“I want to see inside,” I murmured.
Kobal didn’t try to hold me back when I tooka couple of steps toward the circle. As I neared, I saw all therocks around the pit were carved with the same symbols as on theslab, and some of them were the markings on Kobal.
“Who carved the symbols onto the rocks?” Iinquired.
“I assume the first varcolac to rise fromthe fires did,” he replied.
“Hmm.” It was all so odd, but who was I tojudge? I was a little odd myself. “Is it like magic?”
“It’s power,” he said.
The light playing over his face emphasizedthe angles and planes of it, making him look more lethal than hewas. His arm remained locked around me; his obsidian gaze focusedon the fires. Though no emotion showed on his face, I sensed awealth of tension in his rigid muscles.
Reaching out, I traced my fingers over thesymbols on his arm. They were all still pointed in a differentdirection than they had been before. His head turned toward me; hisnostrils flared as he watched me.
I glanced at the light swirling up from thecenter of the rocks when a pop sounded and sparks danced into theair before us. Moving closer, I stopped and cautiously stretched myhand out in search of some invisible barrier the carved rocks maybe emitting, but finding nothing to stop me from continuingforward.
Stepping over the rocks, Kobal turned backto me, placed his hands on my hips, and lifted me over them. Ididn’t breathe as, yet again, I waited for some invisible force tostrike me down, but I didn’t burst into flames when Kobal loweredme to the ground on the other side.
I looked back to find the others walkingtoward us. They stopped outside the circle to watch us as we movedwithin the center. Sweat beaded across my brow and caused the dressto stick to my back. I’d become accustomed to the heat of Hell, butI’d never experienced it quite likethisas I neared theedge of the ten-foot circle. Across the circle, and beyond therocks, shadows danced over the cavern walls, obscuring anythingtwenty feet away.
A trickling sound drifted to me fromsomewhere within the cavern. “Is that water?” I inquired.
“There is a small pool of water within theshadows,” Kobal confirmed.
He drew me up when I was a foot away fromthe edge. Leaning cautiously forward, my mouth dropped open when Ispotted what lay beneath us.
CHAPTER 36
River
It was like all the pictures I’d ever seenof exploding volcanoes, lava flows, and forest fires, had combinedto become the fiery wave of what snapped and sparked beneath ourfeet. The fires were the color of rage itself—a red so potent andvibrant it made anger slither through my chest and my fingers itchto claw at something.
Not even the vibrant oranges and yellowsmixed in with the red could ease the mood of what seethed below.The fires rolled over one another as they surged upward. They werea couple hundred feet beneath us, but when they leapt upward, theflames stopped only ten feet below, and the sparks from the firesshot up to float through the air around us.
“It’s so…” I had no words for this. So what?Angry? Beautiful? Terrifying? Awing? It was all of those things andso much more. There was history here and a power so potent I couldtaste the spicy tang of it.
Golden-white light arced across my fingersand over my wrists. As if in response, the fires surged higher,nearly brushing over the rocks beneath our feet.
“How did you possibly survive coming fromhere?” I asked as the others moved closer to see what laybeyond.
Kobal moved me back a step when anotherflame snapped at us. “It is what I am. The fires and I areconnected as surely as the hounds and I are.”
“Hence the temper,” I murmured.
He brushed a strand of hair behind my earand pulled me further away. “We must get moving. Leave the suppliesin here. We will return for them when we are done.”
A couple of the skelleins dropped the bagsof food supplies and water for me that they’d been carrying. Isuspected they’d also placed some alcohol into those bags.
“What happened to the top of the dome?” Hawkinquired.
I turned back to find him peering at thescorched area over us that had drawn my attention. “That is whathappened when I rose from the flames,” Kobal replied withoutglancing back at them.
He slid his fingers through mine, but Ifocused on the demons and skelleins as they glanced between thefires, the dome, and Kobal. On their faces, I could see exactlywhat I was thinking: how painful had it been to rise from thosefires?
Love swelled deeper within me as I clung tohim, needing to convey to him how much he meant to me, how much hemeant to all those who followed him. If he felt any of it, hedidn’t acknowledge it as he led me past more of the quartz rocks toanother large slab on the other side of the cavern.
His gaze fell to me before going to wherethe others had moved away from the fires and were striding towardus. Resolution carved the planes of their faces.
