Macy point her wand straight at the part of the wall where Eden and Flint say the Dragon Boneyard should be. And with a flick of her wrist, she unleashes every ounce of the power she’s just absorbed.
The ancient stone rumbles and creaks as it trembles under the incredible power Macy is directing at it. For several seconds, I think the ancient dragon magic is going to hold, but then the first rock falls. Soon, the entire wall starts to crumble away, huge pieces of rock and stone raining down around us.
As the first stone threatens to hit us, Eden and Flint throw their arms up to protect their heads. But Macy’s magic is too strong, her power resonating throughout the entire passageway and sealing the circle—and everyone in it—from harm.
More rocks and stones fall, littering the ground all around us. But not one pebble makes it through Macy’s barrier; not one stray rock so much as touches the fire that encircles us. And when the lightning finally dissipates, when Macy’s spell finally winds down and the dust from the falling rocks finally clears, the wall is gone.
And in its place is the opening to a giant glowing cavern.
82
Ride or Die
Macy quickly closes the circle with a gratitude to the elements, and then we walk through the craggy opening in the wall that Macy just created.
“What the hell is this place?” Xavier demands as we all look around in a combination of fascination and horror.
“Salvador Dali’s wet dream, apparently,” Jaxon answers, wrapping an arm around my waist and pulling me close.
“Right?” I agree. “I’m just saying, the second I see one of those creepy clocks, I’m out of here.”
We’re standing in a small alcove at the edge of a cliff overlooking a massive cavern. The cavern itself is about three hundred feet across and appears bottomless. And if that’s not terrifying as fuck, it’s also super dark. But there’s just enough light coming from whatever is beyond it for me to see the sharp and craggy rock formations jutting out from both sides.
“You definitely don’t want to fall into that,” Mekhi comments as he peeks over the edge.
“Not even a little bit,” Macy answers.
I step closer to the edge, too, and something about the change in perspective makes me realize that the glowing area across the cavern is actually an island and the cavern is a bizarre kind of moat surrounding it.
More, the island itself is filled with massive—and I mean massive—white bones. Which is creepy, yes, but what else do you expect when you sign up to go to a Dragon Boneyard? But what’s really fascinating about the whole thing, what has all of us staring at it like we can’t believe our eyes, is that the bones are so huge that they provide an enormous reflective surface when the dim light hits them. It is that reflection that makes the island look like some kind of paranormal nuclear reactor.
It’s beautiful and terrifying at the same time.
“The Boneyard is right there,” Flint says, as if the giant skeletons aren’t enough of a tip-off.
“I’m okay as long as there are no rats,” Macy says, stepping a little closer to the edge of the deep, yawning abyss in front of us as she strains to see across it. “Tell me there are no rats.”
“Pretty sure if there were rats, they would have fallen in by now. And been, you know…” Xavier mimes being impaled, complete with tongue hanging sickly out of the corner of his mouth.
“Now, there’s something you don’t see every day,” Hudson comments dryly.
“Pretty sure we could have done without the visual aid,” Eden says to Xavier.
“I don’t know. I think it adds a certain je ne sais quoi,” Mekhi jokes, right before he picks up a large rock from the ground and throws it as hard as his vampire strength will let him. It barely makes it a third of the way across the divide before falling down, down, down…
We wait silently to hear it land, but it just keeps falling. Which isn’t concerning at all.
Then again, I suppose it’s no more concerning than the long, sharp rock spikes protruding from the walls and, presumably, the ground.
“So, you know what I’m thinking?” Xavier says as he claps Flint on the back.
“That you really don’t want to fall in?”
“Obviously. But I’m also thinking that it’s finally the dragons’ turn to save the day.”
“Finally?” Eden shoots back. “Don’t you mean always?”