I’d been hit.
Breathing quick, sharp breaths, I tried to handle the arrow but moving it sent shocks of pain through my system. I needed to snap the shaft off, grab it by its feathered side, and pulled it out the long way. I set the rifle down and tried to move my shoulder, but hot pain burned through my body.
Maybe there was some magic I could use, but I doubted it. Healing magic wouldn’t work until the arrow was out, and while I knew how to make myself almost invisible and stitch my own wounds up, but I couldn’t figure out how to use magic to snap a piece of wood in half. It was starting to look like the only thing I could do was grit my teeth and deal with the pain.
“That’s alright,” I muttered, “I’ve been through worse.”
Careful not to aggravate the injury any further, I reached for the arrow with my free hand and grabbed hold of the shaft. Slowly, I applied a little pressure, just enough to start bending it. Breathing through the pain, keeping my shoulder as still as possible, I pushed against the arrow shaft… but it didn’t snap. Was it made of metal?
Footsteps. My ears perked up. I grabbed the rifle with my left hand, an awkward way to hold it, and held it against my chest. Someone was running toward me, their footfalls growing louder, leaves and twigs crackling underfoot. Whoever this was, they didn’t care much for stealth.
I counted down from three, keeping perfectly still, then I raised the rifle with my awkward, left-handed grip only to find Draven sliding beside me.
“Holy shit, I could’ve killed you!” I said, my voice a harsh whisper.
“You’re alive!” he said, surprised. “Thank the Gods.”
At that, I fell silent. Draven grabbed hold of the arrow with both hands, whispered so low I couldn’t hear his voice, then he snapped the shaft like it was made of cheap plywood. He placed the shaft against my lips, and I bit into it. He slid one of his hands under my back, and then together we heaved my shoulder up and over the arrow the hard way.
I fell to my side, panting, my hand immediately flying to the wound which had started to bleed. Draven, lightning-quick, wrapped both of his hands around the injury and continued to whisper. I couldn’t see him, but I could feel his magic radiating from him, tendrils of warmth snaking through his fingers and into my body, relieving me of the pain I was in.
It only took a moment, less than five seconds, but I could move my shoulder again. I turned my head up. “Thanks,” I said. “Did you get rid of the birds, too?”
“They’re gone,” he said. “Are you alright?”
“I’m fine.” I shrugged out of his grip and sat upright, grabbing the rifle and checking the magazine. It was half empty, but there were pullets in it at least. I switched the setting to single shot, then looked over at Greyson. “What happened?”
“Ambush,” he said, “The Crimson Hunters are here, the entire site has been compromised.”
“The prospects?” Felice.
“Aaryn is rounding them up and sending them back to the fortress as she finds them. We have to leave. Now.”
“Good to know this wasn’t a total disaster.”
Draven’s expression hardened. “I do not need a lecture from you.”
“Tell that to Greyson. You promised no one would die today.”
“I promised prospects would not die.”
I got to my feet. “I’m so sick of your bullshit technicalities, do you know that? People have died on your watch, when you promised they wouldn’t. What are you gonna do about—”
Something struck me in the neck. At first, I thought it was some kind of insect bite, it had been so slight. But then I felt the dart in my neck. My vision began to swim. “Draven?” I said, though my own voice sounded distant. My knees trembled and my legs gave way. I crumpled like a house of cards, but Draven caught me before I hit the ground.
“Seline!” he yelled, yanking the dart from my neck. “Can you hear me?”
“What’s… happening?” Already my body was turning cold, sweat popping along my forehead, my arms, my back. I was freezing cold one moment, then burning hot the next. My stomach felt like it was being used as a nervous dog’s chew toy. I thought I was going to hurl.
“Sycorean venom…” Draven whispered. “No… no, no!”
“How… long?”
“Seconds…” His eyes were wide, and this time… this time I could see the worry in them, the dread. It was like a shadow passing behind the darkness of those black orbs. He took hold of my face and rocked like he wasn’t sure what to do. “Stay awake, Seline. Stay awake!”
“I… I… can’t…”
An inescapable blackness closed in around me. The grey-green of the forest went first, then Draven’s hair, then his face and eyes, until all that was left was the glow from the ruby pendant at his neck. His voice fell out of clarity until it sounded like I was listening to him underwater. Then he slapped my cheek, and for an instant everything came back into focus.
He was talking, whispering Aevian words, I thought. The pendant continued to glow until it was so bright, I had to shut my eyes. Then he held the back of my neck, tilted my head up… and kissed me.
His warm lips pressed against mine, strong and firm. Fire filled me, tingles raced through me. I could sense his magic at work, the sheer power of it falling over me like… like hard rain, and we were caught underneath it, our lips locked and dancing together until eternity. Even though I was dying, this was the most romantic kiss I’d ever shared with another person in my entire life.
Not a bad way to die, huh?
Strength returned to my hands, and I used that strength to run my fingers through Draven’s hair. I felt for his cheeks with my fingertips, his ears, the back of his head. I wanted to pull him closer, I wanted to not think about death and let it happen without my knowing. But Draven suddenly forced the kiss apart and fell away from me.
He staggered, scrambling with his hands, and fell to the floor on his back, writhing in pain.
“Draven!” I yelled, and I rushed toward him, keeping my head as low as possible.
He was squirming, the veins in his neck were starting to turn black, as were his lips and cheeks. All the color from Draven’s skin started to fade. He clenched his teeth tightly together, grunting against the pain coursing through his body. I tried to touch him, but his body was too hot to touch, even over his clothes.
He was dying now. Somehow, he’d taken whatever was happening to me and he’d drawn it into himself. The pendant on his neck grew brighter and brighter, pulsing with red light. He stuck his hands into the dirt and gripped whole fistfuls of it. His neck strained, his eyes shut. “Take… pendant… off…” he grunted.
“What?” I asked, watching the pulsing pendant on his neck.
“Take it off and throw it!” he yelled, possibly using what was left of his energy to do so.
I grabbed the ruby and yanked it off him, then I tossed it against a nearby tree where it fell into the dirt. The ruby continued to glow for a couple of seconds, but then the light faded, the gem turned back, and began shriveling to ash. Looking down at Draven, the blackness in his veins had gone, and the color was returning to his cheeks.
Draven opened his eyes, blinking rapidly.
“You’re alive,” I said, smiling, cheeks flushing bright red.
“It worked?” he asked.
“I’m alive, too… so, yeah.”
He reached with his hand, I thought for my face, but he clasped my pendant between two fingers. The crescent shaped crystal was filled with silvery light that shifted across his hand and face like a pool’s reflection. I swallowed hard.
“You made that, didn’t you?” I asked.
Draven’s lips parted slightly, it looked like he was going to answer, but he didn’t. He didn’t have to.
I decided to brave the question. “Did… we know each other?”
The slightest hint of a nod.
My heart skipped several beats. I was getting dizzy again, but this time it had nothing to do with poison or magic.
My throat was working, but I wasn’t swallowing or speaking. I was gulping down breaths that otherwise wouldn’t have made it into my lungs. Trembling, I went to reach for his hand when the beating of massive wings broke my concentration in half.
Aaryn! I thought, hopeful as I spun around, but descending on our position wasn’t Aaryn with her white wings. Those wings were dark, huge, and leathery, and they blocked out what little sunlight there was.
“Look out!” I yelled, as the fiend moved rapidly toward us. Its skin was grey and covered in swirling red marks that moved like snakes around its body. In one of its hands the fiend held a longsword, and in the other, a small buckler—like a shield.
“Did you think you’d be able to get away from Corax?” the fiend roared.
Draven scrambled to get to his feet, his own wings extending from behind his back—wings as black as the night itself, but feathery and beautiful. “Take my hand,” he said, and I grabbed his hand without hesitating.
He quickly uttered a string of words that sent his magic rushing forth and working through me. As the fiend came to land, his broadsword raised and gleaming against the light, Draven took off—and I went with him.
I felt as light as a feather, and lighter still. He pulled me close, wrapping one arm around my waist to keep me in place. On the ground, the fiend took flight again, his huge bat wings thumping hard to help him gain altitude. Branches snapped as he pushed through them, others he chopped down with his sword.
Corax wound back his arm and roared “Veshkar!” a word I thought I recognized, but couldn’t quite pin down. Inside his hand, a ball of crackling red light exploded into existence, sparks igniting the trees as he zigged and zagged between them.
“Draven!” I called out, and Draven soared higher, pushing through the tops of the trees and into the grey mantle above. But the Crimson Hunter wouldn’t relent. As soon as his huge, almost demonic form was clear of the trees, he hurled the fireball at us.
It shot through the air at top speed, the light at the center of the ball shifting to resemble a yawning dragon’s mouth. I let the rifle fall from my hands, pulled my dagger from its sheath, and held it aloft. “Duras!” I yelled, and golden lines erupted in front of me, creating a half-bubble of glittering, crisscrossing light behind us as we flew.
The fiend’s magic ball impacted the shield, and I felt the rumble of the explosion inside my chest. My shield failed immediately after absorbing the first hit, but already I could see the fiend preparing another blast. I gripped my dagger more tightly and yelled again. “Duras!”
This time, the shield of light that flowered in front of me didn’t shine quite as bright as the first. I didn’t think it would hold, not against another hit like that one. This must have been what Aaryn had meant when she told me I’d never be as strong without my kithe. “He’s gonna hit us again,” I said, “And I can’t stop it this time!”
Worse, two more huge, winged forms were rising from within the trees. More fiends? How many fiends were there in the Crimson Hunter ranks?
“Higher,” he grunted to himself, his wings beating harder and faster; wings of night, as black as the deepest ocean, as dark as the thickest shadow.
Then from the clouds came a sharp burst of golden light. A shadow moved in front of the sun, streaks of orange and yellow falling away from it in all directions. Wings arched and beat once, then Aaryn descended from within the sphere of light wielding a spear in one hand.
She screamed, the spear began to glow white hot, and she threw it at the fiend. Draven had to dodge to get out of the spear’s path, but it struck the fiend in the chest. Corax grabbed it with his hands, his wings struggling to keep him afloat, then he started to plummet.
Aaryn moved in beside us, easily keeping pace with Draven. She produced a blue teleportation orb, tossed it ahead of us, and then the orb opened to become a portal Draven was able to thread us through.
We exploded out of the other side of the portal and onto the castle green, hovering in the sky above the prospects that had been brought back from the trial grounds. Felice was among them, and when I saw her, my heart soared. But all wasn’t right at the Black Fortress. I could hear screams coming from the courtyard, and a huge bell tolling like an alarm.
“Draven?” I asked, “What’s happening?”
“We’re under attack…” he said.
“Aaryn,” Draven barked, “Secure the prospects, take them to the bunker. And take Seline with you.”
“Right away,” Aaryn said, reaching for my hand, but I pulled my hand away.
“Fate is down there!” I yelled, “Ness, too. I have to find them!”
“You have to go with the other prospects, that’s where you belong.”
“Draven, they’re the only friends I have. You’ve gotta let me help them.”
Draven’s jaw tightened. He frowned. “Fine,” he growled. “Aaryn, you have your orders. Send Crag into the fortress when you find him.”
Aaryn nodded and dove away, curling her wings at her back and letting gravity do the work. Draven, meanwhile, took a more cautious approach. Steadily, he guided us down into the courtyard, where the Aevian fountain lay… broken in half. Pieces of her arms and hands were scattered around the fountain like discarded toys. Her torso lay cracked on the grass, but she was facing the sky, as if asking for help.
Or a swift death.
My feet touched the ground, and immediately I felt Draven’s magic release me. He landed beside me, shrugging his shoulders and willing his wings to disappear. The sounds of screams weren’t far from where we stood. Deep in the fortress’ hallways, something roared—something large, and beastlike. All at once, each of the windows in one of the fortress’ towers blew out as if a massive explosion had gone off inside.
Glass glittered down like rain.
“What the hell is happening?” I asked, not satisfied with the first answer I’d been given.
“I don’t know,” Draven said, “But we have to start finding people and taking them to safety. There’s a bunker not far from here, a safe place we can retreat to if the fortress was ever attacked. Round up as many prospects as you find and take them there, beyond that door.”
“Right.” I was about to leave, when Draven grabbed my bicep.
“Do not linger a second longer than you must,” he said, “This place is not safe. I can sense something foul in the air.”
“Like an infection?” I asked.
His eyes narrowed, but he didn’t dig any further. “Go,” he barked, then he drew his longsword from the sheath at his back and raced into the fortress.
With my dagger firmly clutched in my hand, I started sprinting across the courtyard. My room was closest, so I headed there before going to find Fate. Only seconds after stepping through the door that lead to the dormitory hallway, I saw the first body.
A prospect lay on the ground, face down. I approached, careful not to make a sound, when I heard a blood-curdling roar that set my skin alight. Something was stalking the fortress. I needed to be quick. Carefully I knelt and turned the prospect’s head to the side to check for a pulse. His skin was cold, and his heart wasn’t beating. Blood stuck to the side of his face that had been touching the floor. He had bled out from a wound to the head.
“Siren,” I whispered, turning my eyes up. “Siren, can you hear me?”
No reply, and no Siren.
I got up and stalked quietly down the hall, moving briskly but with light feet until I reached my bedroom door. I pushed it open, and Ness swung a quarterstaff at me. I was lucky I’d been prepared for something to jump out at me, otherwise I’d have gotten the business end of that staff full in the face.
“It’s me!” I said, putting my hands up.
“Oh, thank the Gods!” Ness, whose hair was a huge, curly mess, ran toward me and hugged me tightly. “I thought you were dead!”
“Not yet.” I pushed her inside and shut the door. “What the hell is going on here?”
“Oh man, what isn’t going on
? I was having lunch, right, just sitting in the dining hall, minding my own business, fixing up one of my sketches, when I heard the bell toll. I’d never heard that bell before in all the time I’d been here, so I thought that was weird. Then Siren showed up and told us all to evacuate the galley and follow her, so we did, and then everything got weird.”
“Weird? How?”
“It was Siren. She started acting strange, like she didn’t know where the hell she was taking us. Then I realized, she really doesn’t know where she’s taking us because the hallways are changing. It was like we were going in circles, always ending up back at the galley no matter where we went. So, then Siren starts glitching out and disappears, I start hearing these weird noises, and everybody scatters. I don’t know how I made it back here, but once I got here, I decided not to leave again. You can’t trust your own sense of direction out there.”
I shook my head. “Wait a second, so you’re saying you can get lost just by going outside?”
“Yeah, it’s like a labyrinth out there.”
My stomach went cold. “Oh shit.”
“Shit? Why shit? I don’t like that.”
“The labyrinth has taken over somehow…”
“Labyrinth? What labyrinth?”
“Have you seen any gold prospects? Instructors?”
“I didn’t see anyone else, but I heard fighting going on… and screaming… do you know what’s causing this?”
“I think I might… but listen, we have to get out of here.”
“No, we can’t! We don’t know what’s on the other side of that door.”
“Maybe not, but we also can’t stay here. If we do, we’re probably as good as dead.”
“Probably isn’t definitely.”
“We’re definitely dead if we stay here. Better?”
“Not really…”
I turned around and looked at the door. If the labyrinth really had somehow broken free of its magic restraints and taken over the fortress, then I probably wasn’t going to find the same hallway I’d just been in when I opened the door. It also meant finding Fate just got a whole lot harder, and more dangerous, but we couldn’t stay here and wait to get rescued.
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