Balam: Virgo the Pure (Trials of the Zodiac Book 2)

SUNFLOWERS IN THE FROST

BALAM

Rashid was different than Kai and Jalen. He was stoic to the point that nobody tried to converse with him. He ushered us into town in the yellow convertible and pointed us exactly where we needed to go. Before going to his place, he bought us a few sleeping bags and food. He lived in a small apartment with spare decorations. We showered and returned to his car refreshed and ready for a trip into the woods.

He drove off out of the city and into the desert. The speed of the car didn't beat back the heat. He took the crowded highway, and I noticed the statue we had seen in the video thirty minutes into our trip. Rashid drove as quickly as he could, leading us to a pile of rock formations with bright yellow caution tape blocking a dark entrance. A sign to the side was written in Arabic. Rashid parked, and we got out with our bags.

I watched as Rashid walked over to the stones and ran a hand over the surface before saying, "People go missing in this cave all the time. It's too dangerous for most rescue teams to go more than thirty meters in. Many military personnel think or call themselves explorers and end up in Jotunheim, too far from civilization. The last time I went there, bones littered at the entrance."

"How far from a town is it?" Kai asked.

"I watched as Rashid walked over to the stones and ran a hand over the surface before saying," Rashid replied.

"And what exactly is in the woods?" Jalen asked apprehensively.

"If we're lucky, it'll just be a ground sloth. If we aren't, depending on the country, it could be anything from dinosaurs to a pack of dire wolves," I answered.

Rashid took the lead, ducking under the yellow tape with his phone's flashlight as our guide into the cave. I followed them, and Jalen and Kai were close on our tails.

"I have only been here once before when I saved the kid caught up in there from this Mammoth who was about to step on them. Luckily, I could get him out of there and then back home," Rashid said.

"They should do a better job of fortifying the entrance if they want to keep people out," Kai murmured. That was the last time anyone talked for a while. We crawled through the narrow winding tunnels that randomly stopped her sharp turns. Without the flashlight, we would have been running into every wall. Though I wasn't entirely sure about that, Jalen seemed perfectly comfortable in the darkness at the sea when you couriered us to the barrier of Atlantis.

We had been climbing and bending ourselves backward for hours, Rashid telling us to use our noses as a guide. It took me a while to understand what he was saying. Having Jalen so close made scenting anything complicated. He always smelled like sea salt, and I smelled like the forest or flowers, depending on my mood. Kai was the first to catch a scent, saying it smelled like the freshest air he'd ever breathed. Kai told us to stay still, then stomped against the stone surrounding us. He had been practicing his sonar-like sensing ability since the cruise ship. He took the lead, navigating us around pitfalls and dead ends. Abruptly, he stopped at a hole in the ground. It was dark; only the sound of dripping water and the scuttling of unseen creatures made it out of the abyss.

"I went through the Yggdrasill portal from here last time. We made it," Rashid exclaimed. It was the first time he had put a motion into his voice, so we all turned to look at him. His face grew a little red with us staring down at him, and I noticed for the first time that I could see all of our breath. It made sense; even summers in Jotunheim were brisk.

I was the first to jump downward, landing in a small pool of water that only reached my ankles. Jalen followed me, then Rashid. Kai was the last to jump, and he landed with a thud. A ghostly light emanated from an opening to the right, and around that opening, I noticed glowing yellow runes. It was a script of the elves, a sign that they had to use magic here. They had made the portal and never closed it. It wasn't something unheard of. They like to leave paths for themselves throughout all the realms.