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I wasn’t sure.

I wasn’t sure about anything at this moment and I couldn’t trust that if I opened my mouth to speak, I would be able to stop myself from telling him.

With my hand outstretched, I took two rapid steps toward the stone doors, clamping my eyes shut as my palm connected with the rock. A chill ran down my spine like a vine of ice wrapping itself around my bones and scrambled away as my eyes shot open. My hand snapped back to my chest and I looked to Landers as my breaths came out in short rapid bursts.

I had never seen his features so hard—so sharp. If I didn’t know him, it might have scared me. But I knew the look, knew that crease in his brow. It was his own fear that he was suppressing, that he was taming as he took a step toward my bloody palm print.

My breathing shallowed as I watched him place a hand on the door, like he was steadying himself as the muscles in his backtightened against his tunic. He cleared his throat and the oxygen stilled in my lungs as a low growl vibrated from his chest, his canines sharpening to points as his mouth split open. Flames burst from his lips, twisting and writhing with a life of their own, flickering in hues of crimson and amber as they collided with my blood.

I gasped as he took a step back and streaks of black and violet began to trickle over the stone. I slid my hand into his, squeezing as we watched the magic and blood seep into the doors then disappear.

Deafening silence fell over the mountain, and for a moment, it seemed to stretch into eternity—the world caught in its eerie embrace. Then, in the next breath, it lifted and the sounds of birds scattering from the trees around us screamed out into the sky.

“That’s it?” I asked, looking from the stone to Landers.

Amusement echoed in his chuckle as he watched the confusion seep onto my face and lifted a brow. “Were you expecting a show, Darkness? Expecting a dragon to emerge from my flesh to bring the fire?”

“I mean . . . kind of,” I said, shrugging as the heat of embarrassment flooded my cheeks.

“We will have to save that for another day.” He smirked as his gaze refocused onto the doors and pulled me closer into his side. I followed his line of sight, waiting for them to open—to move—but nothing happened.

“Are you positive you have the correct blood type? Because, I may be wrong, but nothing has happened,” Dukovich said as he stepped up to the doors and examined them.

My eyes narrowed on his back.

“Do you ever say anything helpful?” I retorted, pulling my satchel from my shoulder and squatting to meet it on the ground. I dug through it, searching for the energizing tonicAndrues had packed as Dukovich placed his palms on the door and pushed.

A deafening crack echoed through the mountains and I scrambled backwards at the sound.

“What did you do?” I hissed at him.

He turned to face us, a slow grin forming on his face as he gestured his head to the doors that were creeping open at his back.

“Looks like my touch was all they needed. These hands can do wonders,” he said, winking as I scoffed at him from the ground.

Vines pulled and snapped as the doors opened wider, the harsh, grating scrape of ancient stone grinding over rock pierced the air like the tortured soul of this mountain was screaming back at us—protesting our disturbance.

My hand clenched around the vial buried deep in my bag as I rose from the ground and pulled the cork from it, pressing it to my lips and letting the liquid drip down my throat.

Dukovich’s feet shuffled backwards, kicking up dust as he retreated from the gaping hole. The sound of crumbling rock reverberated through the dark corridor and an unnerving sensation settled deep in the marrow of my bones as something tugged me toward it—an invisible force calling me into its depths.

The feeling was familiar; I had felt it when I first saw Landers. But this pull was stronger, almost consuming.

It felt . . .deadly.

My feet were moving before I had a second to think about what I was doing. Landers’s fingers caught around my forearm and pulled me into his side, breaking the trance I had unknowingly slipped into.

My eyes snapped toward his face to see every last pigment of color fade from his skin, his muscles tensing like a volt ofelectricity had just run through his veins as a deep, menacing chuckle flowed from the opening.

My eyes followed the sound and watched as a man stepped into the light.

“Hello, brother.”

Chapter twenty-six

HYACINTH

Searingpainfloodedmybody as that tug, that pull, latched its talons into my soul. My knees buckled from under me as I collapsed to the ground, clawing at my chest as a scream tore from my throat.