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“Huh?” Einar repeated, incredulous. “What in the blazes was that?”
“A mini vision,” Quye said, casually shrugging us off. She approached one of the shelves and used her magic to carefully remove a book. The two volumes on either side of it crumbled as it slid free, but this one held up as it floated through the air toward her. “About this book. Apparently, it’s important.”
“A notebook?” Einar asked as Quye used her air magic to turn the pages. Like the letter, it was written in the old fae tongue, and I couldn’t make out much of it. “What’s in it?”
“Notes on magical experiments.” Quye’s brow furrowed. “A lot of the writing is faded—I’m having trouble making it out.” She closed the book, then gingerly took it in her hands. “I’ll need to spend some time studying it, but not now. It’s time for us to make the trek.”
“Right.” We left the hidden library, and Quye wrapped the book in a spare shirt, then stored it in her pack for later. I wondered if the secrets contained within would help us discover the truth about the fire fae—but how would that help us now?
After all… we’d already driven the dragons from their homeland. They’d joined the ashes of the fire fae before them… and they weren’t coming back.
5
Einar
Since Quye had not only allowed us to sleep in, but also waylaid us with her discovery of that library, we were forced to hurry through breakfast. Adara climbed on my back once I’d shifted into dragon form, Quye tucked beneath her tunic in owl form. We decided to leave our fur cloaks back at the tower--Adara didn't truly need them, and with any luck, the new realm would be warm enough that Quye wouldn't either.
I took to the skies in a pensive mood, thinking about the letter and the notebook Quye had discovered. I didn’t actually know if fire fae artifacts were cursed, and I wasn’t a superstitious person by nature. But still, I felt uneasy carrying around that ancient notebook through Hearthfyre. How was a book about magical experiments supposed to help us? Wasn’t forbidden magic the thing that had created this catastrophe in the first place? It seemed foolish to meddle in whatever the fire fae had gotten themselves into nearly three thousand years ago.
But then again, I didn’t have the direct connection to the spirits that Quye did. So who was I to judge?
A calming influence trickled into my thoughts, and I realized it was coming from Adara through the bond. She clearly sensed my annoyance and was trying to use our connection to comfort me. Guilt flared inside me—my emotions were affecting her, and now that I wasn’t hiding our bond anymore, I wasn’t making any effort to control it. I wished we could communicate telepathically so we could talk to each other along the journey, but that wouldn’t be possible until she returned and we consummated the mating bond.
So instead, I pushed the negative emotions away and turned my attention to more pleasant thoughts. The first one that came to mind was of Adara in my arms last night, her nearly naked body tangled with my own. I wished I hadn’t been too exhausted to take advantage of the alone time Quye had given us. True, I couldn’t make love to her without sealing the bond, but I’d been fantasizing about making her orgasm again ever since that time she’d ridden me in the training room. A rush of heat flooded my veins at the memory of her grinding against my cock, and judging by Adara's sharp intake of breath, I knew she felt it, too.
Okay, maybe this isn’t the best train of thought to be taking,I told myself ruefully.
We flew most of the day again, stopping once at midday for a quick lunch break which was rudely interrupted by another shadow creature attack. I kept to the skies, flying high above the clouds to avoid the notice of shadow creatures. But despite my efforts to avoid them, the bastards seemed to be able to sense us, and we had to fight off several flocks of shadow-corrupted fire bats. I felt bad about killing the creatures—before the shadow magic genocide, I’d enjoyed flying with them, watching their playful races and mating dances. All of Hearthfyre’s native fauna had been corrupted—would they all survive when Adara came back and used her icefire to reverse the corruption? Or were these species lost forever?
The sun was more than halfway to the horizon by the time we reached Mount Furian. Dipping beneath the cloud cover, a rush of memories and nostalgia filled me as the sacred volcano that had helped thousands of dragons come into their powers came into view. The volcano had been dormant for as long as we’d been here, and was nearly thirty-thousand feet—the highest peak in the land.
The sacred temple was built into the mountain’s base, and it was there that we landed. Several shadow creatures lurked in the area, and I scorched them with my flames, sending them scattering. To my relief, the temple seemed mostly intact, with only a few pillars broken. I used my claws to swipe away the debris covering the entrance, then let Adara climb off my back so I could shift.
“We aren’t going to fly in through the top?” she asked, releasing Quye from beneath her tunic.
I shook my head as Quye landed on the ground, then transformed back into her fae form in a flash of light. “I’ve grown too large to fit through the volcano opening,” I explained. “There is a tunnel that leads straight into the heart of the volcano, where the portal is. But we have to go through the temple to get there.”
Adara cast an uneasy glance at the temple, which had seen better days. It looked almost sinister in the dim light, its stone walls rising up like the jagged teeth of some ancient predator. The coating of volcanic ash on the exterior gave it a dull, ashen sheen, and long, twisted shadows crawled across the temple’s face, making it seem almost malevolent. I had to remind myself that before the shadow creatures came, this had once been a place of learning and light. A place where dragons came into their own. A place of passion and hope and love.
“How many shadow creatures do you think we'll have to fight through to get there?” Adara asked.
“Actually, we shouldn’t run into any trouble,” Quye said. “The temple is sacred, which means shadow creatures can’t enter. We should get inside before the ones who ran off come back with their friends.”
“Right.” Adara shuddered, then lifted her hand, conjuring a ball of fire. She took a step forward, but I placed a hand on her shoulder, and she paused, glancing up at me.
“Let me lead the way,” I said gently. “I do know the place, after all.”
She relented, snuffing out the fire so I could conjure my own. I stepped through the rusted and decayed entrance doors, holding my fireball aloft to illuminate the space. Dust and cobwebs coated the walls and ceilings, and debris littered the stone floors. The air was thick with the smell of mold and neglect, and the only sound aside from our own breaths was the faint drip of water echoing through the halls.
“Giant’s teeth,” Adara said as we moved deeper into the temple. Statues of fire spirits and dragons loomed all around them, their once proud and gleaming forms covered in a layer of grime so thick, you could barely make out their features. “This place needs a good dusting.”
“I’ll get right on that,” I said dryly. “Right after I send you through the portal.”
Adara laid a hand on my arm. “I’m sorry—I didn’t mean it like that,” she said softly. “I forgot this is a sacred place for you.”
“It’s all right.” I let out a breath, reaching with my other hand to interlace my fingers with hers. Adara was right—this place was in desperate need of love and care. But even with the clear signs of decay, I could sense the ancient power humming within the dark stone walls. It was dormant, waiting for a priest or priestess to awaken it through prayer and devotion, but the subtle vibration sparked hope within me for the first time. “Let’s get going. The tunnel is toward the back of the temple.”
The trek through the tunnel was dark and oppressive, with none of the fanfare and celebration I’d experienced the first time I’d made this journey. There were no flickering torches along the walls, no drumbeats from the priests or chanting from the acolytes as we climbed the interminably long staircase, no visions dancing in my head from the sacred tea the priestess had brewed for me before she’d sent me into the heart of the volcano. There was only the sound of my heartbeat pumping in my ears, along with the hum of the mountain’s magma core through the walls. On and on we climbed, until our legs burned and our lungs ached. The higher we climbed, the hotter we got, until sweat soaked our clothes and our lungs burned.
