‘I like you, Ember,’ Antonia declared, sat next to her in the back of the car. ‘You’re a woman after my own heart.’
Ember glanced at Jonah in the front passenger seat. In the distance, she could see the first signs of the tunnel.
Antonia smiled across at her. ‘A hard negotiator. But a smart one. Both attributes I appreciate. I think I’m going to like having you around.’
She caught a glimpse of Jonah and Antonia subtly exchanging glances in the passenger mirror, the smirk on Jonah’s face betraying how much they were humouring her.
Ember looked through the windscreen as the car came to a standstill.
‘I’m not so stupid as to not consider making this advantageous for my friends, Antonia. As long as you know that’s the only reason I’m willing to be a part of this. Not that I had any option to the contrary from the way you put it.’
‘My job is to protect what my family have spent decades in this district securing. To put us first. The Hordas clan will always come first. That’s what families do: they look after their own. Blood above water – every time. And in time, you’ll come to understand that. You’ll see why we need to do this. That this really is the only way to survive.’
The car pulled over. The driver opened the door for Antonia, Jonah promptly following by doing the same for Ember.
She met his gaze as she stepped out, her skin crawling at his proximity despite the door being a barrier between them. His sustained gaze echoed his arrogance, that sense of him believing himself to be untouchable.
She would do everything she could to prove him wrong. To prove them both wrong.
She broke away first, unable to look at him any more. The prospect of him having his intentions towards Casey, of what he planned to do, curdled her stomach.
Just like the last time she’d been there, Ember looked down the mouth of the tunnel, deep into the darkness beyond. Except, this time, she could only hope there were eyes looking back at her: Nate’s eyes as he kept himself concealed out of sight.
Easily three hours had passed since he’d left her. It should have granted him enough time. And, so far, Antonia and Jonah had bitten her request. They’d gone exactly where she needed them to go, aided by their attention being on making sure no one was following them, not on the prospect of Nate getting there ahead of them.
‘Here?’ she asked, feigning ignorance. ‘There’s nothing here.’
‘There’s always been something here,’ Antonia said. ‘For as long as can be remembered.’
She indicated the way ahead; indicated for Ember to join her and Jonah.
Antonia and Jonah flanked Ember as they all headed into the darkness of the tunnel, Jonah carrying a small metal case that he’d brought with him. Two others marched ahead of them, their torches on full beam. The two behind followed suit.
As Antonia and Jonah stopped outside the barred opening in the rock, one of the front-running bodyguards headed deeper into the darkness ahead, the other flanking to the right of the gateway. Of those bringing up the rear, one marked the left of the gateway whilst the other turned his attention back to the tunnel opening. This was well-practised protocol. This was routine.
‘This is a gateway reserved only for us,’ Antonia said. ‘No one outside of our bloodlines can pass through. You don’t need to let your eyes deceive you.’
Antonia stepped forward, walking straight through the bars as if they weren’t there – just like Ember herself had done the night before.
Jonah held his palm out in his sister’s direction as a directive for Ember to follow next. ‘Walk ahead as though nothing is there.’
She knew she had to show at least some hesitancy – some wariness and apprehension. ‘What’s in there?’
‘Absolutely nothing you need to be scared of,’ Jonah reassured her.
As if she would accept any reassurance from him.
Ember scanned the gateway, only too aware that Antonia was watching her from the darkness on the other side. After giving a few plausible seconds of further hesitation, Ember stepped through.
The same breeze whipped through her hair as last time. Her stomach flipped again as if an elevator had suddenly dropped two floors. She stabilised quickly though, in time for Jonah to follow behind her.
‘No doubting who you are now,’ Antonia remarked, flashing her a smile. And no doubt the final confirmation they had wanted, hence them complying so easily with her request to go there. ‘Come this way.’
She followed behind Antonia whose torchlight led the way.
‘After you,’ Antonia said, indicating the top step that Ember knew led the way to a spiralling descent to the cavern below.
If she hadn’t known where they led, if she hadn’t been so convinced Antonia and Jonah needed her alive, she would have had to have been dragged down there. Instead, she took the lead as Antonia had requested – neither her nor Jonah seemingly willing to risk going ahead of her.
As they crossed the first cavern, the familiar flicker appeared on the wall at the end of the tunnel that lay directly ahead. A flicker Ember now understood. A flicker that intensified as they turned left again down the narrow stone corridor.
Instantly, exactly as it had last time, the warmth of the roaring furnace gave the room the humidity of a hothouse, amber flames dancing around her feet as they reflected on the rock. Perspiration coated her forehead and the back of her neck already, though she had no doubt the heat couldn’t be held solely responsible.
Antonia stepped up to within two feet of the archway. ‘It never goes out,’ she said. ‘Not for as long as one of your bloodline is still alive. That’s how we discovered you existed; that you were out there somewhere. We came here expecting to find this fire dead when Aidan was murdered, yet it still raged. That’s when we set out on a mission to discover a way to find you.’
And had found the existence of the locator.
‘That’s what this is? Some kind of beacon?’
‘No, that’s only the bonus. The furnace exists to protect what’s inside.’
‘Which is?’
‘Green prehnite, Ember. The crystal responsible for the gift of prophecy. The crystal that enhances precognition. An extremely rare version of it. That’s why this fire exists: to make sure no one can get their hands on it except for a very particular type of elemental. A very particular descendant.’
Ember’s chest tightened as she looked into the flames. Her attention snapped back to Antonia, to Jonah.
That was the reason they needed her. It was nothing to do with her ability to predict what was going to happen – it was her ability to get her hands on what they needed in order for them to be able to do so.
‘What is it you expect me to do?’
‘We expect you to go in and collect it for us,’ Antonia said.
Fire: that was her element. Fire was what they expected her to be able to control.
‘How exactly? By somehow extinguishing the furnace? By clearing a path?’
Antonia and Jonah exchanged glances, the meaning unclear.
‘You don’t need to clear a path, Ember,’ Antonia added, looking back at her.
‘You expect me to go in there?’ she exclaimed, pointing back at the archway. ‘You expect me to walk into a blazing furnace?’
Both looked at her as if they were merely suggesting she step out of the front door to be greeted with a warm, sunny day.
‘It’s completely harmless to you,’ Antonia declared. She frowned pensively. ‘You didn’t know that?’
‘I’ve never been compelled to shove my hand in a hot flame to test a theory I didn’t even know existed,’ Ember remarked. ‘Oddly enough.’
‘But you were never told about your affinity?’
‘No. And even if you’re right, even if I do have the ability to control it, I’m not a practising witch. I’ve never practised. It takes years for elements to be able to hone their skills. I won’t be able to control anything of that intensity.’
‘You don’t need to control it. As I said, you merely need to walk through it. That’s all that’s required. That’s all we’ve ever required. Simple. Painless. And quick,’ Antonia remarked. A smile swiftly followed. ‘I keep telling you: none of this is intended to bring you harm. In less than a minute, you can change your life for the better, as well as the lives of those you care about. All you have to do is go in there.’
Nate waited against the wall in the darkest depths of the tunnel.
Amidst the silence, he did what all his kind could do: he slowed his heart rate and slowed his breathing with it, making him impossible to detect.
In the distance, he saw Ember enter with Antonia and Jonah, two bodyguards in front of them, two behind.
An alarm call from any one of them and it was over. Antonia and Jonah would suspect foul play and his and Ember’s only chance would be gone. Worse, Ember would be trapped behind the gateway with them – with Antonia and with Jonah – and he’d have no way of getting to her.
He couldn’t fuck up. There was no way he was going to fuck up.
Two of the guards flanked the gateway. The other two manoeuvred away, one heading back towards the tunnel opening, the other heading in his direction.
He watched Antonia pass through the gateway first. There was a pause, some hesitation from Ember, before she followed. Jonah entered last.
And she was gone. Gone from his reach. Too far gone for him to be able to do anything to help her now, other than what they had planned.
‘You don’t like working with other people, do you, Nate?’ Ember’s father had said to him, clumping into the passenger seat of the car, his gaze scrutinising.
‘I’m glad it shows,’ Nate had remarked, hoping they’d keep conversation to a minimum.
‘The Hordas clan tell me you’re the best.’
‘I am.’ He’d paused. He’d met Frank’s gaze in the dim interior. ‘Because I don’t work with anyone else.’
Frank had laughed, his nonchalance considering what they were about to do grating more than he’d liked.
‘And why not, Nate?’
‘Because I don’t trust anyone enough to put my life in their hands,’ he’d said, meeting Frank’s gaze once more, before driving away.
Driving to end up meeting the very girl who he now depended on being able to pull this off – for both their sakes.
Because however successful he was, he still needed her to succeed on the inside. If they stepped back outside the gateway to find their guards dead, it was game over. He wouldn’t be able to take a shot at them even if he wanted to. The logistics, the timeframe, were too greatly in their favour. They could get all the backup there that they wanted. One call, and it was over.
One call, and he knew he’d never see Ember again.
‘If you screw this up, Ember,’ he’d said.
‘I won’t,’ she’d promised him. ‘You do your part and I’ll do mine.’
‘How long?’
‘We worked it out that it took me roughly five minutes to get down there, right?’
‘Going slow, yes.’
‘So we can expect it will be approximately the same this time around. I can get back up in half that time. I don’t know how long it will take once I’m down there but, to be safe, I think you’re going to need to have your part done within twenty minutes maximum of us passing through that gateway. Can you do that?’
He’d sighed heavily before folding his arms. ‘Twenty?’
She nodded.
‘We need to make sure we get you to that border in time, Ember. That’s the deal. So I’ll get it done in fifteen.’