Chapter 44

H eading down the passageway to the tomb of the Three-Faced God was worse than heading into the pits. At least there you could hear the life above you or the shouts and screaming from the fights. Down here, it was just cold, stark silence. Even the condensation did not dare drip from the stone.

The magic that slipped out of the darkness was calm but unmistakably alive. The ancient stones that built the passage even seemed to give off a vibration that she felt all over her skin. The beacons of light had trailed off, leaving them in utter blackness. She had tried to ignite a flame at her fingertips, but it seemed like the walls of this place had been spelled so that no elemental magic could be used down here. A stroke of fear pushed through her.

"Can you see at all?" Torin whispered.

"No, nothing," she breathed, placing her hand out to feel his back. It was a comfort when it reached him.

"I can see for us both," he promised her.

After what felt like forever, a flickering light could be seen at the base of the staircase. Emara blinked to adjust to the lighting.

"Be careful, the steps are beginning to crumble at the bottom," Torin warned her. He placed his arm out to catch her in case she took an unexpected tumble.

Once at the bottom of the steps, he took down a torch of swirling moonlight preserved in a glass ball. Inside the rune-covered glass, the light rotated like a crashing wave. He took a few more steps until he was standing in a threshold between the stairs and darkness. Emara stepped to the side of him, and they entered the poorly lit tomb together.

The air was dense. She couldn't feel the magic stirring in her blood anymore, and it was like one of her limbs had been cut off.

Torin cast the moonlight into every nook of the room that he could, inspecting it for demons. But nothing came forth as the light shone into the crevasses.

"Over here," Torin guided her, and she followed him over to an altar. It was lined with white cloth, covered in the same runes that lit the moonlit beacon.

Black and white candles littered the shrine of the Mother God, and a bed of black roses lay amongst them, untouched by death. The altar was covered in citrine, jasper, and a few shades of quartz. Weapons of all kinds had been offered to Mother God, including gilded arrows and even a sword.

But there, on a pedestal draped in obsidian silk, was a stone so vibrant and bold that it out shone everything else.

Emara's lungs filled up with awe and she struggled to breathe as the magic from its aura stole all the air that was left in the room. She shuffled forward like it called to her, luring her in to touch its rough and rugged shape. Unlike the smoothness of the Resurrection Stone, the glowing stone was all sharp, irregular edges. It looked like water circled around inside, hitting off all its valleys.

"Can you feel the power coming from that thing, or is it just me?" Torin's voice was husky and vacant, and she wondered if he hadn't pulled his eyes from the stone either.

But, oh Gods, could she feel it. It had to be the Protection Stone. The pull of its power invited her to take it, feel it, bathe in its glory.

"Why do I not believe that it should be here?" she asked Torin, extending a hand toward the glow.

"You took the words out of my mouth," he said, his voice laced with pessimism. He grabbed a hold of her hand. Her hand fought to reach out for it and pluck it from where it sat.

She turned to him. "How can this still be here? Even after the amount of people who died to protect it, it can't be. Is it the right one?"

A muscle in his jaw tightened. His hand gripped her tighter, dragging her closer to him. "Maybe the Stone is protected somehow, guarded with magic like the room above us."

Maybe a demon couldn't touch it. Perhaps the darkness in her blood would stop her from touching it. But then why would the elemental door deem her worthy enough to open it?

"Something doesn't feel right in my gut," she told Torin. "But I have no doubt that it is one of the Stones of the Gods. Should we take it and get out of here?"

Torin held a hand out like he was testing how close he could get to the stone. Instead of touching it directly, he swept up the fabric beneath it and bundled the relic inside. He handed the silk to Emara. "If this is the Protection Stone, I want you to hold it. It is the Protection Stone for a reason, right?"

Before Emara could protest, she heard Artem cry out, his loud voice carrying all the way to them.

"Go!" Torin lunged at Emara and pulled her along with him as he hurled up the steep stone steps.

By the time they reached the top, her legs burned just as much as her lungs. Her magic was awake again, frantic beneath her skin. She could see blades stabbing and killing at unknown evils. Breighly, in her wolf form, was entangled with a huge creature with crimson eyes.

Emara sent out a blast of air in her friend's direction. It rushed through the room and collided with them, giving Breighly enough time to scramble away, whining.

Torin set to work, driving his swords through the first thing that moved in their direction. From what Emara could see in the dark, there weren't that many demons, but they were huge winged beasts like the ones that devastated the uplift. Emara ripped the fire from her veins and threw it across the room. It hit one demon, burning it alive, and its screech sent a sharp dizziness through Emara's skull.

She fought to keep herself upright, its dying screams still ringing in her ear.

"We need to get out of this room," Artem called. He threw a knife into the back of a demon that had been trying to work its claws into Breighly's vital organs. Breighly took that opportunity to sink her teeth into its neck and rip it open.

Emara flinched.

"Get Emara to the door," Torin yelled as another bat-like demon dropped to the floor. Torin wasted no time hacking at limbs and wings until he could get a clear shot at its heart.

Its gaze found Emara as it died, and she could have sworn it smiled at her, revealing rows of sharp teeth. A chill crawled all over her body, pushing fear from her stomach into her throat.

"Everyone, retreat. Now! This room has us all caged like sitting ducks," Torin roared as he neared the door. Artem pulled Emara away from the dead creature. "We have the relic, now we need to get back out of here."

A sudden sound stilled everyone, even the beasts behind them. Torin looked at Artem as Emara glanced at Breighly.

Arlo Stryker's face appeared in the threshold of the door, his cheeks flushed. "Gideon's unit have just sounded their horn."