Page 61 of Heir of Broken Souls (HOBF #3)

Chapter 61

Knox

I barely have time to catch my breath—even the hounds are still melting around us—as Delilah frowns, gasping with pain.

I’m next to her shortly after, my hand slowly cupping her cheek.

“What is it?”

My gaze roams the length of her, searching, searching, searching?—

Delilah shoves her hand down the front of her leather armor, yanking out her pendant with a hiss.

“It’s burning me.”

The pendant shines its bright white light across my face, forcing me to step back.

“What’s concealed?” comes Axel’s question. Elysia heaves next to him, exhausted from the fight, but he still takes the time to explain to her what my pendant is and what it does.

She shakes her head, leaning forward slightly so the burning pendant doesn’t touch her skin. “I don’t know, nothing has changed as far as I can see. Usually, it’s revealed as I wear the necklace.”

“Perhaps you aren’t close enough?” Harlow suggests, her gaze roaming around.

“There’s too much ground to cover—” Lenox’s words are cut off by a deep rumbling.

“What is that?” Elysia squeaks. Axel takes a step in front of her, placing her behind his back as he unsheathes a blade.

I do the same, my arm snaking behind my back until the rumbling grows so loud, I freeze. My legs shake, but not from fear. My whole body is vibrating. My hand strikes out to grab Delilah right as the ground beneath our feet moves.

Dirt crumbles, rocks fall, trees split. Through it all, the rumbling grows louder.

“We’re rising!” Harlow calls over the now deafening roaring of the forest floor.

“Fuck this,” I growl. Scooping Delilah into my arms, I push off my feet and unfurl my wings. “Everyone in the sky, now!” I bark.

I don’t need to ask twice. Everyone flies into the air, all of us hovering amongst the parted trees, where just seconds before a lively forest stood tall.

My eyes are riveted on the sight before me. The forest floor is splitting in two, arching up, only to split down the seams as something appears to break the surface.

“What is that?” Lenox calls.

I shake my head. Something smooth and gray probes through the hole in the ground. “I’ve never seen anything like this.”

I seem to have been saying that all throughout this mysterious sunken island. All this magic is so ancient, I wouldn’t even know who to ask to understand it all.

My words make Delilah cling to me a little tighter until she yelps, her hand wrapping around her pendant to pull it back. “It’s never glowed this bright or burned this hot before,” she pants.

In wonder, my gaze flicks between the broken forest floor and the pendant. “It’s unveiling it. It wasn’t around us, it was below .”

I fly lower, my wings rising and falling in smooth succession, exhaustion dancing at the corners of my body from everything we have endured in what feels like days. I swat the feelings of tiredness away as it continues to rise.

“Is that…?”

The rumbling stops. The forest floor halts, the trees right themselves, the water behind us in the distance falls quiet. The gray object has stopped rising because it’s fully appeared.

I fly around the large gray boulder until Delilah’s gasp makes me pause.

“It can’t be,” Axel calls suddenly from behind me, Elysia flying at his side as the pair still haven’t broken contact.

“That’s impossible,” Harlow spits, anger in her voice. If I had to guess, it’s because she’d rather feel frustration than fear.

“It’s the cave entrance from the sunken island,” I murmur, shock tinging my voice.

Delilah’s wide blue eyes turn to me. “I thought we were inside the sunken island.”

Gently placing Delilah down on the rocks edge, we all land, trepidation sizzling through the air as we stare at it, no one making a move to enter.

“It has to be a replica. We are quite literally inside the cave.”

Harlow cocks her head. “Technically we’re on a floating island in the sky. I don’t see how we are still under the water.”

“Harlow’s right. We crossed the ocean for a reason.”

Axel whistles. “This is some very ancient magic at play.”

“I think it’s meant to confuse visitors,” Lenox ponders, his eyes calculating.

“How long do you think this has been here for?” Elysia whispers.

“What part?” Harlow asks beside her.

Elysia’s hands wave around the space. “All of it—everything.”

I shake my head, running a frustrated hand through my hair. “Those are questions we cannot answer in this moment, but we were led here for a reason. This is where we are meant to be, though. There wouldn’t have been demonic hounds guarding it if it wasn’t.”

Delilah’s voice grows small, timid. “What exactly were they protecting?”

Straightening my shoulders, I step forward. “That, it seems, we are about to find out.”

My steps are sure and steady, the opposite of my frantic heartbeat. And she knows that. Delilah, the beautiful, fearless woman, steps beside me, always ready to have my back.

It’s an inappropriate time but gods, all I want to do is kiss her and hold her.

I want to spend a lifetime with her. I want to spend the rest of my days touching her, exploring the world with her by my side—ruling my court with her as my queen.

I want it all.

And to have that, I need to have strength.

The pep talk works. My heart rate lowers, and my mind slips into that warrior calmness, prepared for anything on the other side of this cave.

“Everyone be ready. If he can open a portal in here, then he can send demons at any time, including Hazel.”

Axel’s sneer is full of rage. “I’ll be ready.”

Dipping my chin at him, déjà vu hits me as I turn back to the cave, and Delilah and I step forward.

That is, until my hand brushes the cave and magic takes hold of my body.

Delilah calls my name, my court rush forward, but I can do nothing—absolutely nothing—but stand victim as thousands of memories assault my mind.

I see…my mother, a radiant smile lighting her face. It is one of mischief as she links her hands with strong ones. The memory’s owner lowers their gaze to their joined hands, and then the memory switches and I’m suddenly watching from my mother’s eyes. She’s looking adoringly at my father, who’s smiling just as wide.

I try to summon air into my lungs but it is utterly useless as memory after memory assaults me. I’m drowning, barely treading water as everything I ever knew comes to a crashing halt. Tears sting the back of my eyes, and I am powerless to do anything but let them fall down my cheeks.

A soft hand lands on my cheek but I can’t even flinch, can’t wrap my own hand around her soft one. I can feel her banging—trying to break down the door in my mind. I can feel her panic on the bridge, but still, I remain shell-shocked.

My heart shatters in two at the truth the cave shows me. I watch what feels like hundreds of memories of my parents walking the halls of what we thought was just a sunken island, through the cave we thought was a trick of the mind—but is actually a ploy to keep the true city, with all its secrets, safe.

This…this is the forgotten governing city of Aloriah.