Chapter 17
Alette
The air is thick and wrong. Every breath tastes like damp earth and rot. The tunnel presses in on all sides, low and narrow, the walls slick when my head occasionally brushes a low spot. Oberon’s flame doesn’t push the darkness back. It just makes it move.
We’ve been down here too long.
My legs ache. My ribs protest every breath from the fall, a sharp reminder I try to ignore. I keep moving anyway. I don’t want to slow them down. I don’t want to think about what happens if I simply stop to rest and then can’t get back up again.
My mind keeps dragging me back to Lord Ferngull’s house. To the smiles. To the way they looked at us almost kindly. Yet, the whole time they planned to eat us.
A shudder rolls through my body. If not for that woman, that strange woman, I don’t know what would have happened to us. Maybe we would’ve escaped.
Maybe we wouldn’t have.
I swallow hard and force the thought away, but it doesn’t go far. It lingers, crawling under my skin.
The tunnel isn’t better. It’s just quieter and dryer than the surface.
I move closer to Sylvian without thinking. My arm brushes his, and he glances down at me, his expression softening. His fingers close lightly around my arm, his thumb brushing once in a quiet reassurance.
I cling to that more than I should.
We keep walking. There’s no end. No change. Just stone and dark and the soft, awful echo of our steps.
“We should go back,” Oberon says, his voice rough, edged with frustration. “Find where we fell. Climb out.”
“And walk straight into them?” Sylvian snaps. “No. There’s a way forward. There has to be.”
Their words bounce off the walls, louder than they should be, filling the tunnel.
I flinch, my gaze flicking into the darkness ahead, half-expecting something to answer. Anything.
They step closer, tension rising, the space between them tightening. I don’t know which is worse. The people above us. Or whatever might be down here.
Ashton moves between them, one hand raised. “Enough.”
The word hangs in the air, thin but final. Silence follows, heavy and listening.
I realize I’m holding my breath and let it out slowly. Please let this tunnel end. Please let there be a way out.
Ashton looks at Sylvian. “Do you think you could create a hole for us to climb out of here?”
Sylvian shakes his head, his expression strained. “I can’t be sure how much earth is above us. If I get it wrong, I could bring the entire tunnel crashing down.”
The group falls into a tense silence, the frustration palpable. I’m exhausted, both physically and mentally. We need to do something, but I have no idea what. Cassius turns to me, his expression expectant.
“What do you think, Alette?” he asks, his voice gentle.
I take a deep breath, deciding to just go with my instincts. “I think we should keep going forward. Going back could put us right back in their hands. And Sylvian’s right about not using his powers to escape, we can’t risk collapsing the tunnel. We have to trust that there’s a way out ahead.”
Oberon doesn’t look happy, his jaw tightening as he glares at the tunnel ahead.
I step closer, placing a hand on his arm. “Have a little faith,” I say softly, leaning up to press a quick kiss to his cheek. The gesture seems to melt some of his anger, and he sighs, nodding reluctantly.
We press on, the flickering light of Oberon’s flame guiding our way through the oppressive darkness. The air grows colder the deeper we go. Just when I think I can’t take another step, the tunnel widens into a massive chamber, and the sudden shift in space feels almost like a breath of fresh air.
It’s hard to see far into the room, with only Oberon’s light to guide us. It’s so tall that the light doesn’t reach the ceiling, but I spot a pillar, I’m guessing there are more, keeping the dirt from swallowing the room.
“What is this place?” Sylvian murmurs.
The room is eerily quiet, the only sound the soft shuffle of our footsteps. I can’t help but feel a sense of wonder at the vastness of the chamber, the way it opens up like a hidden sanctuary.
As we move further in, something cracks under my foot. I freeze, my heart leaping into my throat. The noise reverberates against the walls, echoing ominously, and I can feel my pulse quicken.
“What was that?” Ashton asks, his voice sharp, tinged with anxiety.
Oberon lowers his flame. I lift my foot and look down, my stomach turning as I see what lies beneath. Bones. Hundreds of them, scattered across the floor like the remnants of some grisly feast.
“A room full of bones,” Cassius says grimly, shadows moving across his pale face in the shifting light. “Not exactly reassuring.”
I draw my dagger, and it slowly grows into a bright sword, the blade casting a pale glow that joins Oberon’s flame in illuminating the frightening scene. Skulls stare up at us with empty sockets, their jaws frozen in eternal screams, and a shiver runs down my spine as I force myself to keep moving.
“Let’s get out of here,” I say, my voice shaking.
The others nod, and we turn back toward the tunnel we came from. But when we reach the entrance, it’s gone. The walls have shifted, the path replaced by solid rock. This damn labyrinth.
“What the hell?” Oberon growls, slamming a fist against the wall. “When will this place stop its games?”
“It’s the labyrinth,” Sylvian says, his voice grim. “It wants us dead, by any means necessary.”
Okay, so we don’t go back. We can’t. We only have one choice.
“Then we keep moving forward,” I say firmly. “There has to be another way out.”
The group hesitates, but they follow as I lead the way deeper into the chamber, every step feeling like a march toward an uncertain fate.
The bones crunch beneath our feet with every step, the sound grating on my nerves.
Our flickering light casts grotesque shadows, making the bones seem to writhe and shift… an unsettling sight.
None of us say it, but all of us think it. “What killed all the people here?”
Just when I think I can’t take it anymore, I see it, a faint glow of light ahead.
“Is that… daylight?” Ashton asks, sounding doubtful.
We quicken our pace, the sight of the light breathing new life into our weary bodies.
As we approach, the light grows brighter, revealing an opening that beckons us forward.
But as we step through the doorway, we discover that it’s really just the light from a wall of glowing rocks in the next chamber.
Yet another creepy chamber. Except, this one is worse.
The tunnel opens without warning. I take one step forward. And stop. Webs. They blanket the chamber, thick and layered, sagging from the ceiling in heavy sheets. Some cling to the walls. Others stretch across the open space in dense strands that glisten in Oberon’s firelight like wet threads.
The air smells wrong. Sweet and rotten at the same time. And the webs move. Not from wind. From what’s inside them.
Air catches in my throat as something shifts overhead. A leg unfolds. Then another. A massive spider lowers itself from the ceiling, its body as large as a horse, its weight barely disturbing the silk that holds it.
More follow. Shapes peeling out of the dark. Eyes catching the light. Mandibles clicking softly.
Watching us.
Waiting.
My stomach turns. For a second, I’m back in the house. The way they looked at us. Food. No. I force the thought away and look past the webs.
And I see it. Across the chamber, framed in stone and half-choked with silk, an open archway. Rain pours through it in silver sheets, wind driving it sideways. The sound of it fills the space, distant but real.
Outside.
“That’s it,” I whisper, my voice barely holding together. “That’s the way out.”
Hope sparks, sharp and fragile.
“We go through,” Oberon says, stepping forward. Fire curls into his palm, brightening fast. “I’ll clear a path.”
“Wait.” I grab his arm, my fingers tightening more than I mean to. “If we run, we’ll get stuck in the webs. They’ll trap us.”
Ashton’s eyes sweep the chamber, calculating. “We’ll distract them first. Fire will draw them. We move while they’re distracted.”
“They’re too many,” Cassius says, quiet but firm.
“We don’t have another option,” Sylvian replies.
His hand finds my arm again, strong and warm despite the damp.
“I’ve got you,” he murmurs.
I nod, even though my heart is pounding too hard to believe anything is safe.
Oberon steps forward. The flame in his hand swells, growing brighter, hotter, until it roars. Heat rolls off it, pushing back the damp for a brief moment. Then he throws it, and the fire slams into the far side of the chamber. Webs ignite instantly.
Flames race along the silk, spreading fast, devouring everything they touch. The chamber fills with the crackle of burning strands and the sharp, dusty smell of it.
The spiders react. They surge toward the fire, bodies dropping, legs skittering, drawn to it in a wave of movement that makes my skin crawl.
“Now!” Cassius snaps.
We run. The webs catch at me immediately. They cling to my arms, my face, my legs, sticky and resisting. I tear through them, panic spiking as they pull, as if they’re trying to hold me in place.
My ribs scream with every movement. My breath stutters. Don’t stop.
The rain is right there. I can see it…
A scream cuts through the chamber. I turn to see that Sylvian has been slammed to the ground as a spider crashes into him from above. Its legs pin him, its mandibles snapping inches from his face.
“No—!” I start toward him, but something yanks at my ankle.
A web. It tightens, jerking me off balance. I hit the ground hard, pain flaring through my side as I struggle to pull free. But it won’t let go.
The strand stretches, then snaps back, dragging me. The spider who pulls the thread drops in front of me. Up close, it’s worse. Too many eyes. Too many legs. The sound of it, clicking, scraping…
It lunges. I swing on instinct. The blade flashes blue. It cuts through the spider’s front leg cleanly. No resistance. No struggle. The limb falls away, twitching on the stone.
The spider recoils with a high, piercing screech. I stare for half a second. That should not have been that easy.
“Alette!” Cassius’s voice cuts through the noise.
I wrench my leg free and scramble up, ignoring the pain.
Another spider lunges for Cassius from behind.
“Behind you!”
He turns too late… and I move before I think. The blade arcs again, the blue glow flaring brighter as it slices through the spider’s side. It collapses, legs curling in on itself.
Across the chamber, Oberon is holding back three at once, fire bursting from his hands in sharp, violent strikes. One gets too close, too fast, and its leg catches his shoulder, tearing through fabric and skin.
He grunts, staggering, but answers with a blast of flame that engulfs it.
Cassius throws his hand forward, forcing his water outward. The mass slams into a spider mid-charge, crushing it sideways into the stone with a wet, bone-cracking force before it drops, twitching, to the floor.
Sylvian shoves his spider off with a surge of strength, rolling to his feet just as another drops toward him. He catches it mid-lunge, driving his blade up into its underside, but it knocks him back, sending him skidding across the slick floor.
Ashton moves instantly, dragging Sylvian out of the way as a massive leg slams down where he’d been.
“They’re circling!” he warns.
I turn, and a spider drops. The largest one yet. It hits the ground between us and the exit, blocking the archway completely. The stone cracks beneath its weight. Its body is massive, towering, its eyes fixed on me.
Of course it is.
My grip tightens on the sword. My side throbs. My breath comes in and out too fast, but it lunges.
I barely dodge, its leg slamming into the ground, splintering stone. The force of it throws me sideways. I hit hard, my vision flashing white.
It turns again, and I push up, forcing my body to move, raising the blade just as it strikes. The impact drives me back, my boots sliding across the stone. My arms shake under the force.
Then the blade flares. Bright. Cold. Alive. It cuts. Deep.
The spider screams, thrashing violently. One of its legs catches Ashton, knocking him off his feet. He hits the ground hard.
A violent gust tears through the chamber as Ashton throws his power outward, wind slamming into a smaller spider and ripping it apart mid-lunge, scattering pieces across the burning webs.
“Stay down!” Cassius snaps, stepping in, cutting another spider away from him.
Oberon sends a wall of fire crashing into the others, holding them back for a second, just a second.
“Finish it!” he shouts.
I grit my teeth and drive forward. Pain lances through my ribs, but I ignore it. I bring the blade down again, the blue light flaring as it bites deep into the spider’s body.
It shudders. Then collapses.
The ground splits suddenly near the edge of the chamber, stone cracking open as Sylvian drives his power into it. A spider lunges toward us and disappears into the opening, swallowed whole as the earth slams shut again.
“Move!” Cassius grabs my arm, pulling me upright before I can fall with it.
We run.
The archway is right there, rain pouring through it in silver sheets. Cold air spills into the chamber, sharp and clean, cutting through the rot. Freedom. My lungs burn as I push harder, ignoring the pain in my side, the ache in my legs. And then… nothing. I smack into stone. Hard stone.
I stumble forward, my hands slamming into hard stone where the doorway was. The sound of rain vanishes. The cold disappears with it, ripped away so abruptly it leaves a ringing silence behind.
I freeze.
“No,” I breathe.
The archway is gone. No door. No rain. No sky. Just solid stone. An illusion.
Behind us, the spiders shriek.
“They’re pissed!” Sylvian shouts.
Of course they are.
“Find another way!” Cassius snaps, already turning, blade up.
My heart is pounding too fast, my thoughts scrambling, searching. And then I see it! An opening in the ceiling where rain is pouring through on the other side of the chamber.
“Up!” I point, my voice breaking through the chaos. “There!”
“Go!” Ashton orders.
Oberon surges forward, fire roaring back to life in his hands as he hurls it into the webs. Flames race upward, clearing a path just wide enough before the fire goes out. Then, he throws another fireball in a different corner of the room, drawing the creatures away from us.
The spiders react instantly, turning toward the fire, then splitting. Some still come for us. Some go where his fire still burns.
Cassius grabs my wrist and pulls me with him. “Move!”
We sprint forward. Hoping, praying, that this isn’t just another illusion. That there’s really another path out of this room that doesn’t lead to death.