by Linsey Hall
The top of the mountain still loomed far ahead. Beside me, Ares was dripping blood from many shallow wounds. Though he was faster than me, he seemed determined to stick by my side.
Out of solidarity, or because of his Vampire Court duties?
“You’re faster than this,” I gasped. “You should go ahead.”
“I’ll be fine. I heal.”
I opened my mouth to say something, but another tentacle swatted out. It took everything I had to repel the attack. Soon, I had no breath left for anything except scrambling up the mountain, fighting off tentacles. The Pūķis swooped and dived around us, lighting up the Mountain Laurel as fast as they could.
Shit, this was hard.
In normal life, my conjuring magic and mean right hook got me as far as I needed. Thieves didn’t stand a chance when they stepped foot inside Ancient Magic.
But this? Magical challenges and weirdo monsters with serrated tentacles?
I was out of my league.
Maybe I did need more magic than just the conjuring.
I shoved the thoughts aside and focused on the task, fighting and clawing my way to the top of the mountain, breath heaving as my vision blurred. My muscles felt like jello, propelled only by my desire to reach the top. Soon, I felt like a machine, my dumb body obeying the command of my mind.
By the time I reached the top of the volcano, right at the lip where it dropped down into the depths of the earth, my vision had darkened at the edges. Blood slicked my skin and dripped down my neck from a particularly deep gash. The Pūķis sat a dozen yards away, gazing into the volcano with delight. Ares stood next to me, his chest heaving.
Fortunately, there were no more tentacles this far up the mountain.
And good thing, too. Because from the look of Ares and the way I felt, we weren’t up for another fight.
“How are you?” Ares voice was rough as he reached for my hand, tugging me into the shelter of some large rocks.
Only then did I realize that a chilly wind was cutting across the top of the volcano, drying the blood on my skin. Despite the heat that bellowed out, the wind cut coldly through it. I shivered, stepping into the shelter of the stone, close to Ares.
More blood gleamed red in the moonlight, stark against Ares’s pale cheek. It soaked his shirt and covered his hands. I looked down at myself. Blood coated cartoon Maru and his box, a gruesome sight.
“We look like shit.” I swayed on my feet, blinking at Ares.
Though hazy vision, I saw the cut on his cheek stop bleeding. I squinted, watching the very edges of the wound knit closed.
“Amazing,” I murmured.
“My healing is particularly powerful.” He glanced around me, out at the night.
“Looking for something?” My words slurred. Shit, this was bad. Blood loss and maybe even the tentacle’s poison were really getting to me.
“No.”
Lie. But I didn’t have the strength to call him out on it.
He met my gaze. “You need my help to heal.”
“No!” I stepped back, stumbling. I was so clumsy now! Damned tentacles. “I don’t… don’t want your blood.”
“Do you want to finish this challenge or do you want to die on this mountaintop?” Ares asked. “You’ll fail.”
Fail. I shuddered, hating the word.
“Nix, I’ve never seen anyone so underprepared for a Vampire Court challenge in my life.”
“Heyyyy….” I slurred.
But he was right.
“You’re the bravest, most determined person I’ve ever seen.” His gaze was fierce, made even more so by the vampire change that this place induced. “You clawed your way up that mountain when you should have died from the poison a hundred yards back.”
“Not a…quitter.”
“No, clearly. But conjuring will only get you so far. And you don’t have the magic for this. Your strength has gotten you to this point, but you need more.”
Fates, he was right. I could hardly see now. My muscles were giving out. Every inch of my skin felt like it was on fire.
I was going to fail.
I might rule the roost back at Ancient Magic, but here I was only a chicken. And I was about to get my neck wrung.
Chapter Five
“Fine,” I slurred.
I needed all the help I could get, especially now that my healing potion was gone. My deirfiúr did this stuff all the time, and I helped them out. But I was always the sidekick, never the leader.
I didn’t have the magic to be the leader, but at least I could have the strength. The determination.
So whatever side effects there were from his blood… I was just going to have to deal with them.
“Just a little.” I pointed to my neck, at the gash I felt was the deepest. Last time, he’d smeared a bit of his blood on a wound and the flesh had knitted back together. “Heal that one.”
“Not that way. The poison is your problem.” He lifted his right wrist, pulling back his sleeve and wiping the dirt and blood away with the bottom of his shirt.
“What are you—” I had to reach out, grabbing onto his strong shoulder to steady myself. Woo boy, this blood loss—or poison or whatever—was a real doozy.
Ares raised his wrist to his mouth, parting his lips to reveal his white fangs. The two incisors—the biters, as I thought of them—were slightly extended and gleaming white.
My breath caught in my throat as I watched his fangs puncture his flesh. Something warmed inside. Pleasant, but really weird.
I was a weirdo for liking that.
I blinked, trying to clear my hazy vision, as Ares raised his wrist to my lips.
“What—what—” I shook my head, stepping back.
But his other arm reached up, gently grasping my bicep and holding me still.
“Drink. Just a little.”
“Hell no!” Drink!?
“It won’t turn you into a vampire, you know that.”
Yeah, the only way to make vampires was the old-fashioned way. I swallowed hard.
Omygodomygodomygod. Was I really going to do this?
“It’s your only shot, Nix. You need the strength to get into the volcano. The poison is shutting down your organs and you won’t have me to help you. I leave after this.”
I nodded dumbly, my survival-based lizard brain having already decided what I would do.
I would not die on this mountaintop.
Tentatively, as my mind shrieked in utter shock at the gross thing I was about to do, I darted out my tongue to swipe at the dark blood pearling on his pale skin.
The first taste electrified me. Strength and light and pleasure exploded through my body, going from my mouth down through every inch of flesh and blood and bone.
Ares’s lids dropped low as he watched me. His eyes burned, hot and fierce. The sharp cut of his cheekbones was like glass, the muscles of his neck corded.
My gaze darted down. It was too intimate. Though the pleasure surged through me, making me woozy in a good way, I had enough sense not to make this too crazy.
Correction, I barely had enough sense.
But what I had, I clung to. I just needed enough strength to get into that volcano. Not enough to jump his bones.
I took one more swipe of his blood, eyes rolling back in my head at the divine taste, then stepped back.
My feet were more steady, my muscles strong. The fogginess in my head was from residual pleasure, not poison. Even my thoughts were quicker.
“My blood will continue to work, strengthening you,” he said.
“I’ve had enough?” Please say yes. Because a no….
I probably would jump his bones.
And frankly, that was a bad freaking idea.
“I think so.” He gestured behind me, to the mouth of the volcano. “This is where I must leave you. From here, the challenge must be completed on your own.”
“And if I bite it?”
His gaze darkened. “There is nothing I can do.”
Fr
om the tone of his voice, he did not like that.
“Right.” I saluted. “Thanks for the pick-me-up.”
And I really did feel better. Eight percent and increasing. I spun and hurried away from the rock enclosure, realizing too late that he probably hadn’t been getting out of the wind.
He’d been getting away from prying eyes.
That meant that Magisteria and Doyen must be up here somewhere, watching to see how I fared at the end of the challenge.
It was against the rules to heal me. And he’d broken them.
As least he was one of the three rulers, but still…
Going against the other two was risky. Though Ares had never struck me as the kind of guy to be frightened of going against the grain.
I glanced back over my shoulder. He stood, the rocks at his back framing him, and watched me. With the blood streaking his skin and clothes, he looked like some kind of monster.
In a way, he was.
A vampire.
But not a bad one. Right?
I turned back, focusing on my footing. The rocks were uneven leading up to the mouth of the volcano. Nearby, the Pūķi sat, staring into the pit. Excitement flowed off of them, an energy that electrified me.
The fire dragons loved the volcano. No surprise.
Together, they looked up at me, their eyes bright.
“Having fun?”
They didn’t nod, but it was clear. They were loving this.
Me? Not so much.
I stepped up to the rim of the volcano, looking down.
Holy fates.
The pit extended hundreds of meters deep. At the bottom, lava glowed bright red.
I had to go in there? I knew it, but I couldn’t help but pray for an alternative.
My dragon sense tugged hard, indicating Yes.
Damn it.
I squinted, studying the inside of the volcano. Moonlight didn’t provide much illumination, especially not down there, but a dark spot seemed to float in the middle.
An island or a jut of rock? Probably.
Only one way to know for sure.
I scouted the walls of the pit for a way down. They weren’t entirely vertical. Instead, they sloped down steeply, black jagged rock providing meagre footholds.
Oh, this was going to be a blast.
I sucked in a ragged breath. I was still wearing the gloves, so this was about as good as it was going to get for me. After studying the volcano for a while, I found the best route.
As least, I hoped it would be.
I saluted the Pūķi. “Wish me luck, fellas.”
They blew a bit of fire out their noses, which I chose to interpret as their greatest well wishes. I turned back to the volcano.
Okay. Time to climb into this insane thing.
I didn’t turn around to look at Ares one last time. Now was the time for action, not distraction. Carefully, I made my way along the edge of the volcano’s mouth to the path that I’d spotted.
It was steep and narrow, more a natural groove carved by rainwater, but it was enough to get me started. I climbed down, alternating crab walking and crawling. Soon, my thighs burned from crouching and my biceps from clinging on. The walls had to be a seventy-degree angle, at least. Enough that I’d tumble into the lava if I lost my footing.
It was dark and hard to see, but my eyes adjusted to the light provided by the moon.
It took ages to climb down, and the farther I went, the hotter it got. Sweat dripped off every inch of me and my muscles burned from strain. I was only halfway to the bottom when a rumbling noise sounded from above. I glanced up, just in time to see a boulder hurtling toward me.
Shit!
I leapt out of the way, clinging to the side of the path. The boulder rumbled past me, inches from my fingertips. I scrambled, trying to find a toehold to push myself back onto the narrow path.
Finally, I made it, gasping and panting. I clung to the rock for a moment, trying to get my trembling muscles to calm, then continued down. Rocks dug into my stomach and sides and I crawled down the wall. It was no longer a graceful climb—I was just clinging for my life, trying to reach the bottom.
The heat was immense, a cloying thickness that filled my lungs. Sweat dripped down my face and into my eyes, searing them. Suddenly, I was starving, as if the strain had eaten away my insides.
I chanced a glance behind me, catching sight of the Pūķi diving into the lava that was fifty meters below. They loved it, swirling and swimming. It glowed orange and red, the same color as they.
Terrifying.
Dread curdled in my stomach as I took in the scene.
Shit.
With all the black rock and red lava, it was like that scene in Star Wars, where a young Darth Vader met his horrible fate. It had looked too terrible to be real in the movie. And yep—it was terrible.
By the time I stumbled onto the strip of flat ground at the bottom, every muscle I had burned like it was on fire. Hunger gnawed at my belly and my eyes watered.
I crept toward the edge of the rock platform, looking down into the depths. Forty feet below the lip of rock where I stood, glowing lava bubbled and surged. Across from me, a flat black island stood surrounded by the bubbling lava. Like a horrible moat.
The heat was insane. Thank fates I’d had some of Ares’s blood. I wouldn’t have stood a chance otherwise.
Though the lava was forty feet below, the heat made my skin feel like it was burning.
I squinted at the dark island, noticing a lump.
What the heck?
I tilted my head, peering through the heat waves wafting off the lava below.
Holy fates! That was a body!
A person was on that island!
Adrenaline surged through me, leaving my limbs shaky but clearing my mind.
I had to get to them. They needed help.
Frantically, I glanced around, searching for a way across. Of course, there was none. I hadn’t seen any bridges when I’d had my bird’s eye view up top, and from down here there was nothing but a lava lake surrounding the island.
The Pūķi were still diving and pirouetting in the air. They were so ephemeral I didn’t think I could ride them. They were the size of cows, but their bodies were slender and not fully solid.
But maybe they could help me?
I just needed a way across. It was about twenty feet to the island.
A jet pack would come in super handy right about now, but no way I could conjure something that complicated. And there was no wind for a hang glider.
A bridge, though… That, I could do. Especially if the Pūķi helped me. They could eat apples, which meant they could influence the physical world. Hopefully they’d be strong enough for this.
I called upon my magic, conjuring a thick wooden board coated in a layer of adobe, the clay that could withstand great heat. Hopefully it wouldn’t melt. The thing was twenty-five feet long and two feet wide.
If I could have conjured it right over the lava, that would have been ideal—but that kind of spacial control was beyond me. Whatever I conjured normally just ended up sitting smack in front of me.
Which was how the wood and adobe board appeared. I panted from the exertion of conjuring such a large object, my strength sapped. It’d have to do.
“Hey guys! A little help here!” I called.
The Pūķis looked up, then flew over. Their curious gazes were glued to me as I crouched down and pushed the board toward the edge of the stone platform. I lined it up so the narrow end would extend out toward the island, like a bridge.
I pointed toward the end. “I need you guys to support it from underneath as I push.”
Please understand. Please be capable.
I had no idea if this was within their strength. But I pushed my makeshift bridge, straining and sweating and swearing.
And praying.
Please fates. A little help right now. My muscles were jello and my magic was severely depleted. I didn’t have many more options.
&
nbsp; The Pūķis seemed to figure it out, diving low to support the thing with the tops of their heads. They fluttered along, helping me guide my bridge to the little island.
Sweat rolled down my temples, down my forehead, down my back. Everywhere.
Finally, through burning eyes, I saw the edge of the bridge connect with the island. I pushed a couple more feet so it sat sturdily, then collapsed to my side, gasping.
The heat was really getting to me.
“No time to wimp out.” That guy needed me.
I heaved myself up and started across the bridge, running as fast as I dared. Fear cloaked my hot skin in ice, making my stomach lurch. I chanced a peek below me at the lava that boiled and bubbled.
Oh, hell no.
This was insane. The heat was off the charts—unlike anything I’d ever felt. Far worse than on the other side of the bridge. The safe side, as I laughingly thought of it.
My thighs trembled as I ran across, trying desperately to maintain my footing. When I finally made it to the other side, I stumbled to my knees. I wanted to stay here, panting, but forced myself to crawl toward the lump that I was certain was a person.
It was.
A man, about thirty years old with sallow skin and mouse brown hair, lay on his back. Sweat shined on his skin. My breath heaved as I scrambled to find his pulse. It fluttered, weak but steady, against my fingertips.
What the hell?
I studied him, noting that an iron shackle bound his ankle to the stone.
What the hell did any of this have to do with gold?
At the thought, my dragon sense perked up, tugged me toward the man. I stumbled back onto my butt.
Oh, hell no.
But my dragon sense roared, pulled me to him. Igniting a hunger in my belly that was a thousand times worse than anything I’d felt when I’d started climbing into this volcano.
I reached out with my sense, feeling for his signature. I got a hit of something familiar. Something that Cass possessed.
A transporter!
Maybe he could get us out of here—because there was no way I had the strength to climb back out. But there was something else, too. I focused, trying to figure out what his other signature was. Through eyes cloudy with sweat, I saw that he glowed a bright gold, his aura a glittering mass of yellow light.
