The world was a blur of grey as I set my gaze on the ominous opening at the top of the pyramid and pushed myself to my absolute limits. A wild thrill fell through me as we made it to the entrance, speeding into the darkness inside, immediately swallowed whole.
We rushed down a sloping floor and the gravelly voices of Nymphs carried up from within the belly of the pyramid below us. As we hit the bottom of the ramp, I took in the droves of Nymphs before us with my heart jack-hammering.
We didn’t slow, we couldn’t. If we missed a single step, we’d be spotted so we sped towards the open doors at the end dark room with all we had. The Nymphs turned as they felt us pass and realised we were there, but we were too quick to be caught, their rattles crackling in my ears as they battled to lock our magic down.
Their shrieks sounded out as they took chase and I weaved left and right to avoid them while Caleb did the same on my other side. We shot through the door together beyond our enemies and a whoop left my lips. The two of us turned as one, slamming it closed and bracing it with a combination of my ice magic and Caleb’s earth, but I didn’t know how long it would hold once the Nymphs caught up.
We ran on into the dark, sprinting through winding passages where cobwebs hung on the walls and the scent of dust hit the back of my throat.
When we finally arrived in a large chamber, we slowed down and a prickle ran down my spine, our feet skidding on the slick stone as the energy around us shifted.
I cast a Faelight into the air and took in the sight before us as we fell still.
A huge stone altar stood at the heart of the chamber, old bloodstains caked into the stone and the top of it covered with artifacts. Jewels, necklaces, precious stones, all of them humming with some dark power that made it harder to breathe in here.
The altar itself and the walls were covered in ancient-looking carvings depicting stories of the Nymphs, a lot of them featuring a woman who looked suspiciously like Lavinia, but I couldn’t decipher their meaning, especially as I was distracted by the most suffocating thing in this space.
Above the altar was a rift cut into the air, like a doorway into absolute nothingness. Inside were the shadows, swirling and pulsing like they were hungry to be set free and as I took step closer, I felt them calling to me like I’d cut myself with a draining dagger and they were begging me to submit to their power.
Caleb moved forward too, clearly tempted toward them and for a moment I wondered what it would be like to simply walk through that deadly gateway and fall into their complete embrace.
“What is it?” Caleb breathed, sounding in awe as he reached the altar and his fingers grazed against a black-hilted dagger.
He sighed, picking it up and twisting it between his fingers, his eyes growing hooded as he immediately turned it against his own arm and a twisted smile spread across his face.
The lull of the shadows was so strong that I nearly let him do it, but then I felt the echo of my father’s hand on my shoulder, his warnings about dark magic. I had to find the good to hold onto, had to keep the light in my mind so no darkness could creep in.
I thought of the moment I’d pulled Darcy beneath the water in the Acrux swimming pool and stolen the kiss I’d been craving for so fucking long I’d almost been driven mad with want. And then of her showing up at my door in a storm, her hair freshly dyed, every piece of her soaking wet and the word ‘blue’ on her lips. She was my ruin and my making at once. She had offered herself to me in that moment, though I had staked a secret claim on her long before then. But that had been the night it become a reality.
With her at the forefront of my mind, I dragged myself out of the pressing stupor, shooting forward and knocking the blade from Caleb’s hand.
He blinked, looking up at me with rage in his eyes, but as he met my gaze, his shoulders dropped a little and he blinked out of the trance.
“Fuck, did I nearly slit my star damned wrists?” he cursed, pushing a hand into his blonde curls as he stared at the dagger on the floor in disgust. “I’m too pretty to die in some ugly shadow cave.”
“You must not cut yourself in this place,” I said urgently, eyeing the rift with concern as I felt the certainty of those words passing my lips. “That fucking thing will rip the soul clean out of your body to be devoured within it if you do. Focus your mind and resist it - you need to think of something good.”
“Like what?” he snapped, the shadows clearly still affecting him as he gazed longingly at the rift again, moving toward it with intent.
I grabbed his arm, forcing him back a step and keeping a firm hold of him.