Chapter 9
When the smoke clears, we’re close to the caves. The three others are already at the entrance. The one who I assume to be Demetri, based on the red cloak blowing in the wind, is moving his hands around in front of him.
Even though they won’t be able to see us, we still keep a safe distance. Eventually, a glowing white line starts to appear in the space in front of Demetri.
“It’s working,” Ryder mutters more to himself than to me.
The vertical line inches toward the ground.
As it does, it splits in two, creating a narrow opening.
We watch the line act as a zipper, opening up the wards.
Once he’s done, there’s a door sized hole.
All three men walk through the opening and into the caves.
We give it just a few minutes before following after them.
The gap is still open when we reach the entrance, and we walk through it just as if we were walking through a doorway.
Inside the caves it’s cold and dark. I’m not sure how we’re going to be able to see where we’re going, let alone find the scepter. It’s hard enough trying not to trip over any of the rocks scattered about.
Ryder turns to me and grabs my hand before leading us deeper into the caves.
As we make our way further into them, it quickly begins to close in around us.
Pretty soon we’re entering a tunnel. I continue to follow behind Ryder, matching him step for step.
There’s no sign of the other men, but I doubt they’re too far ahead of us.
When I stub my toe on a large rock, it goes rolling and the sound echoes off the cave walls.
“Sorry,” I whisper to Ryder when he looks back at me with a disapproving glare.
After walking through the tunnel for what feels like forever, the cave starts to open up again, revealing sharp, grey spikes scattered around the ceiling.
“Look,” I say, pointing to a light up ahead.
“That must be Demetri. Let’s go.”
The light grows bigger as we get closer and I’m thankful for the cloaking magic concealing us.
“Nothing over here,” one of them says to the others.
Ryder and I are so quiet that I can barely hear my shallow breathing.
They’re less than ten yards in front of us but are still completely unaware of our presence.
I stay near Ryder, but veer off a little, using their light to look for the scepter.
The three men yell back and forth to one another as they search under every rock and between every crack.
The sound of their voices bouncing off the walls helps muffle any sound coming from us as we carefully trail behind them.
The five of us slowly move about the cave, thoroughly looking through every place it could be hidden.
Hours pass by and still there’s no sign of anything even remotely resembling the scepter.
“I’m telling you he was wrong. It’s not here.”
“Shut it, Alaric. We’re not leaving until we’ve searched every inch of these caves.”
By now my entire body is freezing and I can’t feel my fingers. If the others weren’t here, I would warm myself with my power, but right now it’s too risky.
As the cave breaks up into other smaller caves, we search each one, coming up empty each time.
They, nor us, have found anything other than rock and empty crevasses.
Out of nowhere Ryder pins me against the wall, covering my mouth with his gloved hand.
Just as I’m about to push him off me, a shockwave radiates throughout my whole body.
He must’ve felt his cloaking magic run out just before mine did.
All I can see now are his icy blue eyes staring back at me. All around is a wall of blackness, concealing us. I glance around, realizing he must be using his shadows to hide us. I can’t see anything, but I can hear their voices growing closer.
“Can we all agree it’s not here?”
“He won’t be happy about it.”
“Doesn’t change the fact that it’s not here.”
“Quiet!” I can tell by the sharpness in his voice, it’s Demetri speaking now. “We aren’t alone.”
My heart feels like it’s beating out of my chest with each passing second.
Ryder slowly removes his hand from my mouth and steps closer to me until our bodies are forced against one another.
The smell of him fills what little space is between us and I hate that I like it.
There’s a slight flutter in my stomach when he looks down at me, but it’s probably just my nerves.
“I don’t hear anything.”
“Me either. I say we go.”
It sounds like the three men have stopped right next to us. I brace myself, waiting for Ryder to tell me to run as silence falls around us.
“Alright, let’s go,” Demetri finally orders.
Neither of us move. Instead, we stay pressed up against one another. Being this close reminds me just how powerful he really is. Aside from his actual power, he’s a complete weapon. A warrior, lethal in every way.
Ryder doesn’t drop his shadows until he’s sure they’re gone. When he finally does, I can still barely see him. Without their light the cave is almost pitch black.
“It’s safe,” Ryder assures.
I give it another minute for good measure before igniting a large flame in the palm of my hand. The area immediately lights with a warm hue.
“That was close,” I admit, finally allowing myself to relax just a little.
“Yeah. Sorry about that, but I had to act fast.”
“I’m glad you did. I don’t want to know what would’ve happened if they had found us.”
“It wouldn’t have been good.”
“For them you mean…”
Ryder shrugs. “It would’ve gotten messy if they didn’t return to the kingdom, so it’s for the best they didn’t find us.”
“Now what do we do?”
“Well now that they’re gone, I can do this.”
Every rock and boulder levitate into the air. I gasp, forgetting how much he can do with his power.
“Wow! This makes it a lot easier to search through.”
“My father was sure the scepter was here, so I want to do one more sweep using my power.”
I agree and the two of us begin looking around again. I light several fires throughout the cave as we go. Between the extra light and his power, it’s a lot easier to see everything. As we work through each area, there’s still no scepter to be found.
“Wait, what’s over here?” I walk forward, noticing a crack in the cave wall. “I think there’s more through here.”
Ryder takes a look through the crack for himself. “I think you’re right.”
“Okay,” I say, wrapping my arms around his waist. “Let’s go.”
He looks down at me with furrowed brows.
“I can’t vaporate within the wards.”
“Oh.” I remove my arms and my face instantly heats with embarrassment.
“If Demetri had brought the wards completely down, I’d be able to, but he only cut a hole through them.”
“I see.” I keep my eyes trained on the crack, so he doesn’t see just how red my cheeks surely are. “I think I can fit through.” I start to slip my leg into the break in the wall, but Ryder pulls me back.
“What do you think you’re doing?” he asks in an accusatory tone.
“I’m doing what we came here to do, and that’s search every inch of these caves.”
“You don’t know what’s on the other side,” he argues, still holding onto my wrist.
“Exactly. For all we know the scepter could be just on the other side of this cave.”
“If something happens, I won’t be able to get to you.” He suddenly looks concerned for my well-being. It might be endearing if it wasn’t so inconvenient.
“Five minutes, okay? Just give me five minutes to look for myself and I’ll come right back.”
I can see he wants to say no, but we both know if the king gets his hands on this scepter very bad things are going to happen, and a lot of people will die.
“Five minutes,” he reluctantly agrees. “If you’re not back by then I don’t care what attention it brings, I’m breaking through this wall.”
“I’ll be back,” I promise, already slipping into the crack.
Once I reach the other side, I ignite my flame and see that I’m inside a shallow cave. It won’t take me long to search it.
As I work my way around, I feel a tugging in my chest. With each step it grows stronger like it’s calling me to something.
Eventually, its pull is too strong, and I follow it willingly.
When I reach the other end of the cave, the tugging finally stops.
I’m about to continue my search when a small hole opens up in the wall in front of me.
I take a step closer, hesitating for a second before letting my flame illuminate the rectangular opening.
No way.
I reach in and grab the ancient object.
When I pull it out, it’s not the scepter we had spent the past several hours looking for. Instead, lying in the middle of my hand is a tiny, pyramid shaped gem surrounded by three gold rings. It’s impossible and yet, here it is—in my palm.
A second piece of the Verenite Stone.