Page 9 of Swords of Soul and Shadow (Gate Chronicles #3)

Above it, the cavern ceiling reached so high Kase couldn’t see the top. The walls and floor were just as craggy and unkempt as the tunnels behind, but it was the gem cluster in the room’s center that commanded both Kase and Stowe’s attention.

“What is that?” Kase whispered, still not relaxing his grip on the electropistol.

Stowe hooked his machete through the reinforced leather loop and turned up his lantern.

“It’s raw Zuprium. Biggest chunk I ever seen. But it ain’t supposed to glow like that.”

Kase uncocked his electropistol. “What do you mean, it’s not supposed to glow like that?”

Stowe lowered the lantern to the floor and stepped forward, closing in on the cluster. “Looks diseased.”

“I’d say lethal. Wouldn’t want that aimed at my head.”

Stowe shrugged, and Kase groaned inwardly. If he’d stayed with Hallie, she would’ve laughed—even out of pity—or swiped back with a quip. Instead, he’d left her behind to wander the mountains with a farm boy.

Shocks. Kase was terrible at this relationship thing, if he could even call it that. No wonder his fling with Lavinia Richter had ended before it even started…and now she was dead, killed by the Cerls.

He’d merely thought Lavinia was a means to an end. What would the consequence be for loving Hallie?

Kase attempted to relax his coiled back muscles. I cannot control others’ actions. I can only take responsibility for my own.

He clenched his jaw tightly before unclenching it again. I cannot control others’ actions. I can only take responsibility for my own.

“You okay, son?” Stowe’s voice interrupted Kase’s growing anxiety.

He blinked. “I’m fine.”

“Legend says they blind you right before they burst.” Hallie’s father stretched a hand toward the cluster. If he tripped, the closest spike would impale it. Kase held his breath as Stowe continued, “I didn’t feel hopeless until we saw it. The thing is corrupted, but I don’t know how I know that.”

Kase tilted his head. Hopeless. Yes, that was exactly what he felt. The hair on the back of his neck stood erect once more. “It’s just a mineral. A mineral that’s refined into the most valuable metal on all Yalvara, but only that.”

Stowe looked back, his golden eyes shining amidst the shadows of his face. “You ain’t never worked the mines. There’s something spiritual about it that connects you to the planet itself.”

“I thought you were an innkeeper. What do you know about mining?”

“Almost every man does time in the mines.”

With that, Stowe reached out and touched the nearest spike. As soon as his finger made contact with it, he sucked in a sharp breath, jerking his hand back. “Blasted sharp.”

On the end of the spike in question, a scarlet trail slithered down the long protrusion and into the base of the cluster. Kase furrowed his brow. Stowe had barely touched the cluster. That was too much blood.

The cluster pulsed brightly. Kase threw up his hands to shield himself, staggering back. He shut his stinging eyes against the powerful glow, stumbling back, tripping over his own feet and crashing to the ground. Luckily, his pack cushioned him from the worst of the blow.

Something rumbled through the cave. The glow lessened against his eyelids; he blinked just as a crack resounded.

Before him, Stowe stared at the cluster. What had once been small black rivulets threading through the soft glow had swollen into rivers, twisting and writhing like angry snakes.

Another crack. Heavy clods of dirt and small stones rained upon Kase’s head and jacket.

He looked up as more debris dislodged. The cluster of Zuprium seemed to swell and grow. A jagged, bone-rattling splintering shook the air above them.

“Stowe!” Kase shouted as a large chunk fell, narrowly missing the older man. Hallie’s father didn’t move, didn’t even flinch. He simply stared at the Zuprium cluster as if entranced.

Kase looked up again. The next crack reverberated off the walls, louder than the last. He stopped thinking and barreled forward, grasping the man’s collar and yanking him toward the other end of the room.

“Gotta get out…” Kase grunted, tugging Stowe harder, but the man barely moved. He seemed transfixed with the furious Zuprium crystal.

So Kase stopped tugging and pulled out his electropistol instead. He cocked, aimed, and fired three times at the cluster; the balls of electricity slammed into it and enveloped it in sparks. More black tendrils joined the others, raging at being disturbed.

A large chunk of the ceiling fell directly toward Stowe’s head. Kase dove, flinging his pistol aside.

An invisible hand yanked him into the air.

He sputtered. Everything in the small cavern floated a few inches above the floor—the rocks, Stowe’s lantern, the packs, and both men. Kase blinked hard. Maybe he’d been hit too hard by falling debris.

“What—what—” He couldn’t form the question.

Stowe shouted— now he decided to snap out of it—and scrambled for the ground below.

The toes of his boots barely scuffed the stone.

Kase looked back toward the crystal. Electric sparks still played along its surface, but the black tendrils had retreated slightly, as if it had been appeased by their distress.

“Infusing Zuprium with electricity makes the hovers work,” Kase whispered. This was what his uncle had discovered. It was the only explanation he had.

“I hate those blasted flying death traps,” Stowe grunted as he grabbed for one of the rocks jutting from the wall and pulled himself to the floor.

Kase looked up at the floating debris. “Dunno how long this’ll last. We should get out of—”

The sparks on the crystal faded, and the black tendrils returned to their previous ferocity.

Kase’s stomach flew into his throat as he smashed back to the ground.

He knocked his right elbow and knees hard on the floor, but he saved his chin and face from taking the brunt.

He scrambled to his feet, turning to find Stowe, only to see a newly dislodged rock hurtling toward the man.

Kase dove toward him once more, and this time, he made contact. Something burned along his right cheek, and pain spiked in his head.

Everything went dark.