Page 94 of Charming Her Monsters

“I’m happy for all of us,” Flint says. “But first we need to ensure our mate is alright.”

“True.” I pull Flint’s massive arm over my shoulder and help him walk through the front door and to the bunker’s access door. After chanting to disable the first warded spell, I continue to help Flint down the wide stairwell. “I should tell you… Osen’s body is down there.”

“What?” Flint is downright frantic. He now knows what he’s accidentally done to Calder. “Why did you keep his body instead of securing him in the ice caves until we could arrange a funeral?”

“I… I don’t know. Well, you’ll see. Something odd is going on.”

“We aren’t supposed to keep secrets. Look what it did for Osen,” Arran reprimands.

“I know.” Then I stop moving with the sight just ahead. “Dammit.”

The tunnel has collapsed. My heart beats wildly, imagining Calder and Jade never even making it down to the room. What if this crushed them? What if they are underneath all this rubble?

Flint urges me forward, and I panic because I had added extra wards to the bunker to not allow portaling in and out of it. I remind myself that might also be why we can’t sense Calder and Jade.

Calder would have a nightmare of a time if he died under the weight of the rocks. If we couldn’t dig him out, he would keep dying over and over until his magic was exhausted. Then he would finally experience his last death.

Part of him wants to go. I know this. He hasn’t been the same since he came back from his past rebirth. But I will not let him leave us so easily. And I will not allow him to suffer an ongoing death like that.

If they are under this mountainous weight of debris, I also need to get Jade’s broken body out.

I won’t be the same if she is lost.

Arran appears strangely unaffected. Has he finally shut down emotionally?

“I don’t think she’s under all that. My wolf says he still feels she’s alive.”

The pessimist in me, who has seen centuries more devastation than the wolf shifter, doesn’t argue that maybe she isn’t deadyet, but she may still be dying.

At the blockage, Flint falls to his knees since his injured leg barely works and tosses huge pieces of rock behind us.

“Wait, we don’t know if they are under this.” I grab the current small boulder from his hands and set it down. “We should check the bunker first. I should be able to portal just outside of the room, if it’s clear on the other side.”

We move back. I open a portal and sigh with relief when I see the bunker door. First challenge down. Now, to see if they made it safely inside. Then to see what condition they both are in.

I leave the portal open, since we may have to retrace our steps if our people aren’t in here.

Chanting my unlocking spell, I crack open the door and hear Calder cursing.

Not good.

The door slams back shut, and I try to push it open again.

“Maxum?” Calder asks and then releases his hold after peeking around the door and seeing my face.

Flint and Arran storm inside after me. We all stand in shock at the sight.

Jade is lit up like a candle, her aura so bright she looks to be on fire. Her eyes appear unseeing, although they are cast toward Osen’s glass casket. As if seeing him this way has triggered her, but she is no longer herself.

“Jade?” Arran calls, stepping closer.

“Don’t,” Calder warns.

“Why not?” Arran snaps.

“Because you’ll get zapped,” Calder says, rubbing his hand. “Her magic finally manifested when she saw Osen. Not sure what the fuck sort of magic this is.”

I can’t make horns or tails of the kind she has either.

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