by Lila Jean
Deep in the Brazilian rainforest, Zane crouched low, ears straining to hear anything beyond the steady and painfully loud buzzing hum of the forest’s insects. The bugs chirped and sang, the mating calls of a million tiny creatures like a symphony overtaking the trees.
Beside him, Flynn knelt, the demigod pressing his bulky shoulders behind a kapok tree. The massive roots were as large as a single-story house, the thick green vines covering the bark and trailing up to the canopy.
“The God Book, huh?” Flynn shook his head, bewildered. “I didn’t know such a thing even existed.”
“Few do.” Zane briefly checked the GPS on his satellite phone and gestured for the demigod to follow. “From what I can tell, not even the demigods know of it.” He shrugged, pocketing the phone, certain now of which direction to take. “Well, technically, your father may know of it. Demigod royalty is allowed access to it, but the ancient texts from Odin made it clear they weren’t to use it unless he ordered them to.” Zane caught his friend’s eye, and in that moment, things seemed to click into place.
“That’s why I’m here,” Flynn said softly, adjusting the pack of clothes, food, and other supplies on his shoulder. “You need me to get it.”
“That’s right.” Zane nodded and patted his buddy on his thick, overly muscled shoulder. “This is a record for the gods, made by Odin himself, and you aren’t just of royal blood, but a descendant of Odin as well.”
“You’re a clever bastard, Zane.” Flynn chuckled, lips curling a bit. “How did you find this?”
“A lot of late night reading.” Zane blew a raspberry as he guided them around another kapok tree, his senses alert for any signs of the large predators lurking in the forest. “A lot of boring, late night reading, by the way. That ancestor of yours loved to make official, royal decrees about every little mundane thing.” Zane pulled back a fern to let Flynn by. “Rats are forbidden from the temple. Bath tiles shall be made of marble.” The cat shifter rolled his eyes. “I’m just glad I eventually found mention of this artifact.”
“And it records the gods who come and go?” Flynn swiped his machete at a low-hanging branch, clearing the path through the overgrown jungle as Zane directed them through the underbrush. “How does it work?”
“I don’t know,” Zane confessed. “Odin was very mum on the subject, saying only that no one is to use it but him or those he allows through.” The tiger shifter checked his GPS one more time, just to be sure, as they neared their destination. “That’s why I didn’t want to get anyone’s hopes up, least of all Tina’s.” He shrugged. “Everything I know about this artifact is based on hunches and educated guesses.”
“If we have to stake our lives on an educated guess, at least it’s yours, buddy.” Flynn winked.
Zane grinned, grateful for the compliment. “The temple we’re looking for should be up here. Right around—”
Instantly, a flicker of warning and danger burned in the back of Zane’s mind. Distracted, he paused mid-step and turned on his heel, his shifter senses warning him of danger before his brain registered it. As he spun, he saw a massive jaguar crouched in the limb of a tree overhead, its tail twitching, its teeth bared, its ears pinned to its head.
“Get down,” Zane hissed to the demigod beside him. “Whatever you do, don’t—”
The jaguar lunged at him, claws aimed for his chest, and Zane shifted, his clothes ripping as he allowed his white tiger to take over. In seconds, he dug his claws into the dirt and roared at the jaguar as it crashed into him, its claws digging into his fur, its roar melting into his as they thrashed along the forest floor.
Though the jaguar had the element of surprise, no feral animal stood a chance against the raw might of a shifter.
Zane bit into the jaguar, drawing blood, the thin stream staining his mouth and the beige cat’s black spots. The wild cat snarled and batted viciously at Zane’s face, but he was in no mood to be kind. With the enhanced strength Damara’s magic had given him, he bit the cat’s haunches and tossed it aside like a doll, the massive animal crashing against a tree trunk, digging its claws into the bark as it tried to recover.
It paced along the forest floor, ears still pinned to its head, snarling as it apparently weighed the pros and cons of a second attack. Zane growled, low and guttural, an intuitive warning that the next attack would end in death should the jaguar be foolish enough to try.
In a sudden rush, however, a blistering bolt of lightning struck the ground at the jaguar’s feet. The cat flinched and jumped into the air, snarling wildly, and bolted into the forest. The ground smoked slightly where the bolt of lightning had hit, and Zane looked over his shoulder to find a smirking demigod.
“No use letting you have all the fun.” Flynn chuckled.
Zane laughed, the sound like huffing air in his tiger form, and he returned to his human body. He lay naked on the forest floor, breathing a little heavily from the adrenaline still pumping through his body, and gestured for Flynn to throw him the pack so he could get some fresh clothes.
After he’d tugged on a fresh shirt and cargo pants, he shook his head and checked their position on the GPS once more. “Let’s find that temple and get the hell out of this rainforest. It should be right up here.”
As if on cue, Flynn pulled back yet another giant fern, a temple appeared between a circle of seven giant kapok trees, a door built into the root systems and massive trunks of each of them. Gnarled roots peeked through the ground, littering the forest floor with stepping stones of brown bark that all but led them straight to the large courtyard strewn with moss and budding vegetation, the temple ruins having seen better days. Apart from the doors, there were no other buildings, no other walkways or any indicators of anything else in the dense forest.
“It’s underground,” Zane said with an exasperated huff. He patted the flashlights in his cargo pants, grateful he had come prepared for anything.
“Damn,” Flynn said with a groan.
“No kidding.” Zane gripped his satellite phone like a lifeline as he surveyed the seven doors that surrounded him and Flynn like a crescent moon. Each door had an elaborate, cracked archway overhead and an ornate mosaic built into it, the glittering crystals creating patterns that represented faces and battles. A siren in the sea. A sea monster. A jaguar roaring. A beautiful woman with men bowing at her feet.
“Which door do we go through?” Flynn asked, leaning toward Zane. “Why are there seven?”
“Six are the wrong way,” Zane said, quickly piecing together the trap that lay before them. “Think about it. If you’re trying to protect an ancient and powerful artifact, you’re not going to make it easy to find.”
“Makes sense.” Flynn frowned. “Odin picks a temple in the middle of nowhere, hides most of it underground, and leaves seven possible entrances to lead you to your death.”
“Your ancestor was certainly … crafty.” Zane frowned and carefully stepped over the roots littering the courtyard, wary of standing on any of the roots in case they were traps. “We have to assume everything can kill us, Flynn, even something that seems harmless.”
“Got it.” Flynn studied the door with the siren on it, but Zane took a quick survey of them all collectively.
Two had to do with water, the siren and the sea serpent. Two involved land animals, the jaguar and the panther. Two more still involved women, the beautiful brunette with men at her feet and a second portrait of a gorgeous redhead wrapped in a man’s arms. But the last had only a thundering cloud on it, and a small symbol in the bottom right caught Zane’s eye, three triangles overlaid in a familiar pattern.
Zane pointed to the symbol. “Flynn, is this …?”
“Odin’s mark, yes.” Flynn nodded. “I think you’ve found the right door, Zane.”
“Get out your light.” Zane grabbed a flashlight from his pocket. “And remember, anything can kill you, so watch your step.”
Flynn nodded, and Zane grabbed the door’s handle, twisting and pulling with all his considera
ble might, and the door gradually creaked open to reveal a long passageway leading into the darkness. Zane tentatively entered, walking slowly, sweeping the beam of his flashlight over the floor and walls as they descended, the light from outside chasing away the shadows from the first few dozen feet. Before long, though, the light from the outside world could no longer penetrate the darkness, and the two of them were left with only their flashlights.
They walked in silence for twenty minutes before the floor leveled out, and as the floor evened, Zane slowed. “Watch out,” he whispered to Flynn. “I have a bad feeling about this.”
“Me, too,” Flynn said. As his boot hit the passage floor, the tile beneath his feet sank into the ground, and Zane briefly looked at the demigod’s face before his instincts kicked in. Running on adrenaline and intuition, Zane dove into Flynn’s chest, knocking them both backward and back onto safe ground. Barely a second later, the ground gave out beneath them, the floor sliding into the wall on a secret track. Zane shone his light into the dark pit below, only to reveal a dozen sharpened spikes in the darkness.
“Shit,” Flynn said, breathing out a sigh of relief. “Thanks, man.”
“Don’t mention it.” Zane playfully elbowed the demigod in the side. “But I would appreciate the same done for me, should the situation arise.”
“Looks like it very well might.” As Flynn spoke, the tile he had stepped on popped back up, and the floor returned to the way it had been, now reset and waiting for its next victim.
Zane shone his flashlight on the tile Flynn had triggered to find a soft blue square in the otherwise gray stone floor. The color was so subtle, ever just so slightly off from the dark gray of the floor, that it was barely noticeable. Zane cast his light over the floor ahead to find more tiles of the same color, and a few slightly green or slightly red ones as well.
“Tread lightly.” Zane pointed to the colored tile. “Walk where I walk and avoid these colored stones.”
“Done.” Flynn stood and helped Zane to his feet. Tenderly, they walked through the hallway, careful not to step on any of the tiles that would trigger any number of horrible things, and as Zane led them through the darkness, his mind wandered with the possibilities of just what those horrible things could be. The pit, obviously, but his eye occasionally saw holes in the walls where arrows could come through, or carefully hidden hinges that implied the path might diverge and lead them deeper into the ground, into the wrong direction and away from the treasure hidden within the temple.
Eventually, the tunnel began to angle upwards again, but Zane didn’t let himself hope that they’d made it through the final traps. Even if the tunnel was over, and even though the tiles had disappeared, he knew Odin would have one last trick up his sleeve to protect the artifact they were after.
The path began to meander, curving and wandering through the ground, and Zane suspected it was a distraction from the fact that they were slowly walking upward, back to the surface. The air grew fresher, the pressure on his lungs lighter, and the ventilation felt better up here. Good, that meant his escape plan would work. Probably. He tensed his jaw, hoping against hope that he was cleverer than the king of the gods.
The tunnel turned, and around the corner, a massive cavern came into view. The ceiling towered a hundred feet over them, columns lining the walls. Those massive towers supported archways that lined the ceiling like the timbers of a roof. The pathway ahead cut through black water, the surface eerily still. Zane shined his light on the small subterranean lake, but the beam couldn’t cut through the murky shadows in the water, and he had the distinct feeling he did not want to fall in.
At the far end of the walkway was a platform with a pedestal, a single beam of light shining on a thick leather book that rested almost peacefully on the top. Vines covered every wall, even climbing the pedestal itself, and Zane scanned every surface he could find for traps.
“There’s magic here,” Flynn said quietly, his voice tense and ominous. “I can feel it.”
“I’m not surprised.” Zane looked again at the water, and this time, something swam below the surface, the creature’s back not quite breaking through, casting thin ripples along the otherwise still lake. But as he waited for something to happen, the room remained eerily silent, the book almost calm and patient, simply waiting to be taken.
“Can’t we just go grab it?” Flynn seemed to be itching to charge forward, to grab the book and be done with this.
“Possibly, but I’m fairly certain this is a trap.” Zane grunted in annoyance. “I just don’t know how yet.”
“One way to find out.” Flynn caught his eye briefly, the weight of his words settling as an option, and Zane begrudgingly nodded. He wasn’t going to be able to wait out a room, and he simply had to be ready for anything.
Together, he and Flynn stepped onto the walkway that cut through the water, and the stone instantly glowed bright blue beneath their feet. Zane waited, patiently observing the still water, certain something else would happen at any moment, or the walkway would fall into the lake, or—
“Shall we?” Flynn gestured toward the book.
Zane frowned, but again, nothing else happened. He studied the glowing blue walkway, wishing the light would cut into the black water, wishing he could see whatever lurked beneath the surface before he trusted his and his friend’s lives to some old god’s magic stone path.
“Fine.” He groaned. “But be careful, Flynn, and walk slowly.”
“Yeah.” Flynn took another careful step, and Zane followed suit. Again, nothing happened. Again, Zane waited, and again, he was surprised and a little unsettled that nothing happened.
“I think this is another trick,” Zane said as they reached the halfway point. “Lulling us into a false sense of security, banking on the impulsive desire to run toward the thing you want most.”
“Or maybe we just look like idiots crawling across a glowing bridge.” Flynn snorted in annoyance as he took another step. “Can we just—”
As their boots hit the pathway again, the water around them began to bubble and froth. White foam built along the black liquid, and Zane shot Flynn an “I told you so” glare.
“Run!” Flynn bolted toward the platform and the book lying on it, and Zane followed suit. They raced over the glowing platform as the waves crashed onto the stone, and an unnatural wail echoed in the massive cavern. It seemed to come from everywhere and nowhere, from the very walls themselves, and as Zane looked over his shoulder, he saw the water consume the glowing pathway behind them, eating it away, the stone crumbling as it fell into the lake.
“Jump!” Zane pushed Flynn, the two of them soaring over the last few feet that separated them from the massive platform at the end of the cavern, and quickly dragged the demigod up the platform’s stairs toward the book.
In the churning water below, Zane saw several creatures breach the surface, their dark scales like black ink in the water. Whatever they were, they were coming closer and had just destroyed their way out. Lucky for Zane, it seemed like they wouldn’t need it. He glanced up at the hole in the ceiling through which their little light was coming, judging the distance as he grabbed rope from the pack still on Flynn’s back.
“Flynn, stall those things!” Zane nodded toward the rising water. “Use your lightning, now, before you and I get wet, too!”
“On it!” Flynn scowled, summoning the magic Damara had given him, sparks dancing over his skin as he lifted his arms over his head. With a mighty grunt of effort, he lobbed a massive lightning bolt at the water. Sparks danced through the surface and deep into the lake, illuminating for the first time the hundreds of coiling tails and sharp claws of the creatures Odin had chosen to protect the Book of the Gods.
“Jesus,” Zane muttered, caught in the moment, lost in what he was seeing as the creatures screamed and shook in pain from the jolt.
“Let’s get the hell out of here.” Flynn gestured toward the ceiling, and Zane nodded. He grabbed the rope and tied a grappling hook to
the end, eyeing the distant hole, tensing his shoulder as he prepared to use all of his considerable strength to pull this off.
With all his might, he threw the hook toward the hole in the ceiling, the sunlight glinting off the metal as it soared up and up. After a breathless few moments where the water continued to rise and the creatures continued to wail, the hook finally sailed through and dug into something sturdy.
“Grab it!” Zane pointed to the book. “Only you can!”
Flynn nodded and grabbed the leather tome, and as his fingers touched the binding, his body froze. His eyes went white, just as Tina’s had when the god connection took over her, and as the moments stretched on, Zane suddenly wasn’t sure if the demigod would ever snap out of it.
The black water licked at the first step of the platform, the churning waves rising, and Zane grabbed Flynn’s shoulder. “Flynn!” He shook his friend, trying to snap him back into the now. “Flynn, we’ve got to go!”
With a groggy groan, Flynn finally blinked away the white light in his eyes and looked at Zane as though he didn’t know where he was or who he was with. After a few seconds of squinting and a brief look around the crumbling temple, however, it seemed to come rushing back, and his eyes narrowed with recognition.
The book glowed white in Flynn’s hands, but he shoved it into the backpack and pointed to the roof. “Let’s get the hell out of here!”
“With pleasure.” Zane scaled the rope, faster than the bulky demigod, and gritted his teeth with effort as the water below them swallowed the final step. Flynn trailed behind, the rope taut as they both climbed, placing their lives on the woven threads. Finally, Zane climbed through the hole and pulled Flynn after him, and he dropped the rope and hook back into the cavern below.
Eager to get away from the underground temple, Zane ran into the trees with Flynn hot on his heels, ready to dive into the pages of the book the moment they had a moment to spare. “What did you see, Flynn?”
“Huh?” The demigod asked between puffs of air as they ran. “What do you mean?”
