The little woman made of fire that Iyana associated with her magic.Shewas what was guiding them. Once Iyana had figured it out, her trust swelled, and she picked up their pace. They were all exhausted, and moving faster certainly didn’t help, but if the wailers found them in their current state, they’d all be dead and cursed to wander these lands forever. Iyana refused for that to be the fate of anyone in her family. She needed the amulet to protect them.
The fire inside her burned brighter and hotter. She assumed it meant they were getting closer to the tomb. Suddenly, there was a change to the landscape. A large cluster of rocks appeared in the distance. They all slowed as it came into view, realizing exactly what they had stumbled across.
Iyana broke into a run.
Emmeric cursed behind her, but all their footsteps followed closely, the ground absorbing most of the sound. She pulled up short at the front of the outcropping, her chest heaving with the exertion. It was taller than she would have thought from the distance, with a black hole for an entrance which had a faint golden sheen covering it. But if Iyana focused on it too hard, it disappeared. The others’ arrival distracted her from the glittering curtain.
“Damn, Smalls,” Talon said, panting. “I thought you hated running.”
“I do,” she said, not taking her eyes off the tomb. Etched into the stone over the entrance were words in a language Iyana didn’t understand.
sobe ill om bozente te pyrsino wa trare
“Only those who possess the fire may enter,” Altair translated.
That explained the shimmery screen. Magic.
“I possess fire,” Iyana said. “I could probably get in.”
Altair’s eyebrows pinched together. “I also have fire, but for some reason, I don’t think it’ll let me pass.”
Kaz and Talon were off to the side together. Iyana glanced over at them, and Talon shrugged. “We’re both in agreement that neither one of us is going in there. Regardless of my hair color, I knowIdon’t possess fire.”
“I’m going in,” Iyana announced.
Somewhere off to her right, Emmeric said something aboutwaiting and making a plan, but she was already striding forward. Iyana reached out her hand, and it passed through the magical curtain without resistance. As she started walking forward—uncaring if anyone was coming with her, she’d do this on her own if she had to—someone clamped down on her wrist. But she was on the move, and whoever it was couldn’t stop her momentum. Once she was fully in the cave, she turned to find Emmeric still attached to her wrist with his eyes firmly shut, breaths coming in short bursts. Slowly, he peered at the cavern and sighed when he recognized they were both still alive. Altair, Talon, and Kaz were all on the other side of the veil. Altair reached out a tentative finger, but immediately yanked his hand back. Iyana saw the tip of his finger had blackened. She stepped to go to him out of concern, but he shook his head.
“I’ll heal, astalle.” Looking at Emmeric, his golden eyes ablaze, he added, “You watch her back, Sullane.”
“Sir, yes, sir,” Emmeric said, giving the star a mocking salute. Altair frowned and might have murdered Emmeric for the slight if there wasn’t an impenetrable barrier between them. “I know you can take care of yourself—you more than proved that with the wailers—but I’ll always watch your back, Mouse,” he told her under his breath so Altair wouldn’t overhear. “I don’t need this asshole telling me to do my job.”
Iyana’s heart lightened with his words, and she didn’t even care if he sensed her gratitude through the bond.
Chapter 48
Emmeric
Emmeric stared at the yawning cavern ahead of him, really wishing he hadn’t made it through the veil so he wouldn’t need to walk into this tomb. It would seem only the Aztia and Kanaliza were allowed entry as a failsafe. Which, unfortunately, made sense, as this was the burial site for the originals, but Emmeric still would have preferred Iyana to think things through more before forging ahead, touching the veil of magic. There was no way she was absolutely sure she could pass uninhibited, and the damned woman did it anyway. It worked, but it might not have. They’d need to have a discussion about impulsivity.
A never-ending darkness leered back at Emmeric. No torches lined the walls to light the way through the cave. Only a few steps into the cavern and all the pitiful excuse for daylight in the Dead Lands was extinguished. Iyana held out her palm, a little ball of fire appearing there. She stared at it, an adorable little furrow of concentration on her brow, until it became white hot. Illuminating the space, she tossed it into the air, where it hovered over them.
“You’re getting better at that,” Emmeric said.
Iyana’s entire face brightened as she smiled. “Thank you.”
The cave was large and rounded. Like everything else in the Dead Lands, it was dry. There was no moisture running down the walls, no green moss. Most caves Emmeric had seen possessed stalactites and stalagmites, but those were missing, too. The air lacked the mildew smell usually associated with dark places. It appeared completely man-made. He wondered if they were the first ones to enter since the tomb was erected.
“Well,” Emmeric said, “time to go down the creepy tunnel, I guess.”
Iyana practically began skipping. His hand shot out to grasp her elbow. She turned to him, an eyebrow raised. “What?” she asked.
“We don’t know if there are traps laid out.”
She glanced back down the tunnel. “We’ll never know if we stay here. And I’d rather not leave the others out there for longer than necessary.”
Good point.“Well, let me go first, at least.”
Iyana rolled her eyes but waved him forward. They took it slowly, Emmeric with a sword in his hand on the lookout for tripwires, a loose stone, anything out of the ordinary that might trigger a trap. Soon, the cave sloped downwards. The farther they walked, the cooler the air became. And there didn’t seem to be any evidence of traps. Emmeric lowered his guard slightly and sheathed his sword, but his hand remained resting on the hilt.
