if I had my magic,” Matt said.
I sighed. He poured my blood on the lock. Immediately, the doorway creaked open, revealing a tunnel, and the whole chamber shook. In a loud whoosh, a vacuum of air sucked us forward.
Matt caught the edge of the trilithon frame with one hand and caught me with the other. Past the doorway, in a burst of orange light, the whole tunnel exploded with fire. If we had stepped in, we’d have been barbequed. Rock from the ceiling fell like grenades in the chamber behind us. Retreat became impossible. Stray bits of shrapnel rock threatened to knock us into tunnel, the mouth of hell.
With a nod, Matt let me go as he tried to dig around in his bag with one hand. Another rock slammed into the ground beside the trilithon. A broken piece hurled itself at the bag, causing Matt to lose his grip. He managed to grab the all-important guidebook, but the rest of the bag flew into the tunnel and exploded. Fire decimated the magical vials in a nice rainbow of color. He cursed. “We can’t get through. We’ll have to go back.”
More rock fell from the ceiling and crashed to the ground. It crushed a human skeleton into smithereens. Apparently, Matt wanted me to die a virgin. I didn’t budge from the trilithon.
I shouted, “We’ll be pulverized.”
“What other choice do we have?”
Water pooled at my feet, almost urging me forward. I looked down. The stream disappeared into rocks under the trilithon. It was funneling into a miniscule opening that ran under the tunnel. Yet somehow, part of it now swam into the trilithon to submerge my feet. Like a snake, it slithered into the tunnel of fire. Steam sizzled where the water fell. I said slowly, “Didn’t the stories say something about Seetha going through fire?”
“After her rescue from Rawana, she had to prove her virtue to her prince by walking through fire.”
“How virtuous do you feel?” I asked him.
Matt drew the cross from his pocket. Holding it with one hand, he stuck his other hand out into the fire. His jacket started flaming. He stamped it out, using the cross.
He muttered, “Apparently, my virtue has been declared questionable.”
More water rose against my feet. It spilled relentlessly into the tunnel. “If my blood opened this door, this is the key past the tunnel. We have to prove we’re knights. We have to fully step inside.”
“All right, if that’s what you choose.”
I blinked at his sudden acquiescence. “So if we die here, Merlin, if we never save the world because of what I choose, you’ll be all right with that?”
“You were meant to be here, sword-bearer. You’ve gotten us this far.”
Yes, I had gotten us this far, and he had to pick a cave in the middle of nowhere in Sri Lanka, only minutes away from certain death, to tell me such things. Boys.
I held out my hand to Matt. He took it.
We stepped into the burning blaze. The flames tickled me like soft feathers, but didn’t burn. We passed through them quickly and came out into a smaller chamber. It took me a minute to absorb that we were still alive. I couldn’t help it—I giggled. “I was right.”
“I could do with a little less surprise in your tone,” Matt said dryly. He held the cross up in the air. The metal glowed a faint blue in the dark.
I looked back at the burning tunnel. “Do you think it was the cross?”
“I don’t know.”
Water bubbled loudly at our feet.
Matt drew another orb out of his jacket and tucked the cross inside. Sparkling with magic, the orb floated up high. Light shimmered on a small waterfall that fell from an opening in the rocks above. I could only assume the stream from the first chamber somehow wound its way to the top here. The water dead-ended into a small pond ahead of us. Three tunnels to its right invited us to explore. Matt sent the light into the first one. The orb illuminated a long tunnel.
Recognition flared through me at the familiar curvature of the rock. My chest contracted. I fought to breathe. Matt took my hand to steady me. A whistle of wind flew through the tunnel and I heard the Minotaur’s laugh echoing along with it. My fingernails dug into Matt’s palm. “This tunnel. I recognize it. It’s identical to the ones in Aegae. The Minotaur’s tunnels.”
“Good,” Matt said.
“G-good? Are you crazy?” He hadn’t seen the Minotaur’s massive form. My