Standing side by side, we studied the small opening at the back of the cave. There was a faint glow coming from within that spilled out across the dark stone ground right in front of it. Apart from that, the only source of illumination inside the cave came from the midday sun outside the wider entrance. I flicked another glance around the rather large space. It had taken about half an hour to hike up here. And as far as I could tell, neither humans nor animals seemed to have been inside this cave in decades.
“So…” Paige began, drawing out the word. “How many of the people on the terrace below do you think knew that this was here?”
“None,” Callan replied. “The people who lived here when the dark mages from Eldar hid the Enhancer down there are long dead now.”
“So you’re sure that it’s still there?”
“I think we would’ve heard about it otherwise.”
“And you’re sure about going down there just the two of you?” She shifted her gaze to me, and worry crept into her eyes. “Didn’t you say that it’s going to be really dangerous?”
I gave her a reassuring smile. “We’re sure. And yes, it will be. But having to worry about Lance screwing us over while we try to dodge the traps will be even more dangerous.”
“Good point.” She jabbed an elbow into Henry’s side, which made him blink down at her in surprise. “Well, Henry and I will take care of Lance. You just worry about the traps.” Narrowing her eyes, she looked between me and Callan. “But you know what they are, right? The traps, I mean. The dudes who hid it down there left some kind of instructions or map or something, right?”
“Uhm…” I exchanged a glance with Callan.
“Right?” she pressed.
“Not really, no,” I admitted with a shrug. “They didn’t want people to be tempted into going after it unless it was absolutely necessary.”
Paige gave me a flat look. “So you’re going in blind.”
It wasn’t really a question, but I answered anyway. “Yeah.”
“Shit, Audrey.” Closing her eyes, she pinched the bridge of her nose and blew out a long sigh before meeting my gaze again. “So when should we start getting worried?”
Callan and I exchanged another look. “Three days.”
“Three days?”
I threw my hands up in a helpless gesture. “We don’t know what’s in there or how far down it goes. We’re just guessing at this point. It might take more than three days.”
“And if it does,” Callan picked up, “don’t come in after us. Your job right now is to keep Lance in check, got it?”
Henry nodded. “Got it.”
Instead of answering, Paige looked between Callan and me a couple of times. Raising a hand, she pointed towards him while locking eyes with me. “Is this why you’ve become so bossy too? Because being bossy is a requirement for being a dark mage, or something?”
I chuckled. “You know what? I think you might actually be onto something there.”
“That’s what happens when you spend your entire life only doing whatever you want without thinking about anyone else,” Lance muttered under his breath before she could reply.
Turning towards him, I raised my eyebrows. “What was that?”
Lance, who had been very quiet and reserved ever since we got to the higher levels of the mountain, now straightened his spine and raised his chin as he looked back at me with that righteous fire burning in his blue eyes once more. “You heard me.”
“After everything you’ve seen on the way here, you really still believe that dark mages are nothing but heartless villains?”
“Don’t you get it?” Shaking his head, he met each of our gazes in turn while sweeping his shackled hands from one side to the other as if to indicate the area around us. “This whole mountain is proof of it! Instead of living together and sharing everything with each other, these dark mages split the mountain into tiers where the people with the most power get to live a life of plenty while the weaker ones struggle on the lower levels. This… this… selfishness is what I have been talking about the whole time!”
“Except you forget one thing.” I held his gaze. “Dark mages didn’t create this mountain. The good and selfless people of Castlebourne, who you praise, are the ones who cut people’s hands off and banish their fellow citizens to this mountain to scrape out an existence from whatever they can create for themselves.”
For a second, a hint of hesitation swirled in Lance’s eyes. Then he drew that cloak of righteousness back around him again as he raised his chin higher and looked down his nose at me. “Only because if they had let the dark mages stay, they would have created a society like this in the city of Castlebourne too.”
“You really think my little brother wanted to create a society like that?” Henry challenged in a voice pulsing with threats.
“I…” Lance trailed off. “Well, he might have been an exception.”
“So, suddenly there are exceptions, huh?” Callan leveled a hard stare at the Binder while spreading his arms wide. “How many exceptions do you think there are on this mountain?”
Another bout of hesitation flitted across his face again before he shoved it aside and glared back at Callan. “Not enough to change the fact that dark mages, as a whole, are selfish people who put their own needs ahead of the collective good.”
“Boss?” Henry ground out between gritted teeth, though his eyes were still locked on Lance.
“Hmm?” Callan replied.
“If he opens his mouth again, I don’t think I’ll be able to stop myself from ramming my knife through his eye.”
“Understandable. Though, sadly, we still need him to dismantle the Enhancer.” Callan shifted his gaze to Lance. “So I’d recommend you watch your fucking mouth until Audrey and I return.”
He just let out a derisive huff.
“And you’d better hope we return.” Callan’s smile sharpened. “Because I’m the only one who has the keys to your handcuffs.”
Panic shot across Lance’s face.
With that sharp smirk still in place, Callan stabbed a hand towards the jagged cave wall a short distance away. “Now, sit.”
For a moment, it looked like Lance might argue. But in the end, he just shot us all one final glare and then stalked over to the spot that Callan had pointed at. After sitting down next to the wall, he drew his knees up to his chest and rested his shackled hands on top of them. It made him look like a petulant child, and I had to suppress an overwhelming urge to shoot a cloud of poison at him.
“Alright, we need to get going,” Callan said, pulling my attention back to the three of them.
Henry nodded. “Be careful.”
“Yes.” Paige took a step closer to Callan and stabbed a finger at his chest while locking hard eyes on him. “And you… If Audrey doesn’t make it out of there, I will hold you personally responsible.”
A surprised laugh tore from Callan’s chest. The sound was so unexpected that I only stared at him for a second. He recovered before me and shot Paige a sly smile.
“It’s about a hundred years too soon for you to be threatening me.” He huffed out another amused breath. “But your words are noted.”
I was about to take a step closer to Paige when a large fist suddenly grabbed my collar and yanked me back around. When I shifted my gaze in that direction, I found Henry staring down at me with hard gray eyes.
“The same goes for you,” he warned. “If Callan doesn’t make it out, you and I are gonna have problems again.”
Reaching up, I patted the hand he had buried in my shirt. “Yes, because that worked out so well for you last time.”
His fist tightened. I just smirked up at him.
“By all hell,” Callan began before heaving an exasperated sigh. “Let’s just get this over with, alright?”
Henry reluctantly released my collar. I flashed him another grin before turning to Paige.
“I’ll see you soon,” I said.
“Yes, you will,” she replied.
Callan met Henry’s gaze without saying anything. And Henry only nodded back in silence as well.
After casting one last glance at the bright sunlight outside the cave, Callan and I hoisted our packs and started into the small opening in the wall.
Glowing light came from crystals that covered both the walls and the ceiling inside the pathway. It was the same kind of gems that had been set into the smuggler’s tunnel back in Eldar. Here, however, there were enough of them that we could see the path before us clearly.
I glanced over at Callan as he fell in beside me.
When Paige asked me why they couldn’t come with us, I had said that bringing Lance would have been too dangerous. But what I hadn’t admitted was that bringing Callan was dangerous as well.
He might have come for me when Viktor Benson tried to cut my hand off, but it still didn’t change the fact that Callan and I had been trying to kill each other for five years. And he had almost succeeded a few times too. So had I, for that matter. And now we were supposed to get through an unknown series of traps together? It was bound to fail.
However, I couldn’t let Callan and Henry go alone either, because then they might screw me over when they got the Enhancer.
Irritation washed over me. There really was no scenario in all this that didn’t force me into a situation where I had to trust Callan with something.
My mind drifted back to the moment in Viktor Benson’s house when Callan had stormed through the doors covered in blood and performed a fake surrender to save me. And then when he had held me afterwards while the aftershocks of what had almost happened wreaked havoc inside me.
The whole situation made searing embarrassment burn through my body. I had broken down and almost cried in front of Callan.
But then that short little sentence that had come out of his mouth rose to the front of my mind again. Of course I came for you. And instead of embarrassment, something else, something even more dangerous, crackled through my veins.
He couldn’t possibly mean that in the way my exhausted mind had first interpreted it. Which meant that he had an ulterior motive for saving me. And that, combined with the years of bloodshed between us, meant that I had to be on my guard every step of the way from here on out.
I flicked another glance at Callan as we continued deeper into the tunnel.
Light from the glowing crystals cast sparkling shadows across his face and made his eyes glitter, but he kept his gaze on the road ahead. I slid mine back towards the path as well. We needed to be on the lookout for traps. Not worrying about each other.
Shaking my head, I scanned the area before us for anything that might trigger a trap. If only—
The stone below our feet sank down a little as we stepped on it.
An ominous click echoed through the silent tunnel.
