He held his pen poised. I didn’t know what startled me more: the question or that he had his notebook out not five seconds after that crossing.
Shay shook his head, letting me go and turning to move farther down the crawl space. I smiled slowly at Silas, letting my fangs catch the dim light that slid into the tunnel from the ice cavern.
“Silas! I didn’t know you were writing gossip columns now.” Adne scuttled past us to the end of the rope, offering her hand to Connor as he climbed out of the crevasse. “I thought you were recording history.”
Silas turned beet red but didn’t answer.
“You good?” Adne asked Connor.
“Yeah.”
Shay, who was already heading for the silver gleam at the end of the tunnel, turned and called, “Let’s finish this.”
Sabine, Mason, and I exchanged a look, and in the next moment three wolves were at Shay’s heels. The second tunnel was dark like the first, though it was much narrower. I kept testing the air, but just like when we’d first entered the cavern, I could smell nothing. No monster lay in wait for us. We were alone.
The subtle flame bloomed into bright light at the far end of the passage. I closed my eyes, making a silent wish that we weren’t about to encounter another room full of deadly traps. Shay stepped into the light. And smiled.
We followed him into a room that was familiar and unfamiliar. The space was open and well lit. Unlike Haldis, which had been filled with warm hues, this room sparkled with cool silver and misty blue. I felt like I’d seen the colors before and realized that I had. The walls of this cavern mirrored those of the Tordis wing of the Roving Academy.
“Oh,” I heard Silas breathe behind me. I knew what he was looking at, what we were all looking at.
She was here, just like she had been at Haldis. A woman, ethereal, floating at the center of the room. But now I knew her name: Cian. Shay’s long-dead ancestor. The warrior who’d given her life, her act of sacrifice transforming her into the only weapon that could save us now.
Her hands were extended toward Shay. Once again I found myself locked in place, unable to move a muscle as Shay reached for her, swiftly crossing the space between them. When his fingers touched hers, the light vanished and darkness engulfed us. All was silent.
I waited, listening to the sound of my heartbeat.
“Are we dead?” Mason whispered, and I knew the spell had released us.
I couldn’t help it. Shifting forms, I laughed. “No.”
“Oh, good.” Mason began to laugh too.
Light slowly returned to the room. Cian had vanished, leaving Shay standing alone at the center of the space. A slender blade lay flat on Shay’s palms.
Silas stumbled forward like a man caught up in a religious vision. “Tordis.” He reached toward the blade, remembering himself at the last second and snatching his fingers back.
“Nice work, kid.” Ethan kept his distance but was eyeing the blade admiringly. Sabine stood beside him in human form, and I noticed that her fingers were interlaced with his.
“It’s so light,” Shay murmured.
Connor snorted. “As air?”
He grunted when Adne kicked him in the shin.
I took a cautious step closer and peered at the gleaming metal, though I didn’t know if metal was what I was looking at. The blade’s surface shimmered with movement, the roiling of swift storm clouds, the endless swirl of winds.
Shay’s jaw twitched. “Here goes nothing.”
He grasped the flat of Tordis’s blade between his thumb and index finger, carefully avoiding the razor-sharp edges. With his other hand he pulled Haldis from inside his coat. His forearms trembled as he lowered the blunt end of the blade toward the opening in the hilt. There was no sound as the objects met, but when the blade would travel no farther into the hilt, a ripple of light traveled from where Shay’s palm gripped the base of the sword to the tip of the blade.
With no warning, the ripple exploded from the tip like a solar flare, sweeping through the room, knocking everyone but Shay to the ground. The earth beneath me moaned, and the mountain shuddered.
Then there was silence.
Silas grunted and rolled to his hands and feet. “I hope that didn’t cause an avalanche. We might have just been buried alive.”
“Nice attitude,” Mason said.
“We’d have heard the avalanche,” Adne said quickly.
“Not necessarily,” Silas said, eyes bright with speculation. “We’re pretty deep, and I don’t recognize this form of rock. Who knows what sounds it can absorb or deflect?”
“You’re sick,” Connor replied. “Did you know that?”
“I’m merely pointing out-”
“Shut up, Silas!” Adne was shaking her head. “Even if a wall of snow is blocking the cave entrance, I can open a door in here. We’re not trapped.”
“Could we at least check?” Silas asked. I couldn’t believe how disappointed he sounded.
“No!” Mason and Connor shouted.
I scrambled to my feet and looked at Shay. He stood quietly in the middle of the cavern, eyes closed, both hands grasping the hilt of the sword. The weapon was a study in contrasts. The warm glow of Haldis radiated from between his fingers, while the blade gleamed cool and clear, like lightning striking from the sky to the hilt. It was the depth of the earth wedded to the breadth of the heavens.
As if he felt my gaze, Shay’s eyelids fluttered open and he offered me a smile of mystery. He pulled in a long slow breath.
“We have to get the other sword.”
Something in his voice stopped my breath-strength, fearlessness, and longing I hadn’t heard before. Part of me stood in awe of him-the Scion finding the source of his power-but a smaller, pettier voice told me I was also jealous.
Not jealous of his power, but of that stirring quality in his words. He was finding himself, his true self. Last night, I’d believed Shay when he said he wanted to stay at my side. That he would be my mate. Watching him now, the distance between us felt immense-he no longer seemed like a Guardian. He was only the Scion. What did that mean for me?
I’d never doubted Shay’s love, but Silas’s question no longer sounded ludicrous. What future could the Scion and a Guardian alpha have? Something cold and hollow settled in my bones that I thought might be grief. Was I losing Shay to his destiny?
“Get the other sword, huh?” Connor grinned. “Well, that
“I have an even better plan,” Mason said, putting his arm around Adne’s shoulders.
She lifted her eyebrows at him. “What’s that?”
“You open one of those pretty doors and get us the hell out of here.”
EIGHT
THE CACOPHONY OF sound that flooded my ears when I stepped through the portal made me bristle. Was it panic? Fear?
I’d been caught up in the events of the ice cavern, lost in thoughts about Tordis, the sword, Shay-so that I’d almost forgotten that another team had been on a different mission.
How many had we lost so that Shay could retrieve the blade?
My growing fear splintered when it became clear that the loudest sounds of the din were raucous hoots and unchecked laughter. The celebratory noise died down as the rest of my party emerged through Adne’s portal. When
