Chapter 29 Rune #2
Slater stole a kiss before he pivoted and moved up the steps at different angles, following his own path. He jumped over the top step and rolled to the porch smoothly before looking back and winking at me. “Did you see that, venom baby?”
I nodded. “Very good, Havoc baby.”
“Alright, I’m maintaining it, but it’s killing my magical essence, so uh, hurry up?” Slater’s voice turned strained.
Ivy and Solon went first, following his exact path, then it was mine and Dimitri’s turn.
I went first, stepping on the left edge of the stair, the center, and kept my body diagonally like Slater had. The air thrummed against my skin from the fae magic, but it didn’t cut me.
Behind me, I heard the others follow, breaths measured, feet carefully placed.
Koa muttered, “Okay, not dying, not dying,” under his breath.
I jump-rolled like the rest had and landed just in time to glance back and see Koa’s eyes widen before he tripped sideways.
“Damn it, Koa,” Zuko muttered, but the air fae trap cut my phoenix mate into cubes in three-seconds flat.
The pain flared through the matebond, and it stole my breath.
Zuko hurried through the path just as Koa’s remains broke down to ash and whirled out of the trap onto the porch in a burst of flames.
He cried out in his phoenix form, fluffing his flaming feathers before shifting back.
“Koa, don’t fucking do that!” I launched myself at him, wrapping my arms around his neck and pressing my lips to his.
He responded instantly, holding me tightly and kissing me back. He pulled back slightly and pouted his bottom lip. “I’m sorry, little vixen. I slipped.”
“Clumsiest phoenix I’ve ever seen.” Ivy shook her head in disbelief.
“My family says the same.” Koa scratched the back of his neck awkwardly.
“Sylver,” Solon called from where he and Ivy stood in front of the door to the mansion. “Do we have a trapdoor here?”
I pulled away from Koa, but my heart still ached from watching him be killed by the air fae trap.
He leaned down and kissed my temple before we walked over to the rest of the group.
“Reboot is an appropriate name, bro,” Slater whispered to him.
Koa blushed. “Listen, I can’t help it. It’s like I’m cursed to be clumsy.”
“No.” Sylver shook her head. “There’s no curse on you.”
Koa’s blush deepened.
“So, what’s up with the door?” Solon asked again, gesturing toward the door. The wood was dark, almost black, veins of some type of crystal threaded through it. His hand hovered just shy of touching it.
“The door itself isn’t warded or trapped,” Sylver said, tilting her head, making her blonde bob move to the side. “But the house is listening. We need to be non-threatening to avoid it turning hostile.”
“My turn, then,” Eleanor said softly, squaring her shoulders as she moved forward. “We’re simply a group of supernaturals trying to seek shelter from the storm.”
“What storm?” Katie asked before checking the map. Thunder rolled above us as if answering her question. “Oh. That storm.”
“I could smell the incoming storm,” Eleanor said sheepishly. “Can’t you?”
“Yes.” I nodded. “I didn’t notice it before, but the distinct scent is definitely in the air.”
“We seek shelter, then.” Solon shoved the door open. “Simple enough.”
It swung open, and I felt the sheer amount of magic ripple out from inside.
The entry was massive. A chandelier hung overhead, with floating crystals dripping light.
Two sweeping staircases curled up on either side to a grand landing.
The floor was glossy black marble veined with pulsing purple, and paintings lined the walls of the four fae kingdoms.
The air hummed with fae magic.
“The Enhancing Relic’s signature is here,” Katie said, turning her tablet so we could see a glowing red point on the mansion’s blueprints. “Sub-basement level, toward the right. But the path there keeps changing.” The tablet beeped, and she turned it to look. “Okay, now it’s on the fourth floor.”
“We’ll adapt,” Dimitri said.
Ivy and Solon took the lead. The mansion creaked faintly, as if it were adjusting to our presence. The staircase on the left shifted half an inch, almost beckoning us forward.
The chandelier dimmed, then brightened, shining down on the stairs.
“This building is alive,” I muttered. “I hate it.”
“It’s a simulator,” Sylver reminded me. “Modeled after real fae estates, sure, but we are in a simulator. The fae like their homes temperamental.”
A shiver worked through me. I didn’t love that fact.
We crossed the hall and took the left staircase since the mansion seemed to want us there, and it was where the relic was now located. The steps subtly shortened and lengthened, trying to throw off our rhythm, but we adjusted.
Halfway up, Zuko grumbled, “If any of you trip, I’m not catching you.”
“What about me?” Slater asked.
“Especially not you.” He scoffed.
“What about me, toxin?” I looked over my shoulder as I walked but stumbled.
Dimitri chuckled, catching me by my waist. “Careful, lethal darling. Focus.”
I blushed.
Zuko whimpered. “I would’ve caught her.”
On the second floor, the mansion shifted again.
The corridor ahead elongated, doors fading in and out of existence. The wallpaper darkened, red flowers deepening to black roses that bled ink onto the stone.
“Map?” Ivy asked, phoenix flames licking over her hands as she used it for extra light.
Katie frowned at her screen. “It’s glitching.”
“Not tech glitching,” Slater muttered.
“Magic glitching. The house doesn’t want us to know which path is stable,” Sylver explained.
“I can probably force the map to show us a stable path,” Slater suggested, crowding her shoulder.
“It wouldn’t help,” she sighed. “The mansion keeps switching things around.”
She pointed. “Relic is that way now…I think.”
“Then we go that way,” Dimitri said. “It’s something.”
We moved down the corridor.
A faint wind passed by and whispered, “Intruders…”
Eleanor shivered. “Did anyone else hear that?”
“Yeah,” I said, ignoring the goosebumps that prickled my skin. “Ignore it. It wants a reaction.”
We passed three doors before one on the right slithered across the wall to block our way. Its handle grew literal sharp teeth.
“Okay, that’s rude,” Ivy said.
The teeth snapped.
“Don’t touch that one,” Solon noted dryly.
She rolled her eyes. “Wasn’t planning on it.”
The corridor bent sharply left. As we rounded it, the temperature dropped. Frost crept up the walls, and our breath turned visible.
“Fae magic increase,” Sylver warned. “Ice fae trap up ahead.”
A wide gallery opened up, lined with tall windows showing the brutal storm that raged outside. The floor was slick, coated in a glassy sheen. Sculptures of ice fae soldiers stood along the walls, their expressions blank.
“That is definitely a trap,” Zuko muttered.
“I can’t get traction.” Eleanor’s feet slid from under her. She struggled to remain upright, and so did the rest of us.
“Aren’t these suits supposed to hold traction no matter what?” I grumbled.
“Something we will report on when we are finished,” Slater told me.
“Hey,” Katie whispered, pointing to the nearest ice sculpture. “See that?”
Faint cracks webbed through it in certain places, like veins. The hands of each sculpture were all angled toward the center path.
The floor was tiled with ice.
Sylver cursed under her breath. “The ice is tied to a pressure ward. If more than one person puts full weight on any one panel, it will shatter and the ice soldiers will attack. I’ve only read about this trap before. I’ve never seen it in action.”
“So, one at a time, light steps,” Dimitri concluded. “We cross the hall in sets of three.”
Ivy and Solon went first, with Dimitri following behind.
Ivy moved with the careful grace of someone who’d trained in battle on all terrains, just like a House of Fortitude student should.
Solon almost slipped once, but Ivy grabbed the back of his jacket and steadied him. Dimitri had zero issue crossing.
“I’ll go first,” I said automatically to the rest of them.
Zuko’s skeletal-tatted fingers brushed my hip. “I’ll go with you, pretty little poison.”
Slater raised his hand. “Me too!”
We stepped onto the tiled ice. It wasn’t as slippery as the floor had been, but it felt fragile. We walked carefully, evenly spaced. Little cracks spidered under Zuko’s foot but didn’t break.
Halfway across, a distant bang rang out from somewhere in the mansion.
The ice vibrated.
“Keep moving,” Sylver whispered softly.
We made it to the other side, then turned to watch the others do the same.
Sylver, Eleanor, and Katie crossed next.
Three steps in, the mansion shuddered again. The windows rattled, and the storm outside howled in an eerie way that made me feel like it was a bad omen.
A section of ice under Eleanor’s foot webbed with deeper cracks just as Sylver and Katie made it out of danger.
“Eleanor, stop,” I said sharply.
She froze, arms slightly out for balance. “This is fine,” she said. “I am completely fine.”
The ice panel beneath her groaned in disagreement.
“Don’t move,” Koa said.
Slater’s eyes darted, calculating. “Sylver, what’s happening? She’s the only one on the tile.”
“Fae magic is prickly,” she admitted with a nervous tilt. “Fae traps are enchanted to follow rules, but sometimes, the fae magic goes haywire and essentially malfunctions.”
“What are our options?” Dimitri asked.
“Ivy could try to break the trap at its origin with phoenix fire,” Sylver suggested, nodding toward the nearest ice fae statue. “If she miscalculates, it’ll trigger all of them to attack.”
“I can do it,” Koa said, stepping out onto the ice to cross and avoiding the tile Eleanor was on. “I have to cross past it, anyway. My shot will be better.”
Ivy nodded. “Do it.”
He moved in a diagonal arc, weight evenly distributed, heading for a spot just in front of Eleanor.
Her eyes were huge as they met mine. “Rune—”
“You’re okay,” I said calmly. “Don’t move. Calm your breathing. Koa will disable the trap.”