“There has to be some sort of power current marking the entrance,” I said as we walked. “We’ll probably feel it when we’re closer. Breaking through it will be the hardest part. Once we smash past her wards, she’ll be waiting and ready.” Tyler swung himself to the next outcropping of rocks and deftly started climbing. I grabbed on behind him and hoisted myself up. “I’ll go in first, as planned; you two bring up the rear. We separate once we’re inside and try to surround her as quickly as possible. The key will be to keep her mouth shut and her hands down. If she can’t speak, she can’t spell us.” Spells had to be physically uttered into the air. The words had to connect with the air to trigger the spell. A powerful goddess had only to whisper or mouth them, but they still had to have substance of some kind. And from our last meeting, I knew silencing Selene needed to be our top priority.
“I’m in, of course, but without the spells our odds diminish a bit,” Danny said, climbing behind me. “But I quite like the challenge. We can’t make it too easy on ourselves, right?”
Ever the optimist. “Tally’s spells were only going to provide a minor deterrent, if at all,” I said, latching on to another rock and pulling myself up easily. “They might have had zero effect on her. We can’t worry about it. With you guys in wolf form and me as a Lycan, we can take her down physically. If we hit her hard enough it will take her time to regenerate. Then we free Rourke and kill her if we can.” I had no idea how to kill a goddess who’d come back from being decapitated. We were going to have to sever all her limbs. Then what? Could she regenerate? I had no idea, but I was going to do everything I could to end her and her immortality permanently.
The climbing wasn’t hard; the problem was we weren’t sure if we were heading in the right direction. We’d kept to the right, which led us up a very steep, very high incline. When we came to a small rocky ledge high above the tree line, we stopped to reevaluate. I stared out, looking for any signs of life, but saw none. Tyler had told Ray to sit tight, which I’m sure had made him insane. I couldn’t see the butte he was on as I scanned the area around us, because we were climbing in a different direction, and it had led us away from it.
I angled my head to gaze up the mountain. We were about a thousand feet from the nearest peak. “What do you think Eamon meant about the entrance being camouflaged to look like something else? Are there any trees up there?” I asked. I scanned the scenery, but all I saw for miles were rocks. We were above any vegetation line. We’d been climbing for about an hour and Naomi still had not returned. The sky was brightening with the dawn. I hoped she was safe. “I can’t believe Eamon snatched Naomi,” I muttered. “He probably tried to take her home and I bet she’s putting up a hell of a fight right this minute.” I glanced at Tyler out of the corner of my eye. If he’d been about to die for someone else’s cause, I might have done the same thing. I gave Eamon a grudging appreciation for trying to keep his sister safe. Very grudging. “How are we supposed to find it without the vamps?”
Tyler scanned the horizon along with me. “We just have to keep looking.”
“Let’s do it as we move. The mountain splits into two directions about five hundred feet above us. Which way do you want to go?” I asked. The peak closest to us was higher than the peak on the right.
“Let’s stay right. It’s the only information Eamon has ever given us.” Tyler took a handhold and hoisted himself up. “Are you sure you can’t feel anything yet? Any energy or some other mysterious mojo? Selene’s power should be in abundance here. I don’t get it.”
Other than the feeling of dread, like we were taking too long, I didn’t feel any centered energy. “She’s probably masking it so it feels like something else.” I closed my eyes. I had no idea if I could project feelers out or not, but it was worth a try. Do you know how to do this? I asked my wolf. She lifted her snout and scented the air above her, tracing her head back and forth slowly. I copied her movements, pulling the air in over my tongue, tasting and sampling as I went. Can you taste or smell power? She yipped and stilled, cocking her head to the right. I sensed a strangeness. “I can taste something different. It’s not Selene, but the air is different over there,” I said, pointing along the rock face to the right. “I’m not sure if it’s power or something else, but it’s very faint. I also smell animals and the scents are mixing. Does anyone smell wild sheep or goat and something like that?”
Danny took in a deep breath. “I can scent them. They must be mountain goats of some kind. They smell ragged and dusty, but I don’t smell anything else.”
Tyler tilted his head upward. “I scent animals all the time, but I parcel them away without giving them any thought. Let me see.” He inhaled, nostrils flaring. His eyes sparked yellow for a moment, triggered by something that had caught his attention.
“What?” I asked. “What’d you find?” I took another breath in to see if I could figure it out myself.
“There’s something odd wrapped in the animal smell,” Tyler said. “Almost a warning of some kind.” He took more air in. “Decay.”
“I thought so too,” I said. “But I don’t understand all the animal markers. They mix for me.” I inhaled to full capacity and blew it slowly out my nose.
Tyler was right. Something was wrong with the goats.
I tasted it this time. Their earthy smell was mixed with something that shouldn’t be there, something sharp. “Can you see where they are?” I backed up on the tiny ledge, careful not to step off, and craned my neck upward.
“There they are.” Danny pointed. “Look there, to the right.”