He lifted an eyebrow. “Really? Because you look… bad.”
“I don’t think he needs to hear that,” Kaila scowled at Illarion. “True or not, no one likes to hear it!”
“Illarion, Kaila, we need to get Valerius out of here,” Mei said suddenly.
“No, I won’t leave Caden!” Valerius nearly shouted, but he lowered his voice at the last moment.
“We’ve got a plan, dear,” Esme said as she left the other two. “Jahara will use her mist and mesmerize powers as others grab Caden’s body from the altar. Anwar will use light to blind them if the mesmerize doesn’t take. Then Tez will use the earth and metal in the cavern here to lock them in.”
“We don’t want to kill them,” Valerius warned.
“There will be enough oxygen to sustain them. There are vents according to Jahara. She can feel the air moving,” Esme said. “We just need to keep them from coming after us. I can form a water bridge at the pool like I did before.”
“That will get us out of here, but then what?” Mei asked.
“First things first,” Esme said.
“I have the second thing,” Mei said. “The only thing that will work. Let’s move Valerius and I’ll tell you.”
To Valerius’ dismay, Illarion did pick him up in a bride’s carry and they started hustling down the tunnel. He looked over Illarion’s shoulder. Mist shrouded the air. Jahara stepped out into the cavern and said something musical that had him yearning towards her. The howl of the horde though showed they were not as impressed. There were sudden bright blasts of light. So bright that Valerius had to shut his eyes and he still saw flashes of it behind his eyelids. Then the faint illumination from that end of the tunnel started to dim. There was a cracking and creaking sound as if the mountain was closing in on itself. And then they burst out into the room with the pool.
Esme’s hands flew towards it and the water seemed to solidify into a narrow band that she started walking across. There was only the smallest splash of water with each step she took. She turned around and motioned for them to follow her.
“It’s safe!” she assured them.
Kaila stepped upon it without any hesitation while Mei gingerly stepped up and scuttled across as fast as she could. But Illarion stared at it suspiciously.
“How is water made solid like this?” Illarion asked.
“Does it matter? Even if she dumps you in the drink, you’ll just get wet. But she wouldn’t do that to Valerius,” Kaila said with a shake of her head.
Illarion put a bare foot on the water and pressed down. The water did not give out beneath him. He grunted and started walking across it. Valerius did not bother to marvel at the water bridge, but instead, was staring over Illarion’s shoulder towards the mouth of the tunnel.
Had they gotten Caden’s body?
Did they kill any of the horde?
Were the horde coming after them?”
Tez, with Anwar and Jahara fast on his heels, raced out of the tunnel. Jahara carried a naked and unconscious Caden. Valerius’ heart soared upon seeing the limp form of his lover.
“Go! Go! Go! I don’t think that’s going to hold them for long!” Tez cried and made shooing motions with his hands for them to run. “They’re digging around the metal! Determined bastards! Let’s go!”
Valerius wanted to see Caden right then and there, but he knew they could not slow down. Instead, the other Dragon Shifters ran faster. Valerius was bobbed up and down almost violently as Illarion ran like the wind that Jahara controlled.
As they ran up the tunnels, Tez kept melting the natural metal in the earth and in his breath to form metal slabs cutting off the tunnel behind them to slow the horde down, but Valerius could hear them yelling. A garbled scream of rage that contained no words, no humanity, just anger.
Finally, they burst out onto one of the streets of Reach, but not the one where he, Illarion and Caden went in, but one further up the mountain. Chione was waiting there with Simi, Ngoye and dozens of the Claw. There were several black SUVs nearby. Mei headed towards the nearest, wrenching open the back door and urging Illarion to slide Valerius inside.
“By the gods, what’s happened to King Valerius?” Chione cried.
The blood, the bruises, and, undoubtedly, his paleness was terrifying her. He understood her distress and wanted to lessen it, but he found himself without the strength to speak.
Raziel? Caden? What’s happened to you both?
He didn’t ask that of the people within the lair. Landry was missing, he noted. But she ran back inside at that moment. Her eyes were huge and her hair was wild. She pointed back in the direction that she had come.
“Something is happening in the crater!” she cried. “I can see lightning and plasma and acid and who knows what else! The Behemoth is sending it into the air, but I don’t see Raziel there! Yet it’s trying to hit something.”
