The grinding noise echoed through the hallway as they hurried to Sage and Marcus.
Raven’s eyes quickly scanned the corridor, searching for an explanation.
“What happened?” Sage demanded.
Then, as suddenly as it had started, the noise ceased, and an eerie silence fell upon the corridor.
Raven cautiously peered up and down the stone hallway, a sense of dread washing over her. Part of her expected the entire place to collapse around them, killing them all. “I don’t like this.”
“Why did it stop?” Marcus asked.
“What happened?” Sage repeated.
Willow shrugged, glancing nervously at the ceiling and the door. “There was a carved jewel on the handle, and I swore it was the flower in the etching Sage gave me. I tried to clean it up, and the arm moved. I didn’t break it. It shifted backward and…”
A clink came from the door, drawing their attention.
Raven scanned the door uneasily.
“The sword must have been the key,” Landyn replied, moving away from the door.
“Or a trap,” Raven suggested. The large metal door hadn’t budged, yet something inside it had.
Sage cautiously reached out her hand, fingers hovering over the handle like a delicate moth.
Raven held her breath in anticipation.
Sage finally clasped it, squeezing it. A metallic click clanged. She carefully, excitedly, pushed the door open.
Christian lifted the torch and stepped into the dark room. The flickering fire illuminated stacks of wooden crates, barrels, and varying shapes and sizes of boxes.
The room was so large that Raven couldn’t see the walls as she entered. She scowled, moving deeper into the room but staying in the torch’s light. Willow tentatively edged her way farther into the room, her hands moving over each item as if drawn to it.
Just outside the circle of light from the torch, Landyn slowly lifted the lid of a crate…and froze.
Raven couldn’t see what was inside, but a chill ran down her spine as Landyn’s eyes widened in shock.
“We have to get out of here,” he murmured, his voice echoing through the cavernous room.
All eyes turned to him. Raven hurried to his side, her heart pounding as she watched him flip the wooden lid wide.
Christian moved closer, and the torchlight washed over the crate’s contents.
Raven’s mouth hung open in wonder as she saw it was filled to the top with golden, glinting coins. She tore her gaze from the coins to slowly take in the sea of other containers, barrels, and crates. Her breathing hitched, and her mouth gaped. If every one of them was filled with this much or more treasure…
They were in a lot of trouble.
Chapter Twenty-Three
The weight of leadership pressed down on Raven. Every instinct she had told her to escape, but the group was trapped. They couldn’t leave the way they had come in. She hesitated briefly and then made a decision. “We have to locate another way out,” she said, her voice resolute. “Find a different door.”
“A door?” Sage asked, eyeing the rest of the closed crates with curiosity. “We should open the rest of these boxes.”
“Sage, think about what you’re saying,” Marcus advised. “These crates and boxes don’t have dust or webs on them. Someone has been in here, watching them, guarding them. And they’re not going to like that we found them.”
“We have to get out of here,” Landyn agreed.
Raven’s jaw clenched with nervousness as Christian held the torch out in front of him, light dancing on the container and boxes stacked throughout the room. He moved carefully, almost crouched, skirting each obstacle until he came to a wall. Willow trailed him, gazing at the boxes they passed.
