Page 23 of What Lies Within Blood & Heirs

“Yes.” Garrik broke his silence, crossed his arms, and shakily pushed from the door.

Okay. Maybe it was a foolish idea…

“But Brennus may be jealous enough for this to work.” Alora whirled as he continued, “This dagger must be whole in order to do what Destiny has fated. Until then, we devise a plan to plant it in our enemy’s hand to kill Magnelis. Kerimkhar spoke of Blood’s location. We will find her where four seasons plague one mountain.”

He walked to the map of Elysian and waved his hands across it. Smokeshadows gathered along the continents and seas, then tendriled away to a new view. A map of caves and tunnels inside a mountain.

Garrik turned to Thalon. “Fourtress. The missing stone is there. I will go alone. I need you to bring word to Zanayr and Nalani of their grandmother’s fate and settle them in camp.”

But it was Aiden who answered, laughing, “Oh,you.” He shook his finger at Garrik. “As devilishly handsome as you are, that is a big mountain full of rotting holes to fall into and loads of faerie-eating tunnels to get lost in.”

Jade agreed, “As much as it pains me to say this, he’s right.” Her face was a stone wall as she stalked to the map and studied it. Finger indenting the parchment, Jade traced a tunnel system before her gravelly voice rasped, “This tunnel alone has nineteen breakaways. Any one of them could have you trapped. I know tunnels. I know how to find which paths to take when others would be hopelessly lost. Thalon can portal us out if we run into trouble and Aiden…” She frowned, then added, “Well, we don’t need Aiden.”

“I take offense to that,” Aiden stated dryly.

“You were meant to.” Jade crossed her arms and grinned.

Thalon stood upright and crossed the distance between the table and wall, shooting them a withering look before speaking. “Not to mention the thousands who have gone inside and never returned.”

Eldacar’s sheepish eyes widened as he rubbed his curly red hair, speaking softly, “Or the extreme heat of summer or the damning chill of winter.”

Garrik’s eyes darkened to swirls of ink. Smokeshadows danced at his hands when he made to speak, but it was Alora who broke the roaring silence over the crash of the sea.

“Plus, I have … starfire”—still not used to the word, it felt foreign on her tongue—“and there is no way I’m letting any of you down there without me. Even if all I can do is light the way.” She stepped forward, standing shoulder to shoulder between Thalon and her High Prince.

“I’m with them.” Their Guardian’s stern voice was low. “We do this together.” There was little room for argument. Thalon extended his tattooed hand toward Garrik’s shoulder and hesitated. Garrik nodded and Thalon clapped his palm down. “Together, brother.”

A muscle flexed in Garrik’s sickly green cheek. And much to their surprise, he conceded, “Alright,” and turned from the map. “Thalon, Alora. Go to Alynthia and escort our new Mystics to camp. Jade and Aiden will make preparations with the map. Eldacar, see if you can find additional information in any of Aiden’s texts on the stones and Soulstryker. See if there is any way to manipulate Blood and offer a different payment. I will return soon.”

“And where are you going?” Thalon asked.

But Garrik said nothing as he turned and walked from Aiden’s bedroom. Only a trail of Smokeshadows danced behind as his footsteps on the wooden floorboards drifted away.

Alora paced Aiden’s bedchamber with an air of amazement, listening to the scratch of year-weathered pages turning.

Now, surrounded by the woodsy, smoke aroma of the cabin and brisk scent of the sea, Alora’s fingers traced along shelves of weaponry and objects, wholly mesmerized.

When she had turned to the door, an array of items filled the shelves to either side. Alora had found herself drawn to them, walking forward to inspect the dusty shelves until footsteps behind her caused her to pull away from a glowing bottle of lilac and night-dark swirling liquid.

“Be careful with that one, love,” Aiden warned. “One drop and you’ll be sleeping until this day a year from now.” Smiling, he lifted the glass, rotating it. Forcing the liquid to combine and shimmer in a dark amethyst glow.

Alora hummed and pointed to another object. “What about that one?”

They turned to a short menacing blade. Its iron serrated as if dancing flames had been captured, perfectly frozen in time.

“Shadowsblade,” he drawled. “Find a creature or faerie and shove this into their shadow—let’s say, Thalon’s. Stab it with this. It’ll rip it away and control it against him to take you to any place he has been—or even have his shadow fight him in battle. Really quite something.”

Some sort of faeling excitement rippled through her. Alora scanned the shelves, asking, “Are all of these magic?”

Aiden bounced on his heels, unable to remain still. “Oh, yes.”

“Where did you get them all?”

“I have some very … special skills in item procurement. Elysian is full of many wonders, and I like to call myself a collector.” He winked and picked up a small golden compass pulsating with a bright red glow and two dials under the glass face. “Now this is a favorite of mine. The Compass of Beginnings. One arrow points toward the magnetic north, but the other…” He twisted the compass in his hand, watching the magnetic north dial spin slowly.

Aiden pulled open an empty compartment, continuing, “Fill this with something as simple as sand and this dial will point to its origin. A scrap of clothing belonging to someone, a piece ofcheese, a drop of water. It’ll find its path back. And if you have that map”—gesturing to the one on the wall—“place the compass to it and it can charter the way.”

Alora smiled as she offered her palm.

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