Page 165 of Memories Like Fangs
“Betty! Where did you go?” Leah snapped, her voice thin. “I told you not to run off. Didn’t I tell you that if you can’t see me, I can’t see you? You scared me!”
“I’m sorry, Leah! I-I didn’t mean to…” Betty said, her big eyes widening like her sister’s with guilt. She looked from her sister to her father to me with tearful eyes and a quivering bottom lip.
I felt a fissure form in my heart. I was no stranger to the different ways loss twisted your mind and life. I could see it wearing on Leah, fraying her nerves raw. I knew Rosso was being the best father he could be in the situation, which was pretty well considering few men would be able to step up to such an occasion, but Leah was holding tightly to anything and anyone she had left. That was both metaphorically and physically, as she held her mother’s remains close to her heart, like they would allow her to borrow some of her mom’s strength. I knew that feeling all too well.Find something you can control when death robs you of any agency.If I had a little sibling when I lost Mom, I wasn’t too sure I wouldn’t be acting the same way. I gave Leah’s shoulders another gentle squeeze. Leah closed her eyes, took a breath, sighed, and then reopened them.
“I forgive you, but you can’t do things like that, Betty.”
“I’m sorry, Leah.” Betty looked down for a moment. When she looked back up, she gave her sister the epitome of puppy-dog eyes. “But, I think I found the perfect place for Mommy. I really wanted to show Auntie Byrdie. Can I? Pretty please?”
I smiled softly. “You will need to ask your dad, Little Miss Adventurer Betty-Boop.”
She turned to her father, hope blooming on her face. “Daddy? Pretty please! Can we go? I promise to be good!”
Rosso blew out a breath that carried the weariness of an exhausted parent in need of a getaway that was nowhere in sight. “I shouldn’t let you go after the stunt you just pulled. But… If you promise to stay close to your Aunt Byrd and Leah?—”
Betty squealed before her father had finished giving her permission. She grabbed my hand and pulled with the strength of a young supernatural child who had no control yet. “Come on! You two know Mommy best! Let’s go!”
“Alright, alright! Slow down, speedster. You’re putting Sonic to shame right now,” I chuckled.
As she tugged us along with Clarkson getting the zoomies around our feet, I reached out to Quinn through our mating bond.Hey, Knightmaiden! We found Betty, so you can call off your rescue mission. She’s currently taking me and Leah to the “perfect” memorial spot. Meet me back at the enchantment in a bit?
Sure thing,mi vida,Quinn didn’t hesitate to respond, her warmth encircling me like a familiar blanket.That little rascal had me worried. I’m happy to hear she’s safe.
The four of us ventured further away from the others through the woods. We went down a narrow trail that seemed to wind under the enchantment. The deeper we went along the trail, the less sky we saw, the higher the branches stretched like skeletal fingers, the more it seemed it had been a while since anyone had walked this route, and the tighter Leah gripped my hand.
“Betty, where exactly is this place? How did you even find it?” Leah asked.
“It’s not too much farther! Clarkson and I found it today!” She answered innocently.
Despite feeling the trepidation rolling off Leah with each shiver, I thought nothing of Betty and her antics. Before I washer age, I had done plenty of exploration alone far from home in the forest in my backyard. It had led to many a reprimand from my mother to at least not go by myself. But the crystals waiting to be discovered and collected had been too tempting to resist.
The path narrowed abruptly, and the trees gave way to jagged rock and shadow. The mouth of a mountain cave yawned before us. Moss clung to the outer edges of the entrance like it had tried to keep the cave sealed shut, but someone had peeled it back to reveal its secrets. A glint of something past the wide and gaping entrance caught my eye, flickering with a beckoning pulse of light in the dark.
Just shy of reaching its threshold, I felt a shift in the air. The temperature didn’t change, but the atmosphere did. It thickened, slowed, and grew dense with…something. I could taste it, smell it, even see it like a wavering mirage over hot asphalt. There was something weird and different about this cave, but I couldn’t pinpoint what it was. It was enough to make my dragon stir. Her head lifted sharply inside my chest, her senses snapping to attention. She made my muscles coil with restless alertness. My scales ghosted across my skin in a cautious ripple, a warning I didn’t quite understand but couldn’t ignore. A hiss slipped through my teeth without my meaning to, startling the girls.
“Are you okay, Auntie?” Leah asked.
Strange energy. Older than us, Mom, Grandma, and even the enchantment. There’s something ahead, my dragon hissed, her forked tongue slipping from her fang-filled muzzle like she could taste and figure out what the sensation is. My tail slashed the air.
I nodded. “Let’s just be careful, yeah?”
I’m not liking what I sense there, Sweets. You okay?
I’m not a fan either. Stay close to me, okay.
Oh, I will stay as close to that sexy ass of yours as that thong you’re wearing.
When I missed a step, Leah arched a questioning eyebrow my way. I waved her off with an aggressive shake of my head. When she faced forward, I stopped biting down my blush.Your flirting is going to be the death of me, Quinn Garcia. Behave yourself.
Never, Sweetness.Her laughter danced through our bond, softening some of the edge I was feeling from whatever lay ahead of us.
As we stepped into the cave, it felt like it breathed sharply, sucking us in before we had time to reconsider. We stumbled forward, and suddenly, we were inside, swallowed by shadow, but we were far from being bathed in the dark.
The walls and ceiling of the cave gleamed with breathless, colorful starlight embedded in stone. Even the smooth and warm floor under my bare feet that seemed made to traverse without shoes was made of crystal. It was brighter than the world we had left behind, the crystals aglow from the inside out like mini-spotlights. These weren’t just any glittering rocks.
These weresapphires.
Towering columns, wide boulders, and full bushels jutted from the ground, ceiling, and walls in a neon cathedral of color of varying shades. Traditional ocean depths and pale soft sky blues. Emerald-inspired and deep forest green. Sunny yellows and oranges. Soft pearly whites. Clear glass. Vibrant pinks and violets. The only color missing was red, which made sense considering that would technically make them rubies instead of sapphires, according to my crystal nerdiness. Regardless, each stone flared with light from within, pulsing like a heartbeat. They became brighter with every soft step my bare feet took further into the cave. At first, I thought it was my imagination, but I could see the heart of each sapphire quicken its flickeringlight like it was… happy to see me. Like it recognized me. It reminded me so much of the quartzes in the cavern when I was thirteen. Except these were even more alive, radiating far more power than those were ever capable of. What made these so different, other than the kind of crystal they were?
