Page 8 of Within the Flames
She didn't feel as confident as her words made her sound, but the men didn't need to know that.
"Hurry!" the daimon shouted from far ahead. He'd almost merged with the shadows in the distance, the light of the fire no longer reaching him. Macey sighed softly and began to walk as fast as she dared, hoping that there weren't any rocks to stumble over.
"What is a daimon doing in London?" Cam was muttering behind her, but she ignored him. They weren't going to find out by speculating.
The tunnel slowly began to widen until they reached the entrance to a large cavern.
"Wait!" Jared suddenly shouted just when Macey was about to walk through the stone archway.
She stopped in her tracks, turning around to look at him.
"It's an illusion!" He pressed past her and held out his hands towards the cavern. "Now that I know what to look for, I can feel it. Something is behind there and it's not just an empty cave."
"Well, it would make sense," Macey mused. "He called it his home, after all, and I doubt it's that fire pit from earlier."
"We should proceed with caution," Rónàn said, speaking for the first time in a while. He'd been staying in the background while they'd been talking to the daimon, and even now, he was keeping back. Was he afraid? Uncomfortable in the dark, perhaps?
"Let me go first." Jared carefully took a step forward, his arms still outstretched. "Wow, it's warm," he said after two more steps. "Positively hot."
"Lampads?" Macey asked hopefully.
Jared took a deep breath and stepped through the archway - and disappeared. All Macey saw was the same dark cavern as she had before, but Jared had clearly walked into something else. The illusion was strong, even though she knew it wasn't real, she couldn't see anything besides the cave.
"Jared!" she shouted, ready to run after him.
A muffled cough came from in front of her. "It's fine, come on through. It tickles."
Rónàn stepped closer to Macey and took her hand. "Let's do this."
