Page 81 of Violet Legacy

Khalida remained crouched low on the ground. Her swords caught the pale-yellow light, glittering in the darkening room. She pointed to the bottom corner of the wall. “See this?”

Dante moved in Khalida’s direction, crouching next to her. “Is it a flower?”

If it was a lily, they were on the right path.

“No,” Khalida replied. “But if I am not mistaken, that is a stone version of the pendant Rieka wears.”

Chapter 50

“Lucien!”Riekayelled.

Silence greeted her. The bastard had disappeared into thin air. The least he could have done was taken her out of there.So much for family!

Rieka rubbed her arms. She tried to keep the chill that was creeping through her at bay.

She had just exchanged one prison for another. Pale green crystals twinkled in the darkness, providing her just enough light so she could worry about what was hiding in the shadows. She clenched her eyes closed and focused on her breathing as she reached out with her senses. It was nowhere near as strong as it had been in the ballroom, but she could sense thin tendrils of faint emotions that skirted just out of her reach. If she concentrated hard enough, she could feel the humming of the pendant, like small vibrations surrounding her. Something cool and familiar crossed her path. A hint of ice that threatened to burn her.

Dante. Hope filled her, but she pushed it aside. He had gotten what he wanted. Access to the tomb.

The room tilted on its axis.

“What the hell?”

Rieka stumbled as the ground disappeared, and the wall behind her shifted, opening to a small corridor. Pale blue crystals flickered to life, but the meager light hardly penetrated the dark. A sense of foreboding washed over her. Instinct told her to run, but she had nowhere to go. She wasn’t alone anymore.

From the darkness, a shape formed. A familiar shape, and one likely to haunt her nightmares for the rest of her life. “Who is Lucien?”

“Hello, Idris.” Rieka stared at the traitor as she clenched her fists by her sides. Losing her cool would not help her. “A figment of my imagination.”

More like a nightmare.

“We wouldn’t want the guest of honor to not be here for the much-anticipated keynote event.”

Rieka bared her teeth. She could think of a hundred places she would prefer to be.

Idris took a menacing step closer to her.

Chapter 51

Thependantwasakey.

Dante held onto it for a moment longer. It was a connection to Rieka that he didn’t want to lose. The pendant burned his palm as he slowly inserted it into the wall.

His senses were going into overdrive; someone was watching them. Whatever it was, it was skilled enough to stay just beneath the threshold of his senses if he hadn’t been actively searching for them. It wasn’t Atlantean or human. He glanced at Talik and Khalida; they had noticed it as well.

The pendant gently turned.

Small, almost inconsequential, cracks appeared in the wall, where bright light began to seep through the growing gaps. Dante snatched the pendant back before it was lost. The pendant was one of the few items Rieka had left of her mother—he would be damned if he didn’t ensure he returned it to her. The wall shattered silently into thousands of pieces, as if it was made of glass. Brown dust coated them, and it sent Chaucer into a coughing fit.

“Prepare for an attack,” Khalida stated, a hint of excitement edging her tone. No one contradicted her.

Talik kicked at what was left of the wall before he vaulted over the foundation and into the dark cavern. “You may want to see this,” he said over his shoulder. A low appreciative whistle interrupted the silence. “Can you hear it?”

It sounded like water crashing against a cliff. Dante turned to stare at Khalida, who looked as confused as he felt. “Should there be water this far underground?”

“No,” Khalida said. “There shouldn’t have been anything but a rocky foundation under the war room.”

Talik laughed, the sound echoing off the cavern walls. “The underground sea didn’t get the memo that this place is a desert.”

---