Extraordinary (The Extraordinary Saga #4)

Chapter 11

"Holy shit."

The words escaped Rowan before she could process anything other than what was in front of her face.

"Rowan?" It was Luna; Rowan could see her head peering down the hole she had created. "Are you okay?"

"You've gotta see this," she answered. When Luna remained where she was, Rowan added, "It's not far down."

It was true. The jump had only been about ten feet, enough to make her wince but not far enough to do any damage.

Rowan took the coin in her hand, squeezing it tightly in her pocket for comfort. It felt more alive than usual, if that was even possible.

Luna jumped first, her eyes widening at the sight of the cavern walls. Rowan had been stunned too; they were lined with veins of gold.

The color of magic.

"Whoa," Luna whispered, the walls of the cave reflecting off her dark eyes.

Onyx was next, and she had a similar reaction. Caeden came last, and his eyes simply widened at the sight of it.

"Luna," Rowan started, looking down into the cave's dark depths. "Can you-"

"Sure." The cave brightened a bit, and Rowan saw the reason why: Luna had called a small sphere of light that was now hovering over her hand.

"We should split up," Onyx suggested, noticing how the cavern continued on in both directions. She craned her neck one way, trying to get a glimpse of something ahead. Even with all the shadows around, she couldn't feel anything specific, just a general map of the tunnel. She turned the other way but had no better luck. "I'll go with Luna and you two go the other way. These have to lead somewhere."

With four nods, the group split up. When Luna's light was far enough away that Caeden couldn't disagree with the darkness, he reluctantly held out a small flame.

It helped, especially because the golden veins didn't have any light of their own. When Caeden sparked his fire, only then did the gold in the wall seem to glow, taking in the light he had provided. All the while Rowan ran her hand along the wall, feeling the unseen, unspoken energy built up inside it.

What are we heading into?

By now, Rowan figured she and Caeden were headed to what she had taken to calling "The Source". But that didn't mean she knew what Luna and Onyx were seeing. Were they also following the energy in the wall to an unknown end? Or was there nothing over there, its power only growing stronger on this side of the cavern?

When Rowan tried to pull out her phone to call them and find out, there was no service. Figures, she thought. Either the mountains blocked the reception, or the mass energy around them did.

Caeden's flame had died down some, but Rowan was afraid to ask him to put any more energy into it in case he started a raging inferno. Even so, Caeden seemed to sense the decrease and held out his other hand, now also lit.

Had he not done that, they would have walked right past it.

The veins stopped suddenly, merging into a large star-like shape on the wall, carved out of the same gold stuff as the veins. On both sides of the star, the golden veins extended out - what they had followed to find it in the first place. If Rowan thought those little veins were full of power, then the star etched into the wall was a nuclear explosion.

"This has to be it," she whispered to Caeden. He just nodded. Sweat had formed on his forehead and the fires in his hands danced, growing dangerously and then shrinking back to a reasonable size. He felt the power of the star, too, and it was taking a toll on his flames.

"Luna!" Rowan yelled down the cave, the name echoing over and over again through the cavern walls. "Onyx!"

There was no answer, or at least, not that she could hear. But she hoped the twins were coming. They would have a better idea of what to do. Caeden wouldn't be able to keep up the light forever, not if he needed a small, controlled flame. Better to have someone whose specialty was light itself.

To give Caeden a little leighway, she pulled out her phone and turned on its flashlight. Immediately his flames flickered out, and he relaxed.

"Thanks. Didn't think that would be so hard."

Rowan didn't understand, not really, but she nodded in agreement. It was powerful down here, that was for sure. Caeden wiped his brow and pulled up his phone flashlight as well, eyeing the star on the wall with concern.

"What is that?"

"The Source," Rowan guessed. "But I think there's only one way to find out."

She pulled the coin from her pocket, feeling it buzz and shake in her grip a million times more than ever before. She held it up to the star, then, instinctively, pressed the two together.

The wall rumbled - opening up, perhaps? - but before anything major could happen, the coin was ripped out of Rowan's grip.

"Sorry," a new voice said, male, his footsteps now audible. "But I can't let you do that."

Rowan shot a panicked glance at Caeden to make sure he witnessed that as well. The coin had just... flown from her hand, like telekinesis or something! But it didn't feel like telekinesis, necessarily. It felt more like...

Wind.

Rowan shined her phone flashlight in the direction of the other person - no, people, as she discovered. There were two of them. A boy and a girl, both squinting from the light. They were around her and Caeden's age.

Rowan thought about screaming for the twins, but if they hadn't heard her before, they wouldn't hear her now. And the two other people had come from that way, so they most likely had come from the hole that Rowan created. What that meant was they were out of luck if they wanted to make a break for it.

Despite his bravado, the boy seemed as shaken as they were. Scared, even. And the girl, who Rowan guessed was his girlfriend - their hands were locked together - had a wild look in her eyes, but she didn't quite look like she'd seen a ghost.

Neither of them, nor Caeden and Rowan, noticed the girl hiding in the shadows.