Chapter 45 Rune #2
Two creatures dropped from the ceiling. They weren’t really slimes. They were bioluminescent slugs. They were big, slick, and had sharp teeth.
The creatures lunged for Zuko and Raze, jaws wide as if they were going to swallow them. Whole.
Zuko and Raze smirked at each other and struck fast, blades flashing as they pulled out two identical daggers. In ten brutal seconds, the cavern floor was painted with the slugs’ glowing insides.
Zuko stood panting, knife dripping. “Gross.”
Raze wiped goo from his face and muttered, “Disgusting.”
“Did you two get matching daggers?” Slater cooed. “How cute.”
“Best friend daggers are cool,” Raze muttered in his defense.
“I love them,” Zuko assured him, and I couldn’t help but giggle.
How cute.
The path narrowed as we went deeper.
Fae glyphs crawled across the walls, shifting, rearranging, trying to trap us in a maze of illusion magic.
Dimitri took the lead, narrowing his eyes at the glyphs. He seemed to understand them in a way I couldn’t. “This way,” he said, voice low, and we followed, step by step, through fae traps that would have crushed us if we’d fucked up.
Koa kept the dark at bay the entire time. His phoenix fire was mesmerizing. It burned hot and wild, searing against the cavern walls.
When Hawk stumbled, coughing blood from being hit by a rock projectile, Koa pressed his blue flames to him and healed him until Hawk could breathe again.
“Should be just behind this door,” Slater told us as Snakey hissed.
The path ended at a slab of carved stone, massive and completely out of place. It didn’t sit in the cavern—it grew out of it. Veins of crystal threaded through its surface like arteries.
This cave was more alive than I had expected. The air hummed around the door, low and steady, vibrating in our chests.
It was sentient.
“How the fuck do we communicate with a door?” I asked, frowning.
“Shh.” Eleanor tilted her head. Her doe-brown eyes shimmered faintly, unblinking. She whispered, “It’s listening.”
This was why Eleanor was slotted as an envoy.
Lorian stepped forward, shoulders squared. His voice was deep, steady, meant for negotiation but ready for battle. “We’re travelers,” he introduced slowly. “We seek what’s beyond, nothing more.”
The door’s carvings rippled, and the hum deepened.
Eleanor exhaled softly. “You’ve stood here a long time, I’m sure.” She reached her hand toward the stone, not touching it, but close enough that the glow of her aura brushed the surface. “You’re tired of standing alone, aren’t you?”
The door groaned, stone grinding against stone.
“We honor your dedication,” Lorian added. His words were careful, each one a weight. “But let us pass, and your watch will not be broken. We’ll disturb nothing that doesn’t need disturbing.”
For a long moment, the cavern held its breath. Fae magic crawled over my skin, pressing against my teeth until my fangs ached with the vibration.
The door shivered and exhaled with a rush of warm air from nowhere. “You may pass.”
Stone split, the edges grinding apart, and the tunnel revealed itself.
Aura lingered toward the back of our group as we moved forward. She never took her eyes off Hawk, her fingers twitching with sparks of imp-magic like she was ready for him to detonate at any second.
But she didn’t say anything.
Finally, the cavern opened wide.
In the center, on a pedestal of jagged crystal, sat the artifact—a rock sphere, pulsing faintly, humming with fae magic.
We had seconds to take in the fact that we’d finally found it.
Hawk’s scream ripped through the air, and my chest squeezed from how desperate it sounded. It was raw. A sound that rivaled a death knell. His body folded in on itself as he hit the ground.
Dark green magic flared out of him chaotically, spiking, snagging, and making the ground lurch in response.
Dimitri’s head snapped up, eyes narrowing. “He’s cursed,” he uttered. “Marked. He’s a beacon.”
“That’s what I was afraid of.” Aura’s voice shook. “The cavern isn’t hunting us. It’s hunting him.”
A large portal opened up near the artifact as the cavern shook so hard rocks crumbled down every which way.
“We have to go!” Dimitri shouted, his red eyes locking on mine as I hesitated.
“Someone has to get Hawk!” I screamed over the sound of rock smashing against rock.
Raze, Lorian, Eleanor, and Aura were already next to the portal. Lorian had the artifact.
“We can’t carry him through a collapse!” Aura shouted toward me, and she didn’t look at Hawk.
“Leave him,” someone breathed. I thought it was Raze.
“No,” I refused. “We don’t abandon each other. That’s not what this test is about.”
Hawk looked up at me with something fragile in his eyes, and it was heart-breaking. He accepted his fate. “Go,” he told us.
“No!” I shouted.
“If you’re near the portal, go through it,” Dimitri snapped. “I’ll get him. Everyone else, get to the portal, now!”
Koa, Slater, and Zuko pulled me toward the portal, but when it was just Slater and I, I looked back to see Dimitri struggling to use his vampire speed to get them out because of whatever curse was on Hawk.
“Venom baby, let’s go,” Slater urged.
I bit my lip. “Sorry, Havoc baby. I’ll see you soon.”
Worry crossed his eyes, but before he could ask, I pushed him through.
I shifted into my basilisk form, my serpentine form moving the rocks out of the way as I slithered forward and put Dimitri and Hawk in my mouth with one try.
Sharp rocks knocked into me, and I spat them out and shifted just before we made it to the portal.
Dimitri threw Hawk into the portal, and the shaking ceased immediately.
He grabbed my wrist and pulled me into his chest, using his vampire speed to get us through the portal the next second.
The portal slammed us back into reality.
We stood in the simulation.
Dimitri let go of my wrist and rounded on me, fury burning in his eyes. “You risked all of us staying for Hawk. You ignored the escape portal.”
I stepped back, hating the way his scolding hurt my heart. “I made a call. We don’t abandon our own.”
“We were seconds from total collapse.”
“And we still made it.”
“Because I went back for him and had everyone else go ahead!”
“Because I trusted you would, and I didn’t leave you when your speed wasn’t working, did I?”
That hit him, just for a breath. Something in his posture loosened.
“You didn’t,” he agreed.
“I’m not sorry.” I placed my hands on my hips. “I’m not here just to pass a class, no offense, Professor Hunting. I’m here so I can train to survive and make sure my entire squad can survive the real thing when it comes.”
His gaze dropped before coming up to meet mine again. “You think I don’t care about survival? I care about more than my own. I care about—” He snapped his mouth shut. “Just don’t do that again.”
“Try and stop me.” I crossed my arms.
“Uh uh.” Slater tugged me against him and tilted my chin up with his index finger and thumb. “You pushed me into a portal and headed into danger.”
“I made a call,” I said weakly.
His brow raised. “And if I made the same call?”
I scowled. “I get it.”
“This isn’t over,” he warned me in a low tone I hadn’t heard from him before. It sent chills down my arms.
Hunting cleared her throat. “You improvised. You adapted. Most of my cursed students end up dead during this simulation. He wasn’t.” Her gaze flicked to Hawk. “Some of you are too soft, though.” She flicked her gaze to Aura. “You noticed the curse, didn’t you? Why didn’t you say anything?”
Aura flicked her gaze to Hawk and back to Hunting. “I wasn’t sure. I didn’t want to say something and cause panic only to be wrong.”
“Listen to your instincts. Supernaturals should always listen to instinct.” She scanned our squad again. “Rune and Dimitri, highest marks. Despite the arguing at the end, you work well together.” She looked deliberately at both of us. “Everyone else passed as well. Dismissed.”
I rubbed at my chest, wondering why it bothered me so much that Slater and Dimitri had gotten upset with me. I was used to making calls like this when I trained with Mom’s agents. I just wasn’t used to working with men that I had feelings for.