Cassie nodded.“I can’t reach him.”
Elora’s jaw tightened as she closed her eyes, shoulders tensing as she reached inward for Cush.Cassie watched the moment hope flickered, and died.
Elora opened her eyes again, and they were bright with anger.“It’s blocked,” she said.“Not distant.Not strained.But completely blocked.”
Cassie swallowed hard.“Theywouldn’t do that.”
“No,” Elora agreed, voice sharp with certainty.“They’d fight.Argue.Storm halfway across the realm before they’d shut us out like this.”
The forest shifted as if all its focus was turned on them and it was paying attention to their every movement and every word.This was becoming the norm.Or perhaps, the forest had been focused on them from the moment they stepped into it, but they were only recently beginning to realize it.
Cassie felt it along her spine, a subtle pressure that made her skin prickle.The trees seemed closer than they had a moment ago, not physically, but in the way a crowd leans in when something interesting is about to happen.Her hand drifted instinctively to her stomach.The ache there wasn’t pain.It was awareness.A quiet, steady fullness that had nothing to do with hunger and everything to do with the small, flickering presence beneath her ribs.
“Okay,” Elora said, pushing to her feet and pacing a short line through the moss.“We don’t panic.”
Cassie managed a thin huff of breath.“What’s to panic about?”she asked, her tone bored.“We wandered off into the forest in search of some ancient Chamber, and now the forest is luring us like bait to said ancient Chamber.I'm pregnant with no medical care to speak of and the bond we have with our Chosens are blocked.I’m pretty sure everything is fine and dandy, and we can simply relax and enjoy the scenery.”
Elora shot her a look.“Sarcasm does not become you.Focus.Maybe they’re distracted.Maybe the Book?—”
“Both of them?”Cassie cut in, her voice cracking despite her effort to steady it.“At the same time?Elora, I can’t feelanything.Not anger, frustration, worry.I don’t even feel like it’s distance between us.It’s like the bond hits a wall and slides off.”
Elora stopped pacing.Slowly, she lifted her gaze to the trees.
Cassie followed it.The woods around them felt heavier.Shadows lay where shadows shouldn’t, pooled too thick between roots and trunks.Every leaf seemed angled toward them.
“Does it feel like ...”Cassie hesitated, searching for the right word.“Like it’s waiting?”
Elora nodded once.“And listening.”
A breeze whispered through the clearing but the leaves didn’t move.
Cassie shivered.“We should go back.”The words felt right.Sensible.Necessary.But, her feet didn’t move.Screw the Chamber and whatever secrets it held.Cassie wanted to make sure Trik was okay.But deep in her gut, she knew that wasn’t an option.
Elora’s shoulders went rigid.“I can’t.”
Cassie’s heart lurched.“How did I know you were going to say that?”
Elora pressed a hand to her chest, fingers curling into the fabric there.“Because you can’t either.Just like yesterday, this Chamber of Light and Dark is pulling us.Not dragging.Not forcing.”She sucked in a breath.“Just ...insisting.Like forward is the only direction my body remembers how to go.”
Cassie felt it, too, the dull, steady tug beneath her sternum, gentle but relentless, like a hook set deep behind her heart.She had been trying to ignore it, but it was not something that was willing to be overlooked.“Me, too,” she whispered.
The ground vibrated beneath them.Not a tremor.More like a pulse, a heartbeat.Slow, ancient and dark.
Cassie’s heart skipped.“What could it possibly want with us and how could it have known that we’d decide to become explorers?”
Elora’s mouth tightened.“Magic isn’t something we can always explain or have explained.Whatever this Chamber is, the magic living in it is powerful and definitely has an agenda.”
The pressure deepened, warm and deliberate, curling not to grab, but to invite.Though she had no doubt if they attempted to resist, that might change.
Cassie’s hand tightened over her stomach as her child’s magic flickered faintly in response.Not as if it was frightened or distressed, but simply aware.“I kind of feel like if we don’t continue along with it, we will be hunted,” Cassie said softly.
Elora shot her a sharp look.“I have no desire to be prey.”
“Agreed,” Cassie swallowed.
The forest hummed, low and deep, as if in agreement and encouragement for them to continue their trek.
Elora swore under her breath.“I hate ancient magic.”
