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She averted her eyes.
Good.
She chewed on her cheek. “That doesn’t mean anything.”
I scoffed. “Right. Keep telling yourself that.” Suddenly, an idea popped in my mind. I didn’t know why I hadn’t thought of that before. I picked up my phone. “Here.” I opened the picture library and handed my phone to her.
With wary eyes, Raika took the phone from me. The knot between her brows only deepened as she flipped from picture to picture.
There weren’t many, but there were several of her. Hell, the majority of my pictures were of her, her with Minsi, or with both my siblings. But there was a handful of the two of us together.
Slowly, the knot in her forehead smoothed, and her eyes widened. Tears brimmed in her eyes. Shit, I hadn’t wanted to make her cry. I had wanted her to see.
“Raika, I—“
She raised a hand to stop me. Then she pressed that hand to her mouth. “I can’t.” She pushed the phone to me. “I can’t.” She took off.
“Raika!” I yelled.
I glanced at the phone. It was a selfie I had taken of the four of us—me, her, Minsi, and Tyren. All of us smooshed together and smiling wide, like a happy family.
I shoved my phone in my pocket and ran after her, pointing the flashlight ahead of us before Raika ran into a wall or a cliff.
I didn’t have to run more than fifteen seconds to catch up with her as she had halted where the tunnel widened into a bigger cavern—full of shiny blue flowers. Their odd glow illuminated the entire place.
“What the …?”
Raika inhaled deeply. “They smell so good.”
They did. Like a mix of cinnamon and mint and warmth. It was odd, but it went well together.
Raika started forward, but I held her arm. “Have you seen these flowers before? I haven’t. We don’t know if they are poisonous.”
She frowned, and I let go of her arm.
Just then, a small brown bird flew in from another tunnel across the room. I stilled. If a bird was in here, it had either got lost inside the tunnels, or it meant an opening couldn’t be too far away.
“Look.” Raika pointed to the bird.
It dove into the flowers, then surged up again, unharmed. The bird perched on a crevice in the cavern’s side and we watched him for a moment. Nothing happened.
“I think it’s safe,” she said before tiptoeing among the flowers.
They seemed okay, but I was still wary as I followed her into this meadow, doing my best to not step on the flowers.
What were these flowers? How did they bloom in here? I could only guess they were magical. I plucked one and looked at it. It didn’t seem much different from a rose, but the petals were pointier and smoother, like velvet, and the center had a small yellow center. I put it in my bag. I would give this to Lavinia later so she could figure out if these flowers were useful or not.
Raika knelt in the center of the meadow and ran her hand over the flowers. “They're so smooth.”
The bird flew away and into one of the tunnels.
“We should follow the bird,” I said. “It must know the exit.”
“Right.” Raika stood and walked toward the tunnel.
Then she halted, pressed a hand to her neck, faltered two steps to the side, and went down.
My heart stopped. “Raika!”
