She licked her lips, and all at once her eyes filled with heat, as if she’d flipped off the part of her inching toward hysteria and forced an air of calm about herself. He realized instantly she was doing it for him. The corner of her mouth trembled as she said, “We have unfinished business.”
He forced a smile, thought back to the office in the Silver Sunset. “Yes, we do.”
“Marius…” Raven’s voice cracked with emotion. “Please. There’s no time.”
Harlow kissed him again and then shoved him toward the symbol. Fuck, she was strong. As he lowered himself to the floor, he thought she must be made of steel.
Nathaniel rested his fingers on Marius’s temples and stared down into his face. “Raven is going to knock your soul out of your body and toward Charlie. I will keep you in suspended animation until you return to it. Try not to linger, brother.”
He narrowed his eyes. “I’ll keep that in mind.”
Raven’s face appeared over his, the pain in her eyes almost unbearable. “I’m sorry,” she whispered just to him. Then she drew a symbol in the air with her hands, crossing and uncrossing her forearms before forming her fingers into claws and shoving one hand into his chest.
Now he understood why she’d apologized in advance. Pain sliced through him, and magic torqued his body off the floor. When he finally dropped, so did his spirit. The pain ended, then ignited again when he smacked hard and fast into stone.
Darkness. Was he unconscious or gone? With effort, he moved his hand, found his hip, and then felt along his torso. He was back in his leather armor again, as if he’d never left this dimension. He blinked. He must be back in the cave. He waited for his dragon sight to adjust to the total darkness.
An aura of golden light entered the corner of his vision. It grew brighter and brighter until a pale face with platinum curls appeared where Raven’s face had been.
“Uncle Marius?”
“Charlie?” He stared at her in total awe. The girl was putting off her own light, as if she’d swallowed a star.
She sniffed, and a tear rolled down her face. He wiped it with his thumb, and his hand glowed until the wetness dried. “I think I did something bad.”
Chapter Twenty-Eight
Marius sat up and took Charlie by the shoulders, forcing himself to give her a gentle smile. “Well, life wouldn’t be very interesting if we didn’t get into trouble now and then, would it?”
“This isn’t interesting. It’s scary.”
He shuffled to his feet and noticed the satchel on her hip. “Is that…?”
She opened the flap. “I got the hearts Mommy wanted.”
Marius looked down at the two giant gems, lit from within by the souls of his father and uncle. “Good girl.”
“I can hear Mommy cry, but I can’t get back to her.” Charlie sniffed.
“But now I’m here, and I’m going to help you get home.” He reached out his hand, and she slipped her fingers into his. She was taller than when he’d last seen her, but slight, waifish. He wondered at her fast rate of growth. When would it stop? Was she mortal as her mother or immortal as her father? If she was mortal, would her life be abnormally short? He set the line of thought aside. None of it would matter if he didn’t get her out of here.
A hunter’s scream came from outside the cave, sending the girl clinging to his waist.
“The hunters are scary. It was smart of you to come here to hide.”
“I leaped here from the last place,” she said in a shaky, high-pitched voice. “I tried to leave, but it was too dangerous.”
“Hmm. Well, the good news is I know the way home, but we need to leave this cave to get there. In order for us to get out of here, we need to make it to the labyrinth and then the temple. The temple is the doorway home.”
Her lower lip trembled. “How do we get to the labyrinth?”
“We leave the cave and cross through the forest. Then we’ll walk through a tunnel and wade through a lake. The door to the labyrinth lies beyond the lake.”
Her big blue eyes shifted fearfully toward the exit.
“Now tell Uncle Marius, have you seen weapons in this cave? A spear with carvings on it? A sword?”
She pointed toward the bend that led to the opening to the cave. He patted her back and took her hand again. He’d never seen the cave in the light before, but it might as well be high noon the way Charlie was glowing. The floor was littered with bones. Animal and human. It stank of sulfur and death. He found a sword and scabbard right where he remembered the weapons being on his last journey here and fastened it around his hips. The spear beside it was one Killian once used. He examined the carvings. Greek symbols in bone. It killed the hunters, he remembered. That’s all he cared about.
