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The harpy pointed at individual runes and then pointed out their corresponding letters. Meanwhile, Emilie sounded out a translation.
“Here. Opens. Here opens. Here opens what?” she asked.
The harpy sighed and flipped a few more pages, repeating the same pattern she had before.
“T-U-N-N-E-L-S. The tunnels? There’s a door to the tunnels here? In the Scholars’ Cavern?” Emilie asked with growing elation. Optimism bloomed in my chest.
The harpy nodded.
“Impossible.”
Except it was entirely possible. I had no idea where the openings to the tunnels were in this mountain. I only knew that they existed, not where.
The harpy eyed me, unblinking. It was unnerving, and I shifted back a step.
“How do we open them?” Emilie asked.
The harpy took Emilie’s hand and tapped her fingers.
“Magic,” she said. My optimism deflated as quickly as it had swelled.
“You’ve got to be fucking kidding me,” I snorted.
“Shh,” she said. “Is there any other way? There isn’t a key or some other talisman we could use?
She shook her head and again tapped at Emilie’s fingertips.
Great. We were no closer than we had been before. There was no way we were getting our magic back anytime soon.
“I don’t suppose you know of a way to remove these vines?” I asked the harpy, holding up my wrist. I knew she’d shake her head before she even did.
I tried not to let my frustration show. Emilie sensed it anyway. After being together for so many weeks, she knew how to read me like a book. And I did her as well.
“It’s okay. We’ll figure something out. Thank you. You have no idea how much this helps.”
The harpy bowed her head and then headed back down the staircase.
“Now what?”
Emilie picked up the book that the harpy had been utilizing. I had a feeling I knew what her next nighttime read would be. “We’ll keep working on the tattoos. And we’ll try to find out if there’s another way to open the tunnels. We can do this, Ladon.”
Her voice was soothing and so was her gentle touch as she brushed her fingers over my arm before sliding past me.
“We should get back to work.”
Our luck extended into the evening. For the first night since we’d arrived, Reyna did not show up at our room to take either of us. I could’ve shouted with joy, except every time I made a sound, Emilie shot me a look of annoyance.
She poured over the new tomes she’d stolen from the library, desperate for some miniscule drop of information that could help us.
“You could help, you know.”
I was lying near the edge of the bed, alternating between rounds of sit-ups and push-ups. Anything physical to keep my body in peak condition. I was used to entire days of conditioning. Being holed up in that room was wreaking havoc on my strength.
“I am helping. This is me helping.”
She snorted. “Distracting me with your sweaty chiseled abs and grunting noises is helping? How do you figure?”
I stopped abruptly, propping myself up on my elbow and studying her for a moment. “Did you just call my abs chiseled?”
