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Whatever this place was, and however old, the castle was involved. The question was, was this an ancient, forgotten system of my long-dead ancestors, or was this yet another element that led back to my mother?
With a sigh, I stared briefly into the darkness on my left, a single passageway leading into the blackness beyond. There was nothing more to see though, and I summoned my light back to me with a flick of my wrist before turning back up the stairway.
Something loosened in my chest as I rounded the spiral and found daylight again, Saffy’s anxious expression relaxing as she spotted me.
“Well?” she prompted, a mix of relief and curiosity. “What’s down there?”
She stepped back to let me out of the entrance, but as I glanced down to step over the threshold my eyes fixed on something that made me pause. In the dusty build up on the floor sat a clearly defined footprint.
Sitting just in front of where my own foot stood, the print was fresh enough to have disturbed the old residue, and its placement left me certain that it wasn’t mine.
Following my gaze, Saffy frowned at me in confusion. “What is it?”
“That footprint isn’t mine,” I explained, nodding at it. “Someone else has come through here.”
Saffy backed away from the doorway with a shudder. “Shit, please don’t tell me the Crone story is real. That’s messed up.”
I stepped out into the sunshine, pulling in a lungful of fresh air and running a hand through my hair as the door slid shut behind me, blending seamlessly back into the stone wall.
“No,” I answered. “My money is on a Queen, not a Crone.”
I smiled in thanks as Zeke handed me a steaming cup, tucking my legs underneath me as I made myself comfortable on the wide couch in our cabin. Liam was sat on the opposite sofa, leaning forwards to rest his elbows on his knees as he glared at me.
“You went where?!” Noah asked incredulously from beside him.
“I just wanted to see what was down there,” I said, not for the first time. “Saffy held the door, it was fine.”
Zeke sat down next to me and stretched his arm along the back of the seat, giving me a small wink to show that he, at least, wasn’t pissed at me.
“You went down there alone, with no backup and no way of knowing if it was dangerous,” Liam growled, his leg jumping up and down the only outward sign that his attitude was about his fear for me.
I sighed, looking up at the ceiling in an attempt to stop myself snapping back at him.
“Look, I get it, but we needed to know what was down there and we don’t have the luxury of time on our side. Especially if my suspicions about that footprint are right.”
“You really think that’s how she’s been getting in?” Zeke asked apprehensively.
I shrugged. “The more I think about it, the more it fits. It’s how those traps were set without anyone noticing. The way people were taken without a trace of anyone moving across the borders... it fits, and it means she has access to the Pack Lands.”
“It’s where I found Mina that night she cursed me too,” muttered Noah, giving the others an apologetic look. “She collected a parcel from the trees beside the stone.”
Liam cursed colourfully and stood, pacing around the room as anger rolled down our bond.
“We need to block it off then. Seal the doorway,” Zeke said as our eyes followed Liam’s path.
I looked at him, my mouth twisting. “Or...”
Liam came to a halt, spinning to face me. “You are not going back down there.”
I narrowed my eyes at him. “Wanna try that again?”
He scoffed at me, throwing up his hands and resuming his pacing. Zeke shook his head at his brother in disbelief as Noah focused back on me.
“You have a plan, sweetheart?”
I grimaced. “Plan is not the right word, but I can’t ignore the fact that those tunnels would be the perfect place for my mother to hide things. I keep thinking about the tapestry at the castle and how similar the winding tree roots on it looked to the tunnel map down there.”
Liam stopped again, the anger dropping away as he made the same connections as me. “You think the third stone is down there.”
