Reapers -- The First Familiar (Reapers Chronicles Book II)

21 - Anger Issues

Both of us couldn’t answer. My cheeks strangely grew warm.

I pretended to clear my throat. “Uh… How about that tour?”

Luci led us to a winding dirt stairway between two rock faces. It was dark and we had to make a beeline because only one person could pass at a time. Mud and chunks of rock had almost obscured the steps, making it hard to keep my footing. There was nothing else to hold on to but the vines crawling all over the rock faces. Though I doubted they would be able to hold my weight without being uprooted.

After nearly half an hour of trekking, we reached what appeared to me as a cliff. A small clearing was near the edge of the three hundred foot-drop. Several boulders were arranged like seats around an unevenly smoothed table.

The sun was already halfway to the horizon, its rays intense. It touched my skin and that was the only time I realized I was sweating. I wasn’t too tired though. The hike was enough distraction to keep my mind off things.

Beckoning us, Luci sat on one of the rocks. Her fair hair was gold with the sunlight, it looked as if she was almost glowing. Yeah, she was beautiful even by angel standards and that was saying a lot.

With a hand, she shielded her face and looked ahead. “Belial’s farm goes as far as your eyes can see,” she said.

The farm was about as big as ten football fields. I only realized that when we got to the highest point of the farm. Most part of it was leveled patches of land in between the hills. There, vegetables and grains were planted. While on the sides of the hills, herds of animals freely foraged.

I sighed. I was both amazed and overwhelmed. “Then, I guess we better start now.”

Luci shook her head. “Don’t worry. The harvest isn’t until two weeks from now. We can still… take it easy.”

A soft breeze blew against us, flicking my hair in several different directions. I was desperately trying to hold it in place when I saw the three gigantic peaks. They were leaning against each other and the point where the tips of each met was directly over the town. It stood there looking like the framework of an unfinished pyramid.

It wasn’t the first time I had seen it, but from this point, it looked more beautiful. Breathtaking, really. I couldn’t help but wonder if it was manmade and if it was placed there for a purpose.

“We call that the Triangle,” Luci said. She must have seen me looking.

“You don’t say,” I mumbled, my eyes still fixed on the peaks.

“Those rocks are actually lodestones,” she gladly went on as Vincent started to show the slightest interest at the Triangle. “As of this moment, the Triangle appears as a strange rock formation but they actually serve Halja a very vital purpose.”

Vincent squinted through the sun’s rays. “That’s a pretty big lodestone for such a small island.”

“Indeed. Eldest gave it to us, so that we could fulfill our mission—the reason why she sent us here,” Luci nodded approvingly. “Look at those.” She pointed at the group of spiky rocks Belial was sitting on.

From here, it looked very small. I noticed there were two others strewn way across Belial’s spot and each of them was directly in between the bases of the Triangle’s peaks. They weren’t normal rock formations after all.

Hunkering down, Luci picked up a twig from the ground and smoothed the dirt with her dainty hand. She used the twig to draw three large dots in a triangular formation, then three smaller ones in the same triangular pattern but inversely.