Chapter 32
Rynlee’s POV
Aiden was right; we weren’t going to win this.
For every demon I cut down, two more seemed to crawl out of the shadows to take its place.
My muscles ached, my lungs burned, but I kept moving.
Then I saw her, Gia, slashing her way through a knot of Blood Assassins.
Relief hit me like a wave. I darted toward her and touched her arm.
“Gia, thank the Gods,” I breathed, my voice shaking more than I wanted it to. Ryan was holding the line a few paces away, his blade a blur. “Look, we’ve got to get going. The professors are pulling the first years back; you and Ryan should go,” I urged.
She glanced in the direction of Professor Wicken, who was waving students forward, her voice hoarse from shouting. First years stumbled past, some carrying others, some barely staying upright.
“You’re coming, right?” Gia asked, gripping my hand.
I shook my head. “Not yet. I want to make sure the others get out first.”
Her brows drew together. “No way. I’m not leaving without you.” I sighed. This was why I loved Gia, just as stubborn as me.
“I’ll be okay,” I promised, squeezing her hand. “Please, just help the professors and… make sure my Aunt Mira is safe.”
Gia exhaled hard, her jaw tight. “You always were more stubborn than me.”
A small smile tugged at my lips. “Yeah, well… one of us has to be.” Her expression softened, the same line she’d thrown at me on our first day here, what felt like a lifetime ago.
“Yeah, I guess so. Just be safe.” We shared a quick, tight hug before she turned and began helping the injured toward the tunnels, where Wicken and Quinnell were holding the entrance. I watched her go; a strange heaviness settled in my chest.
Erebus was going to win this battle. I could feel it in my bones.
Maybe it had always been designed that way, his plan already in motion, his lies rooted deep.
Then it hit me. The black journal. It was still in my dorm.
That riddle, those cryptic lines; it could hold answers.
Possibly a way to fight him. I glanced at the academy just as another tower collapsed in a thunder of stone and dust.
“Shit,” I muttered. Now or never. I sheathed my daggers and sprinted toward the ruins of the courtyard. I was just about to slip inside when a hand grabbed my arm.
“Ryn, what are you doing!” Alaric’s voice was sharp, edged with panic.
“I forgot something in my dorm. I need to grab it,” I replied quickly, tugging my arm free.
“Ryn, you can’t go in there; it’s unstable.” He pointed at the groaning, shifting structure.
“I have to. I’ll be right back.”
“The dorms are on the other side, you can’t—” He reached for me again, but I was already moving, slipping past him. The moment I stepped through the archway, it gave a low, ominous crack before collapsing in a spray of rubble, sealing the way behind me.
“Dammit, Ryn!” Alaric shouted.
“I’ll be okay!” I called back over my shoulder. My voice echoed through the empty halls, but there was no time to think about it. I drew a steadying breath, my pulse hammering in my ears, and broke into a run. Whatever was in that journal, I had to reach it before the academy fell completely.
I sprinted past what used to be the sparring room.
The roof had caved in, pillars jutting at jagged angles like the bones of a corpse.
The feeding hall was a hollow shell now, its long tables buried under rubble, the scent of smoke and scorched wood still lingering in the air.
The library was worse. A collapsed heap of stone and splintered shelves, centuries of knowledge crushed in an instant.
My stomach tightened. This place, once full of life and voices, seemed desolate now…
wrong. The air itself seemed heavier here, the shadows clinging to the walls like living things.
I could sense it, Erebus’s darkness, thick and suffocating, seeping through the stone.
My magic prickled under my skin, the warmth of it battling against the cold that tried to creep in.
I took another step and froze at the sound, a guttural roar, deep and violent enough to rattle my bones. Slowly, I looked over my shoulder.
A massive black shape emerged from the far corridor, rounding the corner with a predator’s patience.
The same thing I’d seen in the showers. Only this time…
I knew it wasn’t a vision. Its red eyes burned like coals, its mouth splitting into a snarl that revealed teeth much too long, too sharp.
Shadows swirled off its skin like smoke, and every instinct in me screamed to run.
My legs already ached from the sprint here, but I pushed harder, bolting toward the dorm steps.
Behind me, its massive feet slammed against the stone in a rhythm like war drums. My heart tried to match the beat.
The walls trembled as it chased, one clawed hand scraping deep grooves into the stone corridor.
I reached the top and darted down the narrow hallway, every step echoing in the unnatural quiet.
The dorm doors loomed on either side, splintered and swinging.
My breath was sharp in my throat when I finally made it to my room.
I tore inside, shoving past fallen beams and shattered glass.
My desk, empty. My bed, empty. Panic clawed up my spine.
Where did I put it? The pounding footsteps slowed, each one deliberate now.
It knew exactly where I was. “Shit,” I whispered, my gaze darting wildly until there.
The black journal. Half-buried under a pile of scattered papers.
I lunged for it, snatching it up and shoving it into my satchel.
The doorway darkened.
A massive, clawed arm reached in. I dove, rolling across the floor as its talons scraped the stone where my head had been a heartbeat before.
Heat flooded through my veins as I summoned my fire.
My skin seared with it, and I hurled a fireball straight into its face.
It let out a screeching roar, jerking back from the blast. I didn’t wait.
I bolted into the hallway, boots pounding against the floor as the walls groaned under the strain of another impact somewhere below. The stairs were right ahead until the stone beneath me began to crack.
“Move,” I hissed to myself, leaping the last few steps just as the staircase behind me collapsed into a storm of debris.
The creature’s roar followed, muffled by the sound.
I exhaled, trembling. “Thank the gods—” it was finally over.
Then the pile of stones shifted, groaned, and rose.
The creature shoved the rubble aside, dragging itself free with a low, guttural snarl.
“Great. Just great,” I muttered, spinning on my heel and sprinting down another corridor.
Destroyed classrooms flashed past, their doors ripped from hinges, scorch marks bleeding up the walls.
The side exit was close, the one the alchemy students used to reach the gardens for ingredients.
My chest ached, but I pushed harder when I saw the faint sliver of daylight through the cracked door ahead.
Almost there. Then something slammed into my back, hard enough to knock the air from my lungs.
The floor scraped against my palms as I hit the ground, a sharp cry ripping from my throat.
Claws hooked into my armor, and the cold weight of shadow magic coiled around my legs.
And then I was being dragged into the dark again.
I twisted onto my back and hurled a burst of fire into the shadows.
The light flared, licking across the stone, and for a split second, I saw the creature in full.
Gods. It was even bigger than I thought.
A hulking mass of muscle and shadow, its mouth bristling with jagged teeth that looked too many for one skull.
The fireball shot past, but it didn’t flinch.
If anything, it moved faster, dragging me harder down the corridor. And then everything changed.
The hallway, the stone, the screaming walls of the academy—they all vanished.
The creature was gone, too. I was lying in snow.
Not normal snow; it fell so slowly it was like gravity had forgotten its purpose.
Each flake drifted lazily, suspended in the air, glinting faintly like ash in a dying firelight.
I sat up, breath clouding in front of me. The world here was… silent.
Not peaceful, but silent, heavy silence.
The kind that pressed against your skin, as though the whole forest was holding its breath.
A forest stretched out in all directions.
The trees were black as obsidian, their branches bare, twisting into shapes that looked like claws scraping at the sky.
No wind, no rustle, just stillness. My boots crunched softly on the snow as I stood, the sound absurdly loud against the void.
The golden orb at my neck pulsed slowly, uneasy.
Almost like a heartbeat warning me this wasn’t a place where light could survive.
“What the hell,” I whispered. I took a step forward, and the darkness seemed to lean in.
It was suffocating, pressing into my lungs, crawling along my skin.
My pulse was loud in my ears, and I could swear I heard a noise under it, a faint echo, like whispers far away, but moving closer.
I pressed a hand over the orb, its heat grounding me for a moment. “Can you… show me the way out?”
My voice sounded small here, swallowed before it could travel.
Something shifted behind me. A cold hand clamped down on my shoulder, yanking me backward hard.
The snow, the trees, the silence all shattered, and I hit the stone floor of the academy.
I blinked up to find Alaric crouched over me, his face tight with worry.
“Ryn, you, okay?” He reached for my arm, steadying me. I scrambled to my feet, glancing wildly down the corridor where the creature had dragged me. Nothing. No shadow. No monster. Just the academy, broken, groaning, dying around us.
“Al, we can’t stay here,” I said quickly, still scanning the shadows. “There’s a creature—”
“What creature? There was nothing here,” he cut in, confusion etched across his face. “You were just… standing here.” My brows knit. That wasn’t possible. I’d felt it. I’d seen it. The walls gave another deep, cracking groan. Alaric took my hand firmly.
“We can talk about it when we’re out of here. Come on.” I let him pull me, but my mind was still back there, in that forest of black trees, where time didn’t move and the air didn’t breathe. Where had I gone? And more importantly, why did it feel like something there was still looking back at me?
Once outside, the air hits my lungs like ice. I bent over, hands braced on my knees, trying to steady my breathing. My mind was still reeling. Half from the run, half from whatever had just happened inside the academy. “I got what I needed,” I said finally, my tone softer than I intended.
“Good. Now come on,” Alaric said, slipping a hand under my elbow like he could physically tow me if he had to. “We need to get to the tunnels.”
“What? No way!” I jerked free so fast that I almost stumbled.
“Ryn, come on.” His voice was firm now, too firm. “The first years are practically all gone, and you look like you’re about ready to collapse.”
“I’m fine,” I snapped, squaring my shoulders. “Besides, we could be doing more. I’m sure the second years need help, and what about the rest of the third years?”
“They are capable of handling it themselves,” he shot back, his tone like steel. I’d never heard him speak to me like that before.
“No. I’m not injured, and I can keep fighting.” I turned on my heel, heading straight for the chaos again.
Behind me, I heard him mutter, “Why must you be so stubborn?”
A smile tugged at my lips despite everything.
“Got it from my dad,” I murmured, picturing him probably hunched over some old war manual at home.
Did he even know what was happening here?
Or was this all buried under the High King’s secrecy?
If I made it out of this, I’d have to see him.
Ask him. We stepped onto the battlefield, the air thick with smoke and the metallic tang of blood. I glanced at Alaric.
“Come on, it’ll be like old times, when we used to pretend to fight bad guys.”
He smirked faintly, though his eyes were grim. “Yeah… except this time, we might not win.”
“We will,” I replied without hesitation, squeezing his hand. Instead of letting go, he held on for a moment longer than he needed to, his thumb brushing against my knuckles before he finally released me. It was such a small thing that I barely noticed it at the moment.
“Just… don’t get yourself killed, okay? You’re all I’ve got.” His voice was quiet, almost lost in the chaos, but it landed like a weight in my chest.
I forced a smile. “Same goes for you.” Alaric took a moment, his blue eyes sweeping over my face as if he were trying to memorize every line. My heart fluttered and ached all at once. “I love you,” I whispered, squeezing his hand.
“I love you too,” he replied, his voice steady but weighted.
It wasn’t just a romantic love; it was something deeper.
Alaric had always been my best friend, the one constant in a world that shifted under my feet.
When he left for the War College, Gia had stepped into that empty space, but she could never truly replace him.
There was a part of me that only Alaric knew, a bond stitched together by shared childhood battles, whispered secrets under blanket forts, and the quiet understanding of siblings who had survived the same storms. That I love you wasn’t just words.
It was a promise. A vow. Alaric was my other half.
And because of that, we had to survive. Alaric, Aiden, Luna, Gia, Ryan, and Jackson. All of us.
Because if we didn’t, then who else would save the world?
We stepped back onto the battlefield, still holding hands.
Most of the first years were gone now; those who weren’t were fighting their way toward the tunnels, some limping, some carrying others.
A few second years joined them, at least the injured ones.
But over the ridge, demons and Blood Assassins kept pouring in like a black tide.
“Want to see who can get more kills?” I asked, glancing up at him as I unsheathed my daggers.
Alaric shook his head, but a smile tugged at his lips. “You always have to make it a challenge, don’t you?”
I shrugged. “Got to make it interesting, right?” My fire pulsed hot under my skin, eager to be unleashed.
“Alright, Ryn, you’re on. Loser owes the other a slice of strawberry cake.” We bumped forearms, grinning like fools in the middle of hell, and then we charged into the fray together, one last time.