Chapter 6 #2
It's gorgeous. The walls are covered in crystals and gems—purples, pinks, deep reds, and colors I don’t have names for. They catch the light from the crystal veins above and throw it everywhere, scattering it across every surface.
And all around us, tucked between the crystal formations, are steaming hot springs. The water is the clearest blue I've ever seen, with wisps of steam curling off the surface.
"Ahhh, that's the spot."
I look over and Peeble has already piled a collection of tiny jewels beside one of the smaller pools and is lowering themselves into the water with the satisfied air of someone checking into a five-star spa.
"Peeble, what are you doing?"
"Isn't it obvious, Elle? I'm adding to my beauty.
" They pick up one of the tiny gems, rub a bit of lava oozing from a crack in the nearby rock onto the back of it, press it onto the hard casing of their shell, and then lower into the water.
There's a sharp sizzle as the heat fuses the jewel into place.
So that's how they do it.
Peeble admires the new addition. "Come on, Elle. Kaelren will appreciate it if you take a hot bath before seeing him. Not to be rude, but you smell."
"I don't know, Peeble. Are you sure it's safe?"
"Elle, of course it's safe. Look. No bats, nothing."
I have to admit, I could desperately use a hot bath after everything. The void, the first iteration, the cave collapse, I probably smell like a combination of sulfur and stress sweat. I strip down quickly and ease into the water.
It's perfect. Hot enough to make my muscles unknot, but not so hot it burns. The mineral content makes the water feel silky, and the steam smells faintly of something floral.
"Here, use some of this mineral rock in your hair. Smells like lavender," Peeble says, nudging a smooth stone toward me with one leg.
I pick it up and sure enough, it does. We soak for a while. Peeble adds three more jewels to their shell and I scrub weeks of grime from my hair.
Eventually I start to get waterlogged, my fingers pruning up something fierce. I step out of the pool and notice hot air blowing from a vent in the corner nearby. My own personal hairdryer. I walk over and start squeezing the water from my hair, grateful for how fast the warm air is working.
"Um, Elle? Not to rush your beauty routine, but I need you to grab your clothes and go."
It's unusual to hear concern in Peeble's voice. Real concern, not the theatrical kind. I look up. "Why? You said it was safe."
"I said no bats. I didn't think you were going to piss off the Magmaborn Drakes."
My stomach drops. "And what, exactly, is a Magmaborn Drake, Peeble?"
"Not exactly dragons. More like vicious salamander-wyrms with basalt scales. Very territorial around geothermal vents." A pause. "Which you happen to be standing on."
I look down. Small, serpentine shapes are slithering out of cracks in the rock around the vent. Lava-colored scales, bodies built like eels crossed with lizards, and they are all looking at me. Dozens of them.
They start to hiss.
I yip and jump back, snatching my clothes off the rock where I left them. The drakes start slithering toward us, fast, way too fast for something that small.
"And what happens if one bites us?" I ask, yanking my shirt over my head as I backpedal.
"Well, you see all these beautiful gems on the walls?
" Peeble gestures around the cavern with one leg.
"Their bite injects super-heated mineral toxins that crystallize inside wounds.
You essentially become some beautiful jewelry, if I do say so myself.
" They glance at the fresh gems on their shell. "Quite fashionable, really."
I stare at them in horror. "You're telling me you're wearing parts of dead fae?"
"Elle, it sounds quite atrocious when you put it like that. Try not to be so negative."
I'm about to spit some retort at them when Peeble cuts me off. "So, how about you use that magic of yours and get us out of here?"
Good idea. I throw my hand up and a wall of thick hedge erupts across the tunnel entrance behind us, sealing it off from floor to ceiling. I hear bodies thud against the other side immediately, followed by angry hissing.
I don't wait to see if it holds. I just run.
We tear through the tunnels, me half-dressed and still damp, Peeble clinging to my shoulder and shouting directions that I'm not entirely confident are accurate. I round a corner and—
A sharp pain hits the inside of my skull.
"Peeble, watch where you point those mandibles."
Peeble scoffs. "I didn't touch you."
The pain comes again, harder this time. I bend over, hands pressed against the sides of my head.
It's not Peeble. It's something inside my brain, a signal trying to come through.
Static and fragments, like a radio station that can't quite lock in.
Bits and pieces of words, a voice cutting in and out.
Then it becomes clear. Crystal clear.
And I hear it. It's me.
Not me-me. Another me. This iteration's Elle. And she's close.
"Peeble, I think we found this iteration's Elle. We must be near an exit."
Peeble looks at me skeptically. "And how do you know that?"
"I can hear her."
We keep walking, and the signal gets stronger with every step. She's arguing with someone, but I can't make out who. Her voice is familiar and strange at the same time—the same cadence, the same stubborn edge, but pitched differently. Younger, maybe. Or angrier.
Up ahead, a sliver of daylight appears in the tunnel wall. I take off running toward it. There's a loose pile of rocks blocking the opening, and I start digging through them, pulling stones free and tossing them aside until the gap is wide enough to squeeze my body through.
I pull myself out into the open air and shield my eyes. Sunlight hits me full force after hours in the dark, and for a moment all I can see is white.
Then my vision adjusts.
Mountains. Hundreds of them, stretching in every direction as far as I can see, their peaks sharp against a pale sky. Trails wind along the cliffs far below, thin as thread. We're high up. Very high up, and the wind is strong enough to make me brace my feet.
"We definitely didn't make it to the Wyrmwood," I say.
Peeble lands on my shoulder and scans the horizon. "Nope! Look! There's Axis Peak over there." They pause. "Wow, it really isn't as large as people said. Stupid fae males, always overcompensating."
I'm about to ask what that means when I catch movement on a ridge below us. My heart stutters.
I see the whole crew. Bryx. Sarnyx. Vasheal. Nimor. Eltriene. Kevin buzzing in wide circles overhead. And there's Elle and Kaelren.
No Peeble, though. That's weird.
I take a closer look, squinting against the wind.
Elle and Kaelren are arguing. Even from up here, I can see the tension in their bodies: him rigid and closed off, her gesturing with an aggressive energy.
Looking at the style of their clothes, the way they carry themselves.
This is definitely one of the earlier iterations.
"Ohhhh, who is that handsome fella down there?" Peeble's wings buzz with interest.
"That's Kaelren. I'd think the scowl would've given him away."
"No, no. Gross. Not him." Peeble's antennae swivel. "I'm talking about the blue-winged one flying near bug boy."
I squint harder. "Oh, that's Kevin. He's Bryx's bee."
"Hubba hubba. He can buzz me anytime."
I rear back. "Okay, now who is eww?
I study the scene below us more carefully, trying to read the body language, the energy between the group.
This is not my Kaelren. The way he holds himself is different—sharper, more hostile.
There's no warmth buried under the scowl, no protectiveness hidden in the stiffness.
Just cold. His corruption is also covering about ninety percent of his body.
"Ooh!" Peeble shakes excitedly. "I wonder if we ask them if they've seen the new Kaelren. They could point us in the right direction!"
"Hold on, Peeble." Something in my gut is telling me to stay put. "I have a feeling we shouldn't interact just yet. Plus, if we get separated, I don't think we'll be together again."
"Why is that?"
"Because I know where we are now." The pieces click into place: the arguing, the crew, the hostility. "This is Iteration Three. Kaelren and Elle don't get along here. If I remember correctly—" my stomach turns. "He shoves her off a cliff."
Peeble freezes. Then their entire body puffs up like an angry cat, wings buzzing at a pitch I've never heard before.
"EXCUSE ME?" they shriek. "Oh, hell no. We need to warn her!"
"Peeble, wait—"
But they're already gone. Launched off my shoulder at full speed, a jewel-encrusted bullet of righteous fury aimed directly at Kaelren's head.
I can hear them ranting as they close the distance, mandibles clicking, voice carrying across the mountain air in a stream of outrage that would be impressive if it weren't about to cause a disaster.
Kaelren whirls around. Even from up here, I can see the look on his face. Pure terror at the sparkling, shrieking insect hurtling towards him. He starts swatting at Peeble, arms flailing, stumbling backward—
And in the flailing, he crashes into Elle. She was standing right at the edge of the ridge, and his weight sends her tipping backward, arms pinwheeling, reaching for something to grab—
She goes over.
"Well, shi—"
The world collapses in on itself.
The mountains, the sky, the crew on the ridge below, Kaelren's horrified face, Peeble's tiny form hovering where Elle used to be standing, all of it folds inward, crumpling like paper being wadded into a ball.
The light goes sideways. My ears pop. And then there's nothing.
Just me, and the dark, and the sickening lurch of another iteration dying around us.