For the first time, Tiberiu moved, turning toward Adalasia, who stood by the window. “She needs to move away from there. She is a beacon.” He didn’t speak directly to her. Ancients often didn’t address the lifemates of others.
Adalasia didn’t wait to be asked or told to move. She did so immediately.
Tiberiu nodded and turned back to Sandu. “Continue, please.”
“I was in the shadow realm, in the Cave of Fire, and was chanting my oath of honor. A voice joined me. A male voice. Then I heard a feminine voice. I tried to get her to come with me out of there, but she refused. Adamantly. The male was not her lifemate, but she still refused. She was definitely a Carpathian female. She knew the Carpathian language, I imagine through him.”
Tiberiu was silent for a long while. Sandu was uncertain whether he believed, after centuries of not hearing a single whisper of information on his sister, whether or not he could process what Sandu told him. Or dared to believe. Or even cared anymore.
“You go to stop these demons from coming through the portal?”
“Yes.”
“It is possible you will encounter this woman again?”
“Yes.”
“Then I will accompany you.”
The wind blew off the mountains in small gusts, as if it were gasping for breath. The smallest traces of sulfur could occasionally be caught and then would be torn away on the next draft. Adalasia felt the guardians and Sandu moving in tight formation around her. Tiberiu seemed to concentrate a certain amount of his attention toward her protection as well. She was much freer than they were to get a feeling for exactly what they were up against. This was no vampire. There was no lair for the undead concealed in the cave system hidden in the mountains.
Sandu’s father had discovered something evil making its way into the world. There was something else Domizio had known happened here in these mountains. Something he sacrificed his daughter’s future for—and she agreed to it. Adalasia knew Liona agreed because she felt Liona’s empowerment every step of the way. She was no shrinking violet, cowed by her father or any other. She had her own power. She made her own choices. In what she had done, she had a choice; her father hadn’t made it for her.
The higher they climbed into the shadowy mountains, where the trees disappeared and the boulders began, the more she began to experience flashes of images through the goddess card pressed so tight against her heart. An older woman weeping, her arms around a tall, gorgeous younger woman. The younger woman attempting to console her. It was obvious to Adalasia this was Madolina, Sandu’s mother, with Liona in their last moments together. Adalasia wanted to weep with them. She was aware of Sandu sharing her mind and knew he experienced that same intimate vignette with her. That made it even more difficult.
All at once, she felt heat move through her body, like a bright hot sword. The rush of light. Her hair crackled with energy. “We’re close to a portal. We have to look for an entrance to the cave. The coordinates given to you by Luiz have to be close to this, Sandu,” she announced.
She stopped walking, uncaring what the others did. They had flown through the air until they were in the mountains, and then they set down to cast about for signs of demons or the undead. They studied all rock formations carefully.
Her hands went up, and she began to cast in the four directions, chanting softly to Mother Earth and calling for aid against the epitome of evil. In one of the pockets of her coat, she pulled out several keys that appeared to be forged of different colors on the light spectrum. She ran her fingers lightly over them and looked toward a tall dark gray boulder that was covered in dirt and fungus. It was strangely shaped, almost like a coffin. To the left of it was another boulder, a little squattier but in much the same shape, with a square top rather than the pointed one the right boulder had.
The boulders gave off a low sound, one harsh and abrasive to the ear. The note was much lower than most humans would be able to actually identify. She tuned her hearing to the exact sound, following the notes backward. They weren’t just set into the boulders but were inside and continued downward. She could tell by the way the sound faded.
Adalasia stepped close to the boulders, and immediately, Sandu swept her back. The guardians inspected the boulders, moving around them carefully, looking at them from above and even from below the ground. She tried not to be impatient, but there was a sense of urgency now that they were close to the end of their journey. She knew this was where Sandu’s family had been when Sandu had been sent away. She felt it.