“I’ll return for you,” he promised because it was the only way he could force his legs to stand.
“I’ll be here,” Lu promised, their smile brightening as the sadness fell away.
Caelan quickly crossed the room without looking back. He paused only long enough to pick up his sword, and then he was diving into the thick darkness of the mountain cave with Rayne at his side. Eno and Drayce brought up the rear.
The stone door closed behind them with a deep, heavy thud, sealing them in the mountain with the godstone and the Dead God.
New Rosanthe would pay for taking Lu’s life.
TWENTY-SEVEN
Caelan Talos
The worn path through the mountain wound higher and higher over frozen rock. Caelan was sure he’d never been so cold in all of his life. He held up the flashlight on his cell phone to light his way, and the little beam bounced around as he trembled. They’d been walking for what felt like an hour, but there was no sign of the godstone or even a room that could hold the godstone. It was just narrow, winding paths that meandered through Mount Langbo.
Every step took them farther away from Lu and the Zastrian people being slaughtered by the Empire. But every step forward took them closer to the godstone and defeating Safa and Zyros. He had to believe that. Otherwise, all these people were dying for nothing.
“Has anyone thought about how we’re getting out of here after Caelan wakes up old Nyx?” Drayce asked, his voice bouncing off the rough rock walls.
“Back the way we came?” Eno suggested.
Drayce snorted. “Into the waiting arms of the Empire. No, thanks.”
“You got a better idea? You think we can just fly off the mountain and to Stormbreak from here?” Eno snapped.
His friend looked over his shoulder toward Eno, his mouth opening to undoubtedly fire some snappy remark, but Rayne beat him to it.
“We worry first about finding the godstone. That is our one and only priority right now. After that, we reassess our options.”
“He’s right,” Caelan grunted. Assuming Caelan succeeded with the Dead God, he might have a brand-new power at his fingertips that could help when it came to dealing with New Rosanthe. Or they could all be dead and this discussion would have been for nothing.
Caelan was still hoping for the former. He wanted payback for the death and pain the Empire had caused Erya, Caspagir, and now Zastrad.
Drayce led the way around the next bend in the path and suddenly stopped. Caelan slammed into him, nearly knocking them both to the ground. He caught himself, but his angry words were trapped in his throat when he saw Drayce’s flashlight glinting off a nearly black crystal suspended a foot off the floor.
The godstone and the Dead God.
The bitter cold, the frustration, and the anger dissolved in an instant. Caelan was left with only the fear that coated his throat with bile. He was out of time.
Pushing off Drayce, Caelan edged past his friend, who seemed frozen to the spot, and approached the godstone with caution. As Rayne and Eno joined him and Drayce in the large cavern, their lights danced along the smooth surface of the stone, bringing out its deeper purple highlights until it practically glowed.
Caelan tucked his phone away and circled the godstone. It appeared to be approximately the same shape and size of the ones in Sirelis and Stormbreak. The only difference was the color, and of course, that giant crack that ran down the center. It cut deep into the crystal until the interior was lost to darkness.
But there was no skeleton or corpse partially revealed by the break. He honestly didn’t know whether to feel relieved or disappointed by that. It seemed as if the crystal was solid the entire way through. Where were the gods then? Were they the stone themselves?
And why was Nyx’s crystal broken?
“You think one of those stalactites fell from the ceiling and hit the godstone?” Drayce asked. He flashed his light upward, revealing hundreds of stalactites hanging overhead like jagged teeth threatening to come down on them.
“I’m reluctant to believe that a godstone is that fragile,” Rayne murmured.
“Do you think Nyx was attacked, then?” Caelan replied.
“Or he tried to break free of his prison and died in the process,” his advisor suggested.
Now there was a lovely thought. From what little he’d been able to pull out of Kaes and Tula, all the gods and goddesses had cast a spell together to trap Zyros and stop her from killing everyone and everything. But it had meant they all had to be imprisoned in godstones to hold her in the prison.
If Nyx had tried to free himself, had he been willing to simply say fuck it and leave Thia to its fate?
Or had he died in the process of catching Zyros?