Page 76 of Stone Heart
“Yes, are you okay?” she asked. Her gaze roamed over her father, finding him filthy, covered in bruises, but otherwise unharmed.
He held out his hand for her, helping her down from where she’d been buried.
“I’m fine.” He gripped her to him in a tight hug.
She returned it but immediately grew concerned.
Where was Rhodack?
“What happened?” she whispered, looking around at the once-open cavern.
“You almost blew us all to smithereens,” her father replied as they took in the rubble.
“Rhodack! Rina!” a voice echoed with flashes of light, providing some illumination.
She glanced toward where the opening of the cavern that led to the outside was barely accessible. Gargoyles worked frantically to move the large boulders that filled the area.
“I’m over here!” she cried out.
Vikuth’s voice grew closer. Her father and her scrambled toward where Vikuth and his men were.
“What happened in here? We heard a large blast, and the entire mountain shook. Did a bomb go off in here?” he asked.
Rina and her father stumbled over to him.
She paused and looked around, trying to find any signs of Rhodack.
But she also realized she’d forgotten something.
“Where are the necromancers?” She gripped her father’s arm.
He turned to her with a grim expression on his face. He nodded toward the other corner and raised his hand, emitting a bright light. She followed his ray of illumination and gasped, almost losing her balance at the sight that greeted her eyes.
The three necromancers were impaled by long shards of rocks, their bodies deathly still. They slumped over the rods of stone embedded into the earth’s wall.
“Oh…my…” She was unable to form a solid sentence as she looked at her handiwork. She swallowed hard and shook her head.
Holy mother of—
“I have to find Rhodack,” she murmured, panic rising in her chest.
She turned and glanced around the cavern and knew Rhodack was somewhere amongst the destruction she’d caused.
“Wait, princess,” Vikuth shouted.
They continued working on moving the rocks out of the way. Her father began helping to shift the rubble to allow the other gargoyles to reach them.
She raised her hand, knowing that with the link they’d already shared, she should be able to locate Rhodack the cavern. Closing her eyes, she concentrated on the image of Rhodack’s face in her mind.
“Rhodack. Where are you?” she whispered. Tears burned her eyelids at the empty feeling in her chest. “No, it can’t be.”
She refused to believe Rhodack’s heart was no longer beating. He was a strong gargoyle, practically indestructible.
She stepped farther into the cavern, stumbling in the dark and over the stones. She pushed her powers out around the rubble, trying to find Rhodack.
She ignored her father calling her name as she continued farther.
There was no way in Hell she’d be leaving him buried in this mountain.
