Her eyes narrow as she thinks about it, but then she squares her shoulders and says, “You bet I can.”
She pulls her backpack off her shoulder and starts rummaging through it. “Grace, can you help me with these?” she asks as she pulls out eight candles and places them equidistant in a large circle. “Okay, everyone, stand inside the circle.”
Once we’re all inside the protection of the circle, she casts her spell, and the candles begin to burn. Once she’s satisfied with their flames, she points her wand at the wall and calls the elements. The wind comes slowly, blowing softly and gently down the tunnel. Macy starts to chant, her voice getting louder and louder with each line of the spell. The wind picks up, and at one point, I even feel a fine mist of water spray across my skin.
The wind picks up again, the flames on the candles growing higher and higher, and the very earth beneath our feet starts to tremble.
That’s when Macy raises her wand, her arms open and face raised to the ceiling, and says, “Illusions great. Illusions small. Find a door within this wall.”
The wind picks up even more, howling through the passageway so hard and fast that I’m sure it’s going to knock us down. The flames on the candles shoot straight up to the ceiling.
“Good job, Macy.” There’s a grudging respect in Hudson’s tone that’s usually absent when he talks about my cousin—or about anyone, for that matter. And that’s before she lifts her wand above her head and points it straight up as she chants so low and fast that the only words I can make out are “heat,” “cleanse,” “burn.”
All of a sudden, lightning flashes down, and I scream as it connects with Macy’s wand. But my cousin doesn’t even flinch. Instead, she just stands there, seconds ticking by as her wand absorbs every molecule of energy the lightning bolt can deliver.
Only when the lightning has dissipated and the wind and rain and fire have died down does Macy point her wand straight at the part of the wall where Eden and Flint say the Dragon Boneyard should be. And with a flick of her wrist, she unleashes every ounce of the power she’s just absorbed.
The ancient stone rumbles and creaks as it trembles under the incredible power Macy is directing at it. For several seconds, I think the ancient dragon magic is going to hold, but then the first rock falls. Soon, the entire wall starts to crumble away, huge pieces of rock and stone raining down around us.
As the first stone threatens to hit us, Eden and Flint throw their arms up to protect their heads. But Macy’s magic is too strong, her power resonating throughout the entire passageway and sealing the circle—and everyone in it—from harm.
More rocks and stones fall, littering the ground all around us. But not one pebble makes it through Macy’s barrier; not one stray rock so much as touches the fire that encircles us. And when the lightning finally dissipates, when Macy’s spell finally winds down and the dust from the falling rocks finally clears, the wall is gone.
And in its place is the opening to a giant glowing cavern.
82
Ride or Die
Macy quickly closes the circle with a gratitude to the elements, and then we walk through the craggy opening in the wall that Macy just created.
“What the hell is this place?” Xavier demands as we all look around in a combination of fascination and horror.
“Salvador Dali’s wet dream, apparently,” Jaxon answers, wrapping an arm around my waist and pulling me close.
“Right?” I agree. “I’m just saying, the second I see one of those creepy clocks, I’m out of here.”
We’re standing in a small alcove at the edge of a cliff overlooking a massive cavern. The cavern itself is about three hundred feet across and appears bottomless. And if that’s not terrifying as fuck, it’s also super dark. But there’s just enough light coming from whatever is beyond it for me to see the sharp and craggy rock formations jutting out from both sides.
“You definitely don’t want to fall into that,” Mekhi comments as he peeks over the edge.
“Not even a little bit,” Macy answers.
I step closer to the edge, too, and something about the change in perspective makes me realize that the glowing area across the cavern is actually an island and the cavern is a bizarre kind of moat surrounding it.
More, the island itself is filled with massive—and I mean massive—white bones. Which is creepy, yes, but what else do you expect when you sign up to go to a Dragon Boneyard? But what’s really fascinating about the whole thing, what has all of us staring at it like we can’t believe our eyes, is that the bones are so huge that they provide an enormous reflective surface when the dim light hits them. It is that reflection that makes the island look like some kind of paranormal nuclear reactor.