Vengeance of a Queen: The Resurrection of Queens, Book 2
Vengeance of a Queen: Chapter 21

All during the next day, my mind keeps replaying last night. Malcolm hadn’t been lying when he said I wasn’t going to get much sleep, and he sure as fuck hadn’t lied about fucking me until I couldn’t see straight. He pretty much fucked me into a damn coma. My body is sore and aching in all the right places. I’m surprisingly still turned on too. Gods, this witch is going to turn me into some sort of sex addict.

When we finally arrive at the spot where we’d felt the pulse of magic indicating the weapon, there isn’t much to see. There is just miles and miles of ice. Sure, it is pretty ice, but it’s still just ice. I crouch to tap a finger on the hard surface. It’s not just white here, there are gorgeous blues and blacks mixed in. With the next tap of my finger, I send some of my magic down into the ice, using it as a sonar. Kelly, Ayla, and Malcolm all squat to do the same.

I don’t feel anything as my magic penetrates the almost four miles of ice beneath my feet. I push a little harder so it can search through the hardened magma below. It takes a while, but I eventually feel my magic connect with the energy around the weapon. The image it casts in my mind has me believing that it’s a long, curved sword. I’m interested to see if I’m right.

I flick my gaze up to the other three around me. As one, they all look up and meet my eyes. “Did you guys meet the magic down in the volcano?” They nod. “Did it feel like a curved sword?”

“Yeah,” Kelly answers with a thoughtful look on her face. “I’ve never had my magic tell me the shape of an item before. When I’ve done magic like this in the past, it always came back as a blob.”

Malcolm nods his agreement.

“So we need to get through four miles of ice and roughly one mile of hardened magma.” Ayla stands, and so do the rest of us. She starts pacing and runs a hand through her hair as she thinks. “Did anyone feel if the volcano is currently active?”

“According to the website,” Connor replies, drawing our eyes to him as he scrolls on his phone, “the volcanos here are active, though the threat of an eruption is minimal. It looks like the volcanoes erupt every one hundred to one hundred fifty years. The last eruption was just a few years ago.”

Everyone seems to sag with relief. At least that’s something we don’t need to worry about. I just wish it was more reassuring.

“How are we going to do this?” I ask.

“I can hold the ice open,” Kelly volunteers. “I’d need someone to open the volcano, but I can hold the ice.”

“I’ll hold the volcano. It felt like it was in a cave system, and I doubt it’ll be as easy as magically opening a tunnel to it, so I’ll open it a bit off from the chamber where the weapon is.” Ayla looks at the rest of us. “Caleb and Connor will stay up here with us in case anyone shows up. I think Dante should stay up here too.”

Dante nods. Darcy moves over to stand next to me.

“Alright, I guess you two are with me.” I smile at Darcy and Malcolm.

“Ready?” Kelly inquires.

We all nod, and she takes a deep breath before holding her hands out, her palms facing the ice. The ground beneath us starts to rumble and tremble softly. She grunts quietly and then moves her hands to her sides as a wide hole opens in the ice.

Ayla steps up next to Kelly and mirrors her actions. I can sense their focus down the bond, which means we should get in and out as quickly as possible. Malcolm can sense it too, so he ushers us to the edge of the hole and we all glance down. Damn.

“I’m going to have my magic padded around us. Don’t worry about the fall,” Malcolm murmurs in reassurance. He grabs both of our hands, and we jump.

We fall for what feels like forever. I hadn’t ever had a reason to think about how long it would take to plunge five miles. Now I know—forever. I have no idea how high skydivers are when they jump out of planes, I’ve never had an interest in something like that, but if it’s anything like this, you have a lot of time to think about life…and death.

“Are you sure you are going to be able to slow us down enough for us not to splat like bugs at the bottom?” I ask. “Not that I don’t trust you or your magic, but this is a really long way to fall.”

Malcolm chuckles and leans in to kiss my temple. “Are you afraid of heights, kitten? You’re a flying panther.”

“Hey now.” I lift my finger in his face. “I’ve only just become a flying panther, and cats aren’t supposed to fly!” This time Darcy joins Malcolm as they laugh. I toss them both a withering glare before fixing my gaze forward.

“Don’t worry, kitten. We’re completely safe.”

“Uh-huh, sure.” I stick my tongue out at him. He grins at me.

A few silent moments later, I can feel us slowing. I glance down, a little relieved to see that the ground isn’t rushing at us in a way that suggests imminent death. I can scratch off dying like a bug on a windshield off my list of things to worry about.

Once our feet are firmly planted on solid ground again, we look around. There are numerous passages that sprawl away from the tunnel. The pull to the weapon is coming from our left so we head that way.

Before Malcolm can do it, a fireball appears in my hand to illuminate the caverns around us. No. Not caverns. Lava tubes. And they are huge. We all look around in wonder. This place is amazing and, admittedly, creepy.

We come to a dead end, and I cock my head. This is the right tunnel. I can feel it. So why the hell does it just cut off like that? While Darcy and Malcolm begin feeling the walls around us in case we missed a small turn off, I close my eyes and let my magic ease out of me.

Well fuck me sideways with a cactus.

“Don’t touch anything.” My voice whips out of me with so much force the other two still. “We need to be careful.”

“What do you feel?” Malcolm comes over as my eyes slide open. He looks confused and curious. “I can’t feel anything.”

“Neither can I,” Darcy mutters as she stands beside Malcolm.

“This place is booby-trapped to high heaven. We need to go through that wall.” I point to the wall directly in front of me. “But if we do, all sorts of unpleasant things will trigger. We might actually cause an eruption.”

Which, frankly, is not the way I want to die. The way the magic in here feels tells me it would be a slow and exceptionally painful death. I like living. A lot. Team not death, anyone?

“What if we don’t use magic to get through the wall?” Darcy questions. “I’m strong enough that I can dig through this fairly quickly.”

I’m…not sure. I take a step closer to the wall, causing Malcolm to stiffen in alarm. I wave him back before I gently place my hand on the rock surface. Instead of pushing my magic out of me, I try to pull the magic surrounding the weapon into me so I can read it.

I’m blown pretty far down the tunnel, landing on my back with a loud thud and a soft grunt. The back of my head cracks against the floor. Ow, motherfucker, that hurt. Malcolm shouts and rushes after me. He kneels beside me, wrapping his large hand behind my neck to help me sit up. I press my fingers against my temples and groan.

“I feel like I’ve been run over by a Mack truck.” My pulse pounds in my eyes and skull. A sense of nausea rolls through me, and I need to take a few deep breaths to get through it. Whatever magic is protecting that weapon, it does not want anything to get to the blade.

“Olivia.” Malcolm’s voice is firm and full of concern. “Look at me, kitten.”

My gaze swings to his and he curses. “I think you have a concussion. Your pupils are huge. How does your head feel?”

“Like it’s about to split open and ooze my brains out all over the ground.”

“Fuck. Darcy!” The vampire comes to my other side. “She’s most likely got a pretty bad concussion. I don’t want to ask you to do this—”

“I’ll try to dig into the wall, but you need to be ready to run, Malcolm.” They study each other for a minute before they both nod.

Malcolm lifts me bridal style, and my arms slide around his neck. Darcy returns to the end of the tunnel. She glances over her shoulder at us, making sure we’re ready to run, then turns back to the wall, cocks her arm back, and slams it into the rock.

At first, I think nothing happened, but then I notice that her arm is embedded up to her elbow. There are cracks in the wall that spider out from her, yet the wall doesn’t seem to attack her the way it did me. We all breathe out a sigh of relief.

We’re certainly not going to be able to waltz in there just easy as you please, but at least we can take care of the wall that stands between us. We’ll need to be careful once we make it into the chamber on the other side. The magic protecting the blade is extremely defensive and volatile. There’s really no telling how it’s going to react when we get into the chamber, and that makes me nervous as fuck.

Darcy finishes breaking through the wall. Thankfully, the thing hasn’t put up a fuss. It appears that, at least for this part, only magic triggers it to lash out. Malcolm places me on my feet. I’m feeling much better, although my head is still aching. Shifter healing is fast, but it seems a magically induced concussion takes a while to heal. Awesome.

We stand where the wall had once been, leery about stepping into the chamber before us. We don’t want to set the magic in here off, so we keep the fireball in the tunnel behind us. It’s dark in the chamber, but there’s a small platform that seems to be made from hardened magma, and there’s a soft glow coming from the top of it. It’s a bit too faint to confirm this is where the weapon is, but it’s a safe bet to make that assumption. That’s where all the magic is concentrated.

“So who wants to be the test dummy?” I’m only half joking. Someone is going to need to try to step up to that platform, and after what happened to me and the wall…I don’t want to be it. I instantly put my finger to my nose.

Darcy raises a brow at me and has an expression on her face that tells me she replaces my actions juvenile. I don’t care. I don’t want to get thrown down the tunnel again. She doesn’t look as though she’s just punched through a rock wall, so she can go.

Malcolm glances between the two of us and lets out a loud, dramatic sigh. “I’ll go.”

He takes a tentative step into the chamber and his shoulders relax when nothing happens. I let out the breath I hadn’t been aware I was holding, but I’m not foolish enough to think he’s going to be able to physically grab the weapon without some push back. We just need to determine how to disarm the magical defenses.

I inch my way into the room after Malcolm. The magical signature is oppressive, and it was clearly designed to make anyone who gets near the weapon uncomfortable. Malcolm shifts on his feet like he isn’t sure if he should move forward or not. Darcy steps up on my other side. Her face is scrunched as though she’s sucking on a lemon. We can all feel it in here.

“While I’m happy we haven’t triggered any poison darts or large rolling rocks, I’d really like something to happen so we can figure out what we’re dealing with,” Malcolm grumbles. He has a point. Springing a booby trap would certainly help us.

“Do you want me to try reaching out with my magic again?” I wince at the wobble in my voice. “I’m willing to take another for the team.” I’m really not, but I’m the only one of us who can feel magic this way.

I don’t wait for either of them to answer me before reaching out again. The magic pushes back, but it doesn’t seem threatened right now since I’m not really invading its space. I’m nudging its outer edges. The sound and feel of this magic has me thinking war drums, a steady pounding rhythm that amps up my adrenaline.

Since it’s playing so nice right now, I decide to try a different approach. I keep some magic on the outskirts of the defensive perimeter. At the same time, I start to charge up enough magic to essentially skewer the middle. I’m hoping it’ll either give us information on how to get around it, or it’ll cleave the protections in half, leaving a small strip for us to get to the sword.

“Get ready,” I say as I finish pulling in as much energy as possible to fuel my blast. “I’m not sure how this is going to react.”

“It would be great if you didn’t get yourself killed, kitten,” Malcolm mutters.

“I’m certainly going to try to stay alive, witch.” With that, I release my magic.