Laila dropped her arms to her sides. “And how do you suggest we do that? If the elves do have it, I doubt they’ll give it to us now.”

Keeley didn’t have a chance to respond because the gray mare was bumping her in the back with her muzzle.

“Did they find it?” she asked the horse, which was when Laila and Gemma glanced at each other. Gods, had Keeley finally lost all reason? Was that why she was so calm? Because of insanity? Not all insane people began tearing their clothes and crying to the heavens. Some became very calm . . . just before they started destroying everything.

The horse didn’t seem to respond to Keeley in any way that Laila could see, but Keeley then asked her, “Do you know where they are? Good. Take me to them.”

Keeley mounted the gray mare and rode off, forcing the rest to rush after her.

They followed Keeley for miles until she reached a cave opening in a mountainside. The demon wolves stood outside that opening, obviously waiting for her.

She dismounted from her horse and crouched in front of the lead wolf, her hand stroking his neck and shoulders.

“Did you find it?” she asked.

The wolf nodded its head, his eyes leaving a brief—and disturbing—trail of flame as he did so.

“Thank the gods. Show me.”

“What the hells is going on?” Laila demanded before Keeley could run off.

“Are you talking to those things now?” Gemma wanted to know.

“I’ve always talked to them. They’re my friends. Now come on.”

“We’re not going anywhere with you until you tell us what’s going on.”

“Sichar’s gold.”

“What about it?” Keran asked, surprising them all because she was actually paying attention for once.

“The wolves found it for me. That’s what they were doing while we were talking to the elf lord.”

“In other words,” Gemma reasoned, “you sent them on a mission?”

“Yes!” Keeley cheered.

“And that doesn’t bother you at all? That they understood exactly what you wanted?”

“Why should it?”

“Gods, Keeley!”

Keeley quickly held up her hand. “I’m not having this conversation with you yet again. We don’t have time for it. How long before the elves figure out we’ve found this place?”

“I’m guessing not long,” Keran put in before yawning; she was already looking for a place to sit down and get more sleep. The woman slept a lot.

“We are not following demons into a dark cave that could have all sorts of traps and spells ready to eviscerate us!”

Laila had to admit . . . Gemma had a point. The wood elves had strong magicks. It was doubtful they would just bury something as precious as Sichar’s gold in the middle of a cave and then leave it without any protection.

“Look, just stay here,” Keeley told her sister. “I’ll be right out.”

“Then I’m going with you,” Caid piped up but Laila immediately grabbed his arm.

“You,” she said, looking at him long and hard, “are not going anywhere near the inside of that cave.”

“I’m not letting her go in there alone, Laila.”

“And I’m not going back to our mother and telling her that you were killed inside a cave because of demon wolves.”

“Laila—”

“Stop,” Gemma ordered. “I’ll go with her. You lot stay here and make sure to keep the elves off our backs if they show up. Understand, Keran?”

Keran, who’d already sat down with her back against a boulder, and her eyes about to close, pointed at herself. “What are you coming after me for?”

“Because you can’t really keep watch when you’re asleep!”

“I’m tired!”

Quinn shook his head and laughed. “Just go. We’ll watch your back.”

Laila couldn’t help but cringe a little. “You sure about this?”

“No.” Gemma glanced after her sister, who’d already disappeared into the darkness. “But it’s not like I have much choice.”

* * *

Keeley already had two torches lit by the time Gemma found her sister. She took the one offered and together they followed the wolves, heading deep into the cave.

They traveled down dark tunnels and through dark caverns; carefully inching through tight crevices until the wolves led them to a very large but seemingly empty chamber.

Keeley, trusting as always, started to go right inside, but Gemma grabbed her arm and yanked her back.

“What are you doing?” Keeley snapped.

“Give me a minute, would you?”

Gemma let out a breath, closed her eyes. She tried to push all worries and distractions from her mind so that she could focus on one thing: whether there were any magickal traps protecting this space. She searched desperately, assuming the elves must have left something. If this was, in fact, where they’d buried their gold. Yet the more she searched . . .

“There are magicks here, but I can’t find anything inherently dangerous.”

“Like what?”

“Traps, you idiot. I have a hard time believing the elves have no protection on the gold.”

“Except you can’t find anything, yes?”

“Not anything that’s obviously—”

“Great!”

“Keeley!”

But she’d already entered the chamber, using her torch to light a few others that had been affixed to the walls.

Examining the sconces, Gemma could tell they’d been left by elves.

Once those few torches were lit, Keeley began searching the cave while the wolves watched her.

“This is crazy, Keeley.”

“This is our only chance to get King Mundric’s army. Unless you have money somewhere that I am unaware of so we can buy our own army.”

“What are we going to do here? Just start digging? That could take a century.”

“Stop being so negative. Why are you always so negative?”

Gemma cracked her neck. “Maybe because our baby sister already has an alliance with the elves. That’s a reason to be negative.”

Keeley stopped in the middle of the cavern. She stood still in the light when she looked back at Gemma. “How did you know? About Elouan and all that?”

“Because that elf was being such an asshole to us. I had a feeling he’d only act that way if he thought he had some kind of protection. Beatrix protection.” Gemma shook her head. “I have to admit . . . I really underestimated her. She’s good.”

“I didn’t underestimate her.” Keeley blankly stared off into the dark part of the chamber. “But I tried so hard, Gemma. I tried so hard to . . . I don’t know . . . fix her?”

“I know you did. But sometimes there’s no fixing—”

Gemma’s words faded off and the sisters slowly locked gazes. They both heard it. Coming from that dark part of the chamber.

Keeley raised the torch, trying to look farther ahead. That’s when Gemma could see that the ground they stood on abruptly ended a dozen or so feet away, leaving a gap between the ground and the chamber wall. It wasn’t the opening that had their attention, though. It was the sound coming up from that opening.

Gemma pulled out one of her swords and raised it, carefully moving backward. But not Keeley. No. Never Keeley. She walked forward, pausing briefly to light a few more torches near the crevice, curious as always.

“Keeley Smythe, you get your fat ass over here!” Gemma urgently whispered.

“I just want to see what’s making that noise.”

Gemma snarled and darted forward, grabbing the collar of her sister’s leather armor. She started to yank Keeley back, but her sister fought her. Refusing to stop leaning over the crevice and gazing into the blackness below.

“Keeley! Come on!”

“All right, all rig—”

Both sisters fell back, hitting the ground hard when a claw exploded from the crevice and landed on the ground, talons digging into the stone floor. Another claw followed. Both were covered in black scales with dark red sliding in and around the scales’ seams. Each claw also had a steel cuff on the wrist and chains hung from them, disappearing into the crevice where the rest of the monster resided.

The claws were so large, Gemma didn’t want to see the rest of that thing. She wanted to go. She wanted to flee. And she had to get her sister out of there. To safety.

“We have to go,” she told Keeley, pulling at her collar.

The demon wolves stood near the crevice, barking at what was pulling itself out.

Without thinking, Gemma accused, “They brought us here to die!”

“They wouldn’t do that,” Keeley argued, attempting to pull away from Gemma’s grip. “They brought me here for a reason.”

“Don’t be an idiot! Let’s get out of here!”

The wolves backed away, still barking as that thing rose from the pit. Eyes. Black eyes glared at them from over the crevice before the entire head made its appearance, followed by the body.

Scrambling, Gemma and Keeley crab-walked backward, trying to get away from it. The wolves continued to bark and howl, moving back but never running away.

Gemma felt fear. A fear she could never remember feeling before. It took all her strength and training to stop herself from running away and leaving her sister to her own stupidity.

Breathing heavily, the creature pulled itself from the pit and Gemma cringed at the look of it. Wisps of sad gray hair grew at the top of its head, as if it had been shorn and just never grew back. The head and claws implied a bigger animal but the beast’s torso was narrow. She could make out the ribs. Had it not been fed?

And gods, if it hadn’t been fed . . . how the sisters must look to that thing!

The chains from the wrist cuffs linked to a steel collar around its throat and more chains disappeared into the crevice. Perhaps it was also cuffed on its back claws.

Keeley was on her hands and knees now. “Gemma?”