Chapter Two
Raising a hand , Ava gestured for her friends to come to a halt. They immediately acknowledged the signal by falling silent and freezing in place. Scanning the area, she searched for signs of danger but didn’t notice anything unusual.
As they had practiced in previous training sessions, they quietly fanned out, each of them taking a few steps in different directions. That allowed them to investigate a larger area in a shorter amount of time.
A few seconds later, Claudia signaled to the group, pointing toward her left.
Ava slowly stalked forward, joining her friend so that the two shifters were positioned in front of the rest of their group.
Even though they weren’t allowed to shift, their natural hunting and fighting abilities would allow them to protect their friends.
Lana and Jessica remained in the center of the formation, while Starla covered them from behind. She might lack fighting skills, but her powerful magic made her a formidable opponent and a strong protective shield.
Creeping forward, Ava crouched down next to Claudia, where she was hidden behind the large trunk of a tree. “What is it?”
“There is a male up ahead. I don’t recognize him.”
Peeking around the tree trunk, she caught sight of a young male up ahead. At first glance, she didn’t recognize him either. That was strange since she had made a note of all the students in their class, since they were potential rivals.
He was standing alone, though that didn’t mean he didn’t have backup hiding somewhere close by. His sheer size alone made him a potential threat, but Ava had grown up training with the largest males in her pack, so she wasn’t that intimidated. It was his unknown abilities that made him dangerous.
“I’ve never seen him before,” Claudia said softly. “Could he be working for the professor?”
“He’s never included other supernaturals in our training before, but it’s possible since our old professor used to,” Ava explained. “Or he could simply be a magical puppet meant to slow us down.”
“He’s not,” Starla said over Ava’s shoulder. “That’s Justin Lowe. He’s a new transfer student from the Shifter Realm. Remy and I met him last week.”
Based on how big he was, him being a shifter made sense. “What kind?”
“He is a lion shifter-mage hybrid, but he can’t shift,” Starla told them.
“He was orphaned as a child, and was part of a pride that was taken down by the Shadow Clan last year. The new alpha granted him freedom to leave the pride, so he moved here to the Human Realm. Remy and Koa tried to recruit him to play football, but the poor thing lacks coordination and is pretty accident-prone.”
That made Ava wince.
Living as a shifter who lacked the ability to transform was already a heavy burden, but being awkward and lacking physical skills would make life feel like an entirely different kind of hellscape.
In a society where strength and agility were prized above nearly everything else, such shortcomings would make anyone an outcast. Shifters typically showed little compassion for physical weakness, so it was understandable why he had chosen to leave the Shifter Realm.
“He’s in my charms class,” Jessica said. “I was paired up with him for an assignment. He’s nice, but kind of quiet.”
As was Jessica, so that was saying a lot. It had probably been an awkward class for both of them.
“He’s new to learning magic since that wasn’t something his pride paid much attention to, but I think he might end up having quite a talent for spell work.”
Even if he was a new transfer, Ava wasn’t exactly comfortable with the way they had essentially stumbled upon him in the middle of nowhere.
It felt like a trap. Erring on the side of caution, she was about to suggest that they leave without alerting him of their presence, but she didn’t get the chance.
Lana, Jessica, and Starla had already started toward him, making enough noise to announce their arrival. Muttering curses, Ava and Claudia cautiously trailed after them, making sure to scan the area for any hidden foe.
Justin didn’t bother glancing at them as they approached. Instead, he simply continued to stare up toward the sky. His posture seemed relaxed, but that could have been a pretense.
“Hi, Justin,” Starla said cheerfully. “What are you doing?”
He finally glanced over at them and blinked owlishly as if surprised to see them surrounding him. “I got to class late, and the professor threw me in here and told me to join a team. But I don’t really know anyone, so I’ve just been wandering around looking for the lights he told me to collect.”
“You can join our team,” Starla offered.
He flinched in surprise, then murmured, “Thanks.”
Ava wanted to roll her eyes when the big male blushed.
She really hoped the shifter-mage hybrid didn’t end up having a crush on the fairy since Remy would gleefully pound the fool into mush for looking at his mate the wrong way.
Then again, the male seemed to have a difficult time meeting any of their gazes.
Perhaps he was just shy and unused to female attention.
“Have you found any lights yet?” Claudia asked, focusing on the task at hand.
He shook his head. “No. All he told me was that there were three kinds. Nothing else.”
“The red lights are the most common and are worth five points each,” Jessica explained. “The blue are worth ten points. And then there is a silver light, which is worth a hundred points. There is only one of those, and if the team finds it, they are automatically teleported out of the maze.”
“Speaking of, we better start looking,” Starla pointed out. “I don’t want to get stuck with another freaking zero. That team of male shifters likes to sabotage us every chance they get.”
Ava gritted her teeth at the reminder. While shifters were known to be competitive, there was a team of five male shitheads in their class that took it to the next level.
“I don’t think you have to worry about them,” Justin said with a sly smile.
Jessica frowned. “What do you mean?”
“I think the guys you are talking about might be up there,” Justin informed them, pointing up.
Ava’s eyes narrowed as she glanced up and took note of five giant cocoons.
From personal experience, she knew whoever was trapped inside would be fine until they were rescued at the end of the class.
They weren’t the problem. The most pressing issue was the monsters that had trapped the students in those silk cocoons.
“Fuck, fuck, fuck. We have to go. Now,” Ava whispered urgently.
“Why?” Lana asked.
“Because we need to get gone before the spiders that put them in those cocoons decide to attack us.”
Lana shuddered. “Oh, man. There are spiders in here?”
Ava nodded. “Massive ones. Big enough to completely roll a person up in a few seconds.”
Jessica visibly gulped. “I have an extreme phobia of spiders. Let’s get out of here before they come back.”
“Too late,” Ava warned before pulling Jessica out of the path of a thick strand of silk that had been shot at her.
An enormous spider sprang out of the shadows, its long, spindly legs carrying it across the distance with a speed that defied belief. The creature’s appearance was the stuff of nightmares. Its bulbous body, glistening fangs, and uncanny agility made it all the more terrifying.
Ava had encountered the monstrous spiders in the maze before, and though the sight chilled her, she was prepared to face them.
Her friends, however, were not so fortunate.
They hadn’t faced them in the maze yet, and the shock and fear were written plainly across their faces as more spiders emerged from the darkness.
She let out a low, furious growl as she shoved Jessica out of harm’s way again.
The poor witch was almost frozen with fear, but she needed to snap out of it soon if they were going to make it out of there without getting trapped in the spiders’ silk.
Ava lunged forward and flung a spider away from Lana, slamming it against a tree.
The spider’s body was made up of magical armor plating, making it almost impervious to most spells and weapons. The only weak spots that it had were its eyes and a small section of its lower abdomen.
She’d gotten lucky, striking the spider’s abdomen against the tree trunk in the right spot. It burst into dust, making her cough as she mistakenly inhaled some of it.
Fucking gross.
Most of the creatures that attacked within the maze turned into magical dust once they were destroyed.
It was why the students were provided masks with their uniforms, but she hated how uncomfortable they were to wear in the heat.
However, a little discomfort was better than breathing in evil creature particles.
Tapping the button on her uniform collar, a half mask rose up to protect the lower half of her face.
Now, she was ready to fight.
“Aim for the eyes and the lower abdomen,” she told her group.
Pulling the knives from the sheaths on her thighs, she went to work destroying more spiders. The weapons were spelled so they wouldn’t cut flesh and bone, but they definitely worked on the magical creatures if they struck the right spot.
She attacked, her movements quick and calculated.
Slashing at the nearest spider, her blades sliced through its thick, midnight-black legs.
The creature shrieked, its body dissolving into shimmering dust before it could retaliate.
Another dropped down from above, its fangs glistening with venom, but she spun and kicked out, sending it crashing into another tree.
It bounced off the trunk, changing direction, where it tried to leap on Claudia’s back.
Ava pivoted and threw one of her knives into the spider’s eye, making it explode in a puff of sparkling debris.
“Everyone, move!” she commanded. “We need to get the fuck away from this area, or they won’t stop coming.”
Jessica had managed to stumble away from the chaos and find some shelter, but it wouldn’t last. Confined within a cage made from a tangle of roots, Jessica remained out of reach by using a protection spell that saved her from being crushed.
A few of the spiders tried to stab her with their legs through the small holes between branches, but her protection spell prevented them from reaching her.
“Help! I’m trapped under here!”
Ava rushed toward her, but the spiders seemed to be focused on keeping them separated.
She attempted to use a spell to recall her knife, but nothing happened.
With a curse, she tried to physically recover her knife where it had fallen, but almost got caught in the webbing that a spider shot at her from above.
She dove out of the way and was about to launch a counterattack when a wave of dizziness almost drove her to her knees. Her vision became hazy, the world around her fading until it almost went black. Then, everything changed, and a completely different scene appeared before her.
A male with magnificent white wings unfurled stood before her.
He was on a battlefield, locked in combat against a relentless tide of enemies.
Sunlight highlighted the sword in his hand and flashed across his gleaming gold and silver armor with every movement.
Magic and spells streaked through the air, surrounding him in a dangerous storm of power and chaos.
The long strands of his black hair swept across his face, concealing his features, but she managed to catch a brief glimpse of a single, glowing blue eye staring out with fierce determination.
The sight of him filled her with awe and a sense of foreboding when she realized the winged warrior was surrounded by foe.
“Ava!”
The sound of her name snapped her back to reality just in time for her to save herself from being skewered by a long, spindly leg.
She spun out of the way as Claudia leaped in the air and destroyed the spider mid-air.
She landed in a roll, retrieving and tossing the fallen knife back to Ava before she landed back on her feet.
“Thanks for the save!”
“You okay?” Claudia asked, clearly concerned. “You spaced out for a sec. Did you get a vision or something?”
“Yeah.”
“Fuck.”
That about summed it up.
Pushing that aside for now, Ava went on the attack again.
She kept her breathing steady behind the half-mask as she drove her enchanted knife deep into the abdomen of another monster.
She must have missed the mark that time because it twisted violently, legs trashing as it tried to get away.
She had to stab it two more times before it burst apart, scattering more magical dust across the ground.
A spider tried to sneak up on her from above, crawling impossibly fast along the branches. Again, Ava tried using a spell to freeze it in place, but it failed to work. Instead, she hurled her knife at it. The blade struck true, hitting the eye, making the spider disintegrate.
Before she could rescue Jessica, more spiders emerged from the shadows, their eyes reflecting the faint light with eerie intensity.
Webbing shot toward her from all directions, but she ducked, rolled, and sliced through the strands, refusing to let the creatures catch her.
The air was thick with glittering dust as one by one the spiders were destroyed, but she was aware that more could appear at any moment.
Ava’s heart hammered in her chest, adrenaline fueling her every move. The physical activity felt good, but she knew they couldn’t linger there for much longer. The spiders would never stop coming as long as they remained standing.
As the fight continued, Claudia sliced and diced another pair of spiders, rolling across the ground to avoid being pounced on by another. A few feet away, Starla launched herself off a tree trunk and performed an impressive flip in the air.
She landed on the back of one of the monsters, driving the knife into its eyes and jumping off to engage with another before the first had even turned to dust. It would have been easier for her to use her fairy magic to destroy the spiders, but she was doing well fighting with weapons.
“Good job, Starla!” Claudia praised. “Your fighting skills have seriously improved.”
“Thanks.” Starla let out an exhausted sigh as Ava destroyed the last spider. “Thank the gods that’s over.”
“This break is only temporary,” Ava told them. “We have to escape now before the next wave arrives. Keep your guard up, and let’s get the fuck out of here.”