They continued down the main street, the light from the Supers dancing off the closest buildings. Several times, James thought he saw movement at the edges of the light, but he shook his head, knowing he was being paranoid. Still, the abandoned city unnerved him.
Finally, they reached the large structure James had seen at the edges of the flares. It emerged from the darkness, a goliath compared to the squatness of the other buildings. It was a temple, built similarly to the ancient Mayan ruins James had seen in pictures. A steep set of stone stairs led up the gradually smaller layers of stone, leading to a small, square structure that sat well above the city around it. It seemed to scrape the high ceiling of the cavern.
A small stone marker stood near the base of the stairs. Beyond it, James noticed a bundle of sticks lying right next to the first steps. They seemed to be torches. Odd. Did they have torches so long ago?
Tonitrus held up his light to the marker. The symbol carved on it was faded but still visible. A golden circle surrounded by flames. The Chintamani Stone.
“This is it,” Afectrus breathed from next to James, her voice echoing even though she’d whispered the words. James glanced at her, about to reply, when the ball of light in her hand extinguished.
So did the others.
Everything went black.
James took a step back, shocked at the completeness of the darkness that fell around him. It felt like he’d stepped into a black hole—everything, suddenly, ceased to exist. He felt infinitely small, nothing compared to the eternal darkness around him.
“What happened?” Rocky’s voice, somewhere behind him, was full of panic.
“I can’t do it!” Myrcellus said from James’s right, frustrated. “I can’t do anything!”
“We should go back,” Afectrus said, real fear in her voice.
“And which way is that?” Mungus asked with scorn.
The voices floated toward James, shapeless, disembodied. He felt paralyzed, unable to move in the vastness around him. Then he remembered the torches lying on the ground. They were somewhere ahead, next to the stairs. He just had to get to them. He took several steps forward and bumped into someone. There was a muffled grunt.
“Watch it!” Mungus said, directly in front of him. “You almost knocked me over.”
“Sorry,” James said, feeling strange talking into the void. Mungus sounded mere inches away, but James could see nothing of the Super.
He inched his way around Mungus and continued forward, holding a guiding hand out before him. The others were still discussing what to do, and their voices fell behind James. He had to be careful. If he wandered too far off in the wrong direction, he could get lost in the darkness.
His foot hit something hard and he stopped, heart pounding, but all he heard was a rock skidding across the ground. He took another step forward. He had to be close; the stairs hadn’t been that far away from the marker. He took another step.
His foot came down on something higher than he expected, and he stumbled, lost his balance, and fell forward.
He caught himself heavily on his hands, scraping them against the hard stone. Pain shot through his hands and knees, but he didn’t care. He reached forward...
And felt the next step, a raised bump of stone. He’d made it to the stairs.
He stayed on his hands and knees, retracing his steps, going sideways along the stairs, feeling for the torches. His hands fell across the bundle, and he picked it up, triumphant.
“Over here!” he called, and the Supers’ voices fell silent. “Torches.”
He guided them toward him with his voice.
“Let me see,” Mungus said after bumping into James. James held out a torch and felt Mungus’s hands run up it. The Super sucked in a breath. “That should work.”
“How do we light it?” Rocky said from somewhere to James’s right.
“Give it here,” came Calico’s voice from right in front of James.
James held out the torch and felt it pulled from his grasp. There was a moment of silence, and then he heard Calico breathing deeply, with great effort. He let out a strained grunt, and suddenly, the area was lit up with a bright flame.
James squinted against the brightness, the flickering orange flame a shock to his dark-adjusted eyes. The flame sat in the palm of Calico’s hand, and he reached out and touched it to the torch, which immediately ignited, further illuminating the area around them. Calico’s face was strained in the firelight, shining with sweat. The flame in his hand extinguished, and he pushed the torch into Tonitrus’s hands before collapsing to one knee.
The others rushed forward, but Calico waved them off, his head bowed. The Supers exchanged worried glances. Auri placed a gentle hand on Calico’s shoulder, but it was clear she could do nothing for him. After a few moments, Calico pushed himself to his feet.
“Whatever ancient force resides in this place,” he said, his face glistening in the orange torchlight, “it is powerful. Let’s light those other torches and get going. Quickly.”
They distributed the torches. James kept one, and as he held it over Tonitrus’s to light it, he caught Rocky’s and Katie’s eyes. They were both pale in the torchlight. James knew they were thinking the same thing. Whatever power was in this place had brought Calico, one of the oldest and most powerful of the Supers, to his knees. Just for conjuring a small flame. That was terrifying. If anything bad happened from here on out, the Supers couldn’t do much to help.
They were just as powerful as James, Rocky, and Katie.
In this place, the Supers were Normals. What did that mean for Derek?
James breathed and stepped forward. There was no other way
