Page 51 of Alpha Exile

"She—she doesn't know. Or she doesn't want to tell me." He backs up, his expression disturbed. "I think we should go now. There's nothing for us here, and the spirit is angry that we've trespassed on her home."

We leave, though I linger as long as I dare, making my way out last. My hand falls to the grip of the dagger at my hip, and I stare at the soot-marked fireplace in the far wall, wondering what all it's seen.

It won't be giving up its secrets today, but maybe one day we'll come back.

Hopefully when we do, there will be six of us once more, and Delphine will be gone from this earth.

Moving further on, the hallway loses the alcoves, then the recessed lighting, and finally, becomes rough and uneven once more. I have to call on my fire power again to make a small handheld torch for us. The blue lichen is rare around here, and the tunnels smell damp and unused.

More than once, something scurries out of the way just as the edges of the light hit it.

I feel something brush quickly against my foot and try not to look down.

A feeling like being watched starts to gather between my shoulder blades. It feels as if the past is alive here, brimming with malice and stalking us just beyond the edge of our vision. Bastian starts to look like he's on edge as well, but he doesn't say anything, and I don't ask him if the ghosts have given him any dire warnings.

I'm not sure that I'll be able to force myself to turn around and leave again, if it comes down to it. If it's between protecting myself and my mates, and getting Roarke out of here alive–of course I would choose to protect them. But it would be the hardest decision of my life, and I'd be making it for the second time.

We reach a part of the tunnel that's narrow enough none of us can go through facing forward. I have the guys step back, and gather my power in my palms. This time it doesn't take any lighter fluid to set off an explosion. Sending powerful flames outward, I scorch the tunnel with magic so hot that it melts stone. It takes several minutes before the resulting passageway has cooled enough for us to pass through it, and even then, I can taste the singe of heat in the air.

No one has to tell me that I'm growing more powerful. Maybe the cavern's twisting tunnels are affecting me too. That, or I'm so desperate to get my final mate back that I've unlocked some secret strength inside my body, like a mother lifting a car off her toddler.

"We're getting closer." Bastian's voice startles me as we reach the end of my scorched passageway and step into a wider tunnel. His eyes roam the darkness ahead of us, and he says, "The ghosts are whispering about the underwater cave just ahead. It's where she brought Roarke to put the Spirit Eyes inside him."

Swallowing, I ask a question whose answer I already know. "Did she do it? Are we too late?"

Bastian shoots me a sympathetic look. "There's still hope. As long as his body is his, some part of his soul lives on. At least that's what the ghost necromancer Jason told me."

I'm not thrilled about putting all my hope in the words of a dead man who used to raise the dead while he was living, but you have to play the cards you were dealt.

Moving further through the tunnels, we come to two more sections that are narrow enough I have to scorch them open. The path beneath us becomes treacherous, tilting steeply and switching around tight corners. I have to hold my flame of light up high above my head to illuminate the crevasses at our feet. Remembering that he brought a flashlight in his pack, Lance flicks it on and sends hundreds of spiders scuttling into cracks and crevasses in the tunnels.

At some point, I start to sense a soft blue light ahead of us.

I think at first that it's the blue lichen, but we haven't seen that in what feels like hours. Dimming my flame a little, I peer ahead, and see the reflection of water on the walls.

Heart racing, I grab Kieran's forearm with my free hand and pull him forward. "Do you see Roarke? Did he come this way?"

Breathing in deeply, Kieran taps into whatever ability it is that lets him see into the past—and flinches beneath my touch, recoiling slightly. "Yes."

There's such despair and agony in his voice that I don't ask any further questions.

Whatever version of our alpha we're about to find, he'll be markedly different from the one we knew.

I can no longer walk at a sedate pace. Despite the danger of the cavern around us and the tilt of the path beneath us, I start to jog up ahead.

Lance calls out, "Be careful!"

Kieran joins me, picking up speed at my side. We take the tunnels down a sharp corner and find that they open up. The ceiling slants up away from us, and the ground falls down.

Far ahead, visible in the complete darkness, is a pool of water surrounded by glowing blue light.

My breath catches. I can't tell how far or close the cavern is—it's so dark from here to there that it could be ten feet or an entire mile. Like a mirage, it floats and swims in my vision. It's downhill from us considerably, so far that the path must switch back and forth on itself to get there, or—or there's a sudden drop-off.

Seeing it makes me so excited that I tremble.

No, everything around me trembles. The ground, the ceiling, the walls of the tunnel and even the air in front of me. Dust stirs at my feet, and I nearly face-plant on my next step, the ground beneath me so sheer that I can't keep my balance.

I skid to a stop, coming to my senses and grabbing tight onto Kieran's arm. He slows as well—reluctantly.

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