by E. M. Moore
“I don’t understand it,” Shane said as we all watched in terror. “I didn’t trigger anything. I know what that symbol means.”
I looked ahead. On the beam was the infinity sign, now with red lava in the crevices.
Our sign.
Why had our sign tried to take out one of my mates?
I swallowed as realization dawned. A Morphling was supposed to get the stone. Shane himself said this place was filled with magic. Maybe it could tell it wasn’t a Morphling about to pass.
With a sigh, I explained everything I’d just thought in my head out loud.
“No,” Riah growled. “You’re sure as fuck not going to be the first person to lead us through the fucking lava-filled beam maze.”
I wasn’t happy about it either. “It might be the only way,” I told him softly. “Besides, Shane’s here. He can see the symbols and tell me which beams to take.”
Mekhi ran a hand through his hair. “Well, that’s all well and good except for how are you going to get in the lead now, Anika?” he asked, gesturing toward he and Shane.
“Very carefully?”
He shot me a look and I shrugged. What did he want me to say? That we should go back and try again? No, we were already halfway through the room and we weren’t turning back now.
“It’ll be fine,” I said out loud even though my stomach curdled so much I was still afraid I was going to be sick. Holding my hands outright, I walked to the next crossbeam. The lava bubbled and spurted at my feet, but I tried not to focus on it.
I took the next beam that would lead me to Shane and Mekhi who still stood right next to one another. Riah was right behind me. When all four of us were as close to one another as we could get without sending the other sprawling into the lava, I rubbed my head, trying to figure out a way that I could get past them.
Shane pointed to the two intersecting beams. “Those symbols mean death. We can’t step on either one of those.”
Awesome.
Okay. That may have made things a little harder. “What if you crouch down, Mekhi? Then I can step on your back while Shane helps me over. Then I can do the same to him?”
Mekhi’s lips twisted. “It’s the only way that makes sense. We can’t both occupy the same place on the beam at the same time unless you’re stepping on me. It’s too risky for you to move around us, so you’ll have to move on top of us.”
I held back a snicker. Apparently my mind got really dirty when we were in high stress situations. I wished we were back in Mekhi’s bed.
Mekhi met my gaze. “I know,” he said.
I nodded, then shook my head so I could concentrate on what was right in front of me. One slip up would mean not only my death, but possibly one of my mates’ too. I knew they would do anything to keep me from falling into the lava, including sacrificing themselves.
Mekhi took a deep breath. He bent over, clasping the beam with his hands. He hissed, the sound snake-like.
“What is it?”
“The beam’s hot.”
“I’ll be quick,” I promised.
“No,” he said, looking up and meeting my gaze. “Take your time. I can handle it.”
He crouched down, one knee on the beam, hissing again when it made contact. He leveled out his back as much as he could and then nodded.
I tiptoed forward. Riah grabbed my hand and squeezed. I squeezed back, then stepped right up next to Mekhi. Shane held his hand out from the other side and I reached out to take it. “I’m sorry,” I whispered to Mekhi as I took my first step on his back.
He groaned as I pulled myself up. I imagined it was because the bottom of my shoes were on fire, the same as the beam.
I ground my teeth together, taking tiny steps until across his back to his shoulder blades until Shane had both my hands and I was stepping down.
“She’s over,” Shane said. He pulled me close, kissing the top of my head as Mekhi stood. I looked back just in time to see the singed holes I’d put in his shirt.
“Oh my God, Mekhi.”
“It’s okay,” he said. “Let’s just get this moonstone and get out of here. Making sure Mother Panther doesn’t wake up is far more important than blistered skin.” He looked up to meet my eyes. “Trust me. I’ve heard the stories. Her punishments are much worse than this.”
I took in a deep breath and nodded.
“Okay,” Shane said. He squeezed my hand and then knelt down on the beam the same as Mekhi had done. This one was going to be a little trickier because I didn’t have anyone on the other end to help me off.
“You can do it,” Mekhi said as I hesitated.
He grabbed my hand and I took the first step on to Shane’s back. His jaw twitched, but he held back anything vocal. His back barely moved as I made my way across him as if he didn’t even dare take a breath.
I inched closer to his shoulders then slowed down. It was time I let go of Mekhi’s hand and continued on my own.
“Careful,” Mekhi said, as he released my hand.
Swallowing, I held my hands out to the side. Normally people would advise not to look down, but I had to. From here, the lava looked angry. It bubbled a crimson red. Every once in a while, flames would shoot out. Falling into that mess would be painful as hell.
Don’t think like that, I admonished myself. It was just a few steps. I could do that.
I was about to step off when I felt my forward momentum start to pull me fast. I couldn’t do that. I wouldn’t be able to keep my balance.
I gasped and then dropped my center of gravity. I clasped Shane’s shoulders. He stiffened. “You okay?” he gritted out.
“Yes, sorry. I just thought I was going to fall there for a second.”
“So did the rest of us,” Riah deadpanned.
Ignoring him, I whispered to Shane, “I’m sorry about this.” I pulled one leg through my hands and felt for the beam below. Once my foot was placed securely on it, I carefully took my right hand off Shane’s shoulder.
Wobbling, I waited until I got my balance again and then carefully pulled my other foot off Shane until both feet were firmly on the beam in front of him.
“Holy shit,” Mekhi said. “Let’s not do that again, okay?”
“I’m with the serpent,” Riah said.
I turned back to find Shane still kneeling down. I put my hand on his head, then pulled my fingers through his hair. He looked up slowly. “Are you okay?”
I nodded. “I’m fine. It’s your turn to stand now.”
He took a deep breath and stood. There were holes in his pants from kneeling down on the beam. When we got out of this, we were going to have to see to their wounds. Burns could get infected and we didn’t want that.
Shane stepped up to me and put his hands on my shoulders. “Okay,” he breathed, his hot breath tingling my ear. “We’ll hold back while you try to cross the beam I couldn’t.”
“Got it,” I said, putting on my game face. It wasn’t just about getting the moonstone now, it was about getting out of here with all of my mates--and myself--in one piece.
I stepped out of Shane’s reach and shuffled forward.
“You just go,” Mekhi said. “Concentrate on the next step. We’ll look out for the angry lava wave.”
Angry lava wave was right.
I did as he said, concentrating on putting one step in front of the other while I cross the beam. I was one step away from hitting the next crossbeam and still no wave, so I was pretty sure I was home free.
“Excellent,” Shane said as soon as I was at the crosspiece intersection. “Turn right.”
I did as he said. More comfortable now, I was halfway across the beam when another shout rose up. “Come back,” Mekhi screamed.
I twisted and saw that the wave had rose up again, aiming directly for Shane. His gaze widened as he looked at it. Turning on his heel, he faltered. His hands flailed wildly as he tried to catch his balance. Everything happened so quickly, I could barely see what happened. At one moment, Shane was careening toward
the bubbling hot lava, and in the next, a beautiful owl flew through the air, its wings outstretched as it glided.
“Jesus, Shane. You scared the shit out of me.”
The owl made a low noise as I tried to get my heart back under control.
“Bad news, Morphling. I think this is as far as Mekhi and I go,” Riah said.
I rubbed my forehead, but made quick work of the next beam until I was again at a cross section.
“Be careful,” Mekhi said.
“Just head back to the other room,” I called back to them. “Wait there. There’s no sense in you staying near the lava.”
Neither of them moved. They both sent hard glances back my way. I swallowed, wishing I could be next to them to ease their fears. “I’ll be fine. Shane’s with me,” I told them.
“You can’t talk to him in his owl form,” Mekhi said, practically growling.
“We’ll manage. Just head back, please. I don’t want to be worrying about you guys while I’m trying to do this. If another rogue lava wave comes up, neither of you can change into birds to fly away.”
That seemed to do the trick. As soon as they were turned around and headed back to the disappearing floor room, I turned and looked for Shane. His beautiful owl form came into view. He swooped down low over one of the beams.
I pointed to it. “This one?”
He blinked and cawed.
“I’ll take that as a yes.”
I moved across it. We were either just one beam away or a few depending on the next direction Shane sent me in.
He swooped down over the beam to my left and I refrained from rolling my eyes. Of course it couldn’t just be the straight shot toward the rock.
He cawed again and I took that as encouragement. I stepped onto it, gliding easily over it. Then, Shane motioned over the beam that would take me to the stable surface. I walked across that beam quickly, thinking if I had to, I could just jump for it at this point.
Shane swung down low and on instinct, I immediately put my arm out. He landed on my forearm, his claws sinking into my skin for support.
“Do you think you can shift back into your human form?”
He twisted his head from side to side. I was pretty sure he would say that. We didn’t want to take the risk of something else happening.
I pulled in a breath and held it in my chest as I got the courage to ascend the short set of steps in front of me that narrowed into a small cave.
Who knew what would lie beyond there? I looked over my shoulder, hoping to get a glance of Mekhi and Riah again, but they were already out of view.
Shane leaned down and nuzzled my cheek. His beak was hard, but his feathers were as soft as down pillows.
“Alright,” I said, gathering up my courage. “Let’s do this.”
Chapter Twenty-Two
I was really starting to get good at this inner pep talk stuff. All I kept repeating was you got this and Come on, Anika. The cave I was in was so narrow I could touch both walls just by outstretching my arms.
I never thought I would be claustrophobic, but I so was. It was awful. I kept a lookout for symbols on the floor just in case. I didn’t want to be shot through with arrows today or melted by lava.
I finally got close enough to the end where I could see there was a wall instead of an entrance to another cavern.
“What the fuck? Do you see a way past the wall?” I asked Shane as I continued closer to the end, trying not to panic about the fact that this was looking more and more like a dead end.
Shane took off, examining what was left of the small tunnel which wasn’t very much. I would be to the wall in about twenty steps. I was close enough I could see a strange symbol taking up the entire wall.
“What does that mean?” Pointing at it so he knew what I was talking about. He started screeching loudly and flew back toward me. Uh oh. I had a feeling what was about to happen was not going to be good.
I was about six steps away when I heard a clicking noise. I screamed as the floor fell out from under me. My butt hit the bottom and continued to slide. I had no clue if Shane had been able to follow me down. All I knew was I was quickly approaching the floor and the impact was going to hurt.
I attempted to brace myself right before I hit the floor. It didn’t work. Pain radiated up my legs and arms as I rolled across the golden floor of yet another room in the temple.
I had to take a second to catch my breath. I hoped Shane would find me as I attempted to calm my racing heartbeat. Looked like I was shit out of luck though, because I pulled myself up into the sitting position and there was still no Shane.
“Shane!” I yelled into the utter silence hearing my voice echo all throughout the temple. Looking down, I could see blood speckles on my skin through my ripped jeans.
Shit, I shouldn't have yelled. I hoped the guys didn’t hear it and think something had happened to me. Standing up, I got a good look around the room I was in.
Once again, the room was completed with gold walls and floors. The floors in this room were set up much like the one of the room we had first come in. The only difference this time was that I was utterly alone.
I tried to remember exactly what the death symbols looked like and unfortunately I was drawing a blank. What the hell was wrong with me? This was a serious life or death situation and I couldn’t remember the damn symbol.
“Fuck!” I growled out. Irritated with myself for not paying more attention. Fuck it, I couldn't just stand here. I had to do something and the only way to go now was forward. I highly doubted I could climb my happy ass back up the slide to the trap door I had fallen down.
I took a deep breath and stepped forward. One tile after another until I made it to the middle of the room. I could see another alter, but on this one the only symbol was the infinity sign. That had to be where the moonstone was.
Now I just had to keep stepping on the tiles I’d already stepped on and it would be smooth sailing. Or so I thought until I took another step and heard the clicking. Panicking, I did the only logical thing I could think of. I ran as fast as I could to get to the chest.
I got there just as two giant axes fell from the ceiling swinging in opposite directions of one another. My stomach churned at the thought that if I had tried ducking like I had earlier, I would have ended up in multiple pieces.
After a few minutes of waiting to see if anything else would happen, I pulled myself up using the side of the altar. The chest on top was beautiful. Pure gold with the infinity sign etched into the top.
I searched the whole thing for a latch to open it but I didn’t see anything but spots for two hands to go. I didn’t want to get pricked again, but I had come too far to turn back now. I looked once more for another spot that would open it and came up blank once again.
Stealing my nerves, I placed my hands on the chest before I felt the sharp pain from the pricks. I jerked my hands back as I heard a hiss from the chest opening. revealing a crescent shaped purple stone surrounded by red velvet.
I swallowed. This was what we had been searching for. It was beautiful and I was terrified to touch it. I just couldn’t shake the feeling that my life, even though it had already changed, was never going to be anything near normal.
I had to grab it though so I stuck my hand in the chest and laid it on the crescent moonstone. I almost jerked my hand back when I touched it and felt it vibrating, but I didn’t. I slowly pulled it out of the chest.
My heart started to pound as I heard more clicks echoing through the room. I jerked my head in every direction before I noticed there was a door opening in front of me where the wall used to be.
Damn it. I was so over these tunnels. I just wanted to go find my men now and make sure they were okay.
I stuck the Moonstone in my pocket. It was a little unnerving that I could feel it vibrating with power against my leg. I walked around the altar and through the door. Startled by more clicking, I turned around just in time to see the door behind me slam closed.
That couldn’t be good. I couldn’t think about it though. If I did, I would send myself straight into a panic attack. I was fuck knows how far underground and alone. Neither of those things made me think warm and fuzzy thoughts.
I continued down the tunnel stopping as it forked off. There were now two tunnels I could take. Great. This was just great. How was I going to choose which one I was supposed to go down? There were no symbols to be seen, so that didn’t help even in the slightest.
I decided to go with the one on the left after lots of debate and a quick game of eenie meenie miny moe. I probably should have put in more effort, but really there was no way to know which was the right one.
I walked further into the tunnel as it started to slope upwards. Not straight up, but enough that after a few minutes of walking my calves and thighs were on fire.
I didn’t see any other symbols anywhere as I trekked up to the top. I didn’t think I was ever going to make it to another cavern until I saw a wall once again cutting through the tunnel.
Shit. I had just walked all there was. I did not want to go down another slide. It wasn’t fun the first time and I highly doubted it would be fun this time.
I started to touch the floor with my tiptoes before I took a step anywhere in hopes that if for some reason there was another trap door, I wouldn’t fall through it. This unfortunately made the short walk to the wall twice as long.
Luckily, I had come across no trapdoors as I finally reached the wall, but I seriously had no idea how to open the damn thing. I just wanted to get out of here and find Mother Panther, shove this damn stone on her head and be done with this.
I still had this lingering feeling that something was wrong. I had to hope it was my mind playing tricks on me. I really wanted this to be over sooner rather than later.
I ran my hands all over the wall until I felt a indention that was crescent shaped. Pulling the Moonstone out of my pocket, I pushed it into the spot. The wall moved slowly, opening up back into the room I had started in.
I grabbed the moonstone out and looked around for my men. Shoving it back in my pocket, I moved further into the room. Still not seeing them anywhere, I started to panic. Where could they have gone? They were supposed to have come back here and wait for me.