I’m pretty sure I spot Jaxon standing on a path off to the side, so I maneuver to him, land, and shift back. He pulls me in for a hug, but his focus never wavers from the hole from hell. As Mekhi, Xavier, and Macy pop out one by one, he floats them easily to the ground.
Mekhi is teasing Xavier that he screams like his sister’s banshee best friend when Eden and Flint shift three feet above the ground and land on solid feet next to us, both shaking their heads.
“What, no one trusts a dragon to catch them?” Flint jokes, but he doesn’t seem to mind as he turns to Eden and confides, “Man, that ride never gets old, does it?”
“Wait, I thought you’d never been to the Boneyard before. Is that not where we’re going?” I ask, genuinely confused.
“Turns out the Boneyard is not too far from the horde, which I most definitely have been to.” He waggles his brows at me comically and I laugh.
“Okay, I’ll bite. What’s the horde?”
Flint’s tone turns almost reverent as he answers simply, “Treasure.”
“You need a napkin to mop up some of that drool, man?” Xavier asks.
But Jaxon grins and shakes his head. “Dragons.” As if that says it all.
“Anyway,” Flint continues, “the Boneyard actually isn’t too far from here. Just down a side corridor. Follow us.”
Eden sets off after Flint into the near darkness, and we fall in behind them. I can’t see much—apparently gargoyle eyes aren’t anything special despite what that old TV show said, so I pull out my cell phone and tap the flashlight app. No way am I walking around creepy tunnels in the near dark.
Hudson chuckles beside me. “Chicken.”
“Shhh,” I tell him and focus on making sure there actually is ground in front of me before I take each step. “I’m concentrating on not falling.”
He chuckles again but thankfully doesn’t comment.
We walk for another fifteen minutes through a maze of tunnels, pausing occasionally for Eden and Flint to argue over a direction. I’ve about decided we’re completely lost when Flint looks over his shoulder and shouts, “We made it!”
And then he and Eden turn sharply left…and disappear.
81
One Hundred Percent
That Witch
Jaxon and I rush to the last place we saw the dragons, but all that’s there is a solid wall. We start pressing our hands on the jagged edges of the stone surface, thinking maybe there’s a secret latch or something.
All of a sudden, my hand touches flesh, and I scream and jump back. It’s Flint.
“How—？” I start to ask.
“What are you guys doing?” he asks as he walks straight out of the solid wall. “Come on, stop messing around. What’s the holdup?”
“Well, we don’t seem to be able to walk through solid stone walls.” I raise one eyebrow as Xavier pats his hand against the wall to show Flint.
“Oh, damn. We didn’t think of that.” He calls over his shoulder to Eden. “Apparently only dragons can pass through.”
Eden walks through the wall now, too, and yes, it’s just as creepy when she does it. “Huh. Grand-mère didn’t mention that would be a problem. I wonder if she doesn’t know. Any ideas?”
Jaxon steps forward and says, “Move back a little and let me try.” Then he spreads his legs and places his hands out, like he’s going to physically move a bed or something, but focuses on the wall about five feet in front of him.
“Oh, this I’ve got to see,” Hudson snarks and positions himself beside his brother. “Baby brother is going to start moving rock…in a tunnel.”
His words don’t register until I feel the ground start to rumble, small pebbles and dust falling from the ceiling all around us.
“Stop!” Macy shouts, and thankfully Jaxon does. “I don’t think it’s safe for us to try to break this wall down, Jaxon. It may be an illusion for the dragons, but it is very real to the rest of us. You might end up causing a cave-in.”
“So how are we going to get through it, then?” Xavier asks.
“Now, I’m just spitballing here,” Hudson says as he wanders over to the wall and leans a shoulder against it. “But it seems that maybe the best way to take out a magical wall is with…magic.” He cocks one brow at me. “If only we had a witch handy…”
I stick my tongue out at him because, really, sarcasm is what we’re missing right now? Then I turn to my cousin and ask, “Macy, do you think you can break through the wall’s magic?”