Malik, Osman, and I trudged down the hill toward the yawning mouth of the cave, our way lit only by the meager glow of a crescent moon. The darkness surrounded us, thick with the night’s secrets and untold threats lurking just beyond our sight. Malik breathed heavily beside me, each exhale a gust of silent fury. Osman walked ahead, his figure a shadow against the lesser dark.
“Malik,” I said, my voice low, “we need to keep level heads.”
He looked at me, his eyes glinting with the same ferocity that had ignited at Mathias’ estate.
“Easy for you to say,” he spat, not breaking stride.
I clenched my jaw, feeling the weight of my frustration. Alina’s presence at Mathias’ place was a thorn in my side, sharp and unwelcome. Raul’s words from the tavern echoed in my head, painting her in hues darker than the night around us. It didn’t sit right with me how she lingered like a specter over everything we did—everything Malik had suffered.
“Mathias be damned,” I muttered. “He thinks he made you powerful? Gave you Rosie?”
The thought was laughable, a pitiful attempt by a man bloated on self-importance. I knew Malik’s strength; it was his own, hard-earned and honed through trials that would have broken lesser men.
“Rosie was never his to give,” I said, louder this time, my words slicing through the tension. “And power isn’t handed to you by the likes of him. It’s taken, fought for.”
I hoped my conviction would seep into Malik and bring him peace.
Malik grunted, a noncommittal noise, but the set of his shoulders eased ever so slightly. We continued our descent in silence, the only sounds those of our footsteps and the distant calls of nocturnal creatures hidden in the wilderness.
As much as I wanted to believe Malik and I were united, Alina’s lurking shadow divided us, a constant reminder of past deceptions and the pain they wrought. I couldn’t shake the discomfort of having her near, of knowing what Raul had insinuated about her true nature. Her presence filled me with unease, a nagging feeling I couldn’t shake.
Then, there was the revelation of their shared child. Despite Raul’s claim that the child had died due to his experiments, a part of me couldn’t help but question the truth. Was he lying? Or perhaps the child truly was gone. Alina seemed to hold so many secrets close to her chest, leaving me to wonder how much more there was to uncover. Her connection to Olivia, the woman I’d come to love deeply, only twisted the knife further.
Each step closer to the cave was further from the mess of lies and manipulations we left behind. But even in the sanctuary of darkness, there was no escaping the web that entangled us all.
I gripped Malik’s shoulder, trying to ground him. “We can figure this all out.”
He jerked away from my touch, his eyes wild in the moonlight. “Why is it that people I trusted let me down?” His voice was barely a whisper but carried the weight of deep hurt and anguish.
I understood all too well—the world felt like a chessboard, and we were pawns amidst the kings and queens of deceit.
“Trust is a luxury we can’t afford right now,” I replied.
With my brother gone, the path ahead was murky, our plans adrift in a sea of chaos.
“Let’s focus on what we can control,” I said, more to convince myself than to reassure Malik.
Our steps grew heavier as we approached the cave, its gaping maw looming like an abyss, ready to swallow us whole. Its immensity struck me silent; this was no mere hole in the earth—it was a cathedral of shadows and secrets.
“We’re going to dig until we find the moon dagger,” I said, my resolve hardening with each syllable. The dagger was the key to understanding, power, and securing a future I could no longer envisage clearly.
Osman nodded, his silhouette etched against the darkness. “It’s our goal.”
“Then let’s find it,” I said, steeling myself. Whatever lay within the cavernous depths, it couldn’t be worse than the dread that had taken root in my soul.
We paused to retrieve supplies covered with a tarp outside the caverns. Once we stepped through the stone opening, I held my lantern high. The interior was vast, stretching to infinity. We began our search, staying close yet breaking off to explore different threads.
The air inside the cave was cool and brackish, like the breath of a slumbering beast.
I wiped the sweat from my brow, my hands coated in the fine dust that carpeted the cavern floor. We’d been searching for hours, our fingertips brushing against the indifferent stone, hoping for a sign of the elusive dagger.
“Roman,” Osman’s voice cut through the silence. “There is something you must be aware of. Once you locate the Moon dagger, it will not work immediately. The two blades have been separated for far too long.”
The gravity of his words hung heavy in the air, sending shivers down my spine as I contemplated the consequences of reuniting the ancient daggers.
My fingers stilled on the cold rock as I turned to face him. The flickering light of our torches cast dancing shadows on his earnest face.
“A very specific scripture is used to awaken it, different than Timeborne blades,” he continued. “The scripture to make them work is a dead language. Only the true owner can activate it. Ancient scriptures of time reveal specific instructions.”
