Chapter 97 Confusion, argument, and fear

Chapter 97 Confusion, argument, and fear

Eloise

“Uhm…” I glanced at Aeron frantically.

“We can explain.” Aeron answered.

“Well, you better have some explanation for this.” Aidas said and folded his arms.

To say the three males were angry was the understatement of the century, they were livid. I could practically see the smoke coming out of Carden's nose, which is saying a lot because he had the tightest leash on his anger.

The three of them are each holding a bag and they look rugged, which only made their anger look more terrifying.

Aeron and I seem to have lost our voices and just stared at them. When it seems like neither of us would give the heirs the explanation they wanted, Byron stepped forward,

“What part of stay in the archives did you not understand?” Byron said through gritted teeth.

I swallowed hard.

Aeron cleared his throat and clasped his hands behind his back. “We didn't think we will find anything useful up there. It didn't seem like anyone would keep something truly incriminating where anyone could just see it.”

I wanted to give Aeron a pat on the back for still managing to stand his ground despite looking so scared.

“And you couldn't just trust that we will find everything necessary?” Carden added.

His eyes had turn into a fiery gold. I've never seen a Fireborn lost their temper before and I wasn't looking forward to seeing it. My eyes darted around, looking for possible escape routes if that happened.

“No offense to the three of you, you're great warriors, but you can't be everywhere. We just thought we should help cover more ground quickly.” Aeron added.

Byron seem like he wanted to say something but paused. He exchanged glances with the other heirs. I listened closer to hear the sound of something rumbling and grunting. It sounded a hell lot like the dragon we saw earlier.

Aidas sucked in a breath. “It doesn't seem like either of you noticed but you aren't just underground. You're in a tomb. A warped, magical tomb…”

“No time for explanation, Aidas. We have to go right now.” Byron said, his tone laced with urgency.

“What's going on?” Aeron asked.

“Ask questions later. We have to go now!” Carden snapped.

I swallowed whatever questions I had and was about walking out with them when I suddenly remembered.

“Wait… the books.”

“Leave them!” Byron said.

“But they came to us. They could be important.” I said, hoping to convince them.

“Leave. Them.” He bit out.

I took in the seriousness on his face and the slight panic in his eyes and nodded. I was about to take a foot out of the place when the books that had came to you flew at me so fast I had to dodge. Carden didn't act so quickly and all the book, about five, hit him in the face.

I covered my mouth in shock. Carden sucked in a breath. He seems like he was one more provocation away from losing his temper and burning this whole place to the ground.

“Well, that was a literal slap in the face.” Carden grunted. He rubbed his forehead slightly.

“It seems the books didn't want to be left behind.” I said.

Aidas crouched down and picked one of them. He read the title and his brows.

“They shouldn't be left behind.” He said and turned the front cover of the book towards us.

I froze as I read the title of the book. Byron's head whipped towards him, I immediately knew he was talking about that conversation we had in Feylen all those weeks again about our ancestors.

The Early Faes, the book title read.

“What are ‘the early faes’?” Carden asked with a puzzled expression on his face.

All eyes turned to me. “Why is everyone looking at me?”

“You seem like you know something. What do you know?” Aidas eyes narrowed.

I opened my mouth to speak when the sound from earlier came again, this time louder. “I'd love to explain but you guys were right. We should leave. I'll explain everything later.”

They all nodded in agreement. Aidas slung the bag he was holding over his shoulder while Aeron and I picked up two books each. We began walking away.

“That's the direction we came from. Aren't we supposed to be going in the other direction?” Aeron asked.

“That's the direction we came from. And trust me, you do not want to go back there.” Carden responded and visibly cringed.

“Well, there's no exit this way, we can tell you that. Just darkness and a pissed off creature.” Aeron said.

“There's no exit this way as well.” Carden cried.

The five of us exchanged glances. Aidas was the one who said what everyone was thinking, “Great, so we're trapped underground.”

A dreadful feeling settled inside me. I did not like how this night is turning out. First, we fell from goddess knows how far from the ground. And now, we're trapped underground.

This is by far the worst festival I've ever attended and this is my first festival.

“How did you two get down here anyway?” Byron asked.

“Well…uhm… we sort of… fell.” Aeron stuttered.

“You fell?” Byron repeated.

Aeron and I nodded slowly, then he said, “Eloise and I entered through that dark, forbidden place in the archives and sort of just fell into this place.”

“There was no stairs or anything that could suggest how anyone had gotten down before?” Aidas asked.

I was about to tell them about the dragon we saw when there sound came again, this time louder and nearer.

“Let's just shadowshift out of here. I'll go get Raihn, Tina, and Lidia.” Aeron said, his voice laced with panic.

He shadowshift before anyone could object. He appeared from the wall less than a second later and banged his head.

“Ow!” He rubbed his forehead.

“Sure, Aeron. We totally forgot about the Shadowborn heir among us who is powerful enough to shadowshift all of us away from this shit show.” Carden said sarcastically.

“W…what just happened?” Aeron looked at his hand. “Is my power gone?”

“No, your power is not gone. Whatever magic is in this tomb prevents shadowshifting. Which means there has to be a way out and we will find it.” Byron nodded explained impatiently.

“But we can't go this way, it's dangerous.” I chipped in before any of the heirs could suggest we start our search from that side.

I quivered slightly, remembering the black dragon we saw few moments back.

“Trust me, the path we're coming from is way more dangerous. No way I'm going back there.” Carden countered.

“But how are we gonna know where to go if we can't go that way or that way?” Aeron questioned, already freaking out.

“We're gonna have to find a way somehow. Just not going back there.” Carden pushed.

“And we are not going that way either.” I folded my arms.

“Well, I guess we're staying here then. At least until whatever is making that noise gets frustrated, comes out, and just kill us all.” Carden scoffed.

“Can all of you just stop arguing for two minutes and let's figure this out?” Byron cut in.

Carden, Aeron, and I exchanged glances and released a sigh of frustration almost at the same time. Any arguments I had in mind had died inside me.

“Thank you.” Byron breathed. “Now, let's all just try to figure this out. First, Aidas, Carden, and I will continue what we were doing before we found the both of you…” he pointed to Aeron and I.

“We had found Tatia's papers and seem to have lost our way back. Then we fought and escaped a creature I've never seen in my life and I hope I never will again...”

I took a look at his rough appearance and realised they must have had a hard time with whatever they encountered. I wondered if it was worse than the dragon we saw.

Byron continued, “So we will continue that, tracking our steps and hopefully don't get killed. What do you think Aidas?”

That was when all of you realized that Aidas wasn't amongst us anymore. We had all been so lost in the argument that no one realized he wasn't away anymore.

“Aidas?”

“Das?” Byron and Carden called simultaneously.

All of us started calling Aidas name together. Different scenarios of what might have happened to him flashed across my mind and none of them were particularly good. I tried to shake off the negative thoughts.

“I’m here! I'm here!!!”

I breathed a sigh of relief as I heard that voice and saw Aidas coming from the direction I had specifically said not to. He had a big smile on his face.

“Where the fuck did you disappear to? You had us all scared.” Carden said.

“I'm sorry, but I figured it out.” Aidas sighed.

“What?”

“There is no exit.”

The silence that followed his words was immediate. It was almost like we all just held our breath.

Byron broke the silence first and asked the one rhetorical question we were all thinking, “What do you mean there's no exit? There has to be.”

“There's none.” Aeron shook his head. “This place, this tomb, it was never built for anyone to find it and escape. It was built specifically to keep things in or those who wandered and found it. They could never leave. Only a selected few can.”

“Please tell me the royal blood falls under the selected few who can.” Carden said.

Aidas blank stare was answer enough.

My heart had stopped so many times today but this time, I genuinely froze. My tongue turned lead and my legs felt too weak to hold my weight. But still, I forced myself to ask that question.

“So we're trapped?”