I searched wildly for Kahanov, but he was gone.
“Fuck!” Jaxson shouted. “He ran.”
He shone his light over the sleepers dangling from the wall. “Sam, get
these people free. Savannah, you’re with me. There aren’t enough bodies. We
need to find the rest of the pack and take Kahanov down. Time for stealth
mode.”
As Sam turned to the root-bound shifters, I drew the shadows around us,
and we headed into the dark passage.
45
Jaxson
We wound our way through the jagged, twisting cave. A strange blue
glow glazed the wall ahead with color. We moved cautiously until the
narrow, rocky corridor bent and opened into a vast subterranean landscape
that bathed us in eerie light.
Bioluminescent moss covered the walls and ceiling of the massive cavern,
and its unearthly glow reflected off a shimmering pool that filled the center of
the chamber. Gnarled trees with silver, tendril-like leaves grew around the
edges of the water, and their roots snaked across the walls.
At any other time, it would have been breathtaking.
Savannah pointed. There, in the middle of the room, was the grimoire,
floating in the air above the pond.
Still wrapped in Savannah’s shadows, we stepped cautiously through the
entrance, and guilt settled in my heart. I could already see that the roots of the
trees around the pond entombed more sleepers. Many faces that I knew and
loved, others less familiar.
All of them were my responsibility.
I looked behind us. A massive tree rose over the entrance, much like the
one on the shore. It was the only exit.
Savannah’s whisper echoed through the chamber. “Where is he?”
“I don’t—”