But she could also feel his immense strength and determination as he kept struggling.
She blinked back tears, knowing that Jared would never surrender. A moment later, he succeeded at last in beating his eagle’s wings, cutting through the strange shadows that had tried to hold him immobile.
Jared was free once more—but already the shadow dragon was opening his jaws again, preparing for another attack.
There’s no time left.
Furiously, she hit the crystal wall again.
“Open, damn you! I don’t know the magic word. Just let us in!”
The crystal was cool and solid beneath her hand. Her fingers hurt, but she barely felt it through her terror.
Again she raised her fist to hit the wall. Nothing happened.
She spread her palm flat against it, gritting her teeth as she tried to think of something, anything, that would wake the dragon hiding behind—and that was when she felt it.
It was tiny, almost impossible to make out. But when she drew back to stare at the small imperfection in the crystal her fingers had encountered, she couldn’t believe her eyes.
It wasn’t just an imperfection. It was a small indentation in the crystal—shaped like a perfect triangle.
A triangle with three straight lines pointing upwards.
Behind her, the dragon roared again, answered by the griffin’s cry. The air in the cave grew even colder, the light dimming at the edges of her vision.
She didn’t dare to turn, not even when a sharp spike of pain came rushing through the bond and there was the sound of something heavy hitting the ground behind her.
Run, Jared shouted through the bond.
She ignored him. Instead, she clenched her fingers around his amulet. Then she lifted it and pressed it to the small indentation in the crystal.
It fit perfectly.
For a heartbeat, everything was silent.
And then, the crystal lit up so brilliantly that everything was drowned in light.
She couldn’t see. She couldn’t hear. There was a ringing sound in her ears.
And the wall before her was gone.
Her fingers still held the amulet, but the crystal she’d pressed it to had completely disappeared. A moment later, the glaring light dimmed until it was no longer blinding her. It still filled the cave, more intense than before—but she could see again.
Before her, another cave of crystal had opened up, more magnificent than the one they’d explored by far.
It was filled with statues and trees of gleaming crystal, golden boxes filled with treasure, tables laden with ancient books—and there, at the end of the huge cave, was a dais.
A ray of blinding light fell in from somewhere high above, bathing the dais in silver luminance.
To both sides of the dais, a statue of a griffin stood, chiseled perfectly from smooth, pale marble.
But the dais was empty. There was no dragon of crystal to be seen.
Chapter Twenty-Two: Jared
Every bone in his body ached.
So far, Jared had been able to bear the dark dragon’s attacks. Instead of fire, Zane was breathing darkness at him—a darkness that seemed to have a mind of its own, turning into strangely solid shadows that wrapped around his wings. They felt as heavy as chains of iron, and even after he’d broken free from them, the next attack left him hurtling towards the ground.