“I dinna like it when anyone speaks to ye the way that Luna did. And ye should nae let them.”
The care in his words has me leaning in even more, absorbing the feel of his body close to mine. Years I have wanted this, had dreamt of being with him this way. My blood pumps faster through my veins. I need to feel his lips on mine. But when I don’t verbally respond, he leans back, brows arching, awaiting my agreement.
“Fine, I’ll do better at being queenly,” I huff.
He smiles with satisfaction. And I can’t help myself. Rising onto my tiptoes, I place a quick kiss on the tip of his nose. His mouth opens with a retort, but footsteps sound down the hall, and Luna’s scowling face comes into view. Her body is now clad in leather, making her seem less like a damsel in distress. The chocolate hue is jarring against her leached skin, an unwelcome reminderof how long she was trapped below ground. She waltzes past us, her eyes on the room ahead. I’m relieved she doesn’t say anything about the embrace she stumbled upon. A smirk has my lips curling. Well, at least I know she’s not a busybody.
She breezes through the doorway of Odessa’s former room and comes to a halt. Her posture stiffens as she takes in the mess we left searching it. Clothes scattered around the armoire, boot prints left behind in the sand covering the floor, and drawers from the nightstands lay haphazardly on the bed. With slow steps, she walks to the nightstand, plucking the perfume off of it and inhaling. Her eyes briefly close, and I wonder what kind of bond she had with Odessa.
I make my way across the room and stand beside her, stretching my arm out towards the tapestry crumpled onto the floor and the hole it had once concealed. “This is the entrance to the secret cave we found. Lachlan can’t fit through the entrance, but I can show you the way.”
As if on cue, Lachlan lights the torches and hands each of us one. We shimmy our way through the tunnel. The tight space doesn’t cause anxiety like it did the first time.
Luna doesn’t say anything, and neither do I as I carefully squeeze my way along the rough path. Hopefully, something in the room will be enough to give her an idea of what they were up to. Without magic, we’re stuck here, completely useless in a multi-realm war. And if Julius meant what he said, I really need to warn Gran and Torin.
The humid air is still slightly disconcerting, like it was the first time we followed it down here. But as the stale water scent rushes over me again, I breathe through my mouth and redirect my attention to the information that’s tugging at me. There’s something here, something that’s blatantly obvious. When my foot catches on the edge of the crevice, I scratch my knuckles against the stones, trying to stay upright. The scratchstings, but I keep moving and reach for my necklace, my fingers brushing over the familiar runes.
We reach the end of the passage and step into the secret cave. Light sparkles from the stalagmites as I hold my torch out higher in front of us to give Luna a clearer view of the room. Her shoulders rigidly tremble as fury wafts from her in waves. The flame of her torch flickering with the vibration.
Water droplets plop onto the floor, and I shift from foot to foot as she scans the room. The temperature of the room seems to plummet as her fury grows, or it might be my anxiety ramping up as a shiver shudders through me. Her empty hand clenches into a fist.
“On that wall over there is the table we found with the crystals. There are piles of books. Probably the only beneficial ones left in the entire realm since they burnt most of what was in our library.” Luna’s teeth grind together. “So whatever they were doing, we should hopefully be able to piece it together with what they left behind.” My words bounce off the damp walls as I walk towards the table.
She moves silently beside me, but I can feel her fury like a tangible thing. Her eyes glow in the torchlight as she studies the items on the table. With two torches, we’re able to see much more of the books, table, and crystals that were left behind. Her brow scrunches, and she mouths words. I follow her line-of-sight to the words that are carved onto the table. Words that we didn’t notice before. I trace my fingers along the letters.
“Do you know what this says?”
Luna leans forwards, her white hair sliding over a thin shoulder and hiding part of her face as she reaches out a hand to touch the words.
“It’s ancient,” she murmurs. “Eireoidh banríon dhá shaoghal aníos agus ceannóidh sí.”
Her words are hauntingly beautiful, like Elowen’s had beenduring the eclipse. They hang between us in the damp air. The hair on the back of my neck stands on end as another shiver wracks my body. I recognize the language as one of the oldest dialects of Ireland. My dad often spoke it, so the accent is familiar to me, even if the words aren’t.
“What does that mean?”
She tilts her head towards me, her lips pursed as she concentrates.
“It’s been a while since I’ve spoken my native tongue, but it says, ‘a ruler of two worlds shall rise up and lead’.”
I hold the torch closer to my body, needing the flame to ward off the chill that grips me. “What two worlds?”
Luna shrugs, the light of her torch whips chaotically. “I have no idea. I don’t even know if that translation is correct.”
“I guess it wasn’t too important if it’s covered in all this stuff, though,” I gesture to the books, scraps of paper, and vials laid out over most of the words. “We’re going to move these out of here and into better light so we can actually read the books,” I murmur, picking up a leather bound tome close to me.
Her attention is solely focused on the book I have in my hand. “I don’t think I’d touch anything here,” she frowns deeper, “and if the table is here, it must be important. Those words read like a prophecy.”
“Why shouldn’t we touch anything?”
She juts her chin in the direction of a large crystal decanter that gleams a pale green. “That’s asphidra venom. You shouldn’t ever touch it. It’s like acid.” Her words are curt and serious.
But I can’t help the giggle that slips from my lips.
“Yeah, I know we had a small accident.”
My foot nudges the burnt hole in the floor from the dropped venom.
Luna’s eyes narrow onto the hole and she brings her torch closer to inspect.
