Page 66 of Of Blood and Banes (The Arterian #2)

THE CALLING

“ W hat does it say?” I whisper.

Sethan strolls up beside Marge, squinting in the flickering light and scanning it as she does so for the fourth time. He presumably mouths the words and drops his head, staring at the ground before he lifts his head and mouths more.

“A’nala’s fluency in the ancient language is a bit…restricted,” he answers and then pauses, lifting his head again and listening. “But…I don’t know what that’s supposed to mean,” he calls aloud.

“What? What is she saying?” Marge nudges him impatiently.

“The blood one is worth the blood of many.”

Archie pats a thick stone door at the end of the hallway, tracing all the intricate swirls and patterns etched into it. “I think we need to go this way.”

“Obviously,” Sethan mutters. “But we won’t be able to get that open. There’s not even a handle. It might be an exit only. I think we should head back and call it a night. In the morning, we can check the perimeters around this area to see if there’s another way in.”

“Wait,” Marge interjects and snaps her fingers at me. “Come here. Slice open your palm.”

“What?”

“Just do it!” she barks. “We’re running out of time.”

I pull off my gloves and tuck them into my satchel before I unsheathe my sword. I cut open my palm.

“Press it to the door. Archie, stand back,” Marge commands.

Everyone shuffles away as I swoop in, blood dripping down my hand and leaving dots of red on the stone floors. I turn my hand away from me and press it to the cold door. And wait.

And…nothing.

I glance over my shoulder at Marge, my hand still pressed to the door. “How long should it take?”

Her eyebrows pinch together. “It should have been instant…” She turns her attention back to the wall, tilting her head in consideration.

The blood one is worth the blood of many …my heart sinks into my stomach. Perhaps I’m not the one from the prophecy they’ve all assumed I am. Perhaps all along it’s been a mistake.

“Would…a dragonblade taint her blood? Since it’s magic, it might counteract with whatever spell is on the door? Maybe it affects her blood from opening it?” Archie mumbles as he slides a finger across his blood-spattered dagger.

Melaina nods slowly. “Earlier when we went through the invisible wall…we used a dagger instead of her sword, didn’t we?”

Archie’s avoiding eye contact with us in the event he’s embarrassingly wrong. “Yes. We did.”

Marge straightens the longer she sits with the idea before she smiles at him. Smiles. “Brilliant, Archie!”

His cheeks redden as he dips his head, then hands me his dagger. I take it with a grin, then slice open my opposite palm before returning the blade back to him. I press my hand back to the stone, a few inches away from the spot I had it on before.

The stone wall beneath my palm warms comfortably, and a glowing light seeps from cracks spidering across it as the walls rumble around us. The door trembles, then begins to inch open. All of us back up as it slides heavily to the left.

Marge’s gaze connects with mine, and she gives my shoulder a quick squeeze. “I always knew it was you.”

I don’t have a chance to respond to her because my jaw drops at what’s on the other side of the engraved door.

Marble columns line a pathway, the tops of which flicker with flames as tall as I am that chase away the shadows.

At the end of the path are two sizable, stone rectangles lying side-by-side, both carved with a strange language across the fronts and the same curving, elegant embellishments that adorned the throne chairs.

A thick, bitter cold falls on me like a blanket of wet snow, and I shiver. The soft rippling sound of the flames is punctuated by the splatter of water against the floors. Water trickles in from random cracks spread throughout the ceiling and walls, collecting in small rippling puddles.

Sethan throws a hand out to stop Archie, and Archie almost folds over his forearm, before taking a step back as Melaina collides into the back of him.

“What?” Melaina whispers.

Sethan scans the room, then without taking his attention off our surroundings, holds an open hand back to us. “Give me something I can throw.”

“Why?” Archie asks.

“Stop asking questions, and just do it!” Sethan snaps.

Archie places the dagger I sliced my palm with in his hand, and Sethan probes the doorframe before tossing it far into the room. The blade lands a few feet in front of the two stone pieces, sliding into them.

The rest of us inch forward behind Melaina and Archie, peering over Sethan’s shoulder.

After we hold our breaths for a few still moments, Sethan looks over his shoulder at us. “Whatever you do, do not touch anything.” He drills his gaze directly into Archie. “Is that understood?”

“Yes, sir.” Archie dips his head.

Sethan lowers his arm, and we slink into the room, all of us splitting up into separate directions to survey it.

“If that door was magically sealed…” Cole whispers, following me like a shadow. “Then something of value must be in here.”

But I’m having trouble focusing on anything but the pull to the farthest side of the room, where a new archway awaits for us, leading into darkness.

“Wow, look at this!” Archie attempts to whisper somewhere behind me and Cole. “Such beautiful artwork…Melaina, come see this!”

I take a step up the shallow stairs leading into the shadowed archway.

“What…what is it?” Cole’s voice is soft, a few inches behind me.

There’s an unmistakable humming—a c alling of energy—like I belong here, and it’s been waiting all this time. The buzz increases beneath my boots, as if it may shake the very core of this earth and split it if I don’t make haste.

“Something’s here,” I whisper back to Cole and take a few more stairsteps. Though, I can’t quite tell what that is, yet.

Cole follows me up to the last step, and before I can venture further through the dark archway, Sethan calls out, “Wait. Shouldn’t we explore this room first? It looks as if this may be the royal crypt.”

“Not yet,” I whisper, and without looking back, I step into the shadow and through the archway.

The light from the previous room dies off quickly, sinking us in darkness. I squint, waiting for my eyesight to adjust, then jerk toward a flicker of movement.

The room fades into more comprehensible details.

Gargantuan marble statues are positioned along the side walls, each of their faces and figures differing in characteristics.

Water slips from each statue’s eyes and collects in a pool of water covering the entire room’s floor and submerging all the marbled figures’ feet.

A thick overhang of ivy crowds the ceiling and drips water down into the pool below, sparking uneven ripples.

On the other side of the room, rising from the pool, is another set of stairs leading through a two-piece archway.

And beyond that?

A soft, bluish glow.

I turn to Cole. “We have to get over there.”

He dips his head and returns to call the others.

I edge down the stairs, closer to the pool of water, side eyeing the colossal statues all the while.

They’re mirror images of the ones back in the chapel, and at least four times the size.

Despite the lack of detail in their eyes, I can’t help but feel their stone faces are staring at me, watching me.

As I stop at the last step and stare out at the dark water rippling with the dripping overgrowth, footsteps sound behind me.

Cole helps Marge down the stairs, her breath heavy and hand shaky on her wooden staff.

At least she finally has the sense to accept the help—there’s no telling how many sets of stairs we took on the way down from the throne room, and I can only imagine how sore her knees are, based on my own.

She slips her arm out of Cole’s once they reach the last step with me, and she ushers me aside, fighting to keep her panting behind her tight lips.

“Holy…shit…” Archie breathes from a few steps up from where we stand.

Marge thwacks the side of his leg with her staff. “You are in the presence of something sacred!”

Archie’s cheeks flush, dipping his head in apologies and murmuring something under his breath.

“What is this place?” I’m unsure if I say it in my head or out loud.

“This must have been the main temple to the Gods,” Marge whispers and bows her head.

Everyone else follows suit, dipping low in respect, and I quickly join them. When we straighten, Marge slams her staff into the water, watching the ripples break across the black surface to the other side of the vast room.

“What are you doing?” Cole asks.

“Shh,” she warns, eyes trained on the water.

When nothing happens after a few tense moments, she turns to Cole. “The sword in this staff is made of specially cured dragonblade. If there were any dragons in the water, they would surface by now, sensing it.”

“That’s good then, right?” Archie chimes.

“Yes. Though…there’s no telling how deep it is or if we can even cross it.” She tests the depth with her staff, and it sinks lower and lower until it’s mere inches below her hand, and she pulls it completely out. “I can’t tell.”

Cole nods, shrugging his jacket off and untucking his shirt before he takes it off.

“What are you doing?” I snag his arm. This is the first time I’ve seen him shirtless since we last made love. And even though everyone in our group is now aware of our true history, I heat at the thought of them noticing my blush.

“You said we have to get over there. And if there is something in there—” he gestures to the pool, his hair-dusted muscles working as he removes his boots, “—then I’m not letting you go first.”

“He has a good point. You’re the last person in this group who should go first,” Sethan supplies cooly. “His death matters less.”

I toss him a glare.

“And he’s the tallest,” Sethan adds. “If he can’t walk across, none of us will be able to.”

Archie wolf-whistles, and I turn as Cole throws his pants off near his boots, jacket, and shirt. In nothing but his undergarments.