Willow gasped, stepping toward Christian with her hands raised as if to stop him. “No!” she objected. “You can’t do that to the dead. It’s not right to disturb their resting place.”
“What was the next part of the directions?” Landyn asked.
Sage looked up; her lips pursed in contemplation, then the corners of her mouth twitched up in a grin. “Xmarks the spot.”
Christian traced the edges of anXcarved into the coffin. “Here’s one.”
Willow pointed to another coffin and the etching on the side. “There’s one.” She swung her finger down the coffin to the floor. “And another.”
“Well, if the dead point the way…” Sage placed her hand on theXthat the mysterious glow had identified. “This should be it.” She pressed down on theX.
A low rumble echoed through the boulders. Sage, Marcus, and Christian stepped back in unison as the giant stone coffin slowly slid away from the wall.
Raven’s eyes widened in shock as she observed, her body tensing with anticipation.
“Watch out,” Landyn shouted, urging Marcus away from the ever-advancing tomb.
Marcus quickly sprang to one side, indicating the wall behind it. “There’s a hole back here.”
As the coffin came to a grating stop, Sage crouched down to investigate the hole.
Raven peered over Sage’s shoulder with a mix of curiosity and apprehension. “What’s in it, Sage? What do you see?”
Sage tilted her head to peer into the opening. “It’s too dark.” She straightened her back and reached out her hand. “Give me the torch.”
Landyn handed Sage the torch. She leaned forward, squinted, and twisted her body to get a better look. “We can fit in. It will be tight.”
Willow groaned. “Not another tunnel.”
Raven recalled the tales of Willow and Sage, Christian and Marcus, each of whom had faced the challenge of a torturous and dark tunnel.
Sage edged closer to the opening, and Marcus gripped her shoulder.
“Be careful,” he stated.
She knelt and crawled into the tunnel, holding the torch before her. After a moment, her voice echoed back to them, “It goes down.”
“Down?” Marcus repeated, confused.
“There’s about a three-foot drop. I’m going in.”
“Wait, Sage,” Marcus called. He quickly disappeared into the hole after her. “Can you see the bottom?”
Fear gripped Raven as she pushed her way forward. “Sage,” she shouted, desperation in her voice. “Wait. You don’t know what’s in there!” She forced herself through the opening, crawling farther into the inky darkness. “Don’t be impulsive. Use caution.” Her eyes finally adjusted to the blackness and saw the torchlight dancing on the carved walls of the tunnel ahead and Marcus’s shadow. “Sage!”
“I’m down!” Sage exclaimed.
Raven scrambled closer and noticed an opening in the floor at the end of the tunnel. Marcus was leaning toward it. “What can you see?” he asked Sage.
Raven glanced over her shoulder into the dimness to see movement. Her heart jumped until she realized it was Landyn crawling toward them. She turned back to the opening in the ground and bent toward it. “Sage, hold on.”
“It’s… It’s another tunnel. Bigger,” Sage responded. “I can stand up.”
“Wait for me,” Marcus said. “I’m coming down.”
Raven narrowed her eyes in disbelief and tried to grab Marcus’s arm, but he was already bracing himself against the sides of the hole. “Wait for the others.”
“I’m not leaving her down there alone,” Marcus said before dropping.
