“What if there’s a different entrance? It’s been a really long time since that journal was written. Maybe they’ve done renovations?” I asked Lierick, and he shrugged.
“Then we go back and try to find references to where. We have time.”
We didn’t. It was a reassuring lie.
Walking around the rough walls, I paused over the large water reserve. It was huge and dark, and I wondered just how far it went down into the earth. It was almost completely still and calm, but something about it seemed… off.
“Lierick?” I called softly, and he appeared at my side. “What do you think?”
Lierick stared down into the shadowy abyss of the water. “I mean, it’s an element the First Line controls. It would make sense.”
“Not an element we can control, though.” I wasn’t sure how we could check my hypothesis, other than to dive right in, so I stripped out of my boots and shirt. We still had to walk out of here at the end.
“Avie,” Lierick started, but I pinned him with a look. If his next words were going to be about letting him go instead, I might actually kick him in the shins. He must have read the direction of my thoughts on my face, because he just grimaced. “It’s lucky we’re both such good swimmers, I guess. We go down, see if wecan find the bottom, and then if it’s no use, we come back to the surface. You swim beside me at all times, okay?”
I nodded. Last thing I wanted was to be lost in a dark well, with no idea which way was up. But I knew we were right, that thetalwas somehow below this water. I could feel it in my chest.
Lierick shucked off his own shirt and boots, and fuck, he was handsome. So much beautiful, golden skin that flexed with his easy movements. I wanted more time, so I could trace every hard ridge and line of his body personally. With my tongue.
“Stop looking at me like that,” he chuckled softly, “or I’m going to prop you on the edge of this well and fuck you, mission be damned.”
Tempting, but this was too important and more than a little precarious. “Later. Promise?”
“Cross my heart.” He leaned forward to seal it with a kiss. His lips were warm and familiar, and tasted like happiness. He boosted me up onto the side of the reservoir, climbing up after me. Reaching out, he twined his fingers in mine. “Three.. Two… One…”
We fell into the water with a splash. I expected to sink for a long time. The darkness of the water hinted at hidden depths, but we weren’t even immersed in water for a second before we were dumped unceremoniously onto rough stone.
Soaking wet, I climbed to my feet. I couldn’t believe it; I’d been right. We’d been right.
The cavern we were in was small, but there, lodged in a shrine on the rough stone wall was a statue of Ebretha. She hummed with a power so thick, it coated me in an almost tangible residue. I could feel the magic pulsing around the room, pouring through my veins, making every hair on my body stand on end.
But at the same time as the heady power coursed through me, I could feel howwrongit was. It was an unnatural thing; thestatue was no more than two feet tall, but channeled the magic of generations.
Lierick moved toward it, his eyes wide. An insidious feeling unfurled in my chest. I looked around the room, and it seemed wrong too. A chair sat in the corner, covered in dust, but a plate discarded on the rough stone floor on the other side of the room was clear and empty.
I walked closer to the plate. Tucked tightly against the stone walls were shackles. A candle nearby had pooled into used wax, but it had no dust on the surface. Someone had been down here, and recently.
I strode back to the statue of Ebretha. “We need to go. The First Line knows about this place,” I hissed at Lierick, reaching toward the statue. “Let’s destroy it now and get back upstairs.” I grabbed the heavy base of the statue, which felt warm.
A hand reached out and gripped my wrist. Looking over at Lierick, I could see he was sweating. His eyes were wide, and his pupils so blown, I could hardly see his pretty gold irises at all.
“Maybe we should just take it with us. Study it.”
His voice sounded off, strained, and he groaned. I stared down at where his hand still held my wrist tightly. As his gaze dropped to his hand too, he wrenched it off, like my skin was on fire. Lifting both hands to his eyes, he pressed the balls of his palms tightly into the sockets.
“Fuck, Avie, it calls to me. To my magic. The power… Can’t you feel thepower?” Breathing through his nose, he dropped his hands, his face filled with a desperate kind of fear. “The magic wants to be protected, and it’s calling on me to save it. You have to go. Avie, you have torun.”
No fucking way was I leaving him down here with that. “I have to destroy it first,” I said evenly, grabbing the statue in my hands. I was going to smash it to smithereens, and if that didn’t work, then I’d try something else.
“No!” Lierick launched himself at me, but stopped at the last minute, throwing himself back. “Avie, you have to go! Fuck!” He clawed at his face, and it was like he was changing in front of my eyes.
Someone chuckled softly from behind us. “Fortunately, no one is going anywhere.”
Whipping around, I saw Stanlus standing on the other side of the room, a wicked-looking gun pointed at us with one hand and an evil grin curling his lips.
“Ah, the Second Line Heir and Vox’s little whore. This is perfect.”
Twenty-Two
