My friends and I formed a tight circle at the bottom of the stairs. “The pilot said he will wait for us unless their cover is blown,” Chase said quietly. “If that’s the case, they’ll take off and disappear above until we need them.”
“Where exactly is the stone?” Laous interrupted our whispers, not even attempting to keep his voice down. He clearly didn’t care if we drew the attention of the locals.
There was an extended pause, and I wondered if maybe everyone was thinking about throat punching him now. “I’ll have to use my phone to track the coordinates,” Lexen said, swiping across the screen. He keyed something into it, and then stared for a moment.
“This way,” he said shortly.
The guys made sure the four of us girls were in the center, keeping Laous as far away as possible. Laous, with his people, strolled along behind us like he didn’t have a care in the world.
Despite the previous warning about the area we were in, there wasn’t anything in the vicinity that was a cause for alarm. The only details clear in the moonlit night were bushes and trees, and what looked like a huge jungle off in the distance. No signs of human life.
The Draygo who had hidden the stone went to a lot of trouble to put it somewhere that was isolated and would hopefully remain isolated for many hundreds of years, considering he had no idea how long the stone would be hidden with us as secret keepers for it.
“How much further?” Laous asked gruffly, a darker emotion bleeding into his words for the first time. He finally sounded frustrated.
Lexen looked at his phone again, moving the screen with his thumb. I wondered if he was deliberately drawing out the moment. Annoying Laous was one of life’s little pleasures.
“We’re getting close,” he eventually said.
Emma leaned toward me, and I lowered my head. “He’s checking in with Astoria,” she breathed into my ear. “We have to stall Laous until we know everyone is safe back there.”
“How much longer?” I asked, trying to be quiet, but failing because I was getting spooked.
Emma shrugged, pulling me down again. “They took out that front group who were without hostages. Our people have taken their place in the hope they’ll trick the other members of Gonzo scattered around. Roland managed to fry their comms, so it’s working so far. Some of the other houses have gotten Daelighters situated around Astoria. So far, we’re looking good.”
My eyes flicked to the side. Laous was about twenty feet away and a little back from us. “Didn’t he say he was keeping in touch?”
“Not sure how he could be,” Emma said. “All of the overlords are blocking the network, and 90 percent of the town is out of cell service. Roland left one small part so he could communicate with Lexen.”
And we hadn’t seen Laous, or any of his people, with a phone. So why was he so unconcerned? It was like he didn’t even care what was happening back in Astoria.
A thought occurred to me. What if he wanted the Daelighters to take out Gonzo and whoever else was helping him? The little I knew of him, I’d never have guessed he was a guy who liked to share power. Getting rid of them would be in his best interest. Especially if he didn’t need their help any longer. Which had to mean that he was supremely confident he could get the stone from us now, even though he was vastly outnumbered.
But how?
“He’s up to something,” I whispered, keeping my voice down.
Emma nodded rapidly. “I think so as well,” she returned. “We just have to remain on guard, and make sure the stone does not come out of the ground until the town is secure. Then Laous will have nothing to use against us, and we are stronger than him.”
My worry didn’t abate even a fraction. It just didn’t make sense that he would bring only three of his people with him, one being Rao, who was clearly too beaten down to do anything.
We walked on in silence, all of us on high alert. The land grew steadily darker as the night wore on and the moon shifted across the sky. There were still no signs of human inhabitants, but the rustling in the bushes when we had to push through them made it clear animal life was still active in this area.
Lexen’s phone lit up and my attention went immediately to him. Emma gave my arm a squeeze and hurried to his side. I wondered if this was about Astoria and whatever was going on back there. “Stone is twenty yards away now,” Lexen said, loud enough for Laous to hear.
“About damned time,” Laous muttered. “I was afraid you were about to try and screw me out of this deal. And let me tell you, you definitely don’t want to do that.”
He tripped then, and it almost looked like a branch had slid across the ground where he’d been standing. Laous recovered quickly, his head darting around as he tried to figure out what he had fallen over. I saw Maya hide a smile, letting her head drop forward so her dark hair covered her face.
Chase.
I managed not to laugh, even though I really wanted to. It was the little things, seriously. We started to descend, the ground getting quite steep, and by the time Lexen stopped we were in a small gorge, a cliff face on one side and a creek on the other.
For the first time since we’d stepped into this land, there was evidence of humans: a fire pit, huge stones arranged in a circle with half-burned sticks inside. I could feel no heat from it though, and I hoped that meant this was just an occasional camping spot. There were also markings on the side of the wall. Emma went straight for them, her eyes alight.
“Amazing,” she whispered. “It’s like discovering hieroglyphics from an ancient tribe.”
She paused then, leaning closer. “Actually….”
