Free The Summoning (Custodes Noctis) by Muffy Morrigan Page B

about his friend. He was terrified half the time he walked into a fight like this—probably most of the time, and still he was there, backing them up. When he had insisted on riding with the Hunt, he had no idea if he’d survive, and still he stood with them. Galen nudged him gently. “Or other idiots?”
    “Other idiots, of course.”
    They were making turns onto increasingly narrow roads, finally giving way to something that resembled a game track more than a road. Galen heard Flash swear as something dragged along the bottom of the car with a tremendous screech. They were traveling between two huge walls of lava, the way getting harder and harder to navigate. Flash was fighting the steering, trying to keep the SUV up on the narrow track, while the walls got closer and closer.
    “If I wasn’t sure Rob had gone through here in that Jeep of his, I would stop,” Flash said as a rock scraped along the driver’s side door.
    “ He did, with his eyes closed,” Dor said.
    “Oh, that makes me feel better. Shut up.” Flash nearly lost control when one wheel dropped into a deep hole as the road made a hairpin turn. He wrenched the car back up onto the track. Galen breathed a sigh of relief. He had never fully realized how good a driver Flash was until that moment. The walls got closer and closer until Galen was holding his breath, listening to the scrape of metal against rock as Flash negotiated the road. When he was sure they couldn’t go any further, it suddenly opened up into what at first appeared to be a box canyon, with dark basalt walls all around. It was only when Galen took a second look at the south-facing wall that he noticed a crevasse and the dark sheen of glass.
    “Galen,” Flash said softly. “There’s the Jeep.” He pulled up beside it.
    It took all of the discipline Galen had to keep from jumping from the car and searching for his brother. No Custodes Noctis would walk into a situation like this one blind and unarmed. They needed a plan, and probably a contingency plan. Dera nudged him.
    “Flash, Dor, Dera, I need you to wait here until I call,” Galen said firmly.
    “No.”
    “ No.”
    “ No.”
    “I need you to stay behind me to back me up, until I need help.”
    Flash looked back at the ravens. The three of them looked at Galen, then nodded. “Okay, but if anything looks even a little wonky, we’re coming in,” Flash said.
    “ Wonky?” Dor said. “Always eloquent.”
    “It’s a technical term, I wouldn’t expect you to know,” Flash said haughtily.
    “We need to go, where is Rob, Dor? Do you know?”
    “ He went towards the wall of glass.”
    Galen stepped out of the car. The power bubbling beneath his feet boiled up his legs and knocked him to the ground. He felt the sharp bite of stones as his knees hit the earth. Flash was out of the car and dragging him to his feet before he had a chance to even process what was going on. Once he was standing, he tried to ignore the dark pulse beneath him. It filled the whole area, beating in time with his heart, twisting at the scar the Old One had left in his body. His first step was more a stumble, but he leaned on the side of Flash’s car and walked around to the back.
    Flash opened it and Galen grabbed the Emrys Sword that was his and buckled it on, the baldric holding it tight against his back, its soft song a counterpoint to the dark beat in the stones. He buckled Rob’s on as well, his brother wore his Sword in a belt, preferring to carry his every day blade—a massive bastard sword—in a scabbard on his back. Galen had a feeling they might need the power of the blades for what was coming. Flash grabbed the medical bag and his own weapon of choice, a massive war hammer. He’d chosen it when he’d discovered he lacked the patience to become proficient with a sword. However, as he was fond of saying, finesse was not needed for “whacking things.”
    Galen smiled at Flash and set out across the broken rock, aware that each step was