Page 91 of Shifters Reckoning

Wolf Moon Cave.

I’d stood inside its mouth, when the war was small enough that all I needed from the dark was the linking relic. Marcus had guided me then, and he’d been the one to make his way to the back of the cave while I had protected us from shadow-mage attack. We’d taken the linking relic out of that cave, the cube of stone that had turned to a crystal prism when it was in use. Funny how our relics sometimes shifted, too.

“How deep will we go?” Jasper asked.

“The real trove is underneath,” Dr. Wise answered. “The best things are often kept in basements. Much like the Louvre.”

“There’s a chance the deeper portions might be flooded,” I said. “This far south… The depth of the water table is a consideration.”

“Aye, ’tis true,” Jasper said. “At least I am a fox who knows how to swim.”

Soon, we reached Dr. Wise’s coordinates. An old oak still stood over the cave’s mouth, vast, half-dead, and hung with moss.

Jasper studied the length of it and then looked at me with something that wasn’t a joke anywhere on his face. “Is this what ye recall from last time?”

I shrugged and waved at the tree. “Don’t remember the oak, but it’s a magic cave, and Acheron’s trotting around Louisiana like he owns the place, changing shit everywhere, so how the fuck do I know?”

“We might also be at a different entrance,” Dr. Wise interjected.

Jasper’s freckles stood out in the stark light, and he doubled over laughing. “Ye know a lot of things, lass, but mayhap ye should have napped in the car.”

I squinted and eyed the fox shifter. “What the hell are you talking about?”

“Ye might be a bit cranky.”

“More like nearly tired to death of Acheron. Ready to see him die.” I turned to Dr. Wise. “Do you know anything about the oak? Is it included in the whole foretold prophecy bullshit?”

Dr. Wise adjusted her glasses and studied the ground. “I don’t believe the oak is involved in any of the prophecies. You don’t recall if it was here or important the last time you visited this cave?”

“No, I don’t.”

“Then we proceed as though it’s not important to the mission,” Dr. Wise said. “Though, I may rest beneath it as you explore the cave.” She crossed to its base, dropped her attaché case on the ground, and leaned against the trunk. Sweat clung to her, and she peeled her clothes away from her skin.

“Do either of you get to go in with me?” I asked.

Dr. Wise shook her head. “Neither of us. We’re not integral to whatever you need to accomplish down there.”

I sighed. “Last time we were here, I had to hold a shield over the entrance to keep the shadow mages from chasing us in. It’s weird that we haven’t had anyone follow up. Isn’t it?” I hate I left Logan behind. No way of knowing what’s going on back in Six-Mile.

“Don’t go borrowin’ trouble. We’ll mind the entrance and keep ye safe,” Jasper said. He tugged his beard, and he lowered his voice. “Ye did the right thing, lass, leavin’ him. It’s the cruelest thing I’ve watched anybody do for love. Ye couldn’t bring him here.”

“I know.”

The way only opens to me… It might be true, but it didn’t mean I had to like it, and I was beginning to feel like the vision was full of poo. Had it been real at all?

Stopping at the edge of the cave, I peered in. At least the inside hadn’t seemed to change all that much. I turned back to the others and crossed to Dr. Wise and dropped my bag beside her. “I think it’s the same place as last time. At least on the inside.”

“That’s a mercy.” She took both my hands between hers. Her skin felt papery, but her strong grip belied her age. Up close, behind the glare on the glass of her spectacles, her eyes were youthfully fierce. Wrinkles fanned out from the outer edges.

“Listen to me because I won’t be able to say it down there,” she said. “The pages never recorded the cost. I told you that. What I didn’t tell you is why, and I think I finally understand it. It wasn’t that the price was too terrible to record. It’s that the price is different every time.” She took a deep breath, released it slowly, and handed me a flashlight. “Whatever they show you down there, whatever they tell you it has to cost, remember that it’s an invitation to try something new. Hear me.”

“I hear you.” I hoped I could instinct my way through this mess.

Jasper joined us under the tree. After Dr. Wise released my hands, he took one of them and pressed something small and cold into my palm. When I opened my hand, it was the brass bell. No, a second one, twin to the one he’d given Logan in the Void. He tied it around my wrist.

“Can’t follow ye in,” he said, “but foxes hear their own bells across a battlefield, and I’ve decided a battlefield can be as wide as I say it is.” His throat worked. “Ye ring that with purpose if ye have a need, and I’ll move heaven and earth to get down there. Ye’re not walkin’ out of that dark to an empty field. We’ll be here, waitin’. Ye know I’ll be here the whole time, lass.”

“As will I,” Dr. Wise added.