Page 11 of Justice
We didn’t move until the last bat escaped the crack, and even then, we stood frozen for minutes longer than necessary. Oak never let go of my hand, his solidarity a comfort. When he spoke, it was with equal part resolve and dread, “That crack in the rock, it’s wide enough to fit through, and that’s where we need to go.”
“Are you fucking crazy?” Sterling hissed, and I was right there with him. Why the hell would I want to squeeze my ass through a crack in a cave wall, knowing that an infestation of bats or worse was waiting on the other side?
“No, he’s right.” All heads swung to Ellis, and although he looked deliciously alluring in his dirt-covered clothes and roused hair, his agreement made him less attractive at the moment. “Most people wouldn’t walk toward a cave of bats, let alone through a narrow crease of rock.”
I groaned. “But naturally, my boys aren’t like most people, are they?”
“Nope,” Ramsey offered cheerfully before patting me on the back as he passed, “I could have saved you some time and told you that from the start.”
The narrow entrance was a few feet above my head and nearly impossible for me to reach if it hadn’t been for my undead men giving me a boost then literally pushing me through the slit in the earth. The fit was tight, my hip bone scraping against the jagged rocks as I shimmied my way through for about five feet before the enclosure opened up into a larger area.
“Can you feel it?” I asked, awe coating my words as I was pulled forward.
“Feel what?” Ramsey asked as he made it through the rocks, the last of our team to do so.
“The energy. It’s like little fingers grabbing at my skin while the warmest, softest blanket wraps around me.”
“It’s it. It has to be it.” Ellis was excited about that fact; I could tell by the lilt of his voice and his suddenly antsy posture.
Itwhat? I wasn’t exactly sure. I felt nervous, terrified that instead of finding something helpful to our venture, I was possibly leading us all to our deaths. Could I hold that on my conscience? Could I carry around the thought that I killed three immortals and the equivalence to a foster brother just by being close to me?
“I want to go back.” I let go of Oak’s hand without warning, turning fast and plowing straight into Sterling’s chest.
Sterling’s hand came out to catch me, righting me before I lost my balance and fell down the steep incline. Behind me, Oak’s voice boomed loudly for such a whisper of a word, “No. You’re not leaving.”
“I can’t do this.”
“It’s too late for that; we are here.” He tried to reason.
“But -” I let the words trail off. I couldn’t muster an argument that portrayed how I was feeling. I didn’t know how to let them know how afraid I was for them.
“But, we are going deeper into this place, Liberty. You will follow the calling and get the damn necklace because we need you alive more than dead.” When my boys used a stern voice like that on me, it was nearly impossible to disobey.
“I’m scared,” I confessed.
“You think I’m not? It’s fucking dark as hell in here,” Oak reasoned.
I tilted my head to the side. “So you are afraid of the dark!”
“This dark, of course, I fucking am,” he admitted. “But it will not stop me, and it’s definitely not going to stop you.”
He was right, and I knew it. If I ever wanted to explore what this was between us all, I needed to push forward, get the necklace, gather whatever power I supposedly required, and eliminate the threat. I only hoped the threat didn’t destroy me or any of my boys in the process.
“Okay,” I said to Oak, his knees bent as he leveled his eyes with mine.
“Okay.” His eyes searched my own.
I nodded and pulled forward. “The pull is coming from the left.”
“Then we go left,” Ellis announced, not like he needed to; it was evident that we were going whichever way the pull took us.
The left held a steep incline, littered with sharp rocks and sand that ended into a boulder-filled valley. But despite the rough visual, the boys didn’t act afraid as they approached, instead opting to go down the slope on their asses, dragging along slowly with their heels into the dirt to ensure they didn’t rapidly descend into the wall of stones below. I followed their lead, waiting until the last of my boys was down there before sitting down and scooting slowly. Behind me, Ramsey waited, not bothering to sit until I was fully standing on the surface below.
We worked our way through the valley of boulders, climbing over the thick mounds of stone one at a time until we made it to a smooth expanse. Above us, the rocks formed a circular dome – the dragon’s eye. Below us, our feet walked on ground stone, pulsed so fine that if it weren’t for the occasional chunk, I would think I was walking on a beach full of coarse sand.
The feeling became more intense, and when the cave forked into two directions, the boys followed me without hesitation as my feet carried me to the right. We had been walking for hours, it seemed. A collection of intense minutes that dragged on to eternity. With each step, my stomach balled, the pull calling me. Screaming at me, warning –
Warning me? I paused in my steps at that thought. The concept that an inanimate object was sending me a warning seemed crazy, but this week and all my new discoveries had taught me that crazy was an honest reality, and maybe I should accept it instead of fighting it every step of the way.