Sam and I drop to the ground and lay on our stomachs, both staring across the small valley at the cave’s almost indiscernible entrance. It’s far larger than I’d imagined, probably twenty feet wide and tall, but also much better hidden. There’s something covering it, a net or a tarp maybe, making it blend in with its surroundings; you’d have to know it’s there to be able to see it.

“Perfect location,” Sam whispers.

“Totally.”

My nervousness quickly turns to full-blown terror. As mysterious as the cave is, one thing I know for sure is that there’ll be no shortage of things—weapons, beasts or traps—that could kill us. I could die within the next twenty minutes. And Sam could, too.

“Whose idea was this, anyway?” I ask.

Sam snorts. “Yours.”

“Well, I have some stupid ideas sometimes.”

“True, but we have to get your Chest somehow.”

“There’s so much in there that I don’t even know how to use yet . . . but maybe they do,” I say. Then something catches my eye.

“Look at the ground in front of the entrance,” I say, pointing to a smattering of dark objects by the cave’s entrance.

“At the rocks?”

“Those aren’t rocks. Those are dead animals,” I say.

Sam shakes his head. “Great,” he says.

I shouldn’t be surprised since Six told us about it, but the sight of them fills me with even more dread, which I didn’t think possible. My mind races.

“All right,” I say, sitting up. “There’s no time like the present.”

I kiss the top of Bernie Kosar’s head, then run my hand down the length of his back, hoping this won’t be the last time I ever see him. He tells me not to go, and I communicate back that I have to, no other choice. “You’re the best, BK. I love you, buddy.”

Then I stand. I take the bottom of my shirt in my right hand so I can remove the Xitharis from the bag without touching it.

Sam messes with the buttons on his digital watch, putting it in stopwatch mode. We won’t be able to read its face once we’re invisible, but when the hour is up, the watch will beep—though I imagine by then we’ll have figured it out.

“Ready?” I ask.

Together we take our first step, then a second, and then we’re hiking down the trail that may very well lead to our imminent doom. I turn around only once, when I’ve nearly reached the cave, and see Bernie Kosar staring at us.

Chapter Twenty-Nine

Chapter Twenty-Nine

WE GET AS CLOSE TO THE CAVE AS WE CAN WITHOUT being seen, and we duck behind a tree. I place the Xitharis stone on the sticky side of a section of duct tape. Sam watches with his fingers pinched around his stopwatch.

“Ready?” I ask.