Ryder looks like he’s thinking. “I’m not sure.”
“Well if they’re up you won’t be able to do your smoke thingy, right?” He follows my train of thought and when he reappears in front of me a second later, we both come to the same conclusion. “Okay… so does this mean someone already got them down, or they were never up to begin with?”
“If my father already found this place then what’s he waiting for?”
“I want to get an aerial view,” I tell him, letting my wings flare behind me.
“No.”
“No?”
“You’ll give away our location.”
“To who? Look around. No one is here.”
“I said, no.”
His dismissive, overbearing tone sends a heatwave shooting through my body and I take off into the sky without his permission. It takes him no time to catch up to me and when he does, I expect to hear a lecture, but instead he seems to be just as taken aback as I am.
Beyond the dense, tropical forest is a white, sandy beach that runs into a sea of dark blue. The island is small and compact. From up here we can see its entire circular outline.
“The island has to be somewhere in the Infinite Sea,” Ryder says once we’re standing back in the ruins. “Nowhere else has water this dark. Everywhere else is a vibrant aqua.”
“So, how is it that no one has been able to find this place?” I ask. “Could it be cloaking magic?”
“Not likely.” He strokes his chin. “Not for something as big as an island. Even something like the safe house takes a lot to cloak. I’ve certainly never come across anyone capable of cloaking an entire island.”
“We need to find that tomb,” I say, already continuing my explorations. “If anything, we’ll know if your father has the scepter.”
“For the sake of realms, let’s pray to The Mother he doesn’t.”
Ryder doubles back to the room with the throne and I’m thankful for the separation. Being around him right now feels like trying to breathe in a room full of smoke and I can’t help but roll my eyes at the irony. I’m not sure how much more of his attitude I can take today.
As I continue to wander the ruins, each room is more of a letdown than the one before. Just as I’m beginning to lose hope, I see two steps leading up to a door. I almost didn’t see it hidden behind the wall of tangled vines. As I attempt to pull it open, I realize the vines are making that impossible, so I quickly use my fire to burn most of them away.
Just as I start to step through the dark threshold I hear Ryder yell out, “Reign, wait!” He reaches for my wrist, but it’s too late. I’m already being pulled through the black opening, taking him with me.
It feels like taking a giant step when we land on the other side. Exactly how it felt when we took the portal to see the Oracle the first time.
Right away, Ryder pulls me into him and covers my mouth with his hand while I’m still trying to figure out where it is we are. I don’t move as my eyes scan the stone room. An earshattering alarm makes me jump and Ryder’s grip tightens around my waist. Before I can turn around to look at him, we’re already back in his bedroom at Grimstone.
“What the hell just happened?” I ask, whirling around to see the look of panic written all over his face.
“Never do that again,” he growls, gripping my arms too tightly.
I push him off me. “I didn’t know it was a portal! You think I wanted to leave that island before we had a chance to scour it? I know I messed up!”
“You think I’m mad because we left the island? Reign, do you know where we just were?”
The stack of books next to his bed and the weapons scattered around the room begin to levitate in the air. I’ve never seen him lose control like this before. I take a cautious step closer to the door and he follows my line of sight. The floating objects fall back down, and he repositions himself against the wall as if he’s putting himself in timeout.
“The palace,” he finally says. “That’s where we portaled to.”
“I—I’m sorry.”
“My father must’ve spelled it to set off an alarm if anyone passed through.”
“I didn’t know,” I promise in a whisper.
