Page 123 of Stilettos & Secrets on the 7 Seas

“’Tis there, yeah?” Caiyan stood next to me by the edge of the water.

I glanced up at the circular opening at the top of the cavern. The full moon, barely visible in the afternoon sky, hung like a beacon leading us to this place. At this moment in time. “Yes, I think so.”

He pulled his shirt up from the back, ready to strip it over his head.

“What are you doing?”

“We dinnae have much time. I’m going in.”

I’d felt the squeeze, too. That little pain that told me the moon cycle was ending. “It can’t be that easy. My gut tells me diving into the pool isn’t the way.”

Caiyan stopped undressing. The others joined us.

“I don’t see any fancy armor.” Sasha bent over the pool and squinted her eyes.

“’Tis clear water. I cannae see the bottom. It must be deep.” Max squatted and stuck his finger in the water. “And cold as a northern wind.”

The parrot landed on Max’s head. “Get off me head, ye beast.”

“Eye, Squawk.” It flapped its wings. “King’s eye. Squawk.” More wing flapping. “Give us a kiss. Squawk.”

“I’m no kissing the bird.” Max made a sour face. The parrot flew off Max and landed on a rock ledge.

Sasha stood and pulled the pink diamond out of her pocket. It shone brightly in the cave, and my body buzzed with a sensation I could only compare to passion. I put my hand over my heart.

“Jen?” Marco asked me. “You’re face just flushed like…” His words trailed off, but I knew. He meant flushed like I was in the heat of passion. Finding the key was my passion. Caiyan frowned at Marco, but Marco knew my passion. We’d never been intimate, but we’d come close so many times. He knew me. And now, I knew Giorgio’s love affair with my aint Elma would end with them. Marco was meant to be my friend, not my lover. One of my best friends, my soul brother.

“Here,” Rowan called out next to the parrot. He held the lantern up to another carving in the stone.

Sasha climbed up and stared in awe at the picture. “It’s the symbol carved into my grandfather’s castle. The one above the door.”

Caiyan leaped onto the rock next to Rowan and ran his hand over the stone. “’Tis Rogue’s crest, but I dinnae feel any place for yer hand.”

Sasha touched the crest as if she held Rogue’s hand one last time. “For you, grandfather.” She slid the pink diamond into a depression at the top of the crest.

A wind swirled in the cavern, lifting years of cobwebs, dirt, our clothes, and our hair as it churned the blue pool into a tornadic waterspout shooting up and out of the skylight like a whale exhaling air from its blowhole. A whistle roared in my head like a thousand trains pounding the rails.

“Take my hand.” Caiyan gripped my hand, each of us reaching out for the other, joining hands as the wind whipped around us. We stood as one solid force against an energy bound for centuries. The air compressed from my lungs, and I couldn’t breathe. I gasped, trying to suck in oxygen but inhaling nothing.

Maybe we weren’t supposed to find it. Maybe the Ancalites had a reason for keeping this key from us. Had I come this far only to die trying to finish Aint Elma’s quest?

Thunder cracked. A lightning bolt hit the cave, knocking us to the ground and the air back into my lungs.

And then, silence.

Forty

When the dust settled and the mist cleared, we got to our feet and looked down into what used to be the crystal blue pool. A large rock remained in the center of the depression.

Rowan scowled down at the dark gray stone. “’Tis a rock.”

“The Stone of Scone.” Caiyan slowly worked his way into what was now more pit than pool.

“Stone of who?” Max arched an unimpressed eyebrow as if he thought we were a little off in our heads for dedicating ourselves to the recovery of a rock.

“The Stone of Destiny.” His face awestruck, Rowan dropped down next to Caiyan. He held the lantern closer, revealing the deep red sandstone hidden under the gray age of time. “Kings worshipped this stone.”

“’Tis the symbol of the Scottish monarchy.” Caiyan stood proudly next to the stone. “The Scots are the direct descendants of the queen of the Ancalites. She hid the key inside the stone.”

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