Chapter 38
Reign
“You’ve never been here?” I ask Ryder who seems like he’s readying for an attack.
“No, I haven’t.”
Columns and statues are covered in a bright green moss while overgrown ferns shade the rubble and broken-down walkways. Golden rays of sunlight break through the large, round opening above. I’m not sure if there was once a roof, but there certainly isn’t one now. Only a canopy of lush trees.
Symbols I don’t recognize mark the stone walls.
It’s quiet and still, but not in the chilling way that the Shadow Lands are.
It’s more of a peaceful feeling. Other than the occasional rumbling of falling pebbles, the only sound comes from the singing birds perched around the opening’s edge above us.
“These are ruins, aren’t they?”
“They are,” Ryder answers with a pensive look. “I should know of this place, but I don’t.”
“We should keep looking around.”
“Stay close,” he commands in that domineering tone he uses when he’s burdened by my presence.
We follow along an arched path in uncomfortable silence.
There’s been a thick wall of tension between us since he saw me in Damien’s room the other morning.
Ever since then, something has felt off between us.
It shouldn’t bother me as much as it does, given our complex relationship, but for some reason it’s eating me up inside and I can’t take it any longer.
“So, about the other morning,” I start, turning around to look at him. “You’re probably wondering—”
“I’m not,” he says sharply, cutting me off. “Your relationship with Delecroix is none of my business.”
“Okay… then why have you been avoiding me?”
“I haven’t. Believe it or not, my life doesn’t revolve around you.”
Ouch.
His words land hard, and I can’t say they don’t hurt. In fact, they hurt me more than they should. This cold, harsh version of him is one I haven’t seen in quite some time. Maybe it’s the weight of the impending war that has him acting this way, but it feels personal.
“Understood,” is all I say, turning back around. I want nothing more than to widen the space between us, but I can feel his dark presence crawling behind me.
I’m grateful for the melody the colorful birds use to fill our silence as we continue to explore the abandoned structure. Plants and trees have reclaimed their home, growing around the stone walls and sculptures. The air here feels wet and humid. Not at all like the hot air back in Avelion.
The next crumbling room we enter has a large chair fixed along the back wall.
“Is that a throne?” I ask Ryder who is already headed straight for it.
His hand runs along the top of it, removing the blanket of moss covering its tall backing. When he steps to the side, I see it.
A ruby.
Embedded in the middle of the throne is a giant, red gem illuminated by the beam of sunlight cast upon it. He doesn’t have to tell me what I already know. I’m not sure how we got here or where here even is, but we found it.
The lost island.
Home of Casstia Nircosa’s tomb.
“How is this possible?” It comes out as a whisper.
“I have no idea,” he admits. “The scepter has to be here somewhere.”
“Okay. Well, let’s find it.” I spin around and head for the next room, but he quickly cuts me off.
“We don’t know anything about this place. You can’t just go wandering off.” Just then something moves in the distance and Ryder is in front of me with his sword of shadows and a protective arm shielding me.
I can’t stop my laughter when I see the fluffy, grey rabbit hop out from underneath one of the large ferns.
“Oh, no. A deadly bunny!”
Ryder doesn’t say anything, but his sidelong glance tells me he doesn’t find me funny. I ignore him and carry on, heading towards one of the other sections that seems to have fallen apart over time. As I continue exploring, he creeps along behind me in deafening silence.
Wherever we are has clearly been abandoned for decades, maybe even centuries. It’s hard to tell and neither of us recognize any of the symbols scattered about. So far, we’ve had no luck finding anything that resembles a tomb.
“If we’re here, does that mean the wards are down?”
Ryder looks like he’s thinking. “I’m not sure.”
“Well if they’re up you won’t be able to do your smoke thingy, right?” He follows my train of thought and when he reappears in front of me a second later, we both come to the same conclusion. “Okay… so does this mean someone already got them down, or they were never up to begin with?”
“If my father already found this place then what’s he waiting for?”
“I want to get an aerial view,” I tell him, letting my wings flare behind me.
“No.”
“No?”
“You’ll give away our location.”
“To who? Look around. No one is here.”
“I said, no.”
His dismissive, overbearing tone sends a heatwave shooting through my body and I take off into the sky without his permission. It takes him no time to catch up to me and when he does, I expect to hear a lecture, but instead he seems to be just as taken aback as I am.
Beyond the dense, tropical forest is a white, sandy beach that runs into a sea of dark blue. The island is small and compact. From up here we can see its entire circular outline.
“The island has to be somewhere in the Infinite Sea,” Ryder says once we’re standing back in the ruins. “Nowhere else has water this dark. Everywhere else is a vibrant aqua.”
“So, how is it that no one has been able to find this place?” I ask. “Could it be cloaking magic?”
“Not likely.” He strokes his chin. “Not for something as big as an island. Even something like the safe house takes a lot to cloak. I’ve certainly never come across anyone capable of cloaking an entire island.”
“We need to find that tomb,” I say, already continuing my explorations. “If anything, we’ll know if your father has the scepter.”
“For the sake of realms, let’s pray to The Mother he doesn’t.”
Ryder doubles back to the room with the throne and I’m thankful for the separation. Being around him right now feels like trying to breathe in a room full of smoke and I can’t help but roll my eyes at the irony. I’m not sure how much more of his attitude I can take today.
As I continue to wander the ruins, each room is more of a letdown than the one before.
Just as I’m beginning to lose hope, I see two steps leading up to a door.
I almost didn’t see it hidden behind the wall of tangled vines.
As I attempt to pull it open, I realize the vines are making that impossible, so I quickly use my fire to burn most of them away.
Just as I start to step through the dark threshold I hear Ryder yell out, “Reign, wait!” He reaches for my wrist, but it’s too late. I’m already being pulled through the black opening, taking him with me.
It feels like taking a giant step when we land on the other side. Exactly how it felt when we took the portal to see the Oracle the first time.
Right away, Ryder pulls me into him and covers my mouth with his hand while I’m still trying to figure out where it is we are.
I don’t move as my eyes scan the stone room.
An ear shattering alarm makes me jump and Ryder’s grip tightens around my waist. Before I can turn around to look at him, we’re already back in his bedroom at Grimstone.
“What the hell just happened?” I ask, whirling around to see the look of panic written all over his face.
“Never do that again,” he growls, gripping my arms too tightly.
I push him off me. “I didn’t know it was a portal! You think I wanted to leave that island before we had a chance to scour it? I know I messed up!”
“You think I’m mad because we left the island? Reign, do you know where we just were?”
The stack of books next to his bed and the weapons scattered around the room begin to levitate in the air.
I’ve never seen him lose control like this before.
I take a cautious step closer to the door and he follows my line of sight.
The floating objects fall back down, and he repositions himself against the wall as if he’s putting himself in timeout.
“The palace,” he finally says. “That’s where we portaled to.”
“I—I’m sorry.”
“My father must’ve spelled it to set off an alarm if anyone passed through.”
“I didn’t know,” I promise in a whisper.
His face softens slightly, but his posture is still rigid. “We can’t go back. The portals are too unpredictable, and we were lucky I could get us out of there before we were ambushed. We’ll have to find another way to access the island and as for the Oracle—”
“I know.”