Demon Bound: The Camelot Archive - Book One, R Nicole [top romance novels .TXT] 📗

Basically, I was starting from scratch.

We passed through the limits of the outer city, decaying towers and parapets looming in the distance. This place must have been a marvel to look at, but now it was a shell crawling with excited archaeologists with little shovels.

Even from this distance, I could see part of the castle was carved out of the cliff face, and the rest of the structure flowed down into the lower valley in formidable steps. I’d looked out over the city a few times now, but the lay of the land and the illusions hiding it from human eyes had concealed Camelot’s true size. Now that I could see it, I began to understand why everyone was so fascinated by its mysteries. There were so many hidden corners.

“Impressive, isn’t it?” Aiden commented. “They must have used so much Light to conceal it. It’s like it exists in its own pocket of space beyond the outside world.”

“Maybe the Druids and the Lady of the Lake helped make this place like Avalon…hidden in time.”

“Perhaps. Though I wonder if it’s more likely there’s a power source.”

I raised my eyebrows, never hearing about such a thing. “Like a battery?”

“Who knows for sure? Whatever it is, it’s still active.” Aiden shrugged. “Camelot is full of beauty and mystery. We’ve found everything from simple spoons, all the way to jewellery, elaborate mosaics, and painted murals. There are even some artefacts that have carried faint traces of Light.”

I’d overheard some Naturals talk about the mosaic courtyard outside the main gates of the castle. Only a few had seen it, as it led to the ruined chasm opened by Arthur and Lancelot when they’d crossed their swords, Excalibur and Arondight.

The entrance was set with intricate mosaic scenes of battles, knights on horseback, Druidic runes, the Pendragon crest, and the Lady of the Lake—or so I’d heard.

“Do you think there’s anything demonic left?” I asked.

“Not that we’ve found, but there is the possibility.” Aiden turned a corner, leading me down a narrow street. “It’s possible the Darkness was chased out when the Twin Flames closed the rift, but we can’t be too careful. We have protocols and failsafes in place to catch any traps that may have been left behind.”

That was reassuring. I looked around at the street Aiden had led me down. The lower city pressed closer here. They had erected buildings in every available space, some with two and even three stories. How many Naturals had lived here? More than I could imagine…and they’d all been taken in the cataclysm. It was a bitter pill to swallow, but at least the war was over.

For now.

I swallowed hard as my mutation stirred. It felt like stomach acid and the metaphor wasn’t lost on me. I should own up to it, but—

“Here we are,” Aiden declared. “Come and look.”

I studied the building with an underwhelmed sigh. It sat on an open square surrounded by stone structures just like it. There was even a fountain in the middle with a statue that had crumbled away at the knees.

“What is it?” I asked as I followed Aiden inside.

It must have been a house or a hall at some point, but the roof was long gone. There was the triangular stone remains of the structure at both ends, and a large fireplace with its mantle missing. Like everything else around here, anything organic had rotted away.

The stonework of the outer wall was intricate considering it was merely simple blocks. Each cut was so precise, there was no need for mortar to hold it all together. There were even some strange angles that made the façade look like a puzzle—Medieval zero waste—and I doubted I’d be able to slip a piece of paper between the cracks.

Before us, they had set the earthen floor out in a large grid with a string wrapped around each peg, dividing the space with a dozen two-metre square sections. That’s as far as work had progressed here. No one had dug here yet and it seemed like I had the honour of breaking ground.

At least it was quiet and I’d be alone. The last thing I wanted was to break some priceless artefact and have an audience to witness it. My constant run of unfortunate incidents was bad enough.

“We think it was an inn or a tavern,” Aiden replied, answering my earlier question.

He knelt inside a square and motioned for me to join him. Not worrying about dirtying my clean trousers, I knelt beside him.

“What do I do?”

He placed his palms on the sectioned-off earth. “Let me show you.”

I pressed my hands next to his, the grit digging into my skin. “Now what?”

“Use your Light to sense what’s underneath the ground.” I felt the dirt ripple as he sent a pulse outwards. “Just a little.”

“Like a radar detector,” I mused.

“It takes some practice, but you can learn to tell apart different materials—stone, copper, clay, iron, gold—and their estimated shapes.” He nodded towards the ground. “Have a go.”

I took a deep breath, forgetting how silly I must look, and closed my eyes. My palms warmed, then I sent a gentle wave of Light into the ground. As my power flowed through me, I could feel its journey as it filtered through the layers of dirt. Almost immediately, it seemed to bump against something, then kept going.

I opened my eyes. “I think there’s something here.”

“Let’s dig then.” Aiden smiled and handed me a trowel. “You want to go slow to avoid damaging any artefact that may be buried. Scrape away the surface soil, then chip down in small scoops.”

I grasped the trowel and began to scrape off the hardened surface layer. Once I’d cleared it, I began to edge deeper. My heart beat faster as I wondered what I might unearth.

Then the edge of my trowel hit something solid.

“I’ve found something.” Excitement filled my heart and I dug around the object, revealing the smooth surface of a glazed pot. “What is it?”

“It’s a cup,” Aiden replied