“I really thought we’d find something,” I say, tossing the last water bottle to Stevie.
“We still might. It’s just our first day out. We can’t possibly cover every—Ani! She’s here!” Stevie bounds across another rocky stretch toward an opening in the canyon wall we’ve already searched.
I jog to catch up. “Who?”
“The Princess of Wands.”
“Wait—herehere?”
Stevie points to a spot between us, and I take a step back.
“Don’t worry.” Stevie laughs. “You’re the one she likes best.”
“Well tell her I… I like her best, too.” I peer at the space, but all I see is rock. “Is she saying anything?”
“No, just pointing inside the crevice. I think we need to go inside. Yes, she’s nodding now.”
“We’ve already checked it out.”
“Notin, though. Look, it’s wider down here.” Stevie crouches down and moves aside a few big chunks of loose rock, revealing a larger opening. “We can totally fit.”
Before I can stop her, she’s securing her headlamp and dropping to her belly, scampering inside the dark crevice like a lizard. I’ve got no choice but to grab my headlamp and follow her in, hoping she meant what she said about the Princess liking me.
Otherwise, this could be a death trap.
“Let there be light!” She clicks on the headlamp, and I do the same.
We’re inside a small chamber just large enough for the two of us to stand up without banging our heads on the ceiling. It’s about five feet wide, maybe eight long, with no other crevices or water sources.
“I don’t see anything,” she says, sweeping her light across the walls. “Do you?”
“I’m not sure. Check this out.” I shine my light to show her. The walls are red, just like they are on the outside, but for a black streak stretching from the chamber floor to the ceiling.
“It looks scorched,” she says, pressing her hand to the mark. “It feels funny, too. Like… tingly.”
“Magick.” I press my palms to the wall, immediately feeling the tingle. Seconds later, blue flames ignite in both hands. “Holy shit, the energy is so strong here. It’s activating my fire magick without any effort on my part.”
“We’re getting close.”
“But there’s nothing here.”
We comb through the darkness, running our hands over every inch of rock inside the cavern. All of the magick seems to be concentrated along the scorched area, but there’s no Wand.
“It’s not here,” I say.
“I’m not so sure.” Stevie leans in close, running her hands over the mark. “Kirin thinks we’ll need to recreate the spells from the Book of Shadow and Mists in order to reveal the locations. So maybe itishere, but we just can’t see it.”
“It would explain the spike in fire energy.”
“And the Princess,” she says. “I feel like she led us to this spot for a reason.”
“There’s another possibility, though.”
Stevie sighs. “That someone beat us to it, and what we’re feeling is just leftover energy.”
Resigned to the fact that we’re not going to find what we’re looking for—not today, anyway—she gets back on her belly and leads us out.
Back in the waning daylight, we dust off our hands and take in our surroundings.
