grimaced. “Yes, though you should not have been able to. I had my cloaking ring on. I had planned on asking Prince Thorne but you gave me not a chance to.”
“Sorry.” I bit my lip. “I understand my new gifts that come with my Card, but these? They don’t feel arcana to me.”
He sighed and nodded. “They are not. I am not sure as to why you suddenly developed them, but they are harmless I would say.”
“They are pretty.” I shrugged.
Riah kissed my temple and backed away. “I need to get out of this cave so we can find the tunnel again.”
“Can find it?” I narrowed my eyes on his pretty face. “I don’t like the way you said that. I thought you could summon the tunnel at will?”
“No. I can detect it and open it, but not summon it.” He held his hands out and silver dust sprinkled around his hands. “But we have gone back far in the timeline of life, my own magic is weaker than usual so I cannot detect the tunnel from here.”
My pulse quickened. I held my hands out and tried to summon my magic but I got out even less than he did. My hands just shimmered. “I haven’t been able to use my magic for a while now.”
He paused at the entrance to the cave and looked to me. “Let is rest, Saraphina. Your Coven will heal you and do the rituals they must to embolden your full strength. I am with you now and I will not let any harm come to you…for it would break me too.”
I smiled and my face warmed. Before I could say anything, he winked and stepped out into the sunlight. Olli whimpered at my feet, so I bent down and picked him up. My arms groaned in protest but I hugged him tight to my chest. My whole body felt weak, yet gloriously happy at the same time. I glanced back up and saw that Riah had disappeared, so I cursed and skipped after him.
Olli and I stepped out into the glaring sun but it was blinding so I didn’t see that Riah had stopped until I slammed into his back. “Oh shoot, sorry—"
“Stop.” He held his arms, blocking me. “Something watches us…hunts us.”
A ball of nerves rose up in my throat and I tried to swallow around it. “Please tell me it’s a demon or Knights…”
“I wish.” He glanced at me over his shoulder. “Get back in the cave. Now.”
A chill went down my spine and then I heard it. The rustling of bushes all around us. I looked to my right and left trying to see what was hunting us, but I saw nothing. That high pitched whistling call I’d heard in the movies I’d watched with Bentley filled the air and I clutched Olli tighter. He whimpered in my arms but I didn’t care. There was no way I was letting him go.
“In the cave, Saraphina,” Riah growled. He swung his arms out and two long golden swords appeared in his hands. Light flashed and his gold armor covered his body.
The bushes parted and a dark shadow leapt out in front of us, dirt spraying in every direction like a wave. This monster was a quarter of the size of the T-Rex, standing about the same height as Riah, but it looked even more vicious with black talons with edges so sharp they glistened in the sunlight. The talons on its feet had to be the size of my foot and the first two curved into a claw for gouging.
“NOW!” Riah barked.
I didn’t want to leave him, but with Olli in my arms I was no use in a fight. I spun and lunged for the cave opening —
The dinosaur jumped in front of me. I gasped and slid to a stop. I glanced over my shoulder and my jaw dropped. It wasn’t the same one. There were two. This one had the same grayish-brown lizard-snake-like scaly skin as the other. I scurried back until I slammed into Riah’s back. My heart pounded in my chest. Olli trembled in my arms. The weight was getting too much to hold. The citrine crystal dangled between my wrist and Olli’s arm but I couldn’t reach it – and even if I could, I couldn’t hold a sword and Olli.
The dinosaur in front of me stuck its long nose in the air and its nostrils flared. Big puffs of air came out like clouds. Then