Aimed toward where I assumed a stage would have been.
A theater.
Lifting the lantern higher, I ran to the front of the room. Crumbling rocks were all that remained—no signs of pageantry or ornate decor. Only remnants of the mountains’ past and the thudding of my second pulse.
“What’s wrong?” Tol asked.
“There’s nothing here,” I mumbled, my shoulders dropping.
“What did you expect?” Tolek asked, roaming the stage space in the dark, running his hands over the walls.
“I…don’t know. More than this, though.”
Still, a theater within the mountains was curious.
“What’s this?” he called.
As I got closer, mystlight spilled over a large pile of rocks?—
“A statue?”
Seven weathered figures circled around an eighth, that larger one absorbing their attention like a beacon in the night. Some were broken—one appeared to be headless, another with black moss creeping across its body—but no features were discernible in any of them.
They all appeared to be either on the verge of bowing or rising, immortalized in this indiscernible moment in between. Goosebumps prickled across my skin, the second pulse racing faster than the first.
I stretched up to drag my finger along the edge of the closest figure. When flesh met stone, my skin seared. My necklace with it.
“Fucking Angels,” I hissed, shaking my hand. Sapphire whinnied, nudging me.
“What happened?” Tol wrapped my hand in his, looking between the wall and my blistered finger. “It did that?”
Tenderly, he took the lantern from my other hand and inspected the burn. It was already healing, but the throbbing remained.
“It didn’t do anything to me,” he mused.
“I guess it chose me.” I shrugged.
He wasn’t fooled by my attempt to make light of the occurrence. His eyes narrowed at the rock as if he’d jump between me and it, but then he stepped back.
I took the lantern and swept it over the statue and surrounding area one more time, bending to inspect the base and circling it, looking for anything suspicious. Lips pursed, I turned to Tol. He stood with his hands clasped behind his back, watching me.
“What if?—”
He tilted his head when I paused. “If?”
Theories swirled in my head, but none of them made sense. And none of them could be explained in full until I saw Damien again and asked what his warning meant.
“Never mind.” I shook my head. “I don’t know what it is.”
“We can stay and figure it out, if you’d like.”
Looking back at the statue, I knew. Staying would provide no answers. Whatever once lived here had long turned to dust.
“Let’s continue,” I conceded.
“Good.” He sighed, relieved. “This place doesn’t feel right.”
There was a piece of me that longed to pick apart this cavern, but instead I grasped Tol’s hand again and chose one of the tunnels on gut instinct.
