33. Amber

The high-ceilingedchamber of the next temple is huge and narrow, made of stone, with intricate carvings in the walls. The air feels thick with ancient power, and it smells like a musty cave.

The only sources of light are torches mounted on the walls and a soft glow coming from a huge standing statue of a Buddha at the end of the chamber.

Like the rest of the room, he's made of solid gray stone.

There's no trace of color anywhere. It's unnerving—like the room is devoid of life.

A tomb.

The entrance we walked through slams closed, the stone walls sealing shut. There are no lines or cracks where the door used to be. It's gone. As if it never existed at all.

"I guess he's our way out." Blaze glances at the Buddha, who's standing on the altar with his arms straight down by his sides, like a guard.

His serene face challenges us, daring us to prove our worth.

Then, his eyes open. Like the rest of the temple, they're the same gray color as the stone.

"Welcome, Star Touched and companions," his voice booms, echoing off the stone walls. "I am Akshobhya, the Buddha of immovable strength and resolve. To leave my temple, you must get past me first."

I reach for my dagger, my fingers wrapping around its hilt. "What do we have to do?" I ask.

"You must use whatever strength necessary to destroy me," he replies.

"You're asking us to kill you?" Damien asks, sounding skeptical.

"You will not kill me," the Buddha says. "Once you're through, I will re-form. If you get through."

I eye him up, unworried. The task would be difficult for humans, but our magic should be able to blast a stone statue to smithereens.

"Should we start now?" I ask, ready to do this and move on.

"You can," the Buddha says. "But first, do you want to learn the catch?"

"Yes," Morgan answers first, her voice hitching with anxiety.

"As you work, the temple will shrink," he says. "If you do not escape in time, you will be crushed."

I swallow and glance around the stone walls, suddenly finding it hard to breathe. Because this chamber doesn't just feel like a tomb.

It has the potential to become a tomb.

"We're not going to be crushed," I say, and I reach for my magic, releasing a beam of it toward the giant, smug Buddha.

The light strikes the stone, and I push as hard as I can, willing the Buddha to combust.

Nothing happens.

I push harder, laser focused.

Still, nothing.

I release my hold on it, disappointed to see that my magic barely left a mark. The stone's a bit darker where I hit it, but there isn't so much as a dent.

The chamber groans.

My stomach rises in my throat at the sight of the walls moving closer.

"Let me try," Damien says, stepping forward.

I move aside, praying his air magic will do a better job at this than my sun magic.

He raises his hands, and a gust of wind rushes toward the statue, whipping through the chamber with the force of a hurricane. Dust and debris are lifted from the ground, and the torches flicker wildly. He's creating a storm inside the chamber, leaving Morgan, Blaze and I clinging to each other so we don't fall over.

"Come on," Damien growls, his eyes narrowing with concentration.

The wind intensifies, forming a vortex around the Buddha. But he remains immovable, his serene expression unwavering.

Sweat beads on Damien's forehead from the effort of maintaining the storm.

Meanwhile, the walls are inching closer, the grinding sound of stone on stone growing louder.

Panic claws at my insides, and I tighten my grip around Morgan's arm. We're running out of time.

"It's not working," I shout over the roaring wind.

"Damien, stop!" Morgan yells, although her voice is barely audible over the storm.

He doesn't hear us.

So, I release my hold on Morgan's arm and run to Damien. My hair whips around my face, and I can barely keep my eyes open, but I push forward, incentivized by the walls that are moving closer and closer.

Finally, I'm next to him, reaching for his arm. The contact sends a jolt through me, the intensity of the feeling of his skin on mine almost overwhelming.

"Damien, stop!" I beg, and for a moment, he doesn't respond.

Then, slowly, the wind dies down, the debris settling as the storm weakens into nothing.

His breathing is ragged and heavy, matching mine. The grinding of the walls moving closer fades into the background.

"Amber..." he says, turning to look at me, his blue eyes dark and stormy.

My heart pounds, and I want to lean in, to savor how close I'm feeling to him.

Before I can, I'm yanked out of the moment by a dagger flying a few feet away from me. I jump back, startled, as the pointy end hits the Buddha straight in the stomach.

It thuds against the stone and clatters down to the floor.

Blaze strolls over to it and walks the few steps up onto the altar to pick it up, craning his neck to examine the spot where he hit the Buddha.

"Well?" Morgan asks.

"Nothing," he says, and then he drives the blade into the stone, crying out in pain as the force of the strike makes its way through his arm.

Morgan hurries over to him to inspect his arm, but he pushes her away, the air around him crackling with the intensity of his anger.

"The dagger is enspelled to defeat any opponent," Damien says calmly. "A stone statue, apparently, is not viewed as an ‘opponent.'"

The low, grinding sound around us stays as steady as ever.

Morgan looks around at the encroaching walls, steps back, and shoots a concentrated blast of fire out of her palms. She throws so much into it that the flames turn blue and purple, their heat filling the chamber.

Blaze joins her, his fire meeting hers, heating the chamber even more.

The fire spreads out around the Buddha, engulfing him completely.

The walls around us continue their eerie grind as they move closer.

My chest tightens, the air feeling thinner. It's impossible to get in a full breath. The chamber is suffocating me, threatening to bury me alive, and this Buddha is more indestructible than the crystals after Blaze enspelled them with his magic.

"Release your flames," Damien calls out to Morgan and Blaze, and they do.

The stone is darker, but only by a bit. Hardly enough to call it scorched.

Blaze reaches into his pack and pulls out the book. "Next plan," he says, flipping through it, ignoring the rumbling walls.

They've closed in so much that there must only be ten feet of space between them, at the most.

"Do you know any words that might work?" I ask Damien, because he seems to have a complete Latin dictionary in his mind.

"Explodere," Blaze says before Damien has a chance, darkness in his eyes as he slams the book shut. "Explode."