Free Final Prophecy 05 - Blood Spells by Jessica Andersen Page A

it, making her suspect that if she went with option B, she’d find herself back on the beach while he returned to El Rey alone. Which so wasn’t happening.
    Besides, she thought, her brain skipping from option to option almost faster than her consciousness could follow, if the door is Nightkeeper-made and keyed to the presence of mageblood, then it being open now is . . . She trailed off, not even daring to say it inwardly. But what if the barrier had reactivated, if only at this one small spot?
    If the magic was back online, then theoretically, she should be able to put Brandt to sleep, and even make him forget what he’d seen. Granted, she didn’t have her bloodline mark, but the sleep and forget spells were lower-level magic. She might be able to pull them off.
    So either the door was magic, in which case she should be able to handle the damage control . . . or it wasn’t magic, in which case she was about to go exploring with a seriously hot, mega-interesting guy, during the equinox, when her blood was already on fire. Win-win.
    Digging into her pocket, she pulled out her key chain, unsnapped the little emergency light, and gave it a flash. “What are we waiting for?”
    His slow, sexy grin was practically its own reward.
    They crossed the moonlit courtyard hand in hand, and approached the pyramid. The doorway, which was set in the center of the lowest tier, looked like many of the others she’d seen over the years, with carved pillars on both sides and a lintel over the top. She barely glanced at the carvings, in part because she knew only a few of the ancient glyphs and these were badly weatherworn. The larger part of her haste, though, was the hot excitement beating in her veins, urging her onward.
    Tangling her fingers with his, she used her pitiful little light to illuminate the darkness beyond the doorway. Behind them, fireworks pounded, the deep thuds reverberating in the heavy stones of the pyramid. In front of them, an ancient stone staircase led, not up within the pyramid . . . but down into the earth.
    Her breath thinned with excitement. On some level, she was aware that one or both of them should probably be bringing up some what-ifs—what would they do if the penlight died? What if the tunnel was booby-trapped? She wasn’t entirely sure if that sort of thing was fact or fiction. Was this really such a good idea?
    On another, more visceral level, though, she knew that hesitating wasn’t an option. If this was equinox magic, the doorway would shut in a few hours. And if it wasn’t . . . hell, either way, she was dying to see where the staircase led, and to see it with this man. Call it the hereditary bravery of a warrior bloodline, call it hormones, call it equinox madness; she didn’t care.
    Glancing at him, she lifted an eyebrow. “You ready?”
    He brushed his knuckles across her cheek in a soft, sensual caress. The warm glow of the penlight brought color to his face and lit his eyes, which were a deep, gold-flecked brown. He inhaled as if to say something, but stayed silent instead, and in that instant, she thought she caught a hint of reserve in his expression, the question of whether he dared share the adventure with her. But those were her thoughts, not his, she reminded herself. And there was nothing but the thrill of the hunt in his face when he grinned. “I’ve been ready since the moment I spotted you in the crowd.”
    She laughed. “Lame.”
    “Yeah, sorry. I’m pretty sad in the pickup-line department.”
    She didn’t believe that for a second, but the exchange had dispelled some of the tension, putting them back where they had been on the beach, daring each other to make the move. Then, he’d been the one to pull her into the darkness, headed for privacy. Now it was her turn to lead the way.
    Taking a deep breath, she stepped across the threshold. And started down.
    The air around them cooled as they descended the curving stone staircase in a silence broken only by the sound of