Ever My Merlin

chapter 9 – GODS OF WATER

I yelped in surprise.

A gush of water surged from the top of the falls and drenched us with buckets of bitterly cold water. The waterfall ebbed into a network of small trickles over the ledge, revealing a small concave curvature to the rock underneath. I gaped at the cleared expanse. I hadn’t seen it before because of the flowing water, but I knew this spot.

“This is it. This is the ledge that I saw in the vision.”

Matt nodded. He took out the cross from the bag and took a step into the falls.

I caught his hand. “Are you sure? What if the water starts coming down again?”

“That’s why I need to go quickly.” Disentangling his fingers from mine, he picked his way across the slippery ledge toward the center of the falls. In the sky, a few stars twinkled as the day sought its end. In a déjà vu scene from the vision, I watched Matt run his hand along the wall. He paused.

“There’s an engraving here,” he shouted past the roar of the water. “A horned deer under a tree. Rawana used a deer to lure the princess to him. The tree is the same size as the cross. I’m going to try it.”

The vision. I yelled, “Don’t, Matt!”

He did anyway.

“Trust me,” he said.

I didn’t. I gripped the stem of a plant growing in between the boulders. As soon as he put the cross against the rock, an opening showed in the rock and water burst forth. Matt scooted to the side instantly, which saved him from the geyser’s direct blast, but it still managed to catch him and he went flying backwards. I caught the rope around my middle and braced myself with the plant. Luckily, the plant held. Under me, Matt swung himself back toward the ledge and crawled back up.

The geyser slowed and finally stopped. Matt peered into the hole.

“What’s there?”

“A cave.” He tugged the rope to urge me forward.

I inched over onto the ledge. Matt slid into the hole. Above us, the waterfall started to gush once again.

He stuck his head out. “Hurry! I’ll catch you if you slip.”

No, I really didn’t want to hurry. I looked down the long expanse of the waterfall and briefly closed my eyes. Opening them, I ran down the slippery edge. Matt pulled me into the hole. A giant whoosh of water slammed down like a closing curtain behind me. My heart, running a hundred miles an hour, was all I could feel, and it took me a minute to catch my breath and realize Matt was holding me in his arms in the empty darkness.

“Do we have a light?” I said, my voice breathy. Hard thighs braced me, my back against the wet rock of the cave wall. I couldn’t see him, but I felt him move against me in the dark.

His lips grazed my ears. “Do we need one?”

I shivered and put my palm flat against his wet, lean chest. His subtle, woodsy scent mingled with the warm humidity of the cave. A trickle of cold liquid dripped on my head and down my back. On my left, a hiss sounded from somewhere down below us. Hard droplets of water shot up in a scattered burst as if we were standing next to a sprinkler.

I startled.

Matt’s arms tightened around my waist. “Don’t move.”

In the dark, I heard him fish around in his bag. A light flared on. I gasped and dug my fingernails into Matt’s shoulders. He held an orb in his hand. It showed the sheer edge of a drop-off directly to our right. A quiet stream ran along the cave’s edge and dropped deep into a black hole. Suddenly, the pressure of the water increased. Behind us, water gushed down cutting off the hole that led back outside.

I said, “It’s going to be tricky getting out of here.”

“Let’s see what’s in here first.” Matt let the orb go and it floated in the air. To our left stood a huge chamber. Attuned to Matt, the orb floated a few feet in front of him as he walked beside the stream and followed it further inside the cave.

The creepy cave didn’t worry me until I stepped on my first skeleton. Crunch.

The orb floated in front of us and I had to stop myself from gagging. Myriad skeletons lay scattered along the interior of the cave. Severed human body parts marked a path across the chamber. Matt knelt down and picked up a broken fragment of a femur. It fell apart in his hand. “These have been here a long time.”

“Yay, we’ll be its freshest victims,” I said with a shudder.

We didn’t see anything else until we hit the other side of the chamber. In the wall, ten human-sized heads were carved into the rock. At the center of the heads, on the fifth head, two long vertical stones on the sides and one slab across the top framed a doorway with closed red doors.

“Rawana’s ten heads,” Matt murmured. “Or ten heads for the four Vedas and six Upanishads, making up all knowledge of magic and celestial events.”

I took a breath. “The red doors are just like the ones on Aegae.”

“The frame is a trilithon. Two vertical sides and one on top like the ones in limbo. In Aegae, the top slab was triangular.” Matt pointed to a golden emblem on the doors in the shape of a lotus. The lotus had a circle with an eye inside.

My brow wrinkled. “Limbo had engravings of the trident—”

“And the crescent moon and the eye,” said Matt. “I think we can safely say that those were the symbols of the Earth-Shaker. These are different. Maybe another one the Guides.”

“It’s Rawana’s ten heads. Was he a Guide? That doesn’t bode well. Wasn’t he called the demon king?”

“By the winning side. In Lanka, he was a great king before he succumbed to his own lust for a married princess.”

Lust and politics. I’d heard that one before—every time I turned on the news, it seemed. Matt glanced at me as if he sympathized with the king.

I made a face. Still, had I made things worse between them? Or was I just the latest toy to be fought over by two spoiled children? When I’d been with Vane, I’d been afraid to ask the question. Now, I honestly wanted the answer. “Would you have kidnapped her?”

“No,” Matt answered. “Not if she’d chosen. Vane would.”

I didn’t doubt it. It’s why I liked him. I wondered what that said about me.

Matt read the response on my face. “He would have been wrong.”

“Someone has to take a risk.”

“While someone else pays the price,” Matt muttered.

“He knows the line.” At least, he used to.

Matt glowered. “His line is always further than where it should be.”

“Further than where you think it should be,” I muttered. Matt was like a stone pillar. He wouldn’t bend, not on this and I couldn’t understand it. Vane was his family. I would have done anything for mine. “He’s not perfect, Matt, but he’s —”

“I know what he is!” Matt exploded. “Can’t you see you’re just another one his line of conquests?”

I sucked in a hard breath. “Maybe I am, but why aren’t you? You’re his brother. You should love him.”

Matt didn’t answer. My hands shaking, I turned back to the doors. They were easier. The Guides were ancient beings/guardians/gods who’d been around since at least the Greeks, around 1200 BCE, even further back, if they were involved with Rawana. The question whether the mysterious Guides somehow caused Excalibur to drop into our lives once again remained unanswered. The Greek gods didn’t mind interfering in the affairs of mortals.

I touched the golden lotus. “If the Lady of the Lake was Rhea, mother of Zeus, Poseidon, and Hades, and the Earth-Shaker is Poseidon, could this be one of the other three?”

Matt visibly wrestled with some strong emotion, but when he replied, his voice was calm, “The eye points to the future or visions. The lotus means birth or renewal. I’m not sure what the circle means.”

Out of nowhere, a thought popped in my head. “The sun.”

Matt pondered the emblem. “Or the moon. In any case, like the bull emblem on the Aegean doors was a lock, the lotus must be one also.” He took out the cross from where he slipped it in the front pocket of his bag. “The circle looks to be the same size.”

He put it against the circle. Nothing happened.

“Now what?” I asked.

“Patience, sword-bearer.” Matt drew out the half-used vial of my blood.

“I’d feel better about this if I had Excalibur right now,” I muttered.

“I’d feel better if I had my magic,” Matt said.

I sighed. He poured my blood on the lock. Immediately, the doorway creaked open, revealing a tunnel, and the whole chamber shook. In a loud whoosh, a vacuum of air sucked us forward.

Matt caught the edge of the trilithon frame with one hand and caught me with the other. Past the doorway, in a burst of orange light, the whole tunnel exploded with fire. If we had stepped in, we’d have been barbequed. Rock from the ceiling fell like grenades in the chamber behind us. Retreat became impossible. Stray bits of shrapnel rock threatened to knock us into tunnel, the mouth of hell.

With a nod, Matt let me go as he tried to dig around in his bag with one hand. Another rock slammed into the ground beside the trilithon. A broken piece hurled itself at the bag, causing Matt to lose his grip. He managed to grab the all-important guidebook, but the rest of the bag flew into the tunnel and exploded. Fire decimated the magical vials in a nice rainbow of color. He cursed. “We can’t get through. We’ll have to go back.”

More rock fell from the ceiling and crashed to the ground. It crushed a human skeleton into smithereens. Apparently, Matt wanted me to die a virgin. I didn’t budge from the trilithon.

I shouted, “We’ll be pulverized.”

“What other choice do we have?”

Water pooled at my feet, almost urging me forward. I looked down. The stream disappeared into rocks under the trilithon. It was funneling into a miniscule opening that ran under the tunnel. Yet somehow, part of it now swam into the trilithon to submerge my feet. Like a snake, it slithered into the tunnel of fire. Steam sizzled where the water fell. I said slowly, “Didn’t the stories say something about Seetha going through fire?”

“After her rescue from Rawana, she had to prove her virtue to her prince by walking through fire.”

“How virtuous do you feel?” I asked him.

Matt drew the cross from his pocket. Holding it with one hand, he stuck his other hand out into the fire. His jacket started flaming. He stamped it out, using the cross.

He muttered, “Apparently, my virtue has been declared questionable.”

More water rose against my feet. It spilled relentlessly into the tunnel. “If my blood opened this door, this is the key past the tunnel. We have to prove we’re knights. We have to fully step inside.”

“All right, if that’s what you choose.”

I blinked at his sudden acquiescence. “So if we die here, Merlin, if we never save the world because of what I choose, you’ll be all right with that?”

“You were meant to be here, sword-bearer. You’ve gotten us this far.”

Yes, I had gotten us this far, and he had to pick a cave in the middle of nowhere in Sri Lanka, only minutes away from certain death, to tell me such things. Boys.

I held out my hand to Matt. He took it.

We stepped into the burning blaze. The flames tickled me like soft feathers, but didn’t burn. We passed through them quickly and came out into a smaller chamber. It took me a minute to absorb that we were still alive. I couldn’t help it—I giggled. “I was right.”

“I could do with a little less surprise in your tone,” Matt said dryly. He held the cross up in the air. The metal glowed a faint blue in the dark.

I looked back at the burning tunnel. “Do you think it was the cross?”

“I don’t know.”

Water bubbled loudly at our feet.

Matt drew another orb out of his jacket and tucked the cross inside. Sparkling with magic, the orb floated up high. Light shimmered on a small waterfall that fell from an opening in the rocks above. I could only assume the stream from the first chamber somehow wound its way to the top here. The water dead-ended into a small pond ahead of us. Three tunnels to its right invited us to explore. Matt sent the light into the first one. The orb illuminated a long tunnel.

Recognition flared through me at the familiar curvature of the rock. My chest contracted. I fought to breathe. Matt took my hand to steady me. A whistle of wind flew through the tunnel and I heard the Minotaur’s laugh echoing along with it. My fingernails dug into Matt’s palm. “This tunnel. I recognize it. It’s identical to the ones in Aegae. The Minotaur’s tunnels.”

“Good,” Matt said.

“G-good? Are you crazy?” He hadn’t seen the Minotaur’s massive form. My heart pounded at memory of the beast’s sculpted human body, its monstrous head and the tail of a horned bull, its eyes glowing green and as cold as the sea. It had chased me and I remembered my heart beating in the dark like a beacon calling to its hunger. I whispered, “Nothing about the Minotaur is good.”

Matt looked to me. “I mean it tells us we’re in the right place. Which way?”

I shut my eyes. My heart strummed with the anxiety of facing the monster in his home. I pictured it chasing me through the tunnels. Then, I was chasing it. I pictured the lust in its eyes when it looked up after I interrupted it while feeding on the broken body of an animal. I shivered as much from anxiety as a disturbing rush of desire. Vane.

A hot burst of musk-scented air, reminiscent of the monster’s breath, slithered across my nape. My eyes snapped open and I was safe. I said, “I don’t know.”

Matt pointed to the first tunnel. “Let’s try that one.”

Hours or minutes later, it became obvious we were going in circles. We retraced our steps and tried all the tunnels. They led here and there, but the main paths all wound back to the waterfall. There were no markings. No signs. We could wander around here for years and never find anything.

I sat down on a rock as Matt paced in front of the water. I watched him for several minutes before working up the courage to say, “We need to talk to Vane.”

Matt continued to pace. “I am not going to risk putting Avalon in his hands.”

He was driving me crazy. “Can’t you see that you both want the same things? Maybe in Avalon we can figure out what exactly we’re supposed to do… what we’re all supposed to do. Aren’t you a little worried about the whole end of the world thing?”

“Don’t be ridiculous. Of course, it’s why we’re here, but whatever we find out, we have to be careful. The information can’t get into the wrong hands.”

“Ugh. Are you never going to learn? We’re in this mess because of your pathological need to hoard knowledge. Face it—you’re no different than Vane. You want to be the powerful one. The hero. At least he’s upfront about it.”

“Is that what you think? Was I wrong to not want to unleash the tsunamis on this world? How many died in Chennai, Ryan?” Matt halted in front of me. “Because of Vane.”

“There are no easy choices, Merlin.” I took the Dragon’s Eye from my pocket.

Matt snatched it away and tucked it into his. “You’re right. No easy choices.”

I crossed my arms over my chest. “I’m getting a little tired of you ordering me around. I’m not going to die in here.” I kicked the dirt floor. “And I’m hungry.”

Matt bent down, his face brushing my thigh as he reached into my cargo pants pocket.

“What are you doing?”

He drew out the crumpled breakfast bar I’d rejected earlier. He sat down on the rock beside me and tore open the package, giving me half the bar. It tasted like soy mixed berry sawdust, but I demolished it in three bites.

I yawned. “What’s your plan, Merlin?”

“Do you think you can stop calling me Merlin?” he exploded.

I looked at him curiously. The orb bobbed above us.

Dim light slanted off lean cheekbones, a princely face. In the dark imaginings of the cave, I saw him riding by King Arthur’s side, the shadowy figure behind the warrior. The lion behind the crown. Despite the progress of fifteen hundred years, he hadn’t changed all that much. The wizards still gathered around him like he walked on water. They weren’t the only ones. Even my teachers at school had done so. I had done so.

What place in his life did Merlin have for a slightly messed up, mostly ordinary high school girl? That was the part I couldn’t see. Yet, something inside me reached for what lay underneath. Matt. The one he thought he saw, but still struggled against.

The waterfall rippled in front of me. I got up and moved closer to it. Matt followed me. Catching me, he turned me until I faced him. Two hands slid along either side of my jaw. I held my breath. Would he finally let go and just allow himself to just be? He turned up my chin and backed me up until we stood just outside the spray of the waterfall. Like the pitter-patter of soft rain, water kissed my skin. Matt leaned down to graze his lips along mine. The waterfall gushed forward, completely soaking me.

Matt stepped out of the way.

“What the hell, Matt?” I yelped.

Water ebbed and I stood dripping wet in the cave. I crossed my arms over my chest and hugged myself. I glared at Matt who remained completely dry.

“I knew it.” He pointed to the water. “It’s Vane.”

My heart thumping, I whipped around. I saw nothing but water. “You’ve been in here too long. You’re having delusions.”

Matt grabbed my elbow. “He has Poseidon’s powers, Ryan. He’s in the water. The Ella Falls must lead back to a river which attaches to the ocean.”

I yanked my elbow away from him. “Not surprising, since we are on an island.”

“I knew he’d react if I tried to kiss you.”

“You kissed me to needle Vane?”

“I—” Matt smiled sheepishly. “I’m sorry?”

I gave his back a hard shove. With a grunt, he fell into the pool. Sputtering, he flailed in the water. I smiled in triumph. “Still sorry?”

Matt sank into the water. After he didn’t come up for a few minutes, I moved closer to peer into the water.

Matt’s head popped back up. He was treading water. “It’s deep under here.”

I sighed. “A passage?”

“Let’s find out.” He dove underneath.

Muttering, “Crap,” I jumped in.

The orb shot into the water. I sank into the pool. I wasn’t a particularly strong swimmer, but a current, like a dorsal fin in the water, caught me and sped me through. Vane’s hand, I suspected. Inside a blanket of warmth, the current wrapped around me and sent me twirling and twisting until it spat me up and out at the other end. I landed gently in another rocky cavern, exhilarated by the wild whirlwind ride and disappointed that it was over. The orb floated up and out of the pool just before the water threw up Matt next to me.

He lay facedown on his stomach, vomiting water. “That b-bastard.”

I thumped his back and found it icy to the touch. I had to suppress a smile. Vane must have tortured him, it seemed. At the moment, I wasn’t feeling too sympathetic.

Matt grabbed my hand. Rolling over onto his back, he pulled me on top of him. Every inch of my body pressed against his. Thin, wet layers of clothing did nothing to hide that we fit together perfectly. He said huskily, “You’re warm.”

Behind us, the water grumbled. Matt’s eyes went to the pond.

I scrambled off him and sat down by his side. “I am not the pawn between the two of you.”

Matt sat up, shivering still. “All you have to do is pick a side.”

I stood up. “What if I don’t want to?”

“Then we may all lose,” he said quietly.

“Give me the Dragon’s Eye.”

“Why?”

“To get dry. Otherwise, you’re going to catch pneumonia down here.” I held out my hand and wiggled my fingers. “He already knows we’re here.”

“You don’t need to keep going to him to get rescued,” Matt ground out. He took out the handkerchief with the amulet. Instead of handing it over, though, he took my outstretched hand in his while holding the necklace himself. “Zusyati.”

Green magic floated over us. We were dry in seconds.

I arched a brow at Matt.

He shrugged. “This way, I don’t have to talk to him.”

Issues with a capital I. A sense of foreboding went through me. I had to stop this. I had to find a way to stop them from tearing each other apart and taking the rest of us with them. I asked, “Does this mean you can leech off him to do magic?”

“Yes and no. A drying spell takes very little energy. I can’t do anything big without his help.”

The orb zoomed ahead of me as I moved to step into the darkness. The cavern curved at the top, dotted with stalactites that pointed down at us like sharp fangs. At ground level, neat rows of stalagmites led up to another cliff. The orb danced out over the edge. Light shone down on a valley of nothing but rock, like a miniature Grand Canyon.

“There is nothing here!” I said.

“Are you sure?” Matt took the guidebook out of his pocket. He threw it down at the canyon. Instead of dropping like a stone, the book zigzagged in the air like a kite, descending slowly into the valley.

I stared up at it. “You want to go down?”

Matt went to the edge of the cliff. “These tests were given to the knights to prove themselves worthy. The first test was to prove virtue, and the second test was faith.”

I held up a hand. “I am not sky diving without a parachute.”

On cue, the pool erupted behind us. A gel-like snake of water rose up and flowed toward the edge of the cliff. Reaching us, the front piece of it shaped itself into a water-gel boat with outstretched wings. Below the boat’s prow, the figurehead of a horned deer took shape. Then, the whole gel structure solidified into ice.

“A reindeer pulling a sleigh,” I murmured. “Cute, Vane.”

Matt set a foot inside the ice-sled to test its sturdiness. It held. He scowled. “Apparently, your chariot awaits.”

“Don’t look so happy about it,” I said dryly. The snake-hand of water squiggled in the air. I gave in to its demand and walked along the edge of the cliff to the boat.

Matt jumped out of the boat. “Dealing with him always has a price, Ryan.”

Before I could do more than let out a squeak, he tackled me and sent us over the edge of the cliff. I screamed as I tumbled down a thousand invisible steps of compressed air. Each gust of air hit me with the force of a sledgehammer. Finally, I reached the bottom. The air stopped about fifteen feet up and I slammed into the rocks down below.

Luckily, I knew how to tuck and roll, but the jagged surface of the valley made it impossible to set down gently. Matt fell even less gracefully than I did, landing face-first on sharp rocks. He groaned and got up, looking mostly all right. I stood up with effort. Bruises tattooed my arms and judging by the way the rest of my body ached, I had no doubt there were more. I spat at him, “Are you crazy?”

“We didn’t need the sled.” He brushed blood off a small cut on his forehead and stalked off toward the hidden island. The orb bobbed happily after him.

No, apparently, we needed to eat dirt instead. I yelled at his back, “You better have a plan for us to get out of here.”

Nine stone columns held up the rock awning that covered the tiny island. The columns rose out of a moat, evenly spaced across the circumference of the island. We waded through the waist-high water of the moat onto black rock.

I knelt down to touch the odd-looking granite. “Matt, this stone is the same as the one that held Excalibur.”

“I’m not surprised.” He pointed to a column behind us. On the back of it, a figure of a woman in a toga was carved into the rock. Her arms, like branches of a stone tree, rose up and connected to the awning above. Water flowed out of her mouth and back into the moat. A sentinel, she guarded the island. Matt floated the orb around the island in front of the other columns. “They’re all women. Nine women. It has to be the Nine Morgans.”

“Nine Morgans?”

“In legend, Morgan Le Fay and her sisters guard the entrance to Avalon.” Matt floated the orb to the center. On a rectangular dais lay an enormous stone sarcophagus.

“This isn’t an island; it’s a tomb,” I whispered.

Matt walked over to the casket. I followed. An odd picture had been etched on the top of the stone coffin. In the rough shape of an umbrella, a stick-like body supported a curved line of the ten heads of Rawana. Matt took out the cross from his pocket and held it over the etching. A hiss of wind fluttered through the darkness. I stared down at the casket. “The body could be the stem of the cross and the center head the top.”

Matt tried to fit the cross on the center head, but the circles didn’t match. “I don’t understand. This should be the key.”

Another whisper of wind whistled past me, tickling my ears. An intangible memory, fuzzy and unclear in my mind, nagged at me. “There’s something really familiar about this—”

Behind me, Matt muttered, “Rawana held the nectar of immortality inside his navel. I wonder if that’s the answer.”

I whipped around just in time to see Matt press the cross vertically down the center head. “Wait, Matt. Don’t touch—”

The stone depressed into the slab and swallowed the cross. Matt looked at me smugly, “It worked.”

The island trembled. Around us, the stalagmites moved. Not in a good way. They started sinking into the water. The awning began to lower. We were going to get squished.

Matt cursed and jumped up on the casket, sliding over to me. “Run!”

We sprinted toward the edge of the island. We didn’t even get close to getting off the rock. A neat row of stalactites fell off the awning and straight down into the moat to form an impassable barrier. We were trapped inside the tightening jaws of death.

“Matt—”

“I’m on it.” He drew out the Dragon’s Eye and unwrapped the handkerchief around it. The sapphire amulet shone dully under the orb’s artificial light. Matt frowned. “I don’t sense any magic.”

Above us, the awning slipped another few inches. More stalactites fell down around us. Matt handed the amulet to me. I took it, but the gemstone had never felt so cold and dead.

“It’s not working,” I cried.

“The rock must be interfering somehow.” As if he couldn’t help it, he added snidely, “You won’t be able to run to him to be rescued for once.”

The remark broke the last thread of my already battered composure. In jerky movements, I stuffed the unresponsive amulet into the pocket of my pants and turned on him with a vengeance. “Have you completely lost your mind? I know you don’t trust him, but ever since you lost your power, you act as if you hate him. You say you care about me, but this whole trip, all you’ve done is to tell me over and over again how much I’ve screwed up. If you really cared, you could at least try to be forgiving. Being with you shouldn’t have to be so painful.” Out of nowhere, tears sprang to my eyes. Annoyed at myself, I rubbed them away. “I thought I knew you, but I’m coming to see that I don’t at all.”

Matt frowned, but without a hint of any remorse. “Ryan—”

“Forget it, Matt. If I’m going to die here, right now, I want to do it alone.” I stalked off across the rock. The amulet jangled heavily in my pocket. I drew it out. The gemstone winked dully. The quiet in the chaos, it sat without life. Vane couldn’t help me, yet I still undid the clasp and slipped on the silver chain. I didn’t really want to die alone.

A sense of calm filled me as soon as the red gemstone settled against my skin, just above the cleft that encased my heart. A spear of rock slammed down from above just in front of me. The impact knocked me backwards and I landed hard on my tailbone. The stone stalagmite lowered a few more inches. The stone face of the Morgan watched the destruction of the island impassively, but from this angle, I noticed a detail I previously missed.

Matt walked over. “Ryan, listen, please—”

I turned to him, pointing excitedly at the Morgan. “Matt, look at her face. She has pointed ears.” I touched my ears. Gia and I got pointed ears when we were temporarily transformed into mermaids.

Matt peered at her, then the next closest Morgan. “It looks like all of them are mermaids. In Greek, the nine water nymphs, the Muses, the daughters of Hesperides, guarded the isle of immortality.”

“Look at their mouths,” I said. The Morgans’ mouths all formed a small O. “They’re singing. Water nymphs used songs to lure men to their deaths. On the rooftop, I heard Leonidas. The mermaids’ power is in their singing. We need a mermaid to sing.”

My shoulders drooped. The Dragon’s Eye sat cold on my skin. There was no mermaid to help us. No Vane.

Suddenly Matt laughed and drew out a plastic vial from his jacket pocket. “We may not have a mermaid, but we do have wind. The sound of the wind will be enough. We only need the key, not real mermaid magic.”

I perked up. “What else do you have in there?”

“I keep trying to show you,” he said archly, throwing the vial into the air.

It exploded. A wild whirlwind screeched around the island, threatening to send me flying. Matt grabbed my hand and pulled me up close to him. Sober, amber eyes framed by thick lashes held my gaze. Warm fingers shoved back swirling hair from my face.

“Ryan—”

“Later,” I shouted.

Matt’s fingers tightened on me. “There may never be a later—”

More rocks crashed beside us. The wind picked up huge chunks that flew around like bouncy balls. I shouted, “We have to get to the casket. It’s our best bet.”

The rocks played a deadly game of “whack-a-mole” with us as we bobbed and weaved through them. Just as we reached the casket, a soulful aria filled the cavern. The Morgans sang a poignant melody. Despite my non-wizard status, I swayed in place as waves of magic washed over us. Beside me, Matt fell to his knees. I held myself upright by sheer will. Every bone inside me felt as if it were turning to liquid.

In a haze, I watched the ten heads swirl around in circles. Then, the depressed center head, the one Matt pushed, glowed with golden light. Rays spread over the circling heads, connecting them until they lit up, one-by-one. The Morgans’ aria pitched even higher. Matt passed out and fell forward on the ground.

I wanted to lean down to catch him, but couldn’t. Gravity seemed to have increased, making my whole body heavier. The sides of the casket rose up and pushed open the top of it. The stone kept rising until they reached past my head. It was the outline of a doorway—two vertical slabs with the lid of the casket balanced horizontally across the top. A trilithon, I realized. Golden light flashed inside the doorway. A portal opened.

I saw mist on the other side.

Then, the wind died down. The aria stopped.

I jerked forward, almost falling on my face as I suddenly became free once more.

I knelt down to Matt. The Morgans started sinking rapidly into the water. More rocks crashed around us. One sharp fragment fell straight down to split my skull. I jumped aside at the last moment, but it sank deep into my shoulder. The awning started to slip-slide down. I had to get out before Matt and I became little more than pancakes. With a cry, I tore the wretched piece out of my shoulder. Blood seeped down my chest. I hooked my hands under Matt’s armpits. My shoulder burning with pain, I heaved his shoulders off the ground. Somehow, I dragged him into the mist.