The Cursed Key

by Miranda Brock

  “Are there shifters of all kinds? Like elephants, or flamingos?”

  “Ha!” Kael threw his head back in laughter, the most mirth I’d seen from him yet. The sound bounced off the trees and rocks, echoing around us. “I feel bad for the poor person that would end up a flamingo shifter. Most shifters are predators, though I’ve known one horse shifter in my life.”

  It seemed strange that there were shifters on this world living among us in the guise of fangs and fur. How often had I seen a wolf or caught a glimpse of a jaguar or leopard that had in fact also been a person?

  “Look!” I pointed.

  Ahead of us, the trees thinned, letting in what little light there was filtering through the blanket of ever-gray clouds above.

  We hurried over the rough terrain, Kael moving with grace, leaning forward as if he were ready to shift into a jaguar at the first sign of danger. I pulled out my knife and caressed the magic swirling inside of me. We emerged through the trees as they opened up.

  The clearing.

  It was made of pale, wispy grasses that swayed slightly in the soft breeze and was bordered with twisting trees. Massive boulders and stones, blanketed with patches of moss and lichen, were piled together in the center.

  Kael stalked out slowly, and I followed. We reached the boulders and waited in silence. No owl flew down from the trees. Kael grumbled.

  “Can you, I don’t know, sniff it out or something?” I asked.

  Kael frowned. “I’m not a bloodhound.”

  I walked around the boulders, and Kael trekked around the perimeter near the trees. We met back up at the center, both clueless.

  I raised my voice. “Um, owl?”

  The shifter scoffed and leaned heavily against a boulder. My heart jumped.

  “Watch out,” I said.

  “Why?”

  “Just do it.” I shoved at him.

  He was too heavy for me to actually budge him, but he sighed and got out of the way.

  There, right where he was leaning, was moss in the shape of an owl.

  “It’s the owl,” I grinned, “it has to be.”

  I leaned down closer, and there at its center was a tiny rune. A whisper came to me on the wind, pulling me closer. The rune beckoned me to touch it, to utter foreign words from my tongue. I reached for it, but a hand grabbed my wrist.

  How did Kael’s fingers get so frigid if he never gets cold?

  I tilted my head to ask him what his problem was and found the mage. Fear rippled through me. I wasn’t ready to face him. Not yet.

  “I see you,” he said, words crackling like heat lightning. His lips turned up, his smile lanced through with cruelty and darkness. “You would do well to turn back now.” His hand constricted more, threatening to snap my wrist with the pressure.

  I gasped, and then Kael was standing there. I blinked several times. It had been a vision. Even without the key in my possession, the mage was still messing with me.

  Kael closed the distance between us. His hand squeezed my shoulder. “Hey, are you okay?”

  “Two things,” I said. The air seemed colder, a bone-marrow freezing chill clutching at me. “One, the mage knows we are here. And two.” I glanced at the mossy owl. “I don’t think he wants us going in there.”

  Chapter 19

  Time faded away with each rapid beat of my heart. How long until the mage tried to stop me? How long before our efforts were too late?

  Kael grabbed my shoulder. “How do you know the mage knows we are here?”

  “I saw him.”

  “When?”

  “Just now! He was right...” I gestured past Kael. “Well, right there.”

  “Either way, we need to hurry.” He took his hand off me and squinted at the moss-formed owl. “How do we get in?”

  I stared at the rune in the center. Once again, it seemed to whisper to me. I touched the rune, and the whispers pulled ancient words from my mouth. The owl and the surrounding rock crumbled beneath my fingertips.

  I gasped and stepped back as the last few stones rolled across the cool grass, revealing an open doorway. Inside, there was nothing but blackness.

  Kael edged closer to the doorway and peered inside.

  I stepped up beside him. “Well, what does your kitty sense say?”

  He turned to me with an amused smile. “Kitty sense?”

  “Yeah, does your inner jaguar smell anything?”

  “It smells…cold.” Kael rubbed at his nose. “Uncomfortably so, like if you take a deep breath when it’s below freezing out.”

  I took a sniff. I didn’t smell anything.

  Kael shuffled beside me and pulled off his clothes. Guess he was going to shift. How long would it take me to get used to him just shucking off his clothes?

  “Be careful in here,” he said.

  I didn’t glance at him, but I rolled my eyes. Careful. Clearly, he had a lot to learn about me.

  In the next moment, his jaguar form was standing beside me. This time, I did peer at him to find his yellow-gold eyes staring back.

  “Let’s go get that key,” I said.

  He nodded, and we entered the ruins side by side. It was fortunate we could walk next to each other. It would have been difficult for me to argue with a giant cat about who got to venture in first.

  My boots scuffed across gritty ground, and darkness enveloped us. I held up my hand and let the magic warming my veins twist around my fingers. The light of it dimly glowed on the surrounding rock walls, though not as brightly as it should, as if the cold stone was leeching the brightness away.

  A path of steps led downward. My footfalls echoed around us. Kael’s padded feet were silent as he walked beside me, and his ears twitched back and forth, as though listening for any danger.

  I stepped off the bottom and onto a flat floor with smooth stones. Behind us, a loud grinding noise shook the dark space.

  Kael growled, and I wheeled around. A massive stone door settled into the floor with a puff of dust, blocking us from the steps.

  I pushed uselessly at it, then noticed a keyhole. “Locked.”

  Kael stared at the door with lifted lips, his scrunched face revealing sharp teeth.

  “I think the only way out will be to find the relic,” I said.

  I put my back to the door and studied our surroundings. I hissed in a breath through my teeth. I hadn’t noticed the skeletons, at first. There were dozens of them, most yellowed with age, but some fresher. Apparently, we weren’t the only ones who had tried to find the key and become trapped down here.

  I never planned on becoming nothing more than a pile of dusty bones in a ruin, and I didn’t plan on starting, either.

  Carefully, so as not to tread on any bones, I stepped across the floor with Kael trailing me. The whispers started again, beckoning me forward, tempting my soul and pulling me across the stones. Where were they coming from?

  A snarl ripped through Kael. I pivoted to find the bones of the surrounding skeletons scraping across the rough stone. My startled cry bounced off the rock around us. The skeletons shifted as they stood upright, their thin and tattered clothes that draped across their frames drifting on a breeze that wasn’t there.

  Pale, mottled skin materialized and wrapped around their bones, stretching on their faces like wet paper as they opened their mouths and screamed.

  The animated bodies charged. Kael let out another snarl, pulling me from my shock. He leaped at one of the bodies, deadly claws out. A deep-rooted instinct took a hold of me, and I had no time to think of anything else to do other than to give in to the ancient urging.

  Magic tumbled from my fingertips and twisted forward to grab one of the bodies around the neck. I jerked my arm and flung the creature into the wall. It hit with a sickening crunch, and when it fell, bones rattled across the floor.

  A cold, rigid hand painfully grasped my shoulder. I whirled and sank my knife into the body’s chest to the hilt. I hadn’t even realized I’d reached for Chaucer. A scatter of bones fell at
my feet, the skull coming to a stop to peer at me with empty eyes.

  I caught a brief sight of Kael leaping from one pile of bones to sink his teeth into the neck of another assailant, but my view was soon blocked by a pair of new attackers. One of them had a knife of their own, the blade seeming to be made of hardened mist.

  I arched back as the weapon sliced through the air, narrowly missing my throat. Only quick footwork saved me from continuing backward. I shot forward another burst of the fuchsia energy. It hit the one with the knife in the head. As the head exploded and a bit of skull thwacked me in the face, my stomach twisted.

  Gross.

  The other body that hadn’t faltered lurched toward me. Sweeping out my leg, I sent it crashing to the floor. I kicked it in the side, and my foot sank into its ribcage with a disconcerting amount of give. I yanked my foot free of its side before dropping to my knees to stab it in the chest.

  My pulse hammered as Kael fought off a trio of the zombie-like attackers. His ears were flat against his head and his teeth were bared as he swiped out with his claws. He managed to catch one in the leg. When it fell, he wasted no time springing forward and ending its life. The other two rushed at him, and the shifter spun with a feral roar that ripped through the darkness.

  Kael’s terrible claws tore into one of the attackers, and the undead creature’s bones collapsed to the floor. The other one brandished a mist-forged sword. Only a quick curling of his body saved Kael from losing his head. He dodged another stroke of the sword and swiped out with a paw.

  He didn’t see the other attacker breaking from the shadows and rushing toward his back with a knife.

  “Look out!” My voice bounced from the walls as I ran.

  I was on the verge of releasing more magic to send the thing crashing into a pile of bones when hands grabbed me from behind. I shrieked as a pair of bodies clutched at me. With a sharp twist, I broke free of one of their grasps and shoved my hand against its chest. It erupted into a scatter of charred bones. The other body tightened its hold on me with cold, unforgiving fingers.

  “Get off!” I had no idea if the thing even understood words, or what made me think it would release me if it did.

  Across the room, Kael roared. Bones clattered to the ground, but I couldn’t see the shifter. I fought against my own attacker’s grip. As I made another twist to try to break free, he threw me. I hit the hard, stone ground with a grunt. My right elbow smacked sharply, and I nearly let go of my knife as pain reverberated down my arm.

  I gasped, and my stomach dipped. The floor beneath me tilted, as if it had been sitting on a massive hinge, and I skidded downward toward an edge that ended in darkness.

  Try as I might to grab a hold of anything to stop me, momentum was already in full force. The edge rushed to meet me. I tipped off the floor and then was jerked to a stop. I gasped, the strap of my bag digging into me. Below me, there was nothing but darkness. I turned my head to find Kael, the strap of my bag clenched tight in his teeth. He huffed, and his claws scraped on the slanted floor as he struggled to pull me upward.

  As soon as my arms reached the edge, I braced them on the floor and hauled myself up. In the tumble, my magic had left me, but I summoned it once again. My breath was shaky, and my heart raced as I peered down into the black space that could have been the end of me.

  “Thanks.”

  Kael sat beside me. His pattern of spots shifted as his sides heaved in and out. I glanced behind us, worried there would be more attackers, but there was only silence and shadows.

  Was that a test, or were they put there by the mage? The uncertainty made me more uneasy than the animated bodies.

  I squinted before us. There was nothing but the dark drop below us and a rock wall on the other side. It was too far for us to jump across, and there was no bridge. We couldn’t climb across on the sides, either; it was too sheer. Even if I had been able to find footholds, I doubted Kael could make it across as a jaguar.

  He sighed deeply beside me and tilted his head as if to say, “Now what?”

  “There has to be a way,” I muttered.

  I peered over the edge again. Whispers seemed to float up to me from the depths, calling, beckoning me to follow.

  My grip tightened on my knife. There was no other way…except down.

  “I think we have to drop off into the dark.”

  Kael got up and started to pace. He snarled and shook his head.

  I stuffed my knife into my pack. “It’s the only way. It has to be. We can’t go back and unless you can sprout wings, we can’t get across.”

  I scooted closer to the edge and swung my legs over.

  The shifter grabbed the back of my light jacket with his teeth and gave me a sharp tug as he growled. I tilted my head back. His eyes flashed angrily in the light of the magic caressing my fingers. Lightly, I reached back with my free hand and stroked the soft, spotted fur of his cheek.

  “Listen, you’re really pretty, but I don’t know you well enough to have your teeth on me yet.”

  Kael released me with a surprised huff, and I hurried to drop off the ledge.

  I was chased into the shadows by a frustrated snarl. My arms cartwheeled as cold air whistled past me. The freefall lasted a few heartbeats, then icy water surged over me. I kicked my legs until my face broke the surface; I heard a splash somewhere behind me.

  The current was strong and tugged at my limbs as it swept me farther into the dark. I let out a startled yell as I crashed into a rock. My face bounced off it, and then the water twisted me, pulling me downstream.

  I struggled to bring up my magic again as the current tried to suck me back under. Finally, I managed to grasp it just in time to see a wide bar of dirt and stone hugging the base of the massive rock wall. I kicked toward it with all my strength and heaved myself up with shaking arms. I rolled to my back and pulled in deep breaths as my muscles burned.

  The water splashed to my left, and I turned to find Kael shaking water from his fur like a dog. He hurried over to me and sniffed loudly all over me. He nudged at me incessantly, an almost whining sound humming in his throat.

  I pushed him away. “I’m fine.”

  He stuck his nose to my cheek, and his warm breath brought a stinging sensation. I reached up to find a cut, most likely from crashing into the rock.

  I shoved him away again. “It’s just a scratch.”

  Kael sat back on his haunches and growled.

  “We didn’t have a choice. We’re alive, aren’t we?” I didn’t know jaguars were capable of rolling their eyes.

  I climbed to my feet with a groan. A shiver rocked through me. It was freezing down here. I was going to die of hypothermia before we even reached the relic.

  I closed my eyes and took a few deep breaths. My magic swirled and hummed beneath my skin. I drew on it, and with the light around my fingers came warmth. It didn’t dry my clothes, but I was no longer shivering.

  Cool. I have a built-in heater, I thought with a smile.

  Kael gave another shake to dispel more water. His wet fur glistened in the light of my magic. Was he cold, too? At least he was in his jaguar form. His spotted coat would probably keep him warmer.

  I tipped my bag, and water poured out. I grimaced. How much of my stuff was ruined?

  “Well, now what?” I asked.

  Kael rolled his shoulders. I walked along the ground with my boots squelching. There had to be a way. The whispers had led me down here.

  I peered toward the water rushing by. Maybe we hadn’t ridden the current far enough. I shook my head. That didn’t seem right. The way was around here somewhere. I strode to the wall with Kael padding silently beside me.

  The cavern stretched into darkness on both sides. Wall in front and river in back. There had to be a way.

  A slight breeze kissed my cheek and brought a chill down my neck. I rubbed at the goosebumps, then froze.

  A breeze?

  I turned my face toward the cool sensation. There, at the base of the wal
l, was a dark opening I’d missed before.

  “Kael, over here.”

  I crouched by the opening. It was just big enough for us to squeeze through one at a time. I started to go first, but Kael shouldered me over. He growled and swiped at me with a clawed paw. His teeth shone in my small light.

  I sighed. “Fine. You go first if you’re going to be a grouch about it.”

  His lips lifted in a terrible grimace. What was his deal? I said he could go first. Then, with a laugh, I realized his grimace had been a smile. He turned and crouched low to crawl into the opening. I shifted by bag to my back, ready to follow him. His tail disappeared into the darkness.

  Just as I was about to crawl in, the opening slammed shut.

  Chapter 20

  Kael snarled from inside, the sound muffled as if he were far away.

  “No!” I pushed at the rock and dug my fingers around the base in an attempt to find a way to lift it back up.

  I found nothing.

  I stood and kicked the rock with a frustrated yell, instantly regretting it as pain shot up my foot. I leaned my head against the cool, gritty surface of the wall and rested my hands against it.

  Kael.

  The whispers found me in the darkness again, the pitches and rhythms of an ancient language like silk in my mind.

  Help, I said to the voices. Whoever you are, help.

  Warmth bloomed beneath my magic-wreathed hand. I leaned back and gasped. A rune glowed in the darkness. As I traced it with my finger, another rune sprang to life above it, then another, and another.

  I craned my neck. They went up and up into the darkness like a blazing trail, following a narrow path of jutting rocks, just wide enough for me to be able to climb up.

  A way out.

  I glanced down where the tunnel had been. What about Kael?

  I would be of no use to him here. If I could find a way up, maybe I could figure out a way to find him, too. Taking a deep breath, I took a hold of the first narrow bit of rock and began to climb. Thankfully, though the handholds and footholds were small, they were firm and didn’t crumble beneath my boots.