The Warrior King (Inferno Rising #3) - Abigail Owen Page 0,66

right there with her. Blake must’ve gotten water up his nose, his coughs echoing off the rock and water.

Feeling their way carefully, they stumbled out of the water, no doubt disturbing the glassy surface, which meant she’d have to wait for it to settle to use it again. Which was why she’d asked Aidan to bring the screen.

Meira lit her fire again, giving them enough light to see by. Immediately Sera reached for her, but stopped when Meira stepped back, not wanting to risk anything.

“Thank you,” she said, holding up both hands.

Aidan also gave her a nod of thanks.

“Of course.” Now for the others.

Soaked and shivering with the natural coolness of the cavern against her wet skin and clothes, Meira ignored the discomfort. Her fire would dry and warm her quickly. A glance around the room showed they were the first to get there. “Prop that against the wall. I need more light.”

Without question, Aidan did as she asked, and Sera blew fire over old-fashioned torches, adding to the flickering glow in the room.

Please don’t let me run out of juice too soon.

Igniting her own flames, washing the room in a red-gold hue, Meira turned the screen into her own searching device and started hunting through every room she could find a reflective surface in throughout the mountain, starting with the bedrooms she’d walked by to get to Tyrek’s rooms.

In short order, she pulled two women—unclaimed mates, she assumed—through and into the chamber with them. Then a boom rocked the mountain, and for a second she thought the whole thing was coming down on top of itself. The cavern held, dust and rock shaking loose to drop down over them. She kept looking, finding three more women before the first short single beep sounded and a door that blended into the cavern wall itself opened.

A green dragon stepped inside—a stocky man with burnished skin, black hair, and green eyes the color of jade in sunlight, which had tipped her off. One of Rune’s men? Aidan’s reaction, moving to help instead of attack, told her yes.

The green shifter had five more with him, including another man sporting a nasty gash across his forehead. Already healing. “I collapsed the back-tunnel exit,” the green dragon said, mouth a grim slash.

Sam was still outside—

No. Don’t think like that. He can handle himself. And if she let herself start worrying, she wouldn’t stop. “Who are we missing?” she asked.

“Who the fuck is she?” the green dragon demanded, looking to Aidan.

Old Meira would’ve gone quiet and let them work it out.

Not anymore.

“Someone who can help,” she said.

“Long story, Jiǎ,” Aidan said. “But she can help.”

Rather than waste time arguing, the man named Jiǎ stepped beside her. “How?”

Immediately, Meira showed him. That’s all it took. With painstaking slowness, given the urgency, lives on the line, quiet all around her as she worked with the dragon shifters on either side helping her search, they gathered their people. Some made their own way, others Meira pulled into the room, until they got everyone else inside the chamber.

Another massive boom, this one closer, was swiftly followed by the unmistakable rumble of falling rock shaking the room, sending more age-old dust falling on their heads.

“Jiǎ?” Aidan asked.

The green shifter shook his head. “Not us. That has to be them, trying to get out.” His grim smile set a cold rock in the center of her chest. “I might have melted the gears for the hangar door. They’re stuck in here now.”

Aidan grimaced. “According to Rune, nothing is happening outside. I have no idea how they are getting in.”

“How do we get out?” Meira asked.

Everyone else looked to Jiǎ. The clear leader in Rune’s absence.

Meira bit her lip at the distrust spinning off the man in her direction. But if this was Rune’s second… She stepped forward and put a hand on his arm without thinking it through until he tensed under her touch. “I’m a phoenix. They’re here for me. Let me out and wait long enough. They’ll be gone and you can get out.”

Of course, she’d likely be walking into her own death. But better one life than many. She’d already lost her uncle. Putting these good people at risk was unacceptable. She may not want to die, but knowing others did because of her would break her.

Jiǎ jerked his head back, disbelief slapping out at her. “You’d do that?”

“This is all because of me.”

The muscles under her hand relaxed, even though his face didn’t change. “We don’t sacrifice our