Chapter Ten
Chapter Ten
Jackie groaned as she hit the ground with a hard thud.
She wasn’t the only one.
The sounds of more groans and muttered curses sounded out, echoing in the quiet space. For a moment, she worried she had gone blind. As she blinked rapidly, she realized that they had fallen into a dark, cavernous space that had no access to light. Holding her hand in front of her, she frowned when she couldn’t see it until she was almost slapping her own face.
That wasn’t good.
Calling upon her magic, she tried to create a flame to illuminate the room, but nothing happened. Sitting up, she tried again, but it still failed. It was as if something was blocking her from using her magic at all.
“What the fuck was that?” Lia snarled. “Your parents are the biggest fucking assholes!”
“They really are,” Jackie readily agreed. “Is anyone hurt?”
“I’m fine. I guess this is the labyrinth? It would probably help if we could see it,” Kellen commented drolly.
“My magic isn’t working.” Jackie’s announcement was met with a heartbeat or two of stunned silence. “I guess fae magic doesn’t work down here. Perhaps that is the purpose of the Crucible. Having to complete it without using magic.”
“It fucking figures. Let me try. I’m just figuring out how to do spellwork and shit so this could take a while,” Lia admitted. “Wait a minute! There!” She shouted but nothing happened. “Nope. False alarm.”
“Micah?” Jackie waited for her mate to reply, then reached out through their bond when he remained silent. She hadn’t seen him in that brief moment of light and was now starting to completely freak out. “Micah? Mate? Are you okay?”
Nothing.
The room was suddenly illuminated by the light coming from Kellen’s cell phone as he held it up. “Thank fuck I’ve got this.”
“Nice,” Lia praised with a grin.
“Micah? Where the hell is he?” Jackie demanded, rising to her feet and glancing around.
Now that the space was illuminated, she could see they were inside what looked to be a giant cavern with two openings going in opposite directions. Only the three of them were present, and Micah was nowhere to be seen. Jackie hurried toward one of the openings, only to come to a stop when Kellen called out to her.
“Wait! There is something written here on the wall. Or at least I think these are words. They kind of look like fucked up hieroglyphs.”
Glancing over, she saw that there was indeed a single sentence written in the ancient fae language etched into the rock wall. Thankfully, reading the ancient text was something she’d had to learn years ago. “So, this is the entrance to the labyrinth, and I’m supposed to find something important inside.”
“Does that mean Micah?” Lia asked.
“I guess so. He’s the only one not here,” Jackie said, trying to calm her panic. “I can still feel him but he’s not answering me. I think he might be unconscious.”
“About that…” Kellen smiled wryly. “I’ve got good news and bad news. The good news is I should be able to scent him.”
“Really?” Jackie slowly smiled. “That’s amazing!”
“I mean, I can’t smell him right now, but I should be able to once we get closer to him. The bad news is I only have about thirty percent power left on my phone, so if we are stuck in the labyrinth for long, we’ll be in the dark again. I still haven’t gotten the hang of using all of my new magic either, but I can try to make some light.”
Lia let out an aggrieved sigh, pushing her long black hair back impatiently. “I can take care of that. But if I do, neither of you can tell anyone about this.”
Jackie and Kellen shared a confused look before they both nodded.
“I swear, I’ll have to kill you if you tell the others,” Lia insisted, her silvery purple eyes narrowing as she glared at them.
Jackie’s brows furrowed. “Tell them what?”
Lia sighed again, then she shifted into her alicorn form, tearing the black dress she’d been wearing into shreds. She was a big white beast with a pale blue and purple mane and tail and a silver spiral horn on the top of her head that began to glow with intense light.
Jackie blinked in surprise. “Holy—”
“Shit,” Kellen finished for her.
“I will totally kill you if you tell anyone about this,” Lia hissed, her voice echoing out from her beast form.
Jackie and Kellen simply nodded in unison with their mouths open in shock.
Since Lia was a snarky, moody, temperamental person who loved wearing all black most of the time, it was understandable that shifting into a glowing, pastel-hued alicorn was probably not the easiest thing for her to admit. Still, Jackie thought she was beautiful in her shifted form.
Not that she was stupid enough to say that out loud.
When Lia spread her big white wings, it was a surprise to see the underside of each wing was also blue and purple. Then, she shook her wings out and released a shower of blue and purple glitter that shimmered as it fell to the ground.
“What the—” This time, Kellen couldn’t hold back his snort of amusement. “You literally shed sparkly glitter?”
“Fuck you, wolf. We can use it to trace our steps so we don’t backtrack and get lost.”
“Right. Good thinking. And no, that’s not weird at all.”
“You know, I could put your ass to sleep with this glitter,” she snarled in warning. “Or make you so high you don’t know your own name.”
“I might want to try that later,” Kellen said with a laugh.
“You can control what your glitter is used for? That’s amazing! Can you—never mind.” When the alicorn did its best to glare at her, Jackie smiled. “As far as contingency plans go, you two certainly came in handy.” She sobered again. “Really, thank you for agreeing to come help me.”
Kellen grunted. “What are friends for? Now, which way should we go?”
“I’m not sure.”
Lia glanced up. “They said the labyrinth is on the lower level of the palace, but I don’t think that’s right. Look at the ceiling. There is no fucking way we fell that far.”
Jackie glanced up and saw she was correct. The ceiling of the cavern was so high that they would have broken bones and suffered internal damage if they had fallen that far. “We must have fallen through a portal or something.”
“Stay here. Let me see if I can see anything from up there.” Lia spread her wings and launched herself into the air. She rose gracefully, soaring higher and higher with each flap of her majestic wings. Then, she let out a little yelp when she seemed to hit some sort of invisible wall. “There are magical wards in place that aren’t letting me go any higher.”
“Raiden told me that apex alphas are able to get through most magical wards,” Kellen explained.
“Well, that doesn’t help me much. I haven’t gotten any of the apex alpha abilities yet,” Lia snapped.
“Right. Forgot about that. Should I go up there with you and try it?”
“What good would that do if you are the only one that can make it through the wards?”
“True. Scratch that idea,” Kellen said.
“We can just enter the labyrinth from down here.” Jackie glanced at both openings in the rock wall, but she still had no clue which way to go. “I guess we just chose a doorway and hope for the best.”
Lia flew back down, swishing her tail in irritation. “We’re probably going to run into trouble either way.”
Kellen blew out a breath. “I think I should shift, too. My sense of smell is better in my wolf form. Are you going to be okay with that?”
Jackie nodded. “No problem.”
Before she could even blink, Kellen shifted into an enormous dark gray, white, and black wolf. His amber eyes glowed bright for a few seconds, then settled back to normal as he shook his head. He padded over to sniff at both of the openings in the cavern walls. Jackie was impressed that he hadn’t even torn through his clothes when he’d shifted.
“Okay, I think I’m picking up a trace of his scent toward the right.”
“Right it is, then.”
Their little group was silent as they entered the labyrinth, all three of them on high alert. Jackie followed after the wolf, with the alicorn guarding their backs and illuminating the pathway. As they scanned the area for hidden dangers, she marveled over the strangeness of the situation. Her mother and cousins had thought she’d be at a disadvantage entering the labyrinth with the shifters, but clearly, they’d been wrong.
As they made their way deeper into the maze, they’d had to backtrack after they’d hit a few dead ends. They’d also come across a bubbling tar pit that they had chosen to avoid since the smell had almost knocked them out. When they had come upon a mountain of rocks that they’d had to make their way over, Lia had allowed Jackie to get on her back so they could fly over the rock pile. Kellen had simply bounded up and over the rocks with ease.
After an hour or so, the pathway changed. Leaves and vines grew out of the cracks and crevasses in the stone so the rocks were covered with greenery. Once they were surrounded, Vines shot out of the walls toward Jackie, and she had to spin and flip to avoid getting caught by them.
Lia stomped on more vines when they reached for her, and she used some of her magic glitter to melt the creepers on the ground. The sight of the glitter melting things like it was acid was a little off-putting, but it was also pretty badass. Kellen tore at the vines with his teeth and claws, but they were being replaced with more faster than he could destroy them.
Damn it, Jackie wished she had some sort of magic to defend herself with.
Suddenly, she realized just how foolish she’d been. She already had everything she needed. Concentrating hard, she focused on the magical bond she had with Micah. When they had mated and marked one another, she had gained access to some of his magic, just like he’d gotten some of hers. If the labyrinth wouldn’t let her use fae magic, she would use the dark angel magic residing inside of her.
The unfamiliar magic expanded within her at her call, and she tried to use it to create flames to burn the vines to ash. She immediately felt the same magic block her efforts. It seemed like the labyrinth was targeting elemental magic in general, so she decided to go old school to deal with the immediate threat.
She magically called for the twin daggers Micah had specifically designed and created for her. She usually kept the knives displayed on the wall, but she felt acute relief when she felt the weight of the hilts slapping against her palms. Using the blades, she cut through the vines, slicing at the ones attacking her before hurrying to free Kellen and Lia from the ones trying to wrap around their limbs.
“Okay, that was fucking disturbing,” Lia commented once they were free and clear of the attacking vines section of the maze.
“Agreed,” Kellen said. “This place is like nightmare fuel.”
Jackie closed her eyes and focused on using her dark angel magic to change into more appropriate attire for a rescue mission. Her dress was already in tatters, so anything else would be an improvement.
She heard Kellen and Lia’s gasp, then she opened her eyes again to see that she had succeeded. Now, she was dressed in sturdy black boots and the black leather-like armor she’d seen Micah’s mother wear whenever she was ready to kick some serious ass. She slid the daggers into the thigh holsters she had created and smiled at the two astonished shifters.
“Shall we continue?”
“How the fuck did you do that?” Lia asked. “I thought your magic didn’t work in here.”
“My fae magic doesn’t, but my dark angel magic does,” she explained. “In all the years we have been mated, I’ve never used Micah’s magic before. I mean, we did the magic exchange when we bonded but…”
Her voice trailed off as the horrible truth struck her.
By being so focused on being the perfect fae princess and future queen, she’d been denying parts of herself and her mate without realizing it. Clearly, the situation of being thrust into the trial without warning wasn’t ideal, but it seemed well worth it if she could be a better mate to Micah.
Using her magic, she created three light orbs that she tossed in the air so they hovered overhead. Now, they could see more of the maze. “There, that’s better.”
“Fucking hell. If I shift back, can you make me clothes?” Lia asked. After Jackie nodded, she said, “Wolf, close your eyes. Actually, close them and turn around.”
“Why do I need to close my eyes if I’m turning around?”
“Just do it,” she snapped.
With a deep rumbling chuckle, he complied.
Lia immediately shifted back, her naked body gleaming in the orb light. It took Jackie an extra few seconds to dress her since she’d been distracted by the sight of Lia’s natural hair. While Lia usually had long black hair, it was now a mixture of pale blue, purple, and silver. Without the heavy black eyeliner she usually wore, her silvery purple eyes looked even brighter than usual. With her colorful hair, stunning gaze, and the heart-shaped beauty mark clearly visible next to her right eye, she looked like a completely different person.
Shaking off her surprise, Jackie dressed her in a similar outfit to her own, feeling immensely satisfied at how easy it was to use her dark angel magic.
Lia sighed with relief as she glanced down at herself. “Thanks.” She scowled as she lifted some of the strands of her hair. “Damn it. Looks like I’m going to have to dye my hair again.”
“Why? It’s gorgeous as it is.”
Lia scrunched up her nose. “It looks weird like this.”
Kellen let out a loud sigh. “Can I turn around now?”
“Yeah. Thanks for not being weird and peeking.”
He snorted. “Since you’re like a sister to me, that would have been traumatizing for both of us.”
That made her laugh. “True. Then, we’d both need therapy. That is, if therapy for supernaturals is even a thing.”
“Oh, it is,” Jackie confirmed. “Think of all the traumatic awakenings that supernaturals go through. But you don’t want to see the therapists at Aegis Academy. I’m pretty sure they share confidential information with the headmaster.”
Lia scowled. “What assholes.”
“Totally. They need to replace all of them.”
Cocking his large head to the side, Kellen said, “Jackie, can you use your dark angel magic to find Micah?”
Startled, she said, “I don’t know, maybe.”
In a heartbeat, Kellen shifted back to regular form. Instead of wearing his tux, he was now dressed in jeans, a black shirt, and combat boots. When he noticed them staring at him, he shrugged.
“What? Calling clothes to me was the main thing I wanted to learn since the first time I ever shifted. I can always shift back if I need to, but I think your dark angel magic is going to work better to find your mate than my nose is.”
Jackie sighed before saying, “Okay, let’s try this.”
She tried reaching out to him through their bond but was still met with complete silence. Frustration filled her as she tried several different ways to reach him, but none of them worked.
“Damn it! I don’t know what I’m doing,” she finally admitted. “I don’t think this is going to work until he is awake and can respond to me.”
“Seriously, magic should come with a fucking instruction manual,” Kellen muttered.
“Maybe we are going about this the wrong way. I mean, you were able to bring your knives to you, right? Can’t we just like, reverse that? Bring us to Micah?” Lia suggested.
“So, treat Micah like an object we need to find?” Kellen asked. “It could work.”
“That makes sense,” Jackie said. “I need to stop focusing on our bond, and just focus on where his physical body is. The fae don’t have this type of magic, so I…I need to learn how to do this from him.”
“Umm, isn’t that kind of the issue right now? Dude isn’t here,” Lia pointed out.
“But he’s done things like this countless times before. I just need to learn how he did it using our memories.”