“Then let’s get started,” Orin stated. “What do you need from us?”
Sahira hesitated before reluctantly replying. “You both have to lie down in the center of the floor.”
She waved her hand toward the bare space on the ground. Once they had all the supplies they needed, they’d closed off two of the gates and locked themselves into a small section of the tunnel. It wasn’t a large section, but Sahira said it was big enough for what she had to do. Orin and Varo could lie side by side and still have almost two feet of room on each side of them.
Varo walked over and laid down; he’d always been the most trusting of his brothers. Brokk always believed it was the trait that would get him killed, but he’d survived when their far less trusting brothers were dead.
For the first time, Brokk speculated if Varo’s trust might have a basis in something more than the naivete he always wrote it off as.
Orin didn’t move. “How do I know you’re not going to do something to me?” he asked Sahira.
“You don’t,” she replied dismissively. “I guess you’ll have to trust me.”
“Maybe if you take the tracking spell off, I could trust you a little more.”
Sahira laughed but didn’t bother to reply as she pulled the harrow stone out from the pocket of her red skirt. The hem of the dress brushed the ground as she walked over to Varo and knelt at his side.
“That’s not going to happen,” Sahira said as she started to remove crystals from her pockets. “And I wouldn’t wait too long. I’ll only have enough power to perform this spell once, and then the stone will have to be returned.”
Next, she removed vials of potions and set them out. Then came satchels full of herbs. When she finished, she looked to Orin. “Aren’t you going to take part in this?”
Orin scowled as he looked from her to the circle of stones and herbs. The potions remained in their bottles.
“I’m about to start,” she said.
When Sahira uncorked the first bottle, Orin walked over to lie beside his brother.
“Get as close as you can to each other,” Sahira instructed.
Their shoulders and fingers touched as they inched closer together on the floor. Sahira grinned at Orin. “Wise choice.”
With mesmerizing grace, she poured the potion out around them. The scent of lavender, ashwagandha, clove, peppermint, eucalyptus, myrrh, nasturtiums, lemon balm, and many other aromas he couldn’t name blended with the earthy odor of the tunnels.
The odors on their own weren’t unpleasant, but mixed all together and trapped in these small confines, they soon became overwhelming.
It wasn’t until Sahira poured the last bottle that Brokk saw she’d created the shape of a squished pentagram with his brothers and the harrow stone in the center.
Chapter Forty-Six
It was wellpast midnight when Cole called a halt to their pursuit of the dragon. He pulled Torigon to a stop outside an inn. They’d been riding for hours, the horses were exhausted, and though she’d never admit it, he knew Lexi was too.
The dragon had landed on one of the mountains miles away and folded its wings as it surveyed the land. Not only would it take them days to get to it, but the horses would never make the journey, and neither could they.
He had no idea what the thing was doing in the Gloaming. It had eaten a couple of horses when it arrived in this area, but for now, it was content to sit there.
When Cole grasped Lexi’s waist, she rested her hands on his shoulders, and he plucked her from the saddle. He held her close to him as he set her on the ground.
Her legs wobbled a little before she locked them into place. He understood how she felt; even after all his experience on a horse, his legs felt rubbery too.
When she was steady on her feet, he turned to Niall and the three other men who’d come with them.
“Assign one of the men to keep watch for the next two hours. After that, have them switch out with another man,” Cole told Niall. “I will get us all rooms.”
Niall nodded, and Cole took Lexi’s hand as he led her to the inn. He didn’t often come to this area of the Gloaming; it was a remote section full of farmland and horses who roamed the open pastures and rolling hills.
Most of those horses scattered the second the dragon flew into view, but a couple weren’t lucky enough to escape its wrath. The surviving horses fled into the foothills and numerous caves that abounded in this area of the Gloaming. The locals often explored those caves, but many of them remained mysteries.
“Where are we?” Lexi asked around a yawn that she covered with her hand.
