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Dannika put her hand on the rock at the cavern entrance. Power coursed through her body. Ancient. Mysterious.
Heat burned over her body as she stepped through the cave mouth. The intensity was brief but aimed at her demon. It hid in her chest like a toddler being scolded by its parents. Her animals growled, fighting to the surface. It wasn’t until Killian cried out and pulled back his burning hand that she realized the true nature of the trap.
Killian hissed. “I cannot pass.”
Her hesitation was brief, but she reached back through the entrance and grabbed Killian’s scarred hand. “Hold on to me.”
He stepped forward, and his skin turned red, but he didn’t burst into flames. He moved away from the entrance. “Uncomfortable, to say the least.”
Dannika contemplated her actions. She had pulled a reaper through a purity spell. While she couldn’t explain how she knew what the spell was, and how to break it, the outcome was undeniable. For that split second, Killian was pure. He wouldn’t stay that way. She accepted that, but what of the others? The ones like Zade.
Her reaper mate had died to protect her. If that wasn’t an act of compassion, what was? If there was redemption for the reapers, maybe there was for her. She was in a unique position. Killian needed her, but the situation wouldn’t last.
“Tell me about the reapers. I’ve noticed some differences.”
Killian circled the natural well at the center of the cavern. “You mean the ones like Zade?”
“Yes.”
“They are weak. Forced turns strengthen our numbers, but they produce weak reapers.” His eyes remained focused on the water.
He closed his eyes and took deep breaths before they reopened. “The chalice is down there. I need you to perform the spell and deactivate the ward.”
He removed the scroll from his jacket and rolled it out, holding it up for Dannika.
Dannika scanned the ancient spell, but she didn’t understand the words written on the paper. “I don’t know what it says.”
“You don’t need to. Just repeat the words while holding your hands above the water.”
Dannika stood before the well. She held her hands above the water and repeated the incantation.
“Anum caru. Anum candrae. Belifrite toleran solorin.”
The water beneath her hands bubbled.
“What do I do?”
Killian’s eyes glowed in the darkness. “Place your hands inside the water. The talisman is at its base.”
Dannika lowered her hands into the water. It bubbled along her wrist like tiny tongues lapping at her skin. She reached to her elbows before her fingers connected with the bowl. She lifted it to the air for the first time in centuries.
Water trickled from the sides of the bowl as she brought it towards her. She halted.
One symbol carved along the rim was a rune inscribed on her reaper blade. Her rune.
“What does that symbol mean?”
Killian’s eyes narrowed on her. “It means you’re the only one who can open the portal.”
CHAPTER25
Dannika suspected there was more to opening the portal than she’d believed.
Killian had made her show him the symbols carved on the side. He’d examined the bowl, but he hadn’t touched it. Then, he’d told her to hide the chalice. She suspected he feared touching it, but kept her assumptions to herself.
She was cautious when shifting into the shadows with the chalice, but found it moved within the slipstream as easily as her reaper blade. They’d carved it from bone. Demon bone. The darkness was its natural habitat. She could feel the power emanating from it as she moved through the slipstream.
There was only one person she trusted with the talisman, and she made her way to him.
