Page 108 of Jay's Silence

Rehan let out an unhappy grunt and pulled out his ponytail.

Lux rolled his eyes. "Says the dragon who couldn't figure out how to flank a spider and then lost control of the resulting fire."

Tyson snarled. "That fire was literally fueled by miles of webbing!"

"And oxygen." I cut into their argument. "Fire needs air to burn." I pointed at Tyson. "You contained it, and if Lux thought of it, he could have snuffed it out."

Lux and Tyson narrowed their eyes at each other before dropping their gazes to the floor.

"I thought our training would be more physical," Rehan said, mid-putting his ponytail back up. "Like what I was doing with Lux."

I shook my head. "It takes hundreds of hours of practice in physical combat to create flawless teamwork. Maybe in the future, but right now, communication and elemental understanding is the first step."

I stared at Rehan, ready for him to argue with me. Instead, a broad smile filled his face. "I can't argue with your logic, love. Especially when you explain it to us."

I bounced slightly on the balls of my feet, and we’d begun.

Waiting for Lux to return, I once again bounced excitedly on the balls of my feet. Certain elements worked together better than others. I’d paired Tyson and Lux: fire and air. While Og worked on his sleeping beauty technique, I’d used his earth magic to train with Rehan's water. Pretty soon, fire tornados ripped through the already destroyed room while pits of thick clay held opponents in place. Once Og and Rehan started training for real, I was a hundred percent sure they could make a badass golem even Marduk would be jealous of.

"Jay?" Lux's voice snapped me out of memory lane.

I grinned. "The four of you will be so badass."

Lux handed me two champagne flutes. "The five of us." He popped the cork on a bottle of bubbly, and I sighed happily at the sound. "Now, it's a date."

For the next hour, we explored rooms and proved Lux's concern about date topics unnecessary. It turned out the air prince knew a lot more about wine than he thought. His memories of pruning vines and working the air dragon's vineyard, far away from his dad, were crisp and full of joy. His optimism refreshed my cynical soul.

In addition, in almost every room we explored we discovered a hidden cache, which Lux clearly loved puzzling out how to open. A few of them required magic, but a lot of them were as simple as finding the hidden button and pressing it.

I had a good collection of enchanted items by the time Og excitedly tugged on our mate bond.

"Think he found the vault?" I asked.

Lux's eyes lit up. "Will it be another puzzle to open, like these little ones?"

I guided us toward Og. "Nope. It's gonna have a crazy lock on it. The one lock to rule them all." I grinned.

"And in the darkness bind them," Lux finished the Lord of the Rings quote.

We both laughed and hurried toward Og. A few hallways later, a downward-sloping staircase brought us to a massive vault door. Dark, smooth metal stood out against the stone walls. A large silver wheel sat in the middle with a keypad off to the right.

"This has to be the entrance to the room on the video." Og didn't turn around from his studying of the keypad. "Do you think you can fry the electronics, Lux?"

"No." I grabbed Lux’s hands before he could try anything. "It might trigger a fail-safe. Or, at least, if I designed it, it would. Let's gather the troops and see what we can do."

After a few attempts to open the door correctly, Tyson ended up melting through the locks and hinges, and Rehan barreled it down with brute strength. The heavy square fell backward with a boom, shaking the room’s foundations. The lights pulsed red while a wailing siren made me cover my ears. I waited for the same gas to fill the room as was in the video, but nothing happened. Drukpa must not have reset the system.

“The fail-safe doesn’t matter anymore, right?” Lux asked.

I nodded.

The air dragon rubbed his hands together, and the wind picked up. Static filled the air before a streak of lightning arched from his palms and into the electronics next to the door. The sound cut off, and the lights flickered a final time before goingdark. Tyson called little fireballs to his fingers and sent them flying into the room.

The vault was bigger than it appeared in the video. Moody firelight reflected off piles of gold. Safes lined the wall we hadn’t been able to see with different currencies marking the fronts. The sheer number of magical artifacts made the air thrum with power. My heart danced with excitement.

“I’m taking all of this,” I stated.

“Yeah, you are,” Og purred.