Emerald light fills the room, illuminating the mounds of bones that litter the ground. Armor, tattered robes, and boots scatter the floor, along with a thick layer of sticky, congealed blood. Briar covers her mouth with her hand and gags.
I roll my shoulders, preparing. “We’ll have to fly down. It looks like there was a bridge here at some point, but it’s gone now.”
“Wait!” Briar grabs my hand. “Are you sure we should do this?”
“The door we just came through is already locked. We can’t go back until we go forward.” I lift her up into my arms and fly us to the bottom of the cavern.
The smell is stronger here. No more Nightshade and apples, just the disgusting stench of death. Briar shakes her head when I attempt to set her down.
“Wait. Just...give me a minute.” She struggles to gather her bearings.
Willem utters something about ‘weak mortals’ and that snaps her out of her fear. I don’t know whether to thank the Reaper or pound his face in with my fists for upsetting her when she was finally at ease in my presence. Briar wiggles out of my hold and looks toward the glowing light at the center of the cavern.
“A sarcophagus?” she whispers. “It’s open.”
I follow her gaze and slowly approach, but Briar grabs my arm again. “Kane, wait. Please. I have a bad feeling about this.”
“I can’t believe I’m saying this, but she’s right.” Willem runs back to us, falling into formation and flanking Briar’s left side.
Lifeless skeletons crawl out of the piles of bones, creaking and crackling as they crawl toward us. Some jump to their boned feet and begin to pace quickly toward us. I use my shadow blade to carve a path through them, but they keep coming. Briar fights alongside me, dagger in hand, and I find myself held captive by the sight of her. She fights with grace and fluidity until I forget she’s fighting and imagine that she’s dancing. Briar uses her surroundings to her advantage, throwing the pieces of armor at the skeletons and taking cover whenever she can.
It’s hard to associate this brazen warrior with the meek bride I met when she arrived in the underworld. There are times when Briar knows when to run and times when she understands the importance of standing and facing her fears. She inspires me to do the same, fueling the fight in me without needing to tap into that darkness that turns me into a ravishing beast.
“There’s a second wave coming!” I warn as even more skeletons crawl out of the darkness. “Don’t let them surround you.”
Briar groans. “First mummies and now this? What’s next?”
“Goblins?” Willen supplies sarcastically. “Or perhaps a dragon guarding a horde of treasure. Sooner or later we’ll find Drogaem and we’ll be too tired to fight.”
“We’ll face that when we get there. For now, keep fighting.” I shove a skeleton away from Briar and use the momentum to push a few more back.
Willem uses his wings and forces a group of skeletons to the ground. Briar shocks Willem and I when she lets out a very loud, uncharacteristic curse that sends us both into a fit of laughter for a moment.
It’s not long before we delve back into the fight. I groan as a shield bashes me in the back of the head. Willem tears a skeleton’s spike out through his mouth and I whirl around, slamming my attacker against the wall of the cavern. My shadows curl around the bones. I snap my fingers and the darkness pulls the skeleton apart one piece at a time.
Briar runs to my side. “They’re pulling themselves back together. I don’t see any jars or boxes like before.”
I shake my head, using the force of my body to knock back several more. “No. There would be a different spell. Keep looking, I’ll cover you.”
Even with a streak of blood running along the width of her cheek and some unknown substance causing her tunic to cling to her skin, Briar is beautiful. She stabs her dagger into a skeleton and kicks it in the sternum before sheathing the blade. Her hands quickly braid her hair back from her face and she wraps it up into a messy bun atop her head. She then squares her shoulders and calls out in battle cry as she runs into the wall of skeletons closing in on us, and I follow.
Willem and I extend our wings and create an opening for her. We fly up to the ceiling before diving down again, knocking the skeletons to the floor. It feels nice to fight beside my friend and second in command again.
Willem laughs sadistically as he grips a skull and uses it to bash the other skeletons in the head. “Briar!”
“I’m ok!” she shouts. “I can hardly see in this gods forsaken tomb!”
“Focus!” Willem and I reply in unison.
We’re quickly becoming overrun by the undead. They crowd me, but Willem is there to stop them. We fly up and see a group of skeletons heading right for Briar. She doesn’t see them. I try to call out to her, but something knocks me out of the air. Willem spins and drops down to catch me before I hit the ground.
We right ourselves and fight our way toward Briar.
She spins around in time to push a skeleton off of her back. “Use your fire, Kane!”
“What fire?” Willem asks.
Briar rolls her eyes with a huff. “He’s Death. He can command the fire that lights the tomb. Summon the fire and cleanse the restless souls here. If you don’t, they’ll just keep coming.”
I send my shadows through the cavern and create a circle around the three of us. “Close your eyes.”
Briar and Willem hesitantly obey my orders. I feel my eyes change and my nails lengthen. I test the strength of fangs
