“You’ll know it when you hear it. The mountain is angry, we disturbed its peace, and it wants it back,” Kelly’s words make goose bumps rise on my arms, so eerie with the way her voice changed pitch on the last part.
Hesitantly, I step forward, my heart beating at the young witch’s resolve. “Be out by the third crack,” Kelly states, letting her go.
“And if she’s not?”
“Nothing can hold it back from falling, not even the gods can move this mountain,” Kelly says, peering up at it, the highest point of it lost in the clouds.
“I’ll come with you,” I state, my voice authoritative yet gentle.
My gaze meets Leila’s. She’s young, but there’s a determination in her eyes that belies her years. Something in her spirit, in her fierce protectiveness, reminds me of my sons and how they’d do anything for me, something I sometimes took advantage of. I played them against each other, used them as weapons to fight my battles and shields to protect me from those I oppose.
“We’ll get my sons and daughter-in-law and your grandmother,” I tell her. I was never one for pep talks, more grunt and order, yet I find I can’t be mean to this girl. She did, after all, keep me company at my worst of times. The words hang heavily in the air, unsure if it’s a promise I can actually keep, but it’s one I intend to. Hearing our conversation, Regan wanders over from helping James with the last ones.
“We need to find another entrance,” Regan says, and I nod.
“You’re coming too?” Leila asks, looking confused. “My mate and brothers are in there, of course I am,” he says, peering up at the mountain.
A bitter laugh escapes him. “I’m good as dead anyway,” he says, making my heart heavy.
I may have lost one son, but we can try to at least save the other two. Regan and I both know that without Zirah’s mark, it’s only a matter of time. He’s a ticking time bomb, kind of like this mountain.
Kelly looks at him strangely, her head tilting, and it’s almost as if she looks straight through him. “James!” Regan calls out. “You’ll be alright here if I take Gnash and Hunter?” James gives him a thumbs up and Regan whistles. Gnash’s ears perk, and Regan nods toward the mountain. “Follow Dad in,” Regan orders the wolf. Shadow wanders over, and Regan points at James.
“He’s fine. He’ll only whine, let him go,” James dismisses Regan before he can order the wolf. Regan clicks his tongue before glancing at me.
“Since we can’t go straight through, I’ll find another entrance to the other side,” Regan says before darting off into the tunnel.
I move to follow, but Kelly’s voice draws me back. “The third crack, not the explosion, ignore those. The cracks are the mountain’s countdown.”
A violent shudder runs through me. Slavic’s backup plan. My jaw clenches at the news, yet Leila’s resolve doesn’t waver. “We’ll be fine, Leila has me. Therefore, she has magic,” I tell Kelly.
Kelly’s gaze goes up the mountain while I glance after Regan, then I turn back as Kelly pulls Leila into a quick embrace. “No one can harness that sort of energy, Leila, so don’t you be stupid enough to try.” Kelly’s pleas are weak but insistent.
Without another word or glance back, Leila’s off, plunging back into the tunnels with me at her side. Each rumble of the rocks around us sets me on edge, and I pray that I didn’t just sign up for a crushing death.
Behind us, James stays with the rescued coven members. His vampire blood can heal them, but I can’t when I am this weak and on the verge of death. I can only scare them. The terror of the mountain and its impending destruction looms over me as we move inside the tunnel, each step leading us closer to the death we should be running from.
Chapter Fifty-Three
Despite the poison of the severed bond gnawing at my insides, I push forward, fueled by my need to find Zirah and my brothers. The scent of blood and death fills the air, a stark reminder of the price of our rebellion. The loss of my uncle and so many lives wasted, and all for Slavic’s son, who was not worthy of living in the first place.
I have no idea how far behind my father and my wolves are as I try to squeeze through the narrowing tunnels. I manage to find another route, but it’s not carved out like the last ones. I had to break down the barrier of rocks that had fallen, opening it enough to squeeze through, so hopefully my father and Leila find the way. With the way this mountain trembles, the chances of us getting back out the way we came in are slim.
Stumbling through the dust and darkness, I heave a breath, choking on the fumes and my own blood that keeps bubbling up my throat and out my lips. Light filters through the dust ahead, a flicker, a tiny ball of light in the distance. It grows larger with each step before I stumble into another part of this underground tunnel system. It fans out, opening into a larger space, and I brace a hand on the wall trying to catch my breath just as Zirah shifts into her lycan form.
Her lycan form is not one I’ve seen before. Her fur is the oddest shade of gray; she almost looks blue. Yet even in this form, her arms still bear the runes, they stand out brightly like white lighting in the darkness. She is magnificent, even here, fighting off a group of guards with the feral intensity of a beast. For a fleeting moment, I find myself mesmerized by the sight of her.
It’s as if she embodies a paradox of strength and grace. The raging storm that’s cloaked in calm. She is sin draped in virtue. A monster with feminine grace. I gasp when she is kicked into the wall, her body crashing into the mountain with a force that would kill a human. Her claws rake down the rock, and fire sparks in their wake.
My stomach knots, and I move to go to her when I am faced with more guards. Something pierces my side, and I glance at Zirah, trying to keep one eye on her while trying to stay alive. My elbow connects with the face of whoever came at me from the side. They stumble back, and one of the vampire’s fangs embed in my arm where it connected with his mouth.
Managing to duck out of the grasp of another guard, my claws hit their mark, penetrating the man’s chest cavity, fingers digging between ribs and bones as I search for his heart. With a sickening squelch, I feel it beat once, twice before the third beat stops as I squeeze.
I glance around trying to see who else is coming for me, but the room is slowly flooding with more guards. Where do they keep coming from? Dust from the explosions slowly filters in and fills the cavern, making it difficult to see. Yet I can’t miss Zirah because she is glowing like a lighthouse in the fog. She moves with lethal precision, her body rippling with raw power, her claws lashing out with deadly accuracy while the witches trapped with her fight to free my brothers. One by one, their chains fall while what’s left of her coven catches them.
It’s in this very moment that I realize my girl far outshines Litha. Zirah is not just a priestess or a queen; she is an embodiment of survival, proof of her resilience. She faces death and burns brightly still. She fights despite knowing it may kill her because she is all that stands between her coven, her family, and those trying to break them. This place is literally falling apart, the mountain rumbling under our feet, its foundation cracking, yet she won’t stop, not even when knocked down. Instead, she sharpens her claws and fights harder.
A piercing scream tears from my lips when an agonizing pain stabs straight through my back. The man whose heart I hold crumples into a heap at my feet, and I feel the guard at my back trying to twist the blade he’s lodged dangerously close to my lungs.
