CHAPTER 182

He swallowed the lump in his throat, then looked at Cecilia. She shook her head sadly, then reached for him. He put his hand against hers, and was surprised at how warm it felt. It was hard to believe that she had a soul growing inside of her, using a piece of his soul like the impurity around which every raindrop formed.

Apparently he wasn't going to get away from Quetzalli's storm facts, even here. "I agree," he told the queen. "So when do we—"

A pink, powdery substance hit him in the face, and the world spun around him as he tumbled to the ground, sleep seeping into his eyes. As he drifted off to sleep, he hoped that things at the house were going better than they were for him.

Kisa stared in awe at the door of the Labyrinth. It had been ripped clean off its hinges and was curled up against the opposite wall. She walked inside and looked around, uncertain of where Marco could be, then moved to inspect the door a little bit closer.

There was no way that the wand did this. It had to be something else, and she thought back to the Grimoire that Dana had mentioned. It vaguely rang a bell for her, but she couldn't seem to hold onto the memory for more than a second.

Moving into the Labyrinth, she turned the first corner and felt the air leave her body. A large hole had been carved into the stone wall of the Labyrinth, creating a path that went through the next several walls. Marco had made his own shortcut apparently, and she was hesitant to follow him in.

Maybe she should just wait for him out here?

Somewhere deep inside the Labyrinth, she heard an explosion, followed by the sound of escaping steam. The glow of a fire illuminated the low hanging stalactites of the ceiling, and now she wondered if Ratu was okay. There was no way the Minotaur could have held his own against Marco, but maybe Ratu had a shot.

And maybe she could help.

Clenching her fists, she sprinted down the path, following the sounds of battle, wondering if there was a single thing she could do to help. The path deviated occasionally, and she had to take a detour around the river and find a place to jump across. There was no sign of Asterion anywhere, and several traps had been sprung without being reset.

Something large cried out, and the Earth trembled. Afraid that rocks might fall from above, she hugged the walls of the Labyrinth as she moved closer to the center until she finally found herself standing in Ratu's lair.

The place was destroyed.

Piles of blasted furniture and magical artifacts lay everywhere, and the naga herself was nowhere to be seen. There were scorch marks along the walls and floors, and the caverns that encircled the room had been caved in. Rubble had rolled down the hill, piling up into a hill against Ratu's magical pagoda.

Kisa moved along the edge of the cavern, her eyes constantly hunting for movement when a hand grabbed her ankle.

She hissed in surprise, then looked down to see that a patch of dirt and rocks by her feet had eyes and a mouth. When she knelt down, she recognized Ratu's features, her face distorted as if it had been ripped off her head and glued to a pile of rocks.

"My appearance is...unsettling," the naga wheezed, then blinked her eyes. "The shadow overpowered me with that damn book of his and I was forced to hide or be destroyed."

"Where is he?" Kisa asked.

"In my pavilion. He came down here looking for something. Help me over there." Ratu gestured with her head, and Kisa grabbed onto her body and pulled. The naga looked like a lump of clay that had been filled with pebbles, and moved like one, too. They were now huddled under the remnants of what was once a large table that she used for her experiments, and they were able to watch the pavilion through a gap in the wood.

"Thank you." Ratu sighed. "I don't suppose you saw Asterion on the way in?"

Kisa shook her head.

"I was afraid of that. Hopefully he wasn't killed, but I'm all out of hope. I'll be okay in a few days, but if I am found like this, I have no way to defend myself." The naga flicked her tongue out, then moved her head toward the gap. "Shh," she cautioned.

Kisa looked through the gap in the wood and saw Marco emerge from the pagoda. He scanned the room with dark eyes, the wand held ready in one hand and the book in the other. Seeing nothing of concern, he moved to a nearby table and set the book down, then reached into his pocket and pulled something out.

It was a necklace with a beautiful blue stone in it. It seemed to glow as he held it, and for a minute, Kisa thought he was hypnotized because he wasn't moving. However, she realized that he was talking to the necklace, and it seemed to pulsate in his hands in response.

"Shit," whispered Ratu. "I can't think of anything worse he could have found."

Marco retrieved something else and held it up near the necklace. It was a crystalline vial with some sort of black liquid on the inside.

"I take that back," Ratu muttered. "Kisa, he can't be allowed to take either of those things out of the house."

"What am I—" She pushed herself against the ground as Marco pocketed the necklace and the vial, then picked up the book. He left the way Kisa came in, and she turned her attention to Ratu. "What am I supposed to do about it?"

"You have a natural predisposition for avoiding discovery. You need to sneak up on him, knock him out, kill him if you have to." She groaned, and her body seemed to melt into the ground. "Get ahead of him, lay a trap, anything."

Kisa muttered to herself as she moved away from their hiding place. "I don't suppose you have something I can stab him with?"