He wraps his arms around me, taking me with him this time.
Chapter 9
When the smoke clears, we’re close to the caves. The three others are already at the entrance. The one who I assume to be Demetri, based on the red cloak blowing in the wind, is moving his hands around in front of him.
Even though they won’t be able to see us, we still keep a safe distance. Eventually, a glowing white line starts to appear in the space in front of Demetri.
“It’s working,” Ryder mutters more to himself than to me.
The vertical line inches toward the ground. As it does, it splits in two, creating a narrow opening. We watch the line act as a zipper, opening up the wards. Once he’s done, there’s a door sized hole. All three men walk through the opening and into the caves. We give it just a few minutes before following after them. The gap is still open when we reach the entrance,and we walk through it just as if we were walking through a doorway.
Inside the caves it’s cold and dark. I’m not sure how we’re going to be able to see where we’re going, let alone find the scepter. It’s hard enough trying not to trip over any of the rocks scattered about.
Ryder turns to me and grabs my hand before leading us deeper into the caves. As we make our way further into them, it quickly begins to close in around us. Pretty soon we’re entering a tunnel. I continue to follow behind Ryder, matching him step for step. There’s no sign of the other men, but I doubt they’re too far ahead of us. When I stub my toe on a large rock, it goes rolling and the sound echoes off the cave walls.
“Sorry,” I whisper to Ryder when he looks back at me with a disapproving glare.
After walking through the tunnel for what feels like forever, the cave starts to open up again, revealing sharp, grey spikes scattered around the ceiling.
“Look,” I say, pointing to a light up ahead.
“That must be Demetri. Let’s go.”
The light grows bigger as we get closer and I’m thankful for the cloaking magic concealing us.
“Nothing over here,” one of them says to the others.
Ryder and I are so quiet that I can barely hear my shallow breathing. They’re less than ten yards in front of us but are still completely unaware of our presence. I stay near Ryder, but veer off a little, using their light to look for the scepter. The three men yell back and forth to one another as they search under every rock and between every crack. The sound of their voices bouncing off the walls helps muffle any sound coming from us as we carefully trail behind them. The five of us slowlymove about the cave, thoroughly looking through every place it could be hidden.
Hours pass by and still there’s no sign of anything even remotely resembling the scepter.
“I’m telling you he was wrong. It’s not here.”
“Shut it, Alaric. We’re not leaving until we’ve searched every inch of these caves.”
By now my entire body is freezing and I can’t feel my fingers. If the others weren’t here, I would warm myself with my power, but right now it’s too risky.
As the cave breaks up into other smaller caves, we search each one, coming up empty each time. They, nor us, have found anything other than rock and empty crevasses. Out of nowhere Ryder pins me against the wall, covering my mouth with his gloved hand. Just as I’m about to push him off me, a shockwave radiates throughout my whole body.
He must’ve felt his cloaking magic run out just before mine did.
All I can see now are his icy blue eyes staring back at me. All around is a wall of blackness, concealing us. I glance around, realizing he must be using his shadows to hide us. I can’t see anything, but I can hear their voices growing closer.
“Can we all agree it’s not here?”
“He won’t be happy about it.”
“Doesn’t change the fact that it’s not here.”
“Quiet!” I can tell by the sharpness in his voice, it’s Demetri speaking now. “We aren’t alone.”
My heart feels like it’s beating out of my chest with each passing second. Ryder slowly removes his hand from my mouth and steps closer to me until our bodies are forced against one another. The smell of him fills what little space is between us and I hate that I like it. There’s a slight flutter inmy stomach when he looks down at me, but it’s probably just my nerves.
“I don’t hear anything.”
“Me either. I say we go.”
It sounds like the three men have stopped right next to us. I brace myself, waiting for Ryder to tell me to run as silence falls around us.
