Page 86 of Caelum

TWENTY-SEVEN

FRAZER

“I wish we were safe.”

The first wish couldn’t have been simpler, and the seven of us uttered it by rote. Of all the wishes Eve had to grant, it wasn’t like this was most difficult to remember.

But as we uttered the words, nothing seemed to occur. We stared at the cave system, waiting for a miracle to happen.

Only, it didn’t.

“We must be in the wrong place,” Samuel said, his tone gritty.

Eve shook her head. “No. It’s not. This is the right—” Before she could finish the sentence, she released a gasp, and shooting her a concerned look, I could see why she was gasping.

Jesus Christ.

Each of her new marks was glowing.

All eight of them—the tree on her belly as well as the seven that represented each of the creatures.

She stumbled, and all of us reached for her, all of us connecting with her to keep her upright.

The second we did that?

Shit rained.

The light whirred from her body and blended into one large bolt. It was brighter than the sun itself and it hovered in front of us for a second, blinding us with its power before Eve exhaled.

And like that, it dispersed, shooting away .

The sun disappeared, shrouded behind a dense cloud of darkness that made it feel like an eclipse had just transpired. The swift change had my eyes aching, something that was only exacerbated by the light tunneling toward the cave systems.

A wind appeared next, but it didn’t affect the clouds shadowing the sun. If anything, it coaxed it to grow bigger and brighter before it whirred into one of the many openings in the cliff’s face.

We could see the passage of the light as it meandered through the cave system—that was how goddamn bright it was. It reminded me of light that passed through my skin if I covered the flashlight on my phone with my finger.

As it swirled around inside the caves?

Screams sounded.

From wherever the light touched, there was a cry of pain that was swiftly cut off.

“Shit,” Dre whispered. “The light’s killing them.”

Unease settled inside me, making my stomach churn. “I guess the clue wasn’t wrong. After that wish, we’ll be safe.”

The eight promises of death that, ironically enough, came in the form of light, whirled through the cave like a tornado intent on ripping its way through the countryside. It was so fast, so horrifically violent that the wave of screams blurred into one endless noise.

“How many are even there?” Eve cried out, only audible only because I was close to her, with her horror at what was happening evident. Ghouls weren’t human though. They didn’t deserve a humane way to die.

“Thousands,” Samuel screamed over the roaring noise tearing through the underground city. “Has to be.”

The light’s path, gleaming through the stone walls as it was, showed us just how intricate the cave system was here, meaning either we were accessing an underground cave network that hadn’t been explored before, or this was part of Derinkuyu that had been held off from the public—perhaps thanks to a high-ranking Ghoul’s interference.

Still, the complexity of the network was bewildering, and the noise was enough to make that marvel a nightmare. The loss of silence blurred into an endlessness that made my ears weep with the need for the screams to die, and after a solid fifteen minutes of listening to this torture, when the screams perished, it had me closing my eyes and whispering thanks because I seriously wasn’t sure if I could deal with much more of that.

With the quiet came the return of the sun. It appeared from behind its thick shroud of clouds. Though it was back, my eyes didn’t ache as they normally would. The light I’d just witnessed tearing its way through the cave had been bright enough to make me feel as though it were still midday.

“They’re all gone?”

“Most of them, I reckon,” Samuel stated grimly. “Apart from Erlik. The fact we have two more wishes tells me he’s alive, but why didn’t the light reach him?”

“Maybe he’s in a part it couldn’t get to?” Eve suggested, but I heard the shakiness in her voice. Who could blame her for being scared? I was too, but not for myself—for her and for my Pack.

We were about to head into war with no one at our back and an Original Ghoul at our front.

Which part of that boded well?

“We need to get moving,” Reed said uneasily. “The light penetrated through there.” He pointed to a kind of rocky terrain on ground level, which, from where we were standing, would have been invisible without the guidance from our first wish.

We were dressed for the desert in sand-colored combats Nicholas had provided for us. Whatever Eve had told him, he’d given us the best gear he’d handed out only to the top Enforcers. There was an honor in that as well as trepidation. After all, we weren’t top Enforcers. Though it had been in our future, it took time and battles to reach that point.

We still weren’t old enough to fucking graduate, yet here we were with the best kit.

Releasing a breath, I directed, “I’ll take point. Keep Eve between us. Watch out for the ground shifting, Eve. It might look stable, but that doesn’t mean it is.”

She shook her head. “The danger isn’t out here but in there.”

Because she wasn’t wrong, I didn’t bother arguing. Just nodded at her and headed over to a thin track of land connecting the hill we were standing on with the higher one beside it. It was a steep trail, bogged down with weeds, some dead and some alive, which had been trampled at some point.

“This is their access point,” I mused then shouted the words back to my Pack.

“They use this as their base, that’s for sure,” Eren observed grimly from behind me.

It was a wonder there was anyone left in Derinkuyu city considering how many Ghouls the light from our wish had just blasted through…

Between the people of Derinkuyu and the tourists who gathered here for the attraction of the underground city, the numbers told me that high- ranking Ghouls lived here. Ones who could control their urges, who were grounded in reason enough to know that you didn’t shit where you ate.

Literally.

As we approached the other hill, the path came to a natural end, and I saw the scorch mark on the face of the cliff. Had I not seen that, it would have been impossible to see the slight opening, but because it was there, I sucked in a breath then peeped inside.

Half of the opening was in the light and the other in the dark, making it hard to catch my bearings, but the second I did, I saw the steps. And the piles of ash.

There’d been some Ghouls heading out, undoubtedly to investigate the noise from our vehicles.

Pulling back, I called out, “This way.”

Stepping inside the cool air of the cave was a delight after that short journey in the heat of the midday sun. When we were all inside, Samuel said, “Time for the second wish. We have no idea where we’re going.”

“The only way to go is down, right?” Dre argued. “I think we should head down and then have a look around. Reconnoiter the area before we waste the wish.”

But Samuel shook his head. “Why waste time? We need to get to Erlik ASAP before he does anything that could jeopardize our goal. We still don’t know what he’s capable of, and now that he’s lost the Ghouls living in his sanctuary, well, he’s a loose cannon.”

Eve nodded. “I think Sam’s right, Dre. Better to say the wish now than to regret it later. I don’t think whether we start now or deeper in the cavern will make much difference on if the wish is granted at all.”

“We’re not lost, and the clue distinctly said that,” Eren chimed in, agreeing with his brothers.

“We’re not exactly found. None of us know where the hell we are or where to go,” I argued, then turning to the left, added, “I mean, look.” Pointing behind me, there was another tunnel. “We can go left or right. Which way do we go?”

Dre pulled a face, and Eren nodded, so with us all in agreement, I said, “One, two?—”

On three, we called out, “To the pit of Tamag we wish to be led.”

When nothing happened, Eve blew out a breath and stared at the ground. Because I was focused on her, I saw that one of her laces was coming undone and told her. She bent down, knotted the lace tighter, then pressed her hand to the wall to steady herself as she stood upright.

The second she did ?

“Son of a bitch!” Dre hissed as the cave glowed where she touched.

“Jesus. You’re the guidance system,” Samuel ground out as she pulled her hand away with a squeak.

Frowning, I told her, “I wonder if the glow means you’re in the right direction or the wrong one.”

Samuel grunted. “Let’s hope it means we’re right. Walk to the left, Eve. See if the light shows up.”

She did as bid, walked a few steps past me, then pressed her hand to the rocky wall.

Nothing happened.

She moved a few more steps, dipping her head as the tunnel grew narrower and shorter. Touching the wall, again, nothing happened.

As she returned to us, she headed down the steps, passing us in the narrow entranceway, and this time, when she touched the wall, the glow appeared.

“It’s like the light from the first wish charged the rock or something,” Nestor mused, and I heard his fascination at the prospect.

“I’m more concerned with the fact that this means Eve has to take point,” Reed grumbled, and Nestor’s face fell.

“Shit. Yeah.”

“Guys, it’s okay,” Eve countered.

I wasn’t sure what it would take for Eve to realize that nothing was okay when her safety was in jeopardy.

I’d never anticipated feeling this much for another person. Pack was Pack, but this? It went beyond even the connection I had with my brothers.

It would kill me to lose one of them. Hurt me so deeply that life would shift to subsisting.

But if I lost Eve?

I might as well die because there was no way I was walking on this planet without her at my side.

And it was as simple and as terrifying as that.