My defenses rise in a wave, my fear manifesting in smoky swirls around my fingertips as I look again for my brother. “Where is Koda?”
He steps from the darkness at that moment, striding quickly toward the light. Stopping at the edge of the circle of sapphire, he points to the gloom behind him. “This is the way out of Mortem.”
He gestures above us and then along the ground at our feet. “The crack in our world begins at the mist and travels through the air to create a tunnel to the Scourge. The fissure finally opens wide enough for us to step through much farther along this path.”
“But… the Scourge?” I ask, my anxiety growing as I slip from Roman’s arms. He lets me go, and I’m grateful that he trusts me not to do anything foolish—like stepping beyond the light. “This is one of the most dangerous places in this world.”
The Scourge is pretty much in the top three with the Forbidden Lands and the prison, both of which nearly killed me when I entered them.
Koda squares his shoulders and looks me straight in the eyes. “I won’t lie to you: It’s not a safe or an easy path. I was lucky to survive it the first time.” He glances past me to Roman, who strikes two more sapphire runes to light the cavern around us and extend the boundary of the safe area.
“I don’t have Lord Rune’s magic or your wolf’s eyes,” Koda says. “When I first traveled through here, I only had our father’s magic to guide me, but it drew me safely to the fissure. Now, I can guide you to it.”
Some of my worry fades as I recall the angel-like energy I felt when we fell, which is evidence that what he’s saying is true. “What do you mean, our father’s magic guided you?”
“I’ll tell you everything.” Koda holds his hand out for me—the hand I took to fight our enemies earlier. “But the longer we stay here, the more likely our bodies—or our energy—will become the next meal for one of the many creatures that live here.”
I glance back at Roman, seeking his opinion. I don’t want to escape Esta only to lead my family into greater danger.
Roman is scrutinizing Koda carefully. It’s the same contemplation he gave my brother when he suggested we could try killing Esta in case the gates would open.
“There are fissures in Pyra-Mortem around this location,” Roman says. “The energy I sensed when we fell doesn’t belong to this world—the energy of both Earth and the angels’ realm is leaking into Mortem here, and it must be messing with the Balance. That’s why we could jump off the bridge and land here instead of the Forbidden Lands.” He inclines his head at the shadowed tunnel ahead of us. “I sense the same combined energy along this path. This is the way we have to go.”
“Will Esta follow us?” I ask.
Koda finally steps fully into the light of Roman’s runes, which highlights his blue hair. He shakes his head. “Esta’s afraid of the Forbidden Lands. If she thinks we were desperate enough to jump into them, she won’t follow. She’ll leave that to Crone. Particularly as Crone is already searching for us there.”
Koda’s gaze darkens. “I never questioned Esta’s fear of the dark lands because most demons are afraid of them, but she must worry about the hungry souls she cast into that environment.”
My mind whirls. “Would there be a way to use those souls against her?”
Roman gives a brief nod. “It’s possible, but there are no guarantees. Finding Jareth is our best plan.”
Assuming he’s alive. It’s a dark thought that I keep pushing away. Esta sent my father’s body to the angels’ realm to assure his destruction, but I remind myself that Roman was insistent he would know if Jareth were dead.
Malia’s hand on my shoulder calms me. “There’s no way out of this place but forward,” she murmurs. “And, if it’s any consolation, I don’t believe we left any magical trace to our current location. Even if Koda’s wrong and Esta considered following us, the mix of energy along the path we traveled will have concealed our trail.”
“She won’t jump like we did,” Taniya says with a shrug and a brief twitch of her lips into a smile. “Since she doesn’t have wings.”
“Crone won’t be able to track us here, either,” Roman says, interjecting that comforting fact into our conversation, although he’s focused on our surroundings. “There are worse threats we’ll have to face in these caverns.”
Worse than Crone?Fabulous.
“We should move quickly,” he continues, his palm brushing my back as he draws closer, a comforting stroke that calms me as much as Malia’s magic can. “Remember to stay within the light so the shadows can’t disorient you and pull you onto the wrong path.”
“We can move and react faster in our wolf forms,” Malia says.
“Agreed,” I reply.
In unison, Malia, Taniya, and I crouch and trigger the little runes on our left wrists. Our whispers are barely audible. “Unclothe.”
My armor disappears, held within the magic for when I need it again, and within a heartbeat, I shift. I welcome my wolf’s instincts and monochromatic view of my surroundings, even though it means I can’t immediately call my nightmare power.
Roman strikes more runes, all of which bob along the path above and ahead of us, lighting the way. My demon wolves gather around me, their bodies blazing onyx in my wolf’s vision, their power a comfort to me.
The ruby-eyed wolf has kept to the back of our group, closest to Ace, but now she pads forward, her eyes bright and curious. She seems to relax for the first time now that we’re all in wolf form.
I wish I could communicate with her like I can with my demon wolves’ mother, Reaper. In fact, I wish I could communicate with all of my wolves that way, but the bond must come from them, and they lost the bonding knowledge when they were sent to Earth to protect me.
