Courting Death | Book 3

E L E V E N

E L E V E N
Journey To The Old World

WITH A DRAMATIC wave of his hand, Wilhelm began to read the words that were carved into the stone, his tongue curling around the language smoother than he could speak English. It seemed like a second nature to him, something that he had grown up doing. In other words, it was most likely his native language. Perhaps it is not so much as a dead language as we humans had thought after all.

The edges of the stone began to crumble, dust flying in wild directions as a strong continuous gust of wind blew out from within wherever the stone was blocking. I gasped in shock when Dimitri took a step in front of me, shielding me with his body as I curled into his chest in an attempt to shut the dust and debris out.

There was a strong rumbling sound and I could feel the earth beneath my feet beginning to shift and reshape itself. Though my eyes were not opened to witness the phenomenal event, I could feel it tremble against every single fiber of my body.

In a split second, as soon as the shift came, it was gone. Silence engulfed all four of us as the earth moved back into place. When I opened my eyes and peered out from Dimitri's hold, I could see a large opening where the stone once was, a pile of rubble on the ground.

"The stone stays broken?" I asked dumbly, gesturing towards the remains as we stepped into the dark hole.

As if to answer my question, once we were all through, the ground began to shake once more. Each piece of the broken stone began to levitate into the air, piecing themselves back to where they once were as I gasped. Darkness returned, filling the entire place when the last slab was slotted back into its place, the dead end back to where it once was.

A soft glow came from my side in three different distinct colors, and this time I immediately knew that it belonged to the tattoos of the three out of four brothers.

"How convenient it is for you guys to glow," I remarked, patting Dimitri on the shoulder.

He smirked, lips twisting into a crooked smile as he shook his head.

"So, why is it that the rock doesn't stay down? Wouldn't it be easier for you guys if it stayed down?" I asked, casting the stone one last look.

"It is to keep out trouble. The heart of Hell contains heavy magic which ill-doers might wish to harvest. And since only a limited number of us can speak and understand Biblical Hebrew, it is a sort of password for safety purposes, I suppose." Calvin explained with a wave of his hand.

"We must proceed. We're wasting precious time by just standing here."

Step by step, we began to tread down the path once more, following the lead of Calvin and Wilhelm as Dimitri and I stayed at the back of the group. He had slipped his shirt back on, dusting the specks of dirt off from the opening of the gates with a wave of his hand.

I couldn't help but pout a little when he made the decision, knowing fully well that my splendid view was now covered and gone. Dimitri must have noticed my expression for he had a smug smile on his face, lips turned beautifully happy as he reached for my hand.

"No need to pout, princess," he simply said with no further explanation. At his words, I blushed a bright scarlet red.

"No need to be delusional, Dee. Who said I was pouting?" It was a blatant lie to his face and in an attempt to hide my bright red face from his view, I walked a little faster right by Wilhelm.

The red-headed man smiled wistfully when I approached his side and I could tell that he was desperately trying to hold something from me; knowing him, it would probably be a snarky comment or a flirtatious joke. Nevertheless, he kept quiet, content with just the display of a mysterious glint in the corner of his eyes.