My heart stops.
At the base of the volcano is a small town labeled AMBER HILLS.
I rush back to the table and snatch my mom’s photo. I turn it over, and check the scrawled writing on the back: The Coombes, Forest of Shadows, Amber Hills.
I flip it over again and study the picture carefully. My mom’s family is standing in a forest glen, and peeping through the trees behind them is Mount Alba, the way it looked before it erupted, with a sharp, talon-shaped peak.
The Claw.
It has to be! It’s the most significant mountain near Gray Wolf, where Lucinda and the others have gone, and it’s where my mom, aunt and Kieran first met. It can’t just be a coincidence. I feel certain this is where they were going to retrieve the Ora, before they went missing. It would’ve been the perfect place to build their laboratory too, as they’re familiar with the area and would’ve known it would be uninhabited for miles. This should be good news, but my stomach sinks. I stare back at the tapestry.
The last time I looked at a map of Mount Alba, I was at the Legion ghetto; Garrick was telling us about a deadly new concentration camp that the Sentry government had built at its base. I suddenly understand why Lucinda and the others haven’t been in touch. I know where they are.
I turn to Acelot.
“Get the Transporter fixed,” I say. “We’re going to the Tenth.”
Phoenix Page 30
