“We’re good.”
As long as we weren’t trapped. Please, Goddess, don’t let us be trapped.
Olivia
“Okay, mate, you can open your eyes.” Lucien’s tone was cool and soothing, and I knew I was safe with him, but still, the terror was there, clenching my heart to dust.
I shook my head.
“Not ready yet?”
Another shake.
He chuckled. And then I gasped and grabbed on to his T-shirt when he scooped me out of the chair without another word. I kept my eyes screwed tightly shut, not wanting to see the pit of despair we were in.
But as he carried me, the air around us… changed. We’d taken only a few steps-less than ten?-before he paused, inhaling deeply.
That was when it hit me.
Fresh air.
My eyes flew open, and what I saw was beyond my wildest imaginings of what I thought we’d find inside this dusty old temple.
It was life. Vibrant, bold growth was everywhere I looked. Plants I had no names for buzzed against my senses, caressing my energy with excited tendrils from every direction. We were still underground-but we were far, far below the stone ceiling above us. It had to be at least a hundred-plus feet of open space.
The air was crisp and cool, scented with the exotic perfumes of big, pink flowers that bloomed a few feet away, thick vines tangled overhead, between ancient trees I had no name for.
“Can you put me down, please?” I asked, patting Lucien on the shoulder as I continued gawking in wonder.
He set me on my feet, and I walked across the spongy earth to rest my hand on the nearest tree.
Its energy was a gentle green glow in my mind’s eye, the quiet hum of a long, protected life. It had stood here for centuries, magically renewed by this place of power for the phoenix people.
As soon as I thought of the phoenixes, an image flashed into my mind. From the tree, I thought. It was two great, fiery birds swooping and dancing in the air overhead, their powerful, triumphant cry as they clashed together and plummeted toward the earth shattering the vision, but leaving me breathless nonetheless.
“What do you think this is?” Lucien asked, gesturing to the wide expanse of untouched nature that defied all the odds.
“I think… it was their mating grounds. A protected area where they could fly free and have a little section of paradise to bring their young into the world.”
He nodded, glancing back the way we came. “I think you’re right. Look.”
I followed where he was pointing, grinning as I saw a scene similar to what I’d just been given by the tree, painted on the wall in stunning color. Phoenixes in a rainbow of fiery reds and oranges swooped across the walls, some locked together and tumbling, some sitting on great jeweled nests, and others just flying free for the joy of it. You could see it in every upturned line and sweeping curve.
Joy, freedom, power.
But sadness washed over me as I turned back around. There was none of that now, only an empty sanctuary, untouched for seemingly hundreds of years. Where had all the phoenixes gone
? They couldn’t die without regenerating, as far as the lore went. So why had they abandoned their ancestral home?
It was a mystery I wouldn’t be able to solve.
“Do you see any way back up?” I asked, realizing that while this place was wondrous, it wasn’t built for wolves. While I had no doubt there was a fresh water source hidden here somewhere, there was no prey here to hunt. Even if we’d found the nesting grounds, with no way out… we couldn’t return the omega stone piece to our pack.
“No, but it looks like this cavern is significantly larger than the temple structure up above. Look there.” He pointed upward this time, and I saw the precise corner cut into the ceiling above us, a massive support pillar of stone stretching down to the ground below. Turning, I spotted the other three. There were also great, burning sconces that provided flickering light to the underground area, though it defied all logic that they were still burning after being so long untended.
“You’re right. Those are clearly the temple corners overhead. So did they just… fly down here? Or… Oh, look!” Dead in the center of paradise, a twisting stairway to the surface.
The room we’d fallen into was part of a small building, tucked into the foliage and hiding human-or, perhaps, shifted phoenix-amenities. Beds, washing chambers, storage bins. Nothing fancy, though it probably was by ancient standards.
In hindsight, I suppose it was better we’d fallen where we had than getting impaled on a tree limb.
Lucien and I strolled through the mating grounds, looking high and low for any sign of a nest, stopping at any small buildings to check the storage areas for signs of the stone shard, but we found nothing.
More than that, as beautiful as the underground paradise was, there was no sign of anything resembling the jeweled nests we’d seen in the paintings.
When we finally reached the staircase, I was relieved to find it was magically hewn from sturdy stone and still looked brand-new, spiraling up the long distance into the temple overhead. But it didn’t only offer us freedom. It also spiraled down into complete darkness below.
Anxiety filled me at the thought of going farther down, back into close, dark spaces. I was shaking my head and backing away before I even realized what I was doing.
“Hey, it’s okay. If you don’t want to go down, I can go. You can start climbing, and I’ll meet you at the top with Shay and Dirge.” Lucien chafed my arms lightly, not pressuring me in the slightest. Despite my fear, though, my wolf revolted at the idea of leaving our mate alone down here.
“You can go first. But I’m coming with you.” I lifted my chin and swallowed hard as I said it, my stomach flipping like a pancake at the idea, but I meant it.
“Brave mate,” he murmured, kissing me slowly, reminding me of how he’d made me come apart just a little while before. Still, that taste made me want more.
But he was right.
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