Page 166 of Heir of Broken Souls

“What is that?” Elysia squeaks. Axel takes a step in front of her, placing her behind his back as he unsheathes a blade.

I do the same, my arm snaking behind my back until the rumbling grows so loud, I freeze. My legs shake, but not from fear. My wholebodyis vibrating. My hand strikes out to grab Delilah right as the ground beneath our feet moves.

Dirt crumbles, rocks fall, trees split. Through it all, the rumbling grows louder.

“We’re rising!” Harlow calls over the now deafening roaring of the forest floor.

“Fuck this,” I growl. Scooping Delilah into my arms, I push off my feet and unfurl my wings. “Everyone in the sky, now!” I bark.

I don’t need to ask twice. Everyone flies into the air, all of us hovering amongst the parted trees, where just seconds before a lively forest stood tall.

My eyes are riveted on the sight before me. The forest floor is splitting in two, arching up, only to split down the seams as something appears to break the surface.

“What is that?” Lenox calls.

I shake my head. Something smooth and gray probes through the hole in the ground. “I’ve never seen anything like this.”

I seem to have been saying that all throughout this mysterious sunken island. All this magic is so ancient, I wouldn’t even know who to ask to understand it all.

My words make Delilah cling to me a little tighter until she yelps, her hand wrapping around her pendant to pull it back. “It’s never glowed this bright or burned this hot before,” she pants.

In wonder, my gaze flicks between the broken forest floor and the pendant. “It’s unveiling it. It wasn’t around us, it wasbelow.”

I fly lower, my wings rising and falling in smooth succession, exhaustion dancing at the corners of my body from everything we have endured in what feels like days. I swat the feelings of tiredness away as it continues to rise.

“Is that…?”

The rumbling stops. The forest floor halts, the trees right themselves, the water behind us in the distance falls quiet. The gray object has stopped rising because it’s fully appeared.

I fly around the large gray boulder until Delilah’s gasp makes me pause.

“It can’t be,” Axel calls suddenly from behind me, Elysia flying at his side as the pair still haven’t broken contact.

“That’s impossible,” Harlow spits, anger in her voice. If I had to guess, it’s because she’d rather feel frustration than fear.

“It’s the cave entrance from the sunken island,” I murmur, shock tinging my voice.

Delilah’s wide blue eyes turn to me. “I thought we wereinsidethe sunken island.”

Gently placing Delilah down on the rocks edge, we all land, trepidation sizzling through the air as we stare at it, no one making a move to enter.

“It has to be a replica. We are quite literally inside the cave.”

Harlow cocks her head. “Technically we’re on a floating island in the sky. I don’t see how we are still under the water.”

“Harlow’s right. We crossed the ocean for a reason.”

Axel whistles. “This is some very ancient magic at play.”

“I think it’s meant to confuse visitors,” Lenox ponders, his eyes calculating.

“How long do you think this has been here for?” Elysia whispers.

“What part?” Harlow asks beside her.

Elysia’s hands wave around the space. “All of it—everything.”

I shake my head, running a frustrated hand through my hair. “Those are questions we cannot answer in this moment, but we were led here for a reason. This is where we are meant to be, though. There wouldn’t have been demonic hounds guarding it if it wasn’t.”