Page 110 of A Wayward Movement

“She should be right here,” Xavier said, panic rising. “The tug is very clear. I don’t understand it.”

He cast his eyes around for the craftsman, wanting to ask his advice. But it looked like the rest of the group was still stuck outside the wall. Blair hadn’t returned with the keys yet. Xavier frowned. What could possibly take him so long?

“Where exactly do you feel it, Your Highness?” a guard pressed.

Xavier pointed right to where his horse was prancing on the spot. “Right here.”

“Under the ground?” the man asked.

“No, I meant…” Xavier trailed off, his brow furrowing. He dismounted, kneeling and placing his hands flat against the sand. The pressure in his chest rumbled in approval. He scooped the sand with his fingers, but it just fell back into place.

“Would…would it still draw you to her if she was…”

“She’s not dead,” he snapped at the guard who’d spoken.

The man’s words touched on his own fear. But he refused to believe Alina was dead and buried in this spot. She’d been missing less than a day, and there was no indication the ground had been recently disturbed. There must be some kind of cellar below their feet. But if so, the entrance wasn’t where they stood. He’d seen no basement level within the buildings on site when he toured them. Where else had the ground been cut away?

“The quarry!” he gasped.

“The one outside the walls?” one of his men asked doubtfully.

Xavier shook his head. “No, the old one. The one that’s supposedly unstable.”

It hadn’t looked unstable, he realized. They’d ridden right along its edge when entering, and it had looked in fine condition. His only reason for thinking it was unstable was that Blair had told him as much. Blair, who for some inscrutable reason, didn’t seem to want to let the team into the site.

Suspicion rose in Xavier, not fully formed, but enough to make him question everything. Blair hadn’t wanted him and Alina to enter the old quarry, either. Was his stated reason the true one?

“Come on,” he said, leaping back onto his horse.

They thundered back to the quarry. Leaving one guard with the horses, Xavier set the rest to searching the quarry with him. They fanned out, no sound but the whistling of the wind through a nearby weather vane.

Xavier had descended some way into the quarry’s stepped sides when a flash of movement made him turn in excitement. His mind was a moment too slow in recognizing the sandy tail of the creature darting out from behind a boulder.

NO!

His silent protest was cut off by a yowl from Zuzu that could only be called a war cry. The anzu must have performed quite a dive, because her fur-into-feathers flank whisked past Xavier’s vision, obscuring the snake. Before he knew what she was doing, she’d opened her feline mouth and gobbled the basilisk right up.

“Uh…thank you.” Xavier blinked at the anzu.

Zuzu gulped down the still-wriggling tail before giving a self-satisfied purr.

“Your Highness!” The protest came from above, and Xavier looked up to see Blair hovering at the edge of the quarry. “Come out of there! It’s not safe!”

Xavier narrowed his eyes, suspicion growing as he took in the agitated demeanor of the liaison. Blair had probably noticed the guard standing with all the horses.

“To me.”

Xavier’s curt command had all five of his remaining guards at his side in a heartbeat. Ignoring the still-shouting Blair, Xavier pushed on, hampered by Zuzu, who’d decided to perch on his shoulder while digesting her snack.

The pressure in Xavier’s chest liked how far downward he was going, he realized. And when he found a miner’s tunnel and stepped into it, the pressure liked it even more.

He hesitated, wondering what mischief Blair could do if he really was working against them. With a quick order, he sent one of his guards up, telling the man to apprehend Blair with the assistance of the guard holding the horses. That still left Xavier with four guards.

The anzu on his shoulder made a sudden gagging sound, then spat out a drool-covered mass of scales.

Four guards and Zuzu.

The tunnel led into a small cave, and Xavier hurried forward eagerly. But it was a dead end, no sign of a continuing path. He frowned, wishing he had more light to examine the area.