Great. “Let’s go then.”
Only one tunnel led away from the water, so we followed it. I hurried ahead, holding my lightstone aloft and moving as quickly as the uneven ground would let me. My belly churned at the idea that someone else might have the scroll.
Fortunately, the tunnel was narrow and short, opening up to an enormous cavern.
“Whoa.” I tilted my head back to take it in. “It’s like the Super Dome.”
“With obstacles,” Aidan said. He’d walked ahead of me and created a ball of flame that he’d sent high into the air to illuminate what my light could not.
I joined him.
The ground dropped away in front of us. “Oh, crap.”
An enormous pit stretched out ahead, piles of stone dotting it all the way to the other side, where it rose up to a cliff that was the same level as ours. The eerie orange light of Aidan’s flame set the rocks aglow.
“I’ve seen this before,” I said. “In Myanmar. The piles of rock down there used to be towers. You jump across them, but if you don’t know the pattern, they collapse.” I squinted down into the pit. “I don’t see any bodies. Maybe they were demons. Or they made it across.” I hoped they hadn’t.
Aidan rubbed a hand over his chin. “I’ll take us across.”
“You? As in, griffon you? I thought shifters didn’t like carrying people.”
“Normally, we don’t.” His gaze met mine. “But you’re an exception.”
There was something in his gaze that made me nervous. In a good way. More anticipation than nerves.
It was heat, I realized.
And I liked it.
I swallowed hard, then glanced down at the pit. It was a bad idea to ride on Aidan’s back. I knew it was. It wasn’t like I had a thing for griffons or anything. That’d be way weird. But I was starting to accept that I had a thing for Aidan.
It wasn’t the physical part of riding a shifter that was intimate. It was the connection. They were willingly letting you into their magic sphere. It was intangible, but you got to know them better. Like a window into their magic and their mind.
But we didn’t have time to climb down. We had to reach whoever was ahead of us before they got the scroll.
“Unless you want to use your gifts and shift with me?” he asked.
Oh, crap. If I did that, I’d probably turn into the biggest, most powerful griffon ever. Then fall out of the air because I couldn’t use my wings.
Not good.
“I’m too weak to shift. I can mirror other magic, but not shifting.” At least it was true that shifting was harder. I’d tried to turn into a house cat once. It hadn’t been pretty.
I pasted a smile onto my face. “I’ll take you up on that ride. We need to catch up to whoever is here.”
His dark gaze snared mine. I forced myself not to look away.
“I don’t think I believe you,” he said. “But that’s for another day.”
I tried to control the shuddery breath of nervous relief that escaped me. “Okay, let’s do this.”
In a flash of silvery gray light, Aidan transformed into an enormous griffon. His coat shined gold in the light of the flame overhead. It glinted off his enormous, powerful wings. I’d bet it took a lot of magic to keep a flame going while not in human form.
My fingers itched to touch the silken feathers that covered his wings, and I clenched my fists. I met his black gaze, trying to figure out if I could see Aidan inside him. His great beak sent a shiver of fear through me. It could crush my chest like a twig. So could his claws, which were huge and spiked.
I’d once thought dragons had to be the scariest mythical creature. I’d been wrong. It was griffons.
And I was damn glad this one was on my side.
For now, at least.
Griffon-Aidan knelt before me so I could climb onto his back. His fur was soft and warm—hot almost—and I scrambled up on top of him.
A sense of power rushed over me, as if I were being enveloped in his magical strength. It felt like my memories of using my own power. I’d cut myself off from that for so long that I’d forgotten how good it felt the few times I’d used it. Like I was in control of my life and could do anything.
Life right now was all about rolling with the punches—many of which landed. If I had my own power, I could control my destiny. I could take what I wanted. Be what I wanted.
But this was just a connection with his power. It wasn’t my own.
It could be, though. I could unleash what was within me and mirror what he had. I could also have this strength. I had more than enough inherent power to mirror his magical gifts—more, if the legends about FireSouls are true. With practice, FireSouls could manipulate the gifts we stole, becoming the strongest of that gift. An ArchMage or ArchSorcerer of that gift.
Oh, that would feel good.