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With another thought, I banished the image from her mind, and she stopped screeching, drifting away with a lazy flap of her wings.
“Holy shit,” I murmured under my breath. “That was… easy.”
Chapter Twenty-Four
I played with my newly expanded powers for the next several days as we trekked across the barren landscape of the underworld, but was careful not to strain myself. My persuasion had become easier than ever, and if language had been a barrier before, it certainly wasn’t now. I didn’t even have to think in full sentences—I could persuade with images and feelings as easily as with words now.
According to the directions Vee had given us, we were very near our destination. She’d known of a location where Gavriel had hidden a large stash of Temple Stones, and the upside of that was that we wouldn’t have to go mining for them ourselves. The downside, of course, was the Gavriel knew of the location of these stones and would likely have put measures in place to protect them. Since there was a good chance we’d run into some kind of trouble, I wanted to save as much of my fresh juice as possible for the moments when it mattered most.
I still convinced a young basilisk that his next meal was on the tip of his tail though. I couldn’t resist.
The shadows on the ground were lengthening when Xero came to a stop in front of me, frowning. “It’s supposed to be here.”
We were at the bottom of a slope in the center of a canyon. Three creeks—one of which we had been following—twisted together a few yards ahead of us to create a river which almost immediately plummeted off the side of a cliff in a roaring waterfall. The water—or whatever it was—was oily and stank vaguely of rotting flesh, but the jewel tones of the oil slick were pretty from a distance. The guys and I all turned around slowly, looking for the entrance to a cave.
One of the little rodents like I’d seen earlier crouched on its hind legs off to my right. I sent out a few tendrils of persuasion, making it feel like it had to go to the big dark place right now, then tracked its movements.
“This way,” I said softly, lifting a hand to get the guys’ attention. The rodent led me to a massive boulder that we hadn’t even noticed before, then wriggled through a hole smaller than my foot. I put my hand down by the hole, nodding to myself when I found what I’d been hoping for.
“What is it?” Jayce asked.
“Airflow. It’s strong too.”
I checked the ground around the boulder. “You see how there’s an indent in the ground on this side? I think the boulder’s covering the entrance on purpose. It’s been rolled back and forth.”
They guys exchanged looks and shrugged, then arranged themselves beside me on one side of the massive rock.
“On three,” Xero said. “One, two—”
Three was lost in a grunt as the five of us pushed against the boulder. It didn’t want to budge at first, and after straining for a few moments, we stopped to reevaluate our strategy.
“Everyone shift.” Jayce nodded toward Kingston. “Go as big as you can with your dragon. And you too, Pipes, with your size-shifting. We need as much weight on our side as we can get.”
With a massive dragon, a hellhound, a vampire, a fire demon, and a giant succubus all pushing against it, the boulder moved easily. Within seconds, it was resting in the indent, revealing an opening in the canyon wall. The air tasted old and damp, and nothing but rodent prints marred the thick dust at the entrance.
Everyone resumed their human forms as we gathered close, peering into the dark black hole. We could all shift so smoothly by now that there was no real tactical advantage to staying in our fallen forms all the time.
“Are we sure this is it?” Kingston asked, wrinkling his nose.
“What did you expect?” Xero gave a humorless chuckle.
“I don’t know. A safe? Traps? Hiding rocks in a hole in the wall seems amateur.”
“Depends on how many holes and walls you have,” Kai said. “Come on.”
It was dark inside, too dark for even Kai or Xero to see clearly. But it felt big inside the cavern. Really big. And… tangled, somehow.
“Think it’s safe to light a torch?” I asked Xero.
“I think so.” He glanced at Jayce for confirmation. Even in his human form, the hellhound had a killer sense of smell.
Shoving a hand through his blond hair, my mate sniffed the air. “Don’t think anything big enough to bother us lives in here. Don’t think much of anything lives in here, actually.”
We ended up lighting three. The sheer size of the place made a single torch burn like a match in the dark, completely obscuring everything we were trying to illuminate. Three gave us enough ambient light to see.
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“What exactly are we looking for?” I asked.
