking out my hands.
A heavy clunk of chains rattling against stone burst around us as a lone voice roared in pain. Jax froze, shoulders flinching upward, and our gazes met, knowing we’d both come to the same conclusion. Deep down in my gut, I knew that voice.
Kade was in the chamber ahead, and it didn’t sound good.
I gripped Jax’s shoulder. If Kade was here, chances were Thames was too.
“Careful,” I mouthed. Jax nodded once, stretching his shoulders out.
Our reconnaissance mission had suddenly turned into a rescue effort.
I took the lead, stepping ahead of Jax and sliding forward. We pressed our backs to the wall. I tilted forward, leaning just far enough to peer into the room. My stomach dropped at the sight before me.
Kade’s body was chained to the stone wall, his shadows nowhere in sight. His head hung low, and his tunic stuck to his chest, ripped to shreds. Blood stained the torn garment, but also, thick, long lines of burns were etched across his chest as if fire itself had whipped his body.
Fuck, this was bad.
Jax raised his eyes expectantly and mouthed to me, “See anything?”
I nodded but knew I needed more information. Kade’s body had taken too much of my attention. Jax moved back a few steps, walking to the other side of the pathway, and crept forward to investigate the room as well.
I peeked around the corner once more and noticed another figure in the room. A man sat in a regal-looking chair, a terrifyingly calm expression on his face as he glared at Kade. He twirled a black whip in his hand.
I jerked back, looking at Jax. “Thames?” I mouthed my question.
All he did was nod once.
“It’s useless,” Thames laughed. “Submitting to me now will allow you to end your suffering. If you don’t, every minute will be painful until I throw you into the pit and let the world erupt. Then I will be untouchable by even the Fates themselves.”
Kade didn’t lift his head to acknowledge Thames.
“Though…” Thames grinned. “I do enjoy this form of entertainment as I wait for the others to finish up. Not much longer now.”
Kade remained unresponsive.
Absolute dread drowned my rationale momentarily. Jax appeared just as horrified.
That was probably the worst possible thing we could’ve heard. If Thames thought it wouldn’t be long until his plans were ready, we were royally screwed. He was waiting for the volcano to erupt? But why? Was that the weapon?
Can you hear? I asked Raya.
“Every word.”
Scuffling behind us snapped both our gazes down the pathway as the shadow of a person approached.
Jax and I both lunged back toward where we’d come, moving to silence the Fae, but before we could take him out, he shouted, “What are you doing here?” Footsteps thudded; he hadn’t been alone.
We didn’t think. We just ran. Lucien wheezed spurts of fire as he cleared our path.
“Shift!” I shouted as I began the transformation into my hawk form, just as two dark ones skidded to a halt in front of us.
We ripped past them, and Jax ran his clawed hands across each of their necks before completely shifting into his panther form. He grabbed Lucien around the neck with his mouth and threw him up onto his back.
A pugron riding a panther in a volcano? On any other day, I would have appreciated this ridiculous scene, but we needed to get out, and fast. It would be a tavern story for the ages if we lived to tell the tale.
As we traveled farther down the path, shouts rang out from somewhere else in the cavern. We made it to the opening, slipping through and running around the outside of the volcano.
The sounds of dark ones gathering, barking orders at each other carried into the fields around us.
We had to get out of here—now. There would be no rescue mission today. No more opportunities to find out more about whatever weapon Thames had inside the volcano.
But at least we knew where Thames was.
And Kade.
Raya remained with me, quiet and somehow masking whatever she was feeling. Perhaps she did it on purpose to help me focus.
We fled farther, trying to find a safe enough spot to portal back to Brookmere.
My heart pounded as my mind filled with deep sadness. We couldn’t save Kade yet, as much as I’d wanted to, and I had to be the one to tell Lana what happened. I didn’t know why his shadows weren’t helping him like usual, or why he couldn’t heal himself at all while chained against the wall.
Jax let out a pained growl and shifted back to his human form. I did the same, landing on both feet.
Bloodied marks ran along the base of Jax’s back, like Lucien had sunk his barbed tail into his skin.
“You are the most badass little guy, but fuck, did you have to hold on to my flesh like your own personal reins?” He winced as Lucien jumped from his back, creating a portal in the open area while appearing completely unbothered by Jax’s pain.
We quickly stepped through and escaped this miserable place.
We fell out of the portal, thrown off balance just as we were the first time, landing in the middle of Lana’s chambers. Lucien popped out of the portal beside us, exhausted and panting, but on all fours. The portal closed quickly.
Lana, Kalliah, Raya, and both seers were seated in her sitting area. Our friends jumped to their feet, while the seers watched us with unreadable expressions.
“What happened?” Lana demanded, as Kalliah examined Jax while Raya came to my side, helping me up. “Tell us everything.”
Jax frowned and wiped the sweat off his face. “It’s bad.”
Lana’s gaze shifted rapidly between Jax and me. I grabbed a glass of water off one of her tables and gulped it down, the liquid not only cooling my throat but helping my body recover slightly from the intense heat.
I set it down and reached for Lana. “Kade’s at Firestone. He’s with Thames.”
She brought a hand to her chest and rubbed. “And the weapon?”
“I think…” I frowned, running my hand over my neck. “I think the volcano’s the weapon.” I hesitated for a second. “He’s going to feed Kade into the volcano and let it erupt.”