The wind picked up, making it feel as though we were outside rather than some unknown distance underground. It brought a cold with it. A deep teeth chattering cold I’d never experienced before. Pterons rarely got cold, and never this cold. I chanced a glance at Wyatt. Goosebumps lined his arms much the way they were on mine. His eyes met mine, asking a silent question I couldn’t give an answer to. Did I want to turn back?
Yes. Of course I did. In fact I wanted to run back, far away from the cold and growling. Back home to New Orleans. Back to a childhood I could barely connect with who I was today. But that wasn’t an option. At least not yet. First I had to see this through. Instead of answering I headed forward, releasing his arm so I could wrap my arms around myself in an attempt to stay warmer. Not warm. That was impossible.
Each step was heavy as we continued moving forward. No one spoke, but with the wind picking up, it would have been impossible to hear anyone anyway.
Clearly we were facing something new this time—something far more frightening and sinister. Even though nothing could infiltrate my thoughts, the physical spells were enough to make me want to turn tail and run. Fear wasn’t something I was used to. The foreignness of it made the sensations that much worse. I felt weak and vulnerable. Neither was a feeling I handled very well.
But still I saw the light. I saw a light—flickering in and out as if the flame of a candle. It seemed further away now, but it was still there, burning for only me to see. That had to mean something, unless Troy and Wyatt were wrong. They weren’t wrong. I pushed away the doubt, lowered my head, and pushed forward through the wind. I could feel Wyatt at my side. Walking shoulder to shoulder helped break some of the wind, but there was nothing we could to completely avoid the sting and the chill. He felt the cold too. It wasn’t just me falling prey to the elements we faced. That put me slightly more at ease—I wasn’t the only one with a weakness.
Another growl, this one echoed louder from somewhere far off. For the first time I wondered if this creature—for I wouldn’t automatically assume it was a monster— was also a prisoner. What would anyone else have thought of Wyatt as a dragon? I had to face whatever this was with an open mind, even if that made things more dangerous for all of us.
We continued walking, and nothing changed. More wind. The faint light flickering in the distance. We weren’t making any progress. I glanced back over my shoulder to see the others following close behind.
I had to make a decision. I had to follow my instinct. “We have to go down.”
“Down as in underground?” Wyatt asked immediately.
“Yes.” I nodded, fighting against the wind in order to make the movement.
“Get us access and we’re there.” Cade’s lips were starting to turn blue. We needed to move fast.
I knelt on the cold stone ground willingly myself to ignore the frigid temperature. I saw nothing, so I ran my hands over the ground searching for a crack, something like Hunter had originally found. When I found nothing, I closed my eyes so my other senses would work harder. No one spoke, at least not at a volume I could hear.
The stones felt normal, smooth and seamless. Then finally I felt something. It was tiny, but it was a crack. I dug my fingers into the space, but that did nothing.
“Can I help?” Wyatt asked from beside me.
“I have to do this,” I replied without opening my eyes. I focused my energy on the crack, willing the stones to break apart and reveal a space between them. That’s where the light would be. That’s where we’d find help.
“Uh, Hailey?” Cade’s voice sounded far away,
“Hailey.” Wyatt shook my arm.
I opened my eyes to see the ground beneath us was glowing bright red. “What is that?”
“I don’t know, but I’m warmer now.” Eloise stood up from her crouched position. “Maybe that means you are doing the right thing?”
“Where do you see the light, Hailey?” Troy asked.
I looked around. “I don’t.”
“So the only light you see anywhere is that glowing red beneath us?” He pointed to the ground.
“Yes,” I admitted.
“Then we have to go down there.”
I turned to look at him. Surprised he was the only calmly suggesting we go deeper into this dungeon maze. “Suddenly you’re confident in this?” But I knew he was right. I could no longer see the light, but that didn’t mean I didn’t feel it. It was under us.
“More like suddenly I’m confident in you.” His expression was stony. I waited for him to say more, but his lips remained motionless.
“Okay.” I put my hands back in the same spot and focused more.
Another roar rumbled in the not-quite-so-far distance, but I barely perceived it as I continued to dig my fingers into the red hot stone ground. I was sure I’d end up with burn blisters, but I didn’t care. I’d heal quickly, besides if we failed to act, we’d likely all end up with a whole lot worse. We needed to follow the light. It was our only hope.
I closed my eyes and focused. I ignored the blistering heat, and slowly the heat lessened. I felt numbness, and my hand slipped down. Something was happening, but I was afraid if I opened my eyes to find out everything would stop. The others had let me know when something big happened before.
My eyes were still closed tight, but I could feel an intense light focused on my face. I couldn’t open my eyes, but I wanted to. I wanted to know who, or what, was shining the light on me. But I resisted. With effort I returned my attention to the stones. There was a loud bang, and then I was falling.
I opened my eyes, worried about the others, worried I’d somehow get them hurt, but I saw nothing. Only a bright light. I waited to hit the bottom, but I continued to free fall surrounded by nothing but light everywhere—light so bright I couldn’t see.
Wyatt. I tried to say his name, but I couldn’t. I was either frozen with fear or without the air to speak. He was close. He had to be. He’d been right beside me the whole time.
I tried not to think about the last time I’d fallen in this dungeon—but I knew this was different. I was falling far further—far longer.
It was time to fight an instinct again. This time to open my eyes—to face the light.
15
Wyatt
She was gone. One moment she was there, fingers digging into the blistering hot stone, and the next moment she was gone. I’d wanted to stop her, but I knew I couldn’t. I’d been raised by a Lightness—I understood there were things only they could do, just like there were things only they could see.
I remembered the first time I’d experienced that helpless feeling I’d been no more than five years old, and my mother had started screaming out in pain. I’d run to her only to have her yell at me to get away. I’d felt weak—helpless back then but my father had explained the truth.
But maybe this time I should have run to Hailey. There was a bright flash of light followed by complete and utter darkness.
“Hailey?” I whispered her name, unsure of why her light went out. I reached out for her but felt nothing but air. “Hailey!” I yelled her name this time. Where was she? Panic seized me and my breathing became shallow. I was drowning. “Hailey? Where are you?”
“Where is she?” Eloise steadied herself with a hand on my arm as she searched around the ground. “Where is she?”
“I don’t know.” I tried to push off the panic. It wasn’t going to help me find her. She couldn’t have just disappeared. I crawled around on my hands and knees, hoping I’d find the touch of her skin but simultaneously hoping I wouldn’t, because the only reason she wouldn’t answer would be if she was hurt. I wasn’t entirely sure how I could handle things if she were hurt—or worse.
“You know exactly what happened.” Troy was so calm. There was absolutely no concern in his voice. It made me snap.
I stood up and found him in the dark. I pushed into his chest. “Shut the hell up, Troy. I know you don’t care about her, but she is everything to me. Everything.�
�
“You’re wrong,” he spat out. “I do care about her, but I’m not lying. If you really think about it, you know what happened. You were raised by a Lightness, you idiot.”
“What are you talking about?” The surge of adrenaline faded out, leaving me with only the fear and helplessness—and the panic, pure and raw panic.
“How could you think I didn’t care? You are my brother. Our bond cannot be that easily broken.” He didn’t mean a brother by blood. Our connection was of a different sort. A brotherhood. “Besides, I need her help as much as anyone.”
“To get your fire back.”
“This goes far beyond my fire. The Elders are playing Randolph. Can you imagine what they really have planned?”
If I hadn’t already been panicked over Hailey I may have shuddered, but I didn’t. Instead I focused on the most important issue at hand. “You don’t really think she opened a portal?”
“A portal?” Cade gasped. “What are you talking about?”
“A light portal. Only the most powerful Lightnesses can do it, but if Jesalyn truly transferred her power…” Troy started.
“Then she could do it.” I wasn’t sure if I should be panicked or relieved by his revelation. I went with relieved. It meant she could be completely fine.
“Ok. Anyone going to explain what a light portal is?” Cade asked.
“A portal through the light I’d think.” Eloise bumped into me. “Sorry.”
“Oh yes, that’s right. A portal through the light. I see them every day. Of course.” Cade went heavy with the sarcasm.
“I’ve never seen one before.” Eloise grabbed onto my arm as if to steady herself again. “But if Hailey has full power over light she can do anything with it. But I think we all know that isn’t what happened.”
“What do you mean?” Cade asked. “They just said…”
“There is no way she knowingly left us behind. You heard how worried she was about me, and then of course there’s also Wyatt. She wouldn’t purposely leave him.”
True. Very true. “Eloise is right.”
“Then where is she? Are you saying she accidentally made a light portal?” Cade’s voice held the same exasperation I felt.
“It’s possible,” Troy murmured. “But it complicates things.”
“What about this isn’t complicated?” Cade groaned.
“If she didn’t do this on purpose, then she isn’t coming back…” Eloise’s voice was low. “Right? Isn’t that what you mean, Troy?”
“Yes… that’s exactly what I mean.”
“So where does that leave us now?” That was really the question. “How do we find her?”
“It leaves you with me,” a new male voice spoke. The next moment there was the sound of a match lighting, and I blinked as my eyes struggled to adjust to the new yellow-orange light.
“Sol?” I took in the Seer—and ex-husband of Veronica.
“In the flesh.” He touched the match to a candle and shook out the match. “I take it you could use some help.”
“Is that a joke?” Troy sneered. “Do you think we have time for a joke?”
“Is he with you?” Sol glanced at me.
“Yes.” Even if my frustration with him was at it’s highest level ever.
“Ok. Maybe tell him to lay off. We’re on the same side here.”
“Why don’t you tell him yourself?” I wasn’t quite sure why he’d want an intermediary.
“He dislikes me. He’s with you. You can save us both time.”
“Troy, deal with Sol. Okay?” I hoped Troy understood now wasn’t the time for a pissing contest.
“Fine.”
“Ok, then.” Sol pushed his sunglasses up the bridge of his nose. Even in a dark dungeon he had them on. At least he meant he wasn’t looking into my head—my past or my future. “I take it Hailey disappeared?”
“Yes. Do you know where she is?” Could I even hope that much?
“No.” Sol shook his head.
I waited for him to say more. He didn’t. “Then how are you going to be any help to us at all?”
“Because I can help you find her.”
“This whole searching for people thing is getting old. First Anastasia, then Hunter and Anastasia, now Anastasia, Hunter, and Hailey. Please, no one else run off.” Cade sat with his back pressed against the wall.
“Been an interesting few hours I take it?” Sol nodded in Cade’s direction.
“Interesting is probably the wrong word, and I have no clue how much time has passed.”
“What was she doing when she disappeared? Hailey, I mean.” Sol pulled several more candles from his pocket and used the first one to light another. He handed that to me and then proceeded to light another.
“She was trying to break through the floor.” Eloise accepted a candle. “That’s where she saw the light.”
“Great. Give him all the information.” Troy glared at Eloise.
“What else are we supposed to do?” Eloise marched over to Troy and stuck her candle in his face. “Sit around?”
“Okay now. I think you all need some therapy when this is over. Intense.” Sol held out a candle to Troy.
Troy pulled the candle from his hand. “What we need is to get out of this godforsaken place.”
“How come your candles are staying lit?” Cade reached out for one of the remaining ones Sol held. “I thought the cat said they wouldn’t.”
“The cat? Glendale, you mean?” Sol grinned. “Why am I not surprised he’s involved in all this?”
“Because he always seems to show up.” Speaking of which. Why hadn’t he showed up now? For someone who supposedly wanted Hailey to live he wasn’t being particularly helpful.
“Very true.” Sol put the last, unused candle back inside his leather jacket. “Okay, so Hailey was trying to break through the floor? Using what?”
“Her hands…” I trailed off. What was he getting at?
He narrowed his eyes. “Why were you letting her do it? I’m all for women’s empowerment, but why would you let her do it on her own?”
“Wait. How long have you been listening?” Eloise asked.
“Not long. I don’t usually eavesdrop on people in imminent danger.”
“Then you don’t know what she is now.” Cade glanced at me.
I nodded. Sol was going to know sooner than later. “She’s part Lightness.”
“Oh, my.” Sol laughed. “Hailey a Lightness? She was already a spunky one.”
“Yes.” I smiled at that. Hailey would have probably preferred a different word, but the sentiment was correct.
“Okay. So she was following a light then? Isn’t that what Lightnesses do best?”
“She likely opened a light portal.” Troy yawned. “Might as well get it all out there since we’ve spilled everything else to this guy.”
“Oh wow. You think she’s that powerful already?”
“Yes.” Eloise nodded. “But we don’t think she meant to open it. There’s no way she would have left us all alone down here.”
“I agree with that assessment. Hailey doesn’t strike me as the kind of person to abandon her allies. Let us assume she opened this portal accidentally.”
“That was where we were when you showed up.” I truly hoped he had something to add.
“Then we need to find someone who knows how to track light portals.”
“And who are we going to find who can do that?”
“An Elder, of course.”
“No. Absolutely not.” Troy shook his head. “They’ve already taken my fire. They’ll probably take my wings next.”
“Who exactly took your fire?”
“Abraham and Maxwell.”
“We go to Arabella. She likes me sometimes.” Sol ran his teeth over his bottom lip.
“Sometimes? What if this isn’t one of those times?” I had no desire to see the Elders, but I’d do whatever it took to find Hailey.
“Then we still don’t know how to find Hailey.
Doesn’t change anything.”
“I’m not going near her. Any of them.” Troy gritted his teeth.
“Why did they take your fire?” Sol zipped up his jacket.
“So your wife could keep me prisoner.”
“Ex. She isn’t my wife anymore.”
“Whatever. You did marry her once.”
“Yes, when she was entirely different.”
“So she was good once?” Eloise asked tentatively. “Before she was resurrected by Randolph?”
“I’d like to think so, but she’d lost her mind before she disappeared. I should have seen the signs, but I missed them.” Sol seemed to be considering his own set of memories. “But what your information tells me is the Elders only did it for a deal. They must have gotten what they wanted already, so they won’t hesitate to give you the fire back in exchange for something else. At least Arabella would. She is easily bought off.”
“With what?” Eloise looked around. “What do we have that she’d want?”
“We’ll think of something.” A slow smile spread across Sol’s lips immediately putting me ill at ease.
“What are you getting at?” I couldn’t let that offhand comment sit in the air unchallenged.
“You want Hailey back?” Sol pointed to me.
“Yes.”
“Then trust me.”
“Wait.” Eloise’s brows drew together. “You never answered Cade’s question. Why do these candles work down here?” She held up her candle, the wax already starting to drip down the side.
“Because they are resistant to the spells. I had these candles specifically made when we made this dungeon.”
“You knew about this dungeon?” Eloise gasped. “You had a hand in creating it?”
“Yes… of course I never imagined it would be used on the likes of you. It was to be used on our enemies.”
“Too bad Veronica views us as her enemies.” Eloise sighed.
“No. She doesn’t.”
“Of course she does.”
“No. She views you as useful. If she knew she could get you fully on her side she’d be your best friend. She’s obsessed with turning Hailey. She would never hurt a hair on her head. Hailey reminds her of herself when she was younger.”
Tempt_The Pteron Chronicles Page 12
