Stone of Destiny(56)

Liam gritted his teeth and charged forward again only to be thrown back once more.

I tried to run to him, but Ethan pulled me back with a warning look.

“Getting you to come after me was far too easy, really,” Aoife said, shaking her head. “Speaking of the binding within Samantha’s earshot started the chain of events exactly as my mother predicted. Samantha would go running to find her daddy, you’d come rushing in to save the day, with no idea how implausible the idea of you outsmarting me might be.”

A wave of understanding rolled over me. Saoirse let Aoife out of the fey globe. She saw everything, planned every move like we were all life-size chess pieces. But why?

I struggled against the vice grip Ethan had on my arm. I wanted to hurt Aoife. Whether or not I was just a foolish human, I wanted to make her pay for all she’d done to Liam and my mother. And me.

“There’s just one little detail that didn’t go according to plan,” Aoife said, tapping her lip. “You two weren’t supposed to make it through.” She looked at Ethan and me as if we were a terrible nuisance.

“Through what?” I asked through gritted teeth.

“The veil between our worlds,” she said, like she was talking to an idiot. “The binding ceremony needs far more fháillan than just the Stone of Destiny.”

“What is this place, Aoife?” Liam said, his hands curled into fists. “Why are we here?”

“This is the last of the fháillan mines,” Aoife said, looking around. “The power in this place will allow us to forget about your human attachments. Permanently.”

I managed to get out of Ethan’s grip and charged toward Aoife. She held her hand up and I just stopped. I couldn’t move my arms, my legs...I couldn’t even blink. Over her shoulder, I saw two figures approaching, but I couldn’t make out who they were in the dim cave.

Aoife laughed, dark and melodious. She picked the dagger up off the stone floor and walked toward me. Liam was frozen where he stood, a murderous glint in his eyes.

“No,” Ethan said behind me. “Please, no.”

Aoife’s gaze darted over my shoulder to where Ethan stood, but she continued toward me, holding the dagger out.

One of the figures behind Aoife came into view. Ciarán. He held one finger up to his lips and threw out his other hand. Samantha came to his side, eyes wide and panicked.

Aoife pulled back the dagger, just five paces from me. Ciarán brought his hand down and a shower of stalactites from the ceiling of the cave came raining down between me and Aoife.

“Run!” Ciarán shouted, loud enough to be heard over the rocks and rubble cascading to the cave floor.

Aoife fell to her knees and the hold she had on me shattered. I didn’t need to be told twice. Spinning around, I searched for a way out of the cave. Liam hollered something, but I couldn’t make out what he was saying. Ethan grabbed my elbow and we sprinted toward a tunnel in one of the far corners.

It grew darker as we ran, but we didn’t slow down. Adrenaline coursed through my veins and my only thought was to keep moving forward, as far away from Aoife as possible.

The tunnel opened into a narrow passageway that crossed a deep canyon. We skidded to a stop just before we came to the passage.

“We have to make sure it’s safe,” Ethan said.

“There’s no time,” I said, glancing back over my shoulder. Liam hadn’t come up behind us.

“We’ll make time,” he said, searching the cave floor. “I just want to throw a rock out there to see if it holds.”

He found a rock the size of a basketball and hefted it out onto the passage. The rock broke apart, but the passage held strong.

“Come on,” Ethan said, holding out his hand to me.

We moved across the narrow walkway, one tiny step at a time. I kept my eyes trained on Ethan’s back. If I looked down, I’d lose my balance and I couldn’t see the bottom of the canyon.

“Easy,” he whispered and I realized how hard my grip on his hand was.

I swallowed. “Sorry.”

“Almost there. Just a few more steps now.”

I placed one foot in front of the other until we got to the small landing on the other side.

I crumpled in relief once we made it. Ethan wrapped his arms around me, keeping me upright.

“We aren’t safe yet,” he said into my neck. “We have to keep going.”

Footsteps from across the passageway stopped us. I turned to see Liam come to a halt outside the tunnel.

“It’s safe,” Ethan called over.

Liam nodded and started running across when the walls over his head came crumbling down. He was propelled forward, hanging by one hand to the stone passageway.