: Chapter 24

We drive with the windows down, the sound of the wind blasting in has removed the need for anyone to try and fill the silence. I’m glad. I’m always glad when Grayson’s silent. But my thoughts rage. Thoughts of the challenge ahead at the stone. Of Gabriel’s plan. Of life as Gabriel’s wife. And also, why on earth I can feel the ring in Grayson’s pocket screaming out to me with power. The longer I’ve sat in this car with it so close, the more it screeches at me with a high-pitched whistle ringing in my ears. When he turns off the engine, it’s just as noisy.

‘Are you ready?’ Grayson asks.

‘Yes,’ I reply simply, turning in my seat to look at Gabriel. ‘You?’

‘Absofuckinglutely,’ Gabriel replies. We open the car doors and gather by the bonnet of Grayson’s car.

‘So where to now?’ Grayson asks.

‘There’s a stream over there.’ Connor points down the hill to the right, answering on my behalf. ‘We need to follow that until we come to the woods. Apparently, there’s a dip in the land. They call it the “Peatra”.’

‘And then what?’

‘Then it’s up to Lilly.’ He shrugs. ‘According to the journal, the Arcane will find the stone.’

‘Great.’ I look by my feet with hundreds of pebbles and stones littering the ground. ‘Talk about a needle in a haystack. How big is Dartmoor?’

‘Three-hundred and sixty square miles,’ Connor replies. ‘Give or take.’

I force a grin. ‘Fab. Let’s go.’ I set off down the hill, pulling Gabriel along with me, keen to get moving. Amara, Collins and Connor jog after us.

‘How are you feel-’

‘Nope,’ I interrupt Amara. ‘Don’t ask me how I’m feeling, or if I’m alright. And don’t ask me if I’m ready to do this. You want to walk with me? You talk about something completely unrelated to me, the spell or magic in general.’

‘Okay, what would you like to talk about?’ Connor asks.

‘Anything.’

‘Okay…’ He takes a few seconds. ‘Did you know that the moon moves away from the earth every year?’

‘It does?’ Gabriel asks, genuinely interested in the random fact.

‘It’s a tiny distance,’ Connor says. ‘But eighty-five million years ago, it was orbiting the earth about thirty-five feet from the planet’s surface!’

‘Is that true?’ Amara asks me in complete disbelief.

‘I have no idea,’ I laugh. Connor insists it is. He swears to it. She asks for another fun fact.

‘Did you know, that a ten-year old mattress weighs double what it did when new?’

‘No. Why?’

‘Because it’s filled with dust mites, their feces and corpses, our dead skin cells, sweat, dandruff, hair, dust-’

‘Eurghh, okay stop,’ she squeals. ‘That’s disgusting. That’s sooo disgusting.’

We all chuckle as she shudders.

‘I’m buying a new mattress every year from now on, Collins.’

‘No problem, babe,’ he laughs, wrapping his arm around her shoulders and kissing the crown of her head. ‘I have one,’ he says to the rest of us. ‘Did you know that the electric chair was invented by a dentist?’

‘No way,’ I laugh.

‘I read that actually,’ Gabriel agrees. ‘How about this. Did you know that if you sneeze with your eyes open, they can pop out of your head?’

‘Bull!’ I insist.

As we walk, this carries on. Random facts and disgusting truths spill out, making us laugh, all in a bid to keep ourselves distracted.

To keep me distracted. All the while, the magic in that ring continues to call out.

We reach the stream and follow it for another twenty minutes, until the trees get thicker and the path is almost non-existent.

‘Bloody hell,’ Gabriel mutters, helping me over a root half the height of me. ‘Where the hell are you leading us, Connor?’

Connor’s scrambling over the root behind me. ‘Just where the map – whoa!’ He falls off and lands on his face. Quickly, he jumps to his feet. ‘- Told me to go. Shouldn’t be too far now.’ He carries on walking like nothing had happened, and we all follow.

Gabriel leans down into my ear chuckling. ‘That man is seriously the clumsiest person I have ever met.’

‘Right?’ I laugh, sliding my arm around his waist as we walk.

‘So, you’re telling me that there’s a good chance my lipstick has fish scales in it?!’ Amara complains, panting as we climb a steep hill.

‘Yep.’ Connor nods. ‘A very good chance.’

‘Well, I’m tossing them out as soon as we get-’

‘Gabriel?’ I grab his arm and stop. Everyone halts as I freeze. ‘Gabriel, I sense magic. Someone’s here,’ I say in a panic. I feel it in the air. The sensation of energy pulsing around me. But it’s unfamiliar. Not like Toby or Theo. Or anyone else’s. ‘I think it’s coming from this direc-ARGH!’ I reach out and manage to grab his outstretched hand before falling. But I’m too far over the edge of a pit I had no idea was even there and he ends up coming with me.

We fall.

The ground seems to have just disappeared from beneath us as we skid and roll down a good twenty-foot slope, coming to an abrupt stop on some very hard and jagged stones.

‘Ow,’ I groan, reaching up and holding the back of my head as he lands beside me. ‘That didn’t tickle.’

‘No shit. You alright?’ he asks, pushing himself up and wincing as he does. Nodding, I hold out my hand and he helps me to sit.

‘You two alright?’ Grayson calls down, peering over the edge and backing away as it starts to crumble.

‘I think so,’ Gabriel replies, checking me over and making sure the back of my head isn’t bleeding. He looks around us. ‘Where the fuck did that drop come from?’

Grayson and the others skillfully slide down the ditch. Except Connor, who ends up skidding down on his backside.

Obviously.

‘Maybe you can at least try and be careful?’ Grayson scorns, as he helps Gabriel pull me to my feet.

‘I’m fine,’ I tell him, pulling my arm free from his grip and turning to Gabriel instead. ‘Are alright?’

‘Fine. Perfectly fine.’

‘We’re here!’ Connor calls, looking around and brushing grit from his trousers as Collins helps him to his feet. ‘This is what Rebecca describes in the journal. This deep formation here. The Peatra.’ He gestures to the walls enclosing us.

It’s an enormous trench. It looks man made, and surrounds us in a perfect circle. The edge is thick with trees. They cover it in a canopy, except for the very centre, where the slightest bit of natural light funnels through the top. As I stand here, I feel it. The closer I get to the centre of the circle, the stronger it becomes.

Magic!

But not from a person as I originally thought. It’s similar to the feeling of the ring, but so much stronger.

I start to run and I hear the others yelling at me to stop, but I’m too excited. I fall to my knees and start digging with my hands. Amara skids to a stop with me and helps without even asking why. They all do. Until we see it.

‘Is that…?’

Well, I needn’t have worried about finding it. Because Rebecca wasn’t talking about a random stone or pebble. Not even close.

I wipe the dirt and leaves away to reveal the top of a square pillar that looks like it’s made of glass, buried deep into the ground. It’s a dark-red and on the very top there’s a seven-pointed star engraved into it.

‘It’s a Bloodstone,’ I breathe. ‘A great big Bloodstone.’ It certainly looks like it, but the colours are still. Unlike the one I stupidly made with Grayson which swirls like a storm of waves and colour. We dig deeper around the edge.

‘It goes down deep,’ I tell Gabriel.

‘Is this the magic you can sense?’ he asks.

‘Yeah.’ I rest my hand on it and feel it hum. ‘It is. I can feel it.’

‘So, how do we get this thing started?’ Collins asks.

‘I’ve got this,’ I tell them all, getting to my feet. ‘In the journal, Rebecca writes that the boundary needs to be clear of all but the Arcane and the ring. So, if you leave me with the rings and get clear of the boundary, that will be fine.’ I point to the ridge that surrounds us. ‘I’m guessing that’s the boundary so I suggest you all get back up there.’ I glance at Gabriel who has started to chew his lower lip. I notice how he keeps glancing above us, at the tree line surrounding us. His gaze falls on me and he nods his approval of my plan.

‘We’re not leaving you down here!’ Amara insists, folding her arms across her chest as she gives me a kind of look. Even her little hip pops to the side.

‘This is for Lilly to do,’ Gabriel tells her. ‘We need to go, and stay out of her way until this is done.

Amara throws her arms around me and wishes me luck, warning me that if I get myself killed, she’ll kill me. Collins gives me an enormous bear hug and tells me to be safe.

‘You remember what I told you about healing yourself?’ he asks. ‘About feeling the injury and channeling your power? As soon as you feel it, Lilly. Remember?’

‘I remember. Thank you.’

I let him go. Connor holds out his hand for me to shake. But I throw my arms around him and hug him tight. He happily returns my embrace.

‘You can do this,’ he whispers in my ear. I give a nod and let him go.

‘Good luck, Miss Hooper,’ Grayson says, attempting a comforting smile. He pulls out a small brown envelope and puts it in my palm. ‘The rings are in there. Let’s just hope one of them is the genuine article.’ Then, he reaches out as if to hug me.

‘Yeah, thanks,’ I mumble, turning my attention to Gabriel instead.

The kiss he lands me with is borderline indecent. But the others have already started climbing back up the edge of the chasm. And to be honest, I don’t care about decency. About being proper. I’m scared. I’m afraid that I’ll fail and put everyone in danger.

No. That’s not an option. I can do this. I’ve survived hell. This will be a piece of cake.

You can do this!

As his kiss slows, he rests his nose against mine and lets out a long breath. His eyes tell me he’s worried. Terrified even. Like if he lets go of me, he may never touch me again. ‘You got this,’ he tells me. ‘I know you got this.’

‘Damn right I have. Do I need to know about the plan-’

‘Shh. And no. All you need to do now is focus on this test. That’s all. Nothing is happening today but you must, must complete this test, Lilly. Understand?’

‘If I do fail,’ I whisper, ‘Don’t let Amara get hurt, okay? Don’t let Grayson touch her. If it looks like I’m not going to make it-’

‘Don’t you dare speak like that-’

‘I mean it. If it looks like I’m not going to survive, you take Amara, Collins and Connor, and you run. Promise me.’

‘I’m not going-’

‘Promise me!’

We glare at each other, but he nods and promises that he will. ‘I love you, future wife.’

‘I love you more, future husband.’

‘Impossible,’ he says with a half-smile as he backs away from me. ‘That, my love, is simply ’

I watch them all make their way back up the edge to the boundary and they turn to watch.

This is it.

The first stone.

Holy fucking christ…