Chapter 13 #3
The hall outside the bathroom was vacant. Thank the Stars—and the Celestials, a distant, nostalgic part of Rin added. The holograms were absent, and the faint sound of violins, layered over a foreboding techno bass, thumped dully in the distance.
"Okay, I’m here. Now what?" she asked Rhyden, not doing anything to cover her mouth as she spoke; though, she did still speak lowly, unsure when or if someone could stumble into the hallway.
No sooner had Rin spoken than the men’s bathroom door opened behind her. She turned while pretending to sway, forcing a faded, tipsy smile onto her lips.
Only to be caught in familiar arms and wrapped up in a woodsy scent.
"Hunter, I did not think you would drink on the job," Auren said, smoothing gloved hands over her forearms. He stood just in the threshold of the men’s bathroom, blue eyes settling over her with warmth, then hardening as he scanned the hall behind her. His scythe was at his back, placed there after he’d portaled into the bathroom.
As she placed her palms on his chest, feeling the tense muscles in his arms, she whispered, "Of course not. I have a part to play, though. No one would suspect a drunk girl, trying to find her way to the restrooms, now would they?"
Auren let the door close behind him, stepping into the hall and guiding them sideways toward an unmarked door tucked in an alcove. "You would inspire no suspicion. I believe anyone who stumbled upon you would find themselves distracted by you."
It reminded her of their banter when they’d first met. When she’d… held her Echogun to his head. Not her finest moment, she’d admit.
Rin squeezed his arms. "I’m glad you’re here, Auren."
He smiled down at her.
"Incoming," Rhyden drawled.
On instinct, she pushed herself flush against Auren’s chest, rising on the tips of her toes, heels raising from the ground, as she grabbed his cheeks and tugged his head down to her, turning it to the side. The fact that their lips didn’t touch was shielded by the curled curtain of her hair.
Auren made a startled sound, but she placed her finger to his lips, silencing him. She pressed his back against the wall to hide his scythe, feeling her slight breasts push against his muscled front, covered by his thick white cloak. "Don’t make a sound," she breathed against his mouth.
Auren’s blue eyes grew dark as his stare dipped, focusing on her glossed lips. Her tongue swept out, wetting her bottom lip. He gave a low, curious hum beneath her.
"Vesperin?" came Lucien’s voice, filling the hall.
Rin’s brows drew low over her eyes as she slowly extricated herself from Auren and turned, finding Lucien standing there with a similarly perplexed look. His eyes swept to her, then to the Soul Searcher at her side, who was still standing where she’d pushed him against the wall, as if frozen.
"Oh, did I say incoming?" Rhyden asked, tone dripping with dark mirth. "I meant Lucien. He’s friendly, so don’t worry."
Rin huffed. "Maybe a better way to word that next time, Rhyden."
"And perhaps with not such a delay?" Auren prodded, finally snapping out of the daze that had befallen him as he smoothed down the front of his cloak and stepped away from the wall.
"Just wanted to check your reaction times. Not bad." Rhyden paused, as if mentally calculating. "Could’ve been a couple of seconds quicker. You’ll learn—I hope."
Lucien pinched the bridge of his nose, momentarily displacing his glasses.
"We don’t have time. Thirty minutes, alright?
Certainly not enough time to stand here and bicker like this.
" He came to stand by Rin, hand passing over her exposed shoulder, a silent question in the action—one she answered by leaning into him with a gentle blink of her sparkly, shadowed eyes.
Lucien released a breath, as if he was finally at ease knowing she was okay after facing her adoptive parents.
His fingers toyed with a strand of her hair.
"Where did you say the back entrance was?
This is it?" Lucien placed a hand flat on the door in the alcove.
It was without a label, and the handle was a simple silver make.
"Yeah, it’s there. Daryk found it on the blueprints," Rhyden answered. "The public databases didn’t have the actual layout on file. He had to do some digging. The maintenance databases had a secondary entrance here."
"I don’t see a keypad or lock." Rin’s eyes scanned the walls and the handle.
"I was getting to that, wife." Rin curled her lip at Rhyden’s tone. "There’s a hidden keypad by the handle, just above it. I’m blind here, since there are no windows in the hall—I’m picking you up on the heat signatures, though. Standing a little close there, are we, Auren?"
The Soul Searcher made a flustered sound by Rin’s side, then shifted a step back, scythe gleaming. He refused to meet Rin’s eyes.
"Leave him alone," Rin said, reaching for Auren’s gloved hand and taking it in her own.
"Got it," Lucien said, running his skilled surgeon fingers over the door, feeling for a groove. He tapped a small spot just above the handle, a little to the left.
"Good." Rhyden’s voice crackled.
He then instructed them on how to get it open, by hooking a sharp pin beneath the edge—which was supplied by Rin, who removed one of her silver stud earrings, using the needle-like back to fit beneath it.
As her fingers grazed Lucien’s as she handed it to him, he smiled at her reassuringly; though, she saw the tension in his shoulders, the slight jump when the music reached a crescendo outside the hall. They were on borrowed time.
Part of the door popped open to reveal a silver keypad. Some of the digits were faded by time and wear.
As Rhyden told them the code and Lucien punched it in, she swore she saw a shadow settle over her doctor’s hands, guiding his touch, but then the door clicked, and the handle moved as he opened it, revealing a simple staircase, winding down.
It was lightless and hollow as they slowly moved inside.
Lucien first, then Rin, with Auren pressing close to her back.
He held his scythe in hand, the silver blade gleaming with a preternatural glow.
The concrete stairs curved downward, and she felt Auren press a hand to her lower back, helping her gather her gown so she wouldn’t trip. The action was so caring yet so loud in its simplicity.
She was blessed, wasn’t she?
The Stars were watching over her.
As they descended and Rhyden grew quiet with foreboding, the rest of them filling with fear and trepidation of what they’d find below, she remembered that time, so long ago, on the rooftop, when she’d cried and prayed for someone, not knowing she had Soulbonds out there—waiting on her, just as she’d been waiting on them.
It had taken everything for their paths to align so they’d meet, but looking back, she wouldn’t change it, even for all the heartache, even though a piece, small and fragile and timeless, still felt amiss.
As if her selfish, greedy Soul strained for something other.
Lucien used the light on his phone to illuminate the way, and dust floated in the thin beam. The air felt untouched, and she wondered when the last time this supposed maintenance stairwell had been used. Her ankles ached in her heels.
Rin thought she heard footsteps trailing them, but as she stilled and cocked her head, listening, she heard nothing.
Auren’s hand settled on the side of her neck, fingers enclosing her shoulder. "Hunter?" he questioned.
"Ah—it’s nothing. Never mind." Rin pressed a hand to her heart, feeling the beats beneath her palm. She swore she heard it echo in her ears—maybe that had been it. She hummed and resumed her pace, venturing down, down.
Lucien stepped off the last stair at the abrupt end, feeling Vesperin sticking close to him, Auren with her.
Through the thin light of his phone, he saw shapes and a faint, distant glow. The air was cold, untouched, slightly medicinal.
He felt, at this moment, that they’d perhaps gotten in over their heads.
He swung the light to the others, and the glow flickered over Vesperin’s face, making her lashes sweep down in spider-like shadows on her cheeks.
"There’s something down here—I feel it," said Lucien.
Auren shivered. "Whatever it is, it is highly unnatural."
Vesperin stepped away from them both, and Lucien turned to her, always watching her, ensuring she was alright. Her hands were by her side, clutch dangling from her wrist and hitting the side of her gown, displacing the stitched butterfly wings as she walked further away, to the distant glow.
"Vesperin," Lucien hissed, then cursed as his phone light flickered and went out.
She neither stopped nor turned back to him at his warning.
Auren met Lucien’s eyes, then together they caught up to her quickly.
Auren grabbed her shoulder gently. "It is wise not to run, Hunter.
You are capable but—" Whatever the Soul Searcher had been going to say died, as the three all but fell into a room, with an open archway that acted as a large door. The area they’d just been in, at the bottom of the steps, had been merely a foyer of sorts—this?
This was the real underground of the Academy.
Here, they saw the source of that glow:
Large tubes of liquid lined the room, in perfect order.
One after the next, in neat little rows.
The liquid within the glass was so bright it made Lucien’s eyes water; he turned his head away, only to find Vesperin walking closer to one, as if entranced.
A moth to a flame. She was silent, her glassy eyes filled with awe—and reverent fear. She was scared.