"Forget it." The words came out much harsher than I'd expected, ringing around us to break the silent spell.
"Cass, I don't want to either, but-"
"I'm not going back there," I told her flatly. "Not now. Not ever."
"STOP!"
"I agree with Miss Sencen," Sandor said gruffly. "This is a place your parents have expressly forbidden you to go to. A place they built a special gate around that only them and I can open. You should be glad I haven't barricaded you in your room."
"She's a Beguiler!"
"Woah, Gigantor's hardcore. And... what... why would..." Keefe's smile vanished and his face darkened. "This is where it happened."
"Y-yeah," Sophie said after clearing her throat. I felt like my own throat was closing up, choking me.
"Cover her mouth."
The Cliffside gate was in plain sight of the sack the Black Swan had left. And they had planted the sack in a lock. The gate that the gnomes had built at Edaline and Grady's instruction had a special lock as well. Only the Ruewens and Sandor could open it. The Black Swan clearly wanted us to get Sandor to open the lock and go back to the place that haunted my nightmares.
"Lady Gisela?"
"Uh... isn't Sandor, like, the only person that can open the gate besides Grady and Edaline?" 'Cause I don't think he's gonna do it for you," Keefe pointed out.
"Cass could always Beguile him into doing it," Sophie said jokingly. Sandor glared at her, and then me. I didn't respond.
"How do you know my-"
"Can we bribe him with something?"
"I'm right here," Sandor growled. Keefe and Sophie ignored him, continuing their discussion on how to make the burly goblin unseal the lock.
"I know how to open the gate," I said quietly. Everyone stopped what they were doing and turned to me.
"You said she only came here alone."
"How?" Sophie asked.
"There's a backup password to unlock it. I heard Grady and Edaline talking about it months ago," I muttered under my breath, dropping my head. Sophie and Keefe waited for me to continue. "Look, I know what it is, too, but I'm not going to use it."
"She does!"
"Cass, we have to!" Sophie pleaded. "Don't you want to save Alden?" I shot up. Alden. How could I have forgotten about him? This was all about bringing Alden back. No matter how much it hurt... I had to do it for him.
"Just kill her!"
I shuddered, remembering the blank faces of the Vackers. The pain so clear in Biana's eyes. They needed me.
"We'll be right there with you the whole time," Keefe reassured me as I thought." I sighed.
"Okay."
"We don't need her anyway."
Sandor looked unhappy, but went with us to the Cliffside gate anyway. As we approached it, my heart began to race. Even though we were still far from the cave where Sophie and I had been taken, the sight of the cave awakened more traumatic memories.
"She's useless."
We stopped at the sealed gates. The lock was a small silver orb that dangled on a chain between the two parts of the gate that kept us from going inside. I stepped up to it and whispered the password I'd heard Grady and Edaline talk about.
"Jolie."
The silver locked flashed green and clicked open, falling freely to the ground. Sandor threw open the gate and motioned for the rest of us to follow behind him.
"Leave this cave and turn yourself in to the Council."
My legs felt numb as we made our way down the narrow, twisting pathway down the steep cliff. Sophie was jittery, and I could hear her teeth chattering as we neared the sandy cavern below.
"C'mon, guys." Keefe clasped my hand in his. "Gigantor'll keep us safe, right, big guy?" Sandor snorted, as he usually did whenever Keefe addressed him. Sophie didn't look any better. In fact, she looked like she might throw up.
"I'm sorry, Sophie."
My blood turned to ice as we turned the final corner and stopped in front of the largest cove. Sandor inspected each of the dozen or so caves connected by the large one before coming back to confirm that we'd be safe inside.
"So, are we going in?" Keefe asked after a few seconds of Sophie and I being frozen.
"Yes," Sophie said, her voice slightly wobbly.
"I'm sorry I couldn't save you."
Click.
Darkness. That was what I remembered from the last time I'd been inside the cavern. Before that, voices, and black cloaks. My own voice, trying to Beguile our kidnappers, and the voices of the attackers. I'd tried not to relive that day, which was why I'd never questioned any of the events that had taken place. And I still didn't want to.
Why did they mistake me for my mother? Did they know her when they weren't... whatever, or did they just know of her? They knew what she looked like, at least. Why didn't they kill me when they had the chance? At least one of them had wanted to. I doubted I'd ever know the answers.
Sophie and I looked around the cave for any more clues from the Black Swan. It was dark, but I could still make out the shadows flittering around the rocky walls. The silence was overwhelming, having seemingly swallowed us as soon as we'd stepped inside the cavern. Sophie pointed to the ground as we slowly made our way further inside.
The sand had been disturbed. Recently.
I swallowed, my throat dry, breath rattly. Someone had definitely been here before us. A little pile in the back caught my eye. I grabbed Sophie's shoulder, making her spin around and see it too. It was a tiny clump of twigs and branches, left on a nook. A nest. Fitting, as it was placed here for the Moonlark.
Sophie reached inside and pulled out a miniature box, the latch marked with the sign of the Swan. She turned away to open it. I waited, quietly, patiently, as the seconds trickled by slower than I thought possible. Time passed in front of me, stretching out with endless elasticity. Finally, I heard a small sob.
"Soph? Are you okay?" She didn't respond for a second that felt like an hour. I walked around to face her. In one hand, she held the open box, which had a little black swan charm, roughly cut. In the other, she held a note.
With shaking hands, she turned it around so I could read it. It had two lines of text on it. One that I could tell was the one that had made her so emotional. The other, one I'd heard too many times from Sophie and from the Black Swan, one that we'd never quite figured out.
We can fix you.
Follow the pretty bird across the sky.