32. THE CAVE
The wraith was a mountain legend. A figure of lore—at best.
Or so we all thought.
The witch seemed to have labeled us as fools for thinking a wraith could survive in these lands, but I’d been watching her as we made the trek into the mountains. She was just as curious as we were.
And she was on edge. Every twig that snapped, every rustle of wings as birds took flight from the pines, caused the witch to whip around in search of the source.
I half expected her to break her damn neck when Aremis stumbled on a rock and slid a few feet down the ravine we were climbing.
She was probably still wound tight from what I’d heard was a rather spirited training session with my commander earlier.
In any case, it was reassuring that she was on high alert.
Each of us needed to be, not only because of what had just happened at the northern gate, but because this area in particular, where the rugged eastern peaks of Calledan spilled over into Vahrenhall, was known for its treacherous moss-covered cliffs and damp cave systems—all thanks to the Highland Court’s wet climate and continuous cloud cover.
It was also not very far from the border, where, just on the other side, the Dreki were bred and kept.
“If you’re quiet enough, you might just hear a Dreki’s roar off in the distance,” I said, smirking as I glanced over my shoulder at Nivelle.
Her frown remained, but her eyes flickered with something like uncertainty as her foot hesitated on its next step.
“They’re excellent at camouflage. Some of them can even appear as a boulder.
You’d walk right past one and never even know it, until its maw was poised to swallow you whole. ”
“Don’t listen to him,” Auren said, giving me a playful eye roll while gesturing for Nivelle to keep moving. “He’s just being a menace.”
I touched my hand to my heart. “My love, you wound me.”
“The fault is yours.” She tossed me a playful grin. “Quit scaring Nivelle.”
The witch’s voice was a low growl as she said, “I am not scared.”
I took heed of my mate’s advice and held my tongue, regardless of how badly I wanted to sling another playful jest.
Nivelle glared up at me as her and Auren passed by. The small burlap sack that was slung over the witch’s shoulder bounced against her back as she climbed around a jagged stone and onto the ledge above.
We had quite a trek ahead of us—if Aremis’s recollections of the legend were correct.
That was one good thing about his Aura: it allowed him to eavesdrop on conversations all throughout the realm, and at all hours of the day.
Mid-morning gossip over tea and pastries, late afternoon rants, lovers’ quarrels in the evenings, whispered tales around the fire before bed, and the hushed murmuring of secrets spoken in the shadowed corners of taverns at well-past midnight, all of those were things the Aura had access to.
If there was something to be known, Aremis was the one to find out about it.
According to Aremis, the last time someone had spoken of the wraith—besides the retelling of the famous story known throughout both the fae and human realms—was during the most recent war.
Many fae thought she was a seer, skilled at telling fortunes and predicting one’s fate.
A few idiots had ventured to her supposed cave system on the eve of battle to learn if they would die the following day.
None of them had returned.
I supposed they became more substance to add to the legend.
The same wouldn’t be said for our lot. I would make damn sure of that.
Aremis caught up to me and nodded ahead toward Auren and Nivelle. “Think it was wise to let her join us?”
I could hear the two of them conversing quietly as they hiked the path.
“Guess we’ll find out soon enough.” I didn’t know much about Nivelle.
Only what Auren had told me earlier. From the sound of it, she was trustworthy.
She just preferred to be a pain in everyone’s ass.
“If worst comes to worst, the wraith can have her.”
Aremis pushed out a breathy laugh and shook his head. “Don’t let her hear you say that.”
I huffed a laugh of my own. “If there even is a wraith.”
“I have a strong feeling that there is.”
“And what makes you so sure?”
Aremis glanced back up at the witch. “Because of her reaction this morning, when she found out what our plans were.”
I looked up, watching the way Nivelle regarded Auren as they moved. The way she marked every movement my mate made was making me anxious. “Keep an eye on her,” I told my second.
“Already have been,” he replied.
“Niall . . . Aremis . . . you might want to come see this,” Auren called from up on the ridge they crested.
I ported to her side in an instant, ready to snatch her back from the edge if there was something that merely resembled a threat on the other side. Aremis was there a moment later.
The terrain swept downward before us into a narrow pass between the peak we were on and the one across from it.
Auren pointed, her hair whipping around her face as the wind gusted up from the depths below.
Aremis and I followed her gesture to what appeared to be a small cave opening on the opposite mountain face, peeking in and out of the fog as the clouds rolled in from Vahrenhall.
“There’s a trail cut into the mountainside,” she said, moving her finger through the air to trace the landscape.
“That’s one hell of a narrow trail,” Aremis noted.
Auren glanced back at me. “Since we can see it, can’t we just port directly to it?”
I opened my mouth to answer, but the witch cut in. “There’s some sort of magic . . .” she said. “I can feel it.”
I figured there would be, but it helped to have her confirm it. “What kind of magic?”
“I am not sure.” She squinted, analyzing the cave entrance.
“The safest option is to climb,” Aremis concluded. “Better to sense a trap before we port directly into it.”
Another strong gale rippled our clothes as it rushed up the cliffside and swept past us.
“What are you all waiting for, then?” Nivelle snipped as she began the descent into the pass.
Aremis followed, lifting a brow at me as he stepped by.
When we reached the bottom, we strained our necks to look up.
The cave entrance was completely hidden by the misty clouds that drifted through the mountains like silent phantoms. The trail that was carved into the side of the rock began with a niche that sat several feet off the ground.
Aremis scaled the stone first, then reached down to help Nivelle.
Auren was next, and I took the opportunity to wrap my hands around her waist and hoist her into Aremis’s grasp. Then, I followed.
“I don’t think I need to remind you all to watch your step,” Aremis called over his shoulder.
The path was so narrow that my shoulder width made it nearly impossible to make the trek without having to shuffle sideways, but we all maneuvered as best we could.
Climbing higher and higher, we zigzagged back and forth up the mountainside, the ledge narrowing so drastically in some places that our backs were pressed against the stone, our toes hanging off the edge.
Around the next corner, a gust of wind sent Nivelle wobbling. She shrieked, one of her boots slipping off the edge, sending small stones clattering into the pass below. Aremis caught her by the elbow and yanked her back until she was flush with the stone.
“Goddess be good!” she exclaimed, heaving in breaths as she stared down at what had almost been her grave.
Aremis held her firmly until she was steady, then gave her a nod of reassurance. “Don’t worry, we’re almost there.”
“How do you know?” Auren asked, her voice practically getting lost within another howling swirl of wind.
“I sent my Aura ahead to evaluate,” he answered. “We should hurry.”
Why do we need to hurry? I asked him mind-to-mind.
A storm is coming.
Damn these springtime storms.
Although, I didn’t complain about the one that raged around us yesterday on top of the mountain, when I was buried to the hilt inside Auren. The image of her naked, wet body sliding against mine, the arch of her ass, and the cries of pleasure she let out as I fucked her for all the gods to see—
Damn, I was getting aroused again just thinking about it.
Ahead of me, Auren scaled the narrow ledge carefully, daintily, as if she’d done this a hundred times. She was light on her feet, steady, and sure. Everything she did, everything about her, made me proud. The way her body moved—in bed and in combat—would be something I’d marvel at forever.
Aremis crested the ledge and hauled Nivelle up behind him, reaching for Auren next.
Then, he clasped arms with me. “Let’s pray we only have to do this once,” he murmured as we all turned toward the cave entrance.
It was larger now that we stood directly in front of it.
The mist was not only swirling in the air around us, but it also seemed to be seeping out from the cave itself.
“I don’t feel any wards,” Auren said, tilting her head as she stared.
“There aren’t any,” Aremis confirmed. “My Aura is inside.”
“No turning back now,” I said as I stepped forward and entered the darkness.
The air was heavy. It smelled like something had crawled into the recesses of the tunnel and died—no, worse. It smelled like many things had entered. And none of them had made it out.
Behind me, Auren choked on a cough, and I brought the collar of my shirt up to cover my mouth, though it didn’t help. The stench was so potent, it had already embedded itself in my nostrils.
“It’s an enchantment,” Nivelle whispered. “The magic I sensed earlier . . . the air is tainted to deter any would-be intruders.”
“Well it’s doing its job,” I muttered. “Didn’t know enchantments could smell like pure rot.”
“You don’t know what beings from our world are truly capable of, High Lord.”
I simply huffed a laugh. She had no idea what I was capable of.
The daylight behind us quickly faded, and Auren lifted a hand, forming a small orb of her own light, which she held in front of her.
The white light danced off the walls, illuminating primitive images painted onto the dark stone with some sort of white, chalky substance.
Figures danced around fires, hand in hand.
Some stretched their hands to the sky as others floated above, wings splayed wide.
Aremis paused to admire the depictions. “The Ancient Fae made these,” he said, touching a finger to the cave drawings.
Auren traced her free hand over some of the figures’ wings, then the ancient depictions of trees. Each image appeared as if it were flitting along the walls—a trick of the light.
Around the corner, we were met with paintings of the Dreki, then wolves, deer, and other forest creatures, all of them seeming to trot alongside us as we ventured deeper into the mountain.
The orb in Auren’s palm split into two, and she sent them drifting down the tunnel ahead of us. I was too busy watching for what else the orbs might reveal, that I was caught off guard when something crunched under my boot.
Everyone halted.
Auren lowered her hand, which was still aglow with starlight. “What is that?”
I squinted through the mist that peppered the air, waving my hand to clear it from around my feet.
When it dissipated, I saw that the area where I’d stepped was littered with dozens of white shards.
I pushed them around with the toe of my boot, and the sound of them knocking against each other reminded me of—
Bones.
Auren seemed to figure it out at the same time I did.
She swung her hand around the area, illuminating dozens of them—piles of them.
Some so small they must have belonged to rodents.
Others were so large that I started to wonder how an animal that size could even make it up the path and into this cave.
My head shot up as Aremis’s Aura returned to him.
There are too many bones here for a single animal to have feasted on, I said into his mind.
That’s because it’s no animal that inhabits this place.
Just as his words echoed in my head, a distant mewling sound floated through the tunnel.
All of us flinched.
“Looks like the legends were right,” Aremis murmured aloud.
I met his eyes, and suddenly, he didn’t look so confident that we’d made the right decision to come here.