Darien tsked. “Says the girl who was ready to drop her panties for me the other day.”
Dallas choked on a laugh. “You guysreallyneed to break that tension.”
Loren looked at Darien, and he looked back at her. He tipped up an eyebrow, that smile on his face broadening. It wasn’t long before she was scowling at him upon realizing just how they would break that tension.
“Don’t say a word,” she threatened.
Darien merely laughed. It was a rich, throaty sound that caused an inviting warmth to spread below her navel. Her body certainly had a mind of its own lately, its reactions traitorous and foreign. Sure, she’d been attracted to plenty of males before, had even wanted to familiarize herself with the shape of their mouths.
But nothing she’d ever experienced had been as intense as what she felt when she was around Darien Cassel.
The slayer’s eyes plunged into darkness again as he became all business. He scanned the interior of the hall, flashlight forgotten, as the Sight gave him a far clearer line of vision than any glass bulb could provide.
As he searched, Loren stepped up to the floor-to-ceiling chalkboard on the north wall. Dust and the passing of time made the words scrawled across its surface mostly illegible, but after a moment of squinting she was able to read them.
Ad vitum aeternum.
“To everlasting life.”Loren jumped at the sound of Darien’s voice at her back.
She turned to look at him, her ponytail snagging on her sweater. “You can read Ancient Reunerian?”
“Bits and pieces of it.” He moved toward one end of the chalkboard, taking the light with him. As Loren followed close on his heels, she couldn’t decide if it was the light she was drawn to or the surety of his movements. Perhaps it was the weapons she knew he had on him.
The Darkslayer took the end of the flashlight between his teeth and felt around the brass frame of the chalkboard.
It shifted under his fingers. Dust shook free and fell to the floor in streams as the chalkboard folded in half, the rusted hinges squealing as one side of it swung open, like a page of a great book.
Behind it appeared to be nothing but a stone wall. But when Darien took the flashlight out of his mouth and shone the light upon it, Loren saw that the stones were covered in ancient runes.
Precisely enough stones to form the height and width of a standard door.
A single stone in the very centre had no runes on it; instead, it had the simple mark of the Scarlet Star—a circle with seven rays. It would’ve meant nothing to Loren, were it not for the fact that she wore that same solar symbol around her neck—the pendant she’d had on since she was a baby. The universe’s only hint that she’d ever had parents.
Darien turned to look at her, but she was already yanking the necklace out from where it was tucked beneath her sweater, the chain so long it nearly brushed her navel. She swallowed and stepped up to the wall, Darien backing up to give her room.
Holding the amulet in one hand, she used her other to trace the symbol in the wall, hoping her sense of touch would be more reliable than her depth perception.
The sun had been carved deep into the stone, as if something was meant to fit inside it.
Loren lifted the amulet, inserting it into the impression. It lined up perfectly, like a key sliding into a lock. She wiggled it, and the stone made a faint clicking sound.
The walls of the Old Hall gave a deep, rolling groan, like a beast stirring awake. Dirt hissed as it fell from the ceiling in streams.
Loren pulled her hand away, taking the amulet with her. She retreated so many paces that she stepped on Darien’s boot. Her other heel caught on the leather toe of it, and her stomach plummeted through the floor as gravity yanked her backward.
Darien grabbed onto her, steadying her before she could fall, and although her sweater and his leather gloves formed a thick barrier between her skin and his, her heart picked up speed—and she found that she hated herself for it.
The rune-covered doorway hissed as it slid open. The air that wafted through the cracks around the door was so cold, Loren gave a violent shiver.
Darien pushed the door open all the way. The flashlight fell upon a steep staircase that spiralled deep into the earth.
He quirked an eyebrow at Loren. “Still think there’s only four walls and a roof?”
It was Dallas, hovering behind them, who said, “Don’t tell me we’re going down there.”
“You’re welcome to stay here and keep watch, Dallas,” Darien said as he began trekking down the steps. “Maybe this time you’ll listen to me.” It wasn’t long before they couldn’t see him anymore, and the earth soon swallowed up his pounding footfall.
Loren tried not to trip as she hurried after him, Dallas right on her heels.
