The stone archway leading to the cemetery loomed before us. I could feel Kael’s skeptical gaze tracing up between my shoulder blades as I squinted into the night-cloaked headstones.
“How do you know this warlock is in there?” Kael asked.
I shrugged, then made my way under the archway. “I don’t know.” My voice was hushed. I was uncertain if there were more demons about, or even dark-cast minions of Vehrin, and I didn’t want to draw attention to us. “I just sense that there is something calling me in here.”
Kael’s hand grabbed my shoulder, and he pulled me to a stop. “Livvie, that doesn’t mean this is helpful. For all we know, it’s Vehrin. This could be a trap.”
I sighed and brushed his hand away. “Well, we’ll never know until we try.”
He crossed his muscled arms across his wide chest and opened his mouth to argue, but at that moment, I caught sight of something over his shoulder that made my heart jump.
I shoved past him and knelt down at the base of the archway I’d just crossed under. There, near the bottom, in a scrawl so worn by wind and rain, was a rune.
Anyone else would have overlooked the angles that seemed almost a part of the stones, but the ancient eyes peering from my soul could read the blocky character.
Kael squatted beside me. “What is it?”
My fingers brushed over the rune. “This.”
“Okay, and what is it supposed to be?” He squinted, then tilted his head as if it would help him to better make out what I saw.
“It says gateway.”
The shifter scoffed and straightened to his feet. “How original. I expect there’s one over there that says ‘seat’?” He pointed to a bench a couple of yards away.
I rolled my eyes and stood. “It doesn’t mean a physical gateway. It’s like…” I drifted and tapped my fingers against my thigh as I thought of a way to explain what the rune meant. “It’s like an opening to something different. Something ethereal.”
“So, what you’re saying is there is something otherworldly in here?”
“Or magical,” I said. “And ancient.”
Whatever this place held, I could sense something starting to prickle across my skin like static.
Kael frowned, and I could tell by the way his hand drifted toward his hip, and his pistol, that he didn’t like that one bit.
I shrugged a shoulder. “Seems like the perfect place for the warlock, I guess, though why ancient magic is hiding in a cemetery in Chicago, I have no idea.” I grinned at Kael. “Shall we?”
I strode off deeper into the cemetery. Kael grumbled something incoherent at my back, and my smile deepened. I couldn’t help it. Sometimes I liked to ruffle his feathers, or fur, a bit.
The shifter kept a wary eye out for any more attackers, while I searched for any clues as to where Lor the warlock could be. I tried to follow the ancient magic permeating the cemetery, but it seemed to whisper to me from every shadow. A part of me wanted to give in, but I kept a hold of myself and continued to study the headstones for any unusual markings.
My gaze slid over a glossy, granite tomb and then eased back. It was much newer than any of the other tombs and headstones, whose faces were stained and weathered with age. Surely, that wouldn’t be the source of the magic permeating this place? It would have made more sense if it was coming from one of the older tombs, and yet…
I drifted away from Kael and over to the tomb. It was black, almost blending into the night-wrapped cemetery, and barely rose to my chin. I ran my fingers over the cool surface as I inspected it.
There was no plaque or inscription, nothing to indicate who may be inside. I took a step back and scanned the grass, wondering if perhaps there was a plaque on the ground. Then, I caught sight of a small imperfection near the base.
I got down on one knee and pulled away some of the grass to find a small rune on the surface of the tomb and nearly buried in the dirt. Try as I might, I couldn’t place the meaning. Perhaps it was a name or something non-specific in the ancient vocabulary.
“Kael.” My hushed voice carried to him several feet away. “This is the place.”
He loped over and stood beside me. We stared at each other, but apparently we were both at a loss for what to do next. Was Lor inside? I couldn’t see how…unless he was dead.
“Maybe I can lift the top off?” Kael suggested.
I crossed my arms, prepared to tell him how unlikely that was, when he braced his hands on the top edge and began to shove. I gasped as he grimaced and groaned, the lid of the tomb scraping. The lid tilted and dropped to the ground. Kael stepped back with a triumphant smile tugging at his lips.
“It wasn’t as heavy as it looked,” he said.
My teeth clicked as I snapped shut my gaping mouth and peered into the tomb. The inside was walled with rough and weathered stone. It was at that moment I realized the outside was merely a case to hide the true tomb, probably to throw off nosy people like us. A steep and narrow set of stairs led down into pitch black.
“Hello?” My shout was swallowed up by the cold dark.
Kael let out a short chuckle. “Did you honestly think that would work?”
I put my hands on the tomb and gave a little hop, then settled on the edge.
“Bet you would’ve died if someone actually answered back.” Kael laughed at his own joke.
I dropped to the top step. My palm warmed, and I let a trickle of magic come to the surface. Not much, but enough for fuchsia swirls of energy to lick my fingers and light our way.
“Are you sure this is a good idea?” he asked.
“Do you have a better one?” I made room for Kael as he swung into the tomb. He didn’t answer me, but peered down into the depths with pinched brows.
“It isn’t very wide,” he noted.
I followed his line of sight. True, the way was narrow. He’d barely be able to get through without brushing the sides. I shrugged. I’d been in tighter spaces.
“Come on, Shoulders,” I said. “You got this.”
Kael quirked an eyebrow. “Shoulders?”
I held my hand out in front of me, the light from my magic spilling down the old, gray steps. “Don’t act like you don’t know you have Herculean shoulders.”
“I hadn’t realized you admired them so much.” His voice was touched with amusement.
I nearly missed a step. “Your shoulders are just good in a fight. That’s all. Don’t let it get to your head or you really won’t be able to fit through here.”
He let out a low chuckle behind me, and I turned my attention to keeping my footing on the steep steps.
It had been a while since I’d found myself in a tomb. Though this place was unknown to me, the close press of ancient stone and stale air was familiar.
Excitement pulsed quicker through my veins. This was me. This is what I was meant to do, exploring the forgotten places beneath the earth. Being cursed with magic and pursuing a dark mage was just a hiccup.
I hoped.
“How much farther?” Kael grumbled.
“How am I supposed to know?”
There was a long pause as we turned a corner and Kael had to wiggle a bit to get through the curve. He let out an impatient huff. “This is ridiculous. What if we get stuck down here?”
“One time, I was in a tomb in central America, and it collapsed. I was stuck in there for two days with nothing but a canteen, bugs, and a four-thousand-year-old Mayan corpse.”
“That doesn’t really make me feel better.”
Kael’s voice was tight, and I turned to study him. His face was taut, there was a sheen of sweat across his forehead, and he kept swallowing.
“You’re claustrophobic,” I said.
His lips were pulled back, and he was practically snarling at me. “I don’t like feeling trapped.”
I tried not to take his snarl personally. He was a shifter, the genes of an animal ran through his veins, and animals always showed their teeth when they were frightened.
“What about in Scotland?” I asked. We had gone underground together in those long-hidden ruins.
“We were desperate, and trying to find the other key. This trip, on the other hand, could be either pointless or a suicide mission.”
I reached beneath my shirt and grabbed a hold of the key that looked as if it were carved from bone, the one that had been given to me by the druids in a Scottish mountain. “We’re trying to find some warlock. And he might be down here.”
“Might,” Kael muttered.
But there was something else, too. Something more calling me down here. The farther we went into the cold tomb, the more I grew certain that something ancient waited for us in its depths.
Kael had gone quiet, and I wondered if he was concentrating on not freaking out in the closeness of the tomb. In an attempt to distract him, I kept up a string of chatter about some of my favorite digs I had been on.
“This one time, I was in Mongolia, and it was freezing. I’d wandered off from my team and―” I gasped as a step crumbled beneath my foot.
Kael’s arms wrapped around me and kept me from falling fully onto my backside. The movement cost him his footing, however, and the pair of us tilted backward. My partner grunted as I landed on top of him, and we slid a few steps.
“Sorry,” I muttered. “Thanks for catching me.”
“No problem.”
His breath brushed against the nape of my neck. His arms were still wrapped around me, and it was difficult not to think about the way those firm muscles held me close.
I cleared my throat. “Um, can I get up?”
Kael tilted me forward, though his hands lingered on my ribcage as he helped me up. I couldn’t bring myself to look over my shoulder at him as he got to his feet. My cheeks were already warm enough. Instead, I surged onward, taking a bit more precautions on the steps below my boots.
It wasn’t long after that my boots hit solid ground. The air was cool, and I didn’t mind too much when Kael stopped close beside me. He was so close I could feel his warmth, tempting me to close the few inches of distance between us.
I swiveled and peered through the small, square room. The magic licking my fingers sent light flickering across the walls, picking out pock-marked stone and shining trails of moisture.
“There’s a door.” Kael pointed to one corner of the room.
The door was wooden, and a gray so weathered it nearly blended in with the stone. Footprints led to the doorway.
Who had disturbed the thick layer of dust on the floor?
I crept across the floor, and Kael’s prowling shadow behind me reminded me of the pacing jaguar in my memory.
I stared at the door. Should I knock? What did a warlock do when you trespassed? There was no doorknob, but I reached for the rusted iron handle. I barely gave it a tug when I paused.
This wasn’t right. I withdrew my hand.
Something inside of me gave a little tug, and I glanced behind me. My gaze slid around my waiting partner to the back wall.
“What are you doing?” Kael asked as I stepped around him.
I didn’t answer him. The closer I got to the wall, the more I was certain I was close to the source of the ancient power I had sensed along the way. Ignoring Kael’s impatient sigh, I scanned the wall. My heart leapt as my eyes fell on a small rune.
I lifted my magic-wreathed hand and touched the rune. My breath caught in my throat. As I traced the rune with my fingertip, I could have sworn it had been put there for me. A tug jerked on me again, so strong, and almost painful, that I gasped.
Suddenly, the writhing energy around my hand spider-webbed across the wall. I jumped back as the stone began to crumble. Kael grabbed my shoulders in a tight grip, ready to pull me from harm’s way. I coughed and waved a hand in front of my face in an attempt to wave away the cloud of dust that had been stirred up by the falling stones.
It grew quiet, and the dust began to settle. I stared in front of me. Through the swirl of motes dancing in the light of my magic, I caught the silhouette of a figure.
“There you are,” a voice said. “Do you have any idea how long I’ve been waiting on you…Olivia Perez?”