WARNING!! This scene may contain spoilers for the Dragon Ever After series. If you haven’t read all of the books, you may want to proceed with caution!

***

“This is it?” Rory asked uncertainly.

Glancing around at his companions for confirmation, he found their reactions less than reassuring.

Beside him, Doane just shrugged.

A few feet away, Evie and her companion Gwen stared doubtfully at the misshapen hill in front of them. And the shadowy triangle that might be an entrance. Or could simply be a depression in the dull pile of rock and dirt.

Eventually, Evie glanced questioningly up at her soon to be father-in-law. “Are you sure we’re on the right island?”

Baird’s lips twitched with amusement when he nodded. “I’m the son of the Clan Chief of the Sea Clan. I heard all the stories and warnings about Cavern Island growing up. Every young dragon shifter in the Clan did. This is the place.”

“It seems the mystical legends of the island might be somewhat exaggerated,” Gwen said skeptically.

“There’s magic here, though. Isn’t there?” Rory asked. The soft buzz he’d learned to associate with esoteric power shivered in the air. But the whisper of power was so faint and unusual the sensation might only be his own wishful thinking.

Gwen nodded slowly. “Yes. There’s something here.”

“It doesn’t feel fey, though,” Evie added. Then frowned thoughtfully. “Or, well, not exactly.”

“But it does feel familiar,” her companion mused.

For a moment, they all stared at the shadowed entrance, as if an answer would suddenly appear.

“Well,” Evie announced determinedly and started forward. “There’s only one way to find out.”

 When Rory realized her intention, he scrambled to block her path.

“You can’t go in first. We have no idea what’s in there,” Rory reminded her. “If anything happens to you, Caleb will have my head.”

He’d hoped invoking her fiance’s name might give Evie pause, but she only laughed.

“Please. Caleb knows me well enough by now to know any trouble I encounter, I brought squarely on myself.”

“Doesn’t mean he won’t take it out on us, anyway,” Rory muttered, but Evie ignored him to continue making her point.

“Besides, if there is anything dangerous in there, it’s more likely to be magical rather than physical,” Evie reminded him, then gestured between herself and Gwen. “And magic is our area of expertise.”

It took nearly a quarter-hour of heated discussion before everyone agreed that Rory and Gwen should go in first.

The cave opening was just big enough for them to step through side-by-side. They paused a few feet inside and Rory held the flaring torch high until their eyes adjusted.

Squinting into the shadows, Rory saw enough to know the room was large and square. That the floor was made of some dark, chiseled stone. And the walls were painted with indistinct images and carved runes, interrupted only by a single wide archway in the center of each wall.

Cursing, Rory shoved the torch into Gwen’s hand and stomped back outside.

Ignoring the shouts of concern and the demands for answers, Rory glowered up at the hill. Recognizing that it wasn’t misshapen at all.

In fact, the shape was all too familiar.

“What is it? What’s wrong?” Evie demanded as her eyes darted between Rory and Gwen, who’d followed him out.

“I have no idea,” Gwen answered. “Nothing inside the hill seemed suspicious or dangerous to me.”

“It’s not a hill,” Rory bit out. “It’s an overgrown temple.”

It took a moment, with everyone squinting up at the mound in front of them. Eventually, though, Doane stiffened and he exhaled a soft, pained sound.

For the laconic shifter, the noise was practically a dramatic exclamation.

And it set off another round of questions that continued until Rory raised his hands.

“The entrance is identical to the temple of the Moon Blessed and Night Cursed,” he explained tersely, his voice raw with the tumultuous coil of emotions. “The place where our simple group of treasure hunters got into a pack of wolf-shifters.”

He waved his hand to encompass the overgrowth they’d mistaken for a hill. “Look closely. Underneath all the trees and dirt, the shape of a stepped temple is obvious.”

Evie turned to Baird and asked, “Do you know anything about this? “

“No,” he answered with a regretful shake of his head. “No one knows how old this place is. Or what’s inside. We just keep telling the same stories of strange magic and strict warnings to stay away. Technically, it’s not considered part of the Sea Clan territory. We’ve just always protected it from outsiders.”

“Why?” Doane asked.

“I don’t know,” Baird answer slowly, as if trying to figure it out for himself. “Tradition, I suppose. The only thing I’ve ever heard is that we were protecting it for–“

Baird broke off, eyes wide and startled before he continued.

“Kin. We were protecting it for kin. It wasn’t about ancestors or allies. Always kin.”

“Kin,” Rory repeated. “Like, maybe for wolfkin?”

“It’s possible,” Baird agreed.

Rory glanced at Gwen and remembered the story she’d shared with the pack about the origin of the kin. The silver disk that had changed his pack was only one of four ancient magic matrices. Each one capable of transforming a human into a shifter of one kind or another.

The same legend warned that at least one of those matrices could be used to control certain shifters.

If another matrix waited within this hidden temple, they needed to find it. And they needed to make sure no one else ever got their hands on it.

“Well, at least we know what to expect, once we’re inside,” Rory announced with a sigh.

***

This time there was no argument about who’d go first. Rory led the way through the temple passageways and up dark, narrow stairs identical to those in the Moon Blessed temple.

But what he found at the top of the steps was not.

In the forest temple, the heavy stone door had remained closed and impenetrable until the night of the full moon that changed everything.

Here, however, a man-sized hole had been smashed through the thick rock. The amount of power it must have taken to break through the solid stone was both awe-inspiring and a little frightening.

Inside the secret chamber, more painted images and carved runes covered the walls in graceful patterns. Flashes of precious metal and rare gemstones glittered among the unique designs. A promise of untold treasure just like in the room they’d found at the top of the forest temple.

And just like the forest temple, a precise circle in the roof opened the chamber to the sky above. For a moment, the memory of the full moon’s rays bathing the chamber in silvery light crowded out Rory’s awareness of the present.

But, unlike the forest temple, no wide disk of silver hung within this chamber. Only an empty circular depression sat empty on the wall where a shimmering curve of polished metal should be.

No one said a word, but the disappointment was palpable. Most of the trip to the island had been filled with doubts and uncertainty. But once they’d recognized the temple for what it was, the possibilities had seemed endless.

And finding nothing was a crushing blow

The let down of heightened expectations felt cataclysmic. But there wasn’t time to dwell. Even without recovering a matrix, there was a great deal they could learn from where one might have once rested. So the team spread out, studying runes and images in hopes of uncovering a useful bit of knowledge.

Rory found himself in front of the concave indentation, both discouraged and relieved. He very much wanted to make sure the matrices never posed a threat to his autonomy or to his pack. But, the last time he’d come face-to-face with one, his entire world had been reordered.

He wouldn’t change it, now. But it had taken years to come to terms with it.

It wasn’t something he relished experiencing ever again.

“Do you have any idea what do the symbols mean?” Baird asked, looking toward Gwen.

“It looks like the writings of the Old Ones I’ve seen,” Gwen admitted. Then added ruefully, “I’m afraid I was an indifferent student, but it seems this temple was dedicated to the Old One know as Moon. And that she was the architect of the matrix that created the wolfkin. I’m sure it once hung here.”

“Then how did it end up in the middle of the forest across the sea and a half a continent away?” Rory asked in frustration.

“The cult,” Doane answered immediately, looking unshakably certain.

“What cult?” Evie asked, curiosity bright in her eyes.

“The cult rumored to have built the temple to begin with,” Rory explained with a sigh. “No one knows for sure who they were. The most popular legend claims it belonged to an ancient cult of moon worshipers. Ones who despised the use of magic for mundane purposes. They believed power like that was meant for a deeper, more spiritual pursuits.”

“You think they stole it from here? Why? What was the point of moving it from one hidden temple to another?” Evie asked.

“If they knew it was here, chances are others did too. They may have wanted to make sure no one ever found it again,” Gwen suggested.

“Until we blundered our way in and discovered its true purpose,” Rory murmured.

“Do you regret it?” Gwen asked archly.

Rory grinned wide and shook his head. “Not even a little bit.”

“Hey, I think I’ve found something–” Baird’s excited announcement was quickly eclipsed by the grinding rumble of stone on stone. A moment later, part of the wall slid back to reveal a small alcove opposite the missing disk.

The buzz of magic ramped up as a waist-high onyx pedestal came into view. A shimmering silvery ball rested on the upturned platform like an offering. Instead of curving, sphere-like sides however, this ball was made up of dozens of hexagons fitted neatly together.

“What is that?” Baird asked.

“A prophecy stone,” Gwen breathed, shock and excitement vibrated in the words. “The Old Ones used them to glimpse the future. And the past. I thought they were a myth.”

“I’ve never seen anything like it,” Evie whispered, staring at the artifact with awe.

“I have,” Rory growled, feeling like he should have known.

Should have recognized the potential, even though he’d been barely more than kid whose entire world had just been turned upside down.

“Except the one I saw was gold,” he added. “It belonged to a spiritualist in Highcross.”

No one spoke. But Rory knew they were all thinking the same thing.

If this silvery stone was paired with the Moon disk, then a golden one might once have been paired with the Sun matrix.

So it looked like Rory’s adventure on Cavern Island was over. But a new quest had fallen into his lap.

 ***

 Rory’s story, RED WOLF HUNTING, will be coming in Spring of 2020. Sign up for my newsletter to keep up to date!

 And, while you’re waiting, check out the Extras page for more outtakes and excerpts!