“It lies on the outside.”
“Outside the circle?” I asked. Instead of answering, invisible hands guided me to the right. Lying just in front of the biggest stack of junk was a single curved sword stuck halfway into the floor. It looked as though it was rooted so deeply it ran through the thick marble floor into the earth below. “The sword must be grounding the electricity. That’s why we only feel a low hum of power in this room.” The massive flow of energy conducted by these relics was being fed into the ground through the saber.
I glanced around the room again.
The Reliquary was circular and the piles of relics were placed in a circle, albeit a haphazard one, and circles held power. I turned to Naomi. “This ward must have been started centuries ago, and to keep it fueled the Queen has tossed powerful things on it. If I can break it, it’s going to take everything I have.”
“Must hurry.”
“The situation grows dire.”
“Pull the saber and all will change.”
“I believe, now that we are here, it needs to be done, Ma Reine,” Naomi said. “We have happened upon this place to grant your father entrance, and when this is all over, we must be able to exit. Once this barrier comes down, I believe everything will change. And things must change. This marks the beginning.” Her voice was firm.
That sounded a little more ominous than I would’ve liked. “I know I have to do this, but whatever we do here will set the next events in motion. Are we sure this is the right choice?” That was the big, hairy question. I blew out a breath. It felt right to be here for so many reasons. I needed to talk to my team; my father was in danger; I’d made a deal with the spirits. My wolf growled. What do you think? She flashed an image of us pulling the sword out of the ground. How do you know? She snapped her jaw.
I had to trust her.
It was the only instinct I had to follow, and so far she’d been right about most things supernatural.
“I believe it is the correct choice, Ma Reine,” Naomi said.
Ghostly hands prodded me toward the Kilij. “I’m going,” I said. Once in front of it, I waved my hands above the pile. “There’s no current in the air above this stuff. I’m going to jump over it and try to free the saber from the other side.”
“Be careful,” Naomi said. “Do not touch anything but the sword.”
“Believe me, I won’t.” I took a small step back and leapt over the artifacts, landing cleanly on the other side. I walked over and lowered myself to the ground next to the Kilij, which was a beautifully curved saber with an exquisitely detailed handle. Once we grab on, all the juice is going to pump through us. We are going to need to ground ourselves so we don’t fry. She flashed a picture of us standing on the circle of relics right before I grabbed on to the saber. Perfect. Like a bird on a wire, but even if we do that, the current that rips through us is going to be massive. We have to brace ourselves. She flashed her teeth. Excuse me if you were born ready. I wasn’t. Some of us are still in the newborn stage and others have to be a bit more patient.
I tossed a look over my shoulder at Naomi. “If I fry, tell Rourke I’ll make my way back. Somehow.”
Ready? My wolf barked right as a massive amount of adrenaline raced through me, morphing me into my Lycan form. I lofted myself into the air, landing on the circle, my hands simultaneously clasping the hilt.
When my hands connected, I screamed “Mother Mary!” as pure white energy coursed through my body like I’d been hit by the biggest concentration of power in the world. My hands stung with it. The hilt was so hot it felt like my fingers were wrapped around a stove. We have to stay on the circle or we die. Electricity sped through me, rocking my brain, but thankfully flowed back into the relics as quickly as it raced through me.
I tried to wiggle the sword, but it was firmly locked into place. We have to shake it loose, disrupt the current somehow. I pulled ribbons of power together in my mind and sent them shooting into the saber as fast as I could. It’s too slow. We have to blast it to make it skip. I yanked my power back with effort and focused it into a bigger mass in my mind until I could see only a golden haze covering my eyes. Now! I yelled. My wolf bared her teeth as power exploded down through my arms and into the Kilij. Right as it hit, I pulled backward with everything I had, bracing my feet on the slippery circle. A screeching sound followed as the saber separated a few inches from the floor.
The ground beneath us rumbled and shook.
My arms vibrated like two tuning forks as I tried desperately to keep my grip on the sword. The force of the energy was threatening to disarm me. We have to hold tight! One more yank.