Chapter 18

M y whole body hurt. I hadn’t lost consciousness when the ground opened up and swallowed me, but at some point I’d squeezed my eyes shut, so I’d been unprepared when I landed on a pile of compacted sand and then rolled several times over some unforgiving rock before stopping.

When I opened my eyes the world was bathed in a blue glow and I saw a hole in the rock ceiling about ten feet above me that I must have fallen through.

How could I see? Where was that blue light coming from?

I tried to suck in a lungful of air, but immediately started choking on rock dust. When my coughs finally subsided, I sat up and looked down at myself to find I was covered in dust from head to toe. I ached all over and had some scrapes, but I didn’t see any gushing wounds and was able to wiggle all my fingers and toes, which I took as a good sign that nothing that broken.

Gingerly, I pushed myself to my feet. The sand was probably the only reason that the fall hadn’t left me a broken and bloody mess, so I was thankful for it.

My muscles and bones protested as I straightened. Come tomorrow, I’d definitely be covered in bruises, but the truth was I was lucky to still be alive.

Turning to take stock of my surroundings, I caught my breath. I was in a cavern, lit by glowing blue stones embedded in the rock wall, ceiling, and ground. In the middle of the cavern in front of me was a large pool of crystal-clear water.

I rushed over to it and immediately cupped my hands and brought the water to my mouth to drink. It was fresh as if it had come from a spring and tasted clean. When I’d had my fill, I splashed my face and scrubbed my hands the best I could and then stepped back to take a better look at my situation.

The cavern was breathtaking. The blue glow from the stones almost gave it an ice grotto feel, except the temperature was warm and balmy. In truth, I’d never seen anything like it. On this second look, my eye was drawn to the back wall on the other side of the pond where it looked like there was a concentrated cluster of glowing stones.

I skirted the water, taking care of where I stepped on the uneven ground, to investigate. One nasty fall for the day was enough for me.

It didn’t take long to get to the spot with the cluster of luminescent stones, which turned out to be set deep into the cave’s stone wall in a circle shape that was about twice the size of my head. All of the brilliant blue stones were glowing except for the center of the circle cluster.

Reaching out, I realized that there was some sort of deep depression inside the circle cluster. An indentation that felt suspiciously like the shape of an anatomical heart.

Was this where the Shadow Heart had been? And if so, where was it now?

“It’s not here,” a deep voice said behind me and I spun, my heart hammering in my chest as if I was having an attack.

Stryker stood on the other side of the pond, staring back at me.

I blinked a few times, almost sure that I was imagining him, but as I remained frozen in shock, he moved toward me, ringing the pond like I had until he stood right in front of me.

Emotions swirled within me. Warring with each other. Part of me just wanted to jump into his arms, but the other part of me wanted to hurt him like he’d hurt me. I didn’t know what to do, so I just stood there, torn.

“Are you all right?” he asked. His concerned gaze was nothing more than clinical as he looked me over from head to toe and back again, yet still it made my cheeks heat.

“What are you doing here?” I asked, my voice hardly louder than a whisper.

Reaching out, Stryker tried to take my hand, but I pulled it away before he could touch me.

Hurt flashed across his face that he covered quickly. “I just wanted to make sure you are uninjured,” he said.

“I’m fine,” I snapped back and Stryker flinched. “How did you find me?”

“Zander contacted me and told me where you were headed,” he said, surprising me. “We can mentally communicate over large distances, my brothers and I. It drains our energy, so we only do it when it’s an emergency. When Dawn told him where you’d gone and what the Wise Ones had told you, he reached out to me. It’s not safe here. We have to go.”

It looked like Stryker was going to reach for me again, but he stopped himself this time. Wise man.

“I’m not going anywhere,” I said, lifting my chin. “The Wise Ones gave me a mission, and I intend to see it through.”

Turning, I started around the pond in the other direction, looking at the walls and the ground. Perhaps the Shadow Heart had fallen on the ground? Maybe the tremor had caused it to fall from its spot in the wall?

“Aribella, what are you doing?” Stryker asked from behind me. I knew he was following me, but I didn’t give him the satisfaction of glancing back at him.

“Looking for the Shadow Heart.”

He sighed loudly, which just made my annoyance spike. “I already told you it’s not here.”

“How would you know?” I shot back.

“Because I’m the one who moved it.”

Finally stopping, I spun around to look at him.

“You moved it?”

He nodded.

“Why? Where is it? We have to get it right now.”

“Slow down,” he said.

“Explain,” I ordered.

Stryker pressed his mouth into a straight line, but nodded. “The legends always said that the Shadow Heart was buried deep within Mount Grimhorn. From the time the first lords were banished to Ethereum it was only a myth, a legend, until three years ago when one of my miners broke through to this chamber,” he said with a wave of his hand, indicating the blue-drenched cavern.

“At first I left the Shadow Heart here and ordered the entrance to this cavern sealed, and kept the mine open, but word quickly spread and looters and treasure hunters kept trying to break into the mines to steal it. Eventually I decided to move it somewhere safer, but after I moved the Shadow Heart, something happened and the mines became unstable. Something about moving it and removing its magic from this mountain caused cave-ins and gas leaks and a plethora of other issues these mines had never had. More than one miner lost their life.”

“So you closed the mines,” I said, filling in the blank.

He nodded. “The sapphires weren’t worth people’s lives,” he said and my heart tweaked. It was more proof that Stryker cared for far more than just his riches like so many people believed.

“I tried to relocate the workers to my other mines,” he went on. “But as you probably noticed, the village never truly recovered.”

I nodded. It all made sense now. “Where did you move it?”

“An island toward the south, just past my eastern shore,” Stryker said. “We can go retrieve it. Together.”

Together . Part of me balked at the idea of doing anything with him after he’d abandoned me, but the other part of me felt like it was right. That it was something we were supposed to do, together. No matter how I felt about it, I couldn’t get it without him.

“Fine. We should go,” I said, mirroring his earlier words. “Do you know an easy way to get out of here?”

He nodded and indicated I should follow him, but he paused at the spot where I’d fallen into the cavern, noticing the hole in the ceiling. “Did you fall through here?” he asked.

“Yes.” I rubbed my sore hip. “I’m glad you know of a less painful way out of here.”

Stryker tensed and then went stock-still.

“What’s wrong?” I asked when he didn’t start moving again.

“Aribella, I need you to come here,” he said carefully.

Before I could answer, I felt something gently rub up against my back and looked over my shoulder to see Stryker’s shadows nudging me toward him. “Stryker, stop—”

Stryker closed his eyes and a shudder wracked his large frame. “Please,” he said, not bothering to hide the pleading tone in his voice.

It was that tone, full of anguish, that had me surrendering and going to him on my own. I stopped in front of him and he opened his eyes. There was a wildness in them I hadn’t seen before. Like he was trying very hard to control himself, and losing.

“I just need to check for myself that you’re okay. I know you don’t owe me anything, but will you please let me do that?”

That’s what had him so upset? Because he’d just realized that I’d fallen and thought I might be hurt? What did he care?

I thought about denying him, but Stryker looked about two seconds away from losing it, so regardless of my better judgment, I nodded.

When Stryker reached out and started running both hands over my body, checking for injuries, I had to smother a gasp. His touch was butterfly light. I knew he wasn’t trying to take advantage, but it still affected me.

He started at my head, gently prodding my skull, watching my face carefully for any winces and twitches. Then he moved to my neck and then down one arm and then the other before slowly checking the rest of my body, being respectful of my physical boundaries.

I was red-faced and a step away from full-out panting when he finally finished. He was kneeling before me, but when he stood I immediately noticed the wildness had left his gaze.

“I’m glad you’re okay,” he said, relief heavy in his voice and I half wondered what he would have done if I’d had an injury.

I’d ask him what that was all about, but I already knew. He couldn’t calm down until he knew for himself that I was unharmed. I tried not to let it affect me, but it did. Despite the ways that Stryker tried to push me away from him, tried to push me out of his heart, this was evidence of how important I was to him.

A week ago it would have made my own heart soar, but a lot had changed since then. Now it just felt like he was poking at an unhealed wound, making it bleed all over again.

Without saying anything, I turned from him and started walking in the direction he’d indicated the exit was. Right now I wanted nothing more than to get out of this mountain, to retrieve the Shadow Heart, and then go somewhere and try to heal my own.