76. Vera #2
We followed the lines of fire deeper into the heart of the catacombs. Smoke clung to the inside of my nose. Symbols appeared on the walls, illuminated by the flames.
“Do you recognize any of these?” I whispered to Everett.
“Not many, but some were in that book we read.” He pointed to a few. “Flame. Death. Forge. Rise.”
“Why can’t any of them say ‘cookies,” Tessa muttered.
The path ended in a network of tunnels. Endless passages yawned all around us, each leading into darkness. “Which one should we try?” Everett asked.
“Shh.” I closed my eyes and honed my Shifter senses.
I prowled around the entrance to each tunnel, letting the humming in my mind guide me instead of sight.
It buzzed inside my chest like a swarm of insects, incessant and impatient.
When I took my next step, the humming grew so loud, it vibrated my teeth.
“Here,” I ground out. Opening my eyes, I was standing in front of a tunnel on the left. I put my hand on the wall and coaxed fire to my fingertips, sending it soaring down the black path.
Each step made the buzzing grow, and the force in my chest churned with anticipation. Rise, a voice hissed in my mind. It was barely a whisper, a brush of wind on my neck, lingering like fingers on my spine. Rise.
I turned at the end of the corridor, pulse racing, only to nearly smash my nose into a solid wall. I jerked my head around, looking for an opening. “I don’t understand.”
“It’s just a wall,” Tessa said. “Let’s turn around.”
“No, it should be here.” I pressed a hand to the rock, and my chest hummed. A memory flashed to mind, from several weeks ago when Starke and I had come across a dead end in the caves. But not everything was as it seemed. That had been a false wall, too.
“Stand back,” I told the others, putting out an arm to force them back down the tunnel.
“What are you going to do?” Everett asked.
“Break down the wall.”
He gave me a bland look. “I don’t even know why I asked.”
Tessa snorted. “Are you crazy? You could collapse the entire tunnel.”
“There’s something behind that wall,” I explained. “It’s calling to me, like the lighthouse and portal did. It’s blocked.”
“Sweetheart,” Everett said. “Remember how I said you and your brother both like to stab or fire-breathe your way out of things?”
I pursed my lips. “Maybe.”
His mouth twitched. “Perhaps we should try another way before you destroy the cave and kill us.”
“Fine,” I huffed. “What do you have in mind?”
“Oh, I don’t know, Lightbringer,” Tessa said, drawing out the word. “Maybe you should bring the light.”
I stared at her. Bring the light. The glowing stones from that one enchantment had responded to my fire. Maybe she was on to something.
I turned toward the wall and shifted my wings, watching fire dance off the tips. Raising my arms, I sent a wave of flames pouring over the rock.
At first, nothing happened. But as the light billowed against the wall, the rock began to change.
It started at the edge first, a faint glow in the stone, spreading outward in thin cracks.
The surface darkened, then turned red, like embers in a fire.
Slowly, the solid wall became translucent.
A low groan sounded from inside, and at the very center, the wall peeled away from itself, smoking like parchment that caught fire.
Before us stood a brand new room. A stone platform was in the center, with a single, glowing altar on top. Symbols with overlapping loops and swirls were etched into the surface.
“This is it,” I breathed out. I could feel the ancient magic. It thrummed around me, pulsing in time to my own heartbeat. The pull was so strong, I couldn’t stop my feet from taking a step up the platform.
But then I paused.
Anxiety curled in my gut. I turned back to them one last time, and I found Tessa.
Her jaw was set in determination, but her eyes were heavy with grief.
This woman had crossed oceans for her friends’ happiness.
For my happiness. She was the best friend I could’ve ever hoped for both my brother and Everett, and if this was where my journey ended, at least I knew she’d keep taking care of them.
I gave her a quick nod, and she returned it, throat bobbing.
Then my gaze fell to Everett. To those immovable gray and green eyes.
His brows knit together. “Vera, what—”
I stumbled off the platform, took his face in both hands, and crushed my lips to his. I threw everything I couldn’t say into the kiss. His hands came up to grip my arms, and I felt him go still for half a second before he kissed me back, his fingers tightening and pulling me closer.
When I leaned back, his eyes were still closed.
“Everett,” I panted, struggling to stay steady.
“You have to know that you’re the reason I survived it.
All of it. Every single day of the last seven years, it was you.
” I pressed my forehead to his, needing him to feel the truth.
“No matter what happens, just know that I love you, Swift. More than you could possibly know.”
His lips parted. “Why does that sound like a goodbye?”
I didn’t answer.
“Vera.” His voice cracked. “What aren’t you telling me?”
“The originals died,” I whispered. “Forging the amulets. The sacrifice was too much for them.” I watched his face change, watched him understand what I meant, and made myself hold his gaze. “I don’t know if the same thing will happen to me. It might not. But I needed you to know before—”
“No,” he growled, gripping my waist.
“Everett—”
“No.” His eyes were bright and terrified and furious all at once. “You don’t get to tell me that, and then turn around and—”
“You have to let me,” I urged, breath hitching. “You know you have to let me. Odessa, you, the infection, everyone in this kingdom, everyone the Elders could still hurt—you know there’s no other way. We have to get that amulet.”
“Then let me do it. Let me go with you.”
“It has to be me, Everett,” I said softly. “It’s my blood, my fate.”
He worked his jaw. I could see the war taking place in his mind, his analytical side that knew I was right versus the emotional Swift who had watched me through a hole in the wall.
He looked at me the way he did back then.
As if I was a fixed point in a world that kept spinning and spitting us back out.
“You said you wouldn’t leave me again,” he rasped.
Tears filled my eyes. “I know. I’m so sorry, Swift. I—”
“So come back to me.” His fingers dug into my waist. “That’s all I’m asking. Don’t let this take you.”
I nodded, swallowing hard. “I love you,” I whispered.
He reached up and pressed his palm to my cheek. His lips moved, but no sound came out. I love you.
With a final breath, I stepped out of his hold and turned back to the platform. The altar pulsed as I drew nearer. Instinct guided my arm, and without thinking, I placed my hand in the center of the stone.