The pathway narrowed into a thin line, just barely wide enough for a person, and there weren’t any walls. I tried to slow down, but I was moving too fast. I wobbled a little, but Bettina’s weight hanging on to me kept me from falling off the ledge as we dashed across.
We crashed into the opposite wall, and then it slid out from under us.
I cursed and pulled her into a run. That wall would be coming back. We couldn’t linger in any spot too long. The path made a sharp left turn, then an immediate right. Then it opened up into a long dark tunnel. I don’t like this. I dug my heels in and pushed my legs to move me faster.
It was so dark I didn’t see the hole in the floor until the last second.
“JUMP!” I screamed as I leapt across it.
Bettina landed right behind me.
We ran a few more feet, and then there was another hole, this one wider than the last. I pushed off and soared over the opening. To my surprise, Bettina slid onto the flat surface behind me without issue.
A wall dropped down out of the black sky and landed right in front of us. I slid to a stop then jumped to my left. We ducked around that wall, then into another hallway on the right. It looked like a dead-end, but as we approached the far wall, it sank into the ground halfway. I jumped over it like this was track practice.
Up ahead the path trembled and then fell into the darkness beneath us, leaving only four small peg-like squares to use to get across. Bettina cursed violently behind me, but I didn’t stop. We needed to get across before those four pegs changed to two.
“One at a time!” I shouted over my shoulder then leapt into the air.
My right foot hit the first peg, and I used that momentum to carry me across the second, third, and fourth. But as I lunged for the solid pathway, I had to really push off with all of my strength. My feet hit the stones, and I slid a foot away from the edge.
“Jackson!”
I spun and spotted Bettina copying my moves, but she wasn’t going to make it. She hadn’t trained as long as I had, and her legs weren’t strong enough. She cried out my name again and leapt off the last peg. I dropped my sword and dove for the edge just as she began to sink.
“DIVE!” I screamed.
She let out a battle roar and leaned forward as she fell, with her arms outstretched. I reached out…and caught her by the wrist. My heart pounded against the stone under my chest. Bettina dangled in the air, held only by my hand over utter darkness. I tried to pull her up, but I didn’t have enough strength with only one arm.
I gritted my teeth and met her eyes. “Climb!”
She nodded and slid her sword into the holster on her hip. Then with both hands, she carefully climbed up my arm like it was a rope. My muscles screamed in protest, but I wasn’t about to let her fall. Our skin was slick with sweat. Her fingers started to slip.
“Grab my neck!”
She threw her arm up and wrapped it around my neck. Her face pressed flat up against mine, nose to nose. Her breath brushed over my cheek.
“Hold on to me,” I whispered against her mouth.
She nodded and wrapped her other arm around my neck. I slid my arm around her waist and hooked my fingers on her belt loops—then pulled as I flipped onto my back. She flew over my chest and rolled onto the stones beside me. I wanted to lie there and catch my breath, but I knew that was a surefire way to die down here. So I scrambled back to my feet then grabbed her hand and hauled her up next to me.
She shook her head. “Thank God I have long legs,” she grumbled.
I smirked then turned and pulled her into a run again. My thighs burned and my feet ached. The heavy pounding of my heart felt like a sledgehammer against my ribs, but we had to keep going.
The ground rumbled and began to slide out from under us. I looked up and spotted a narrow stretch of stone just wide enough to land on. I reached behind me and yanked Bettina forward, throwing her into the air. But she knew what I was doing, because she landed exactly like I’d taught her. The second her foot hit the ground she flipped over her shoulder and rolled onto her knees. I jumped and followed her roll.
The second my knees hit the stone, I leapt up and sprinted forward. I wanted out of this stone labyrinth as fast as possible. There was a clicking noise and a flash of light, and then the black sky sparkled with red spikes. It dropped down so fast I had to slide under it. I jumped back up then skidded to a stop as another dropped in front of me. Bettina’s hot breath brushed across the back of my neck, but at least I knew she was there.
I bounced on the balls of my feet until the wall shot up into the sky. We ducked under it, and then I was yanked backward.
“Wait!”
A stone spike shot out of the wall on my left and connected with the one on the right, missing my head by an inch. I gasped and stumbled a few feet. Bloody hell. I kicked my leg out in front of me and pretended to take a step forward and another spike shot out. Then another. And another. Dozens of them moved across the pathway like rockets. It was a processional line straight from hell.
“It’s a pattern,” Bettina breathed in my ear. “It’s timed.”
“How do you know that?”
She shrugged. “I play video games.”
I nodded. “Give me a second head start, then follow.”
I waited for her to nod, then I turned and leapt forward. Spikes shot out from each side of me, but I managed to duck, dodge, and jump my way down the path. When I looked back, Bettina was right behind me, moving like a tiger on the hunt. She leapt over the last spike and slid right into me. I reached out with my left arm and grabbed her hand.
She linked her fingers in mine, and then we sprinted down the stoned pathway. We followed a moving wall to the left, then swerved around a gargoyle and down a hall to the right. We jumped over three gaping holes in a row, then slid under another ceiling of red spikes.
Then we came to a set of stairs that led up into darkness.
I jumped onto the first step, and gargoyles dropped out of the sky. They landed on the steps with their stone swords drawn. I yanked mine free and blocked each of their swings as we raced up the staircase. But we were moving so fast that I didn’t see the drop-off until we were flying off of it. Warm air rushed over us from underneath. I pulled Bettina into my chest then flipped us onto our sides, and then my right shoulder slammed into solid, hard ground.
My bones cracked and popped, but I didn’t feel a thing. That arm was paralyzed.
I looked up, and my heart stopped.
The pathway was only about thirty feet long…and it led to a single steel door.
But between it and us was an empty hallway surrounded by stone on all four sides, like a tunnel. My heart skipped, and sweat trickled down my spine. My palms grew sweaty. There was no way this last section was an easy walk. Bettina must’ve been thinking the same thing because she clung to my back like a spider monkey.
Together, we inched forward. I kept my eyes on the prize.
That door.
Nothing dropped out of the sky or shot out of the walls as we walked forward.
Bettina gasped and shoved my shoulder. “The floor is lava!”
I frowned and looked down just as the gray stone I stood on started to sink into a sea of blazing red lava. I cursed and jumped, but the new stone I landed on began to disintegrate immediately. I slid onto the stone beside me, and it sank into the lava.
“RUN!” I screamed and sprinted across the stones like a rock skipping water.
My feet barely hit one stone before I was jumping to the next. Bettina was right behind me, her long legs carrying her down the pathway as fast as I was. I glanced up ahead and spotted a single red rose etched into one of the stones. Lava exploded around us, and the ground trembled. I gasped and dove over that red rose in the ground. I hit the ground with a thud, but it didn’t melt beneath me.
Bettina crashed onto the stones beside me. “Are we done ye—"
Bright orange flames billowed out from between the cracks in the walls. Bettina gr
ipped my shirt and pulled me down, but the fire scorched a path across my shoulders. I hissed and dropped to my knees. The smell of burnt flesh stung my nose.
“MOVE!”
I threw myself into a back flip just as flames flickered out of the ground. Bettina took my hand, and we sprinted the last few feet to the door. The second we landed on the golden threshold in front of it, the fire disappeared.
“What now?”
I threw my bloody palm against the steel and waited, but nothing happened. It was going to take a different trick to open this door. I looked up at it and frowned. The entire front was covered in strips of narrow black iron. I blinked and shook my head.
“It’s a—” she mumbled, though I couldn’t understand the last word at all.
I frowned. “What?”
She grabbed a strip of iron and turned it. “When put together, it makes a shape and that’s the key!”
“Oh!” I turned a few of the pieces. “What’s the shape?”
“Let’s try a rose?” she said as she turned and flipped a bunch of the pieces.
It took us a couple minutes, but we finally got it into the shape of a rose…yet nothing happened. I groaned.
“Okay, if not a rose, then what? Are there any other symbols your family uses?”
I shook my head. “No, just the rose in my family. But like, Leyka and the Bishops like” I gasped. “A lotus!”
Bettina’s eyes widened and she nodded.
Making a lotus shape was even harder than a rose, but when we turned that final piece, the door creaked and groaned and the heavy door swung open.
I braced myself for a new torture chamber.
And then I spotted it.
A long, glowing sword.
Chapter Fifty-Five
JACKSON
Michael’s sword.
There it was.
Lying flat on a long pedestal in the middle of an empty room.
I stood frozen for a moment, then I charged inside. I raced over to the pedestal then slid to a stop. My heart fluttered. Adrenaline pumped through my veins so hard my fingers trembled.
“Oh my Goddess. Holy hell. I did it.” I ran my hand through my hair and stared. “I DID IT!”
I found Archangel Michael’s stolen sword.
My jaw dropped. I couldn’t believe it. I’d found it. The sword lay on the flat surface. It had to be over five feet long. The blade and hilt didn’t look like any material I’d ever seen. It was a pale silver but glowed a bright white. I grinned.
“Um, Jackson?”
I glanced over my shoulder at Bettina and found her looking at me like I was crazy. “What’s wrong? I did it! We’re done. I finished the quest!”
She frowned and shook her head. “What are you talking about? This is an empty room.”
“Empty?” I scowled and looked back at the sword glowing in front of me. “The sword is here. I found it. We found it.”
Her eyes widened. “The sword—you mean the sword? It’s here? Where? I can’t see it.”
I pointed. “Right here. Right in front of me.”
Her brow furrowed and she narrowed her eyes at the spot. Then she sighed. “I can’t see it.”
I reached down to grab it. “I don’t understand. It’s right—” My hand slammed into something hard.
My knuckles cracked, and it echoed around the room. I gasped and took a step back. No, no. This can’t be happening. I found it. This is it. Has to be. I reached out again, and my hand found an invisible wall between me and the blade. What? Why? I ran my hand along the cold, hard invisible surface looking for an edge, but it ran the entire length of the sword and all around it.
“I don’t understand. I found it. It’s right here. I can see it, but I can’t touch it.”
Bettina moved to stand on my left, then she lifted both hands up and patted the air in front of her. “Where exactly?”
I reached out and grabbed her wrist, then guided her hand down until we hit the wall. Her eyes widened and sparkled. She flattened her palm on the invisible wall, then raised the other beside it.
“Feel that?”
She nodded. “It’s cold, but I can feel the energy coursing through it. What is it?”
“I have no—” My watch lit up and beeped a piercing, shrill sound. My heart turned to ice. Oh no. “It’s six o’clock. I set my alarm for third dawn. It’s now. Oh God, I found it, but I can’t get it. I know that counts. Michael wants it back, not a location to where it’s trapped.”
Golden light flashed out of the corner of my eye. I jumped and spun around only to find it spilling out from under Bettina’s hands that were pressed to the invisible wall. She closed her eyes, and pink mist billowed from around her fingers. Her lips moved, and words I’d never heard in an unfamiliar language poured out.
And then I saw them.
The pink angelic runes trapped in her magic.
They hovered in the air for a second, and then my hand dropped.
I gasped and jumped back.
Bettina’s hands lowered toward the sword, but she caught herself at the last second. Her eyes flew open and her jaw dropped. “OH MY GOD, IT’S THE SWORD!”
She spun around and tackled me. Her arms wrapped around my neck, and she squeezed tight. I stared at the sword over her shoulder, and my eyes filled with tears. I’d done it. I found the sword. After all those years of stress and worrying and training, I actually succeeded.
Oh my God. I succeeded.
I found the sword. The quest is done. My magic is saved.
BLOODY HELL, I DID IT!
I couldn’t believe it. I saved my bloodline. I laughed and squeezed Bettina with the only arm I could move. My heart soared.
Bettina pulled back and cupped my cheek. “I am so proud of you. Now go get it!”
I grinned and stepped away from her. My heart pounded louder than my footsteps as I walked the two feet back to the pedestal. I took a deep breath, then reached down and wrapped my fingers around the hilt.
A burning, scalding pain like I’d never known filled my palm and shot up my arm.
Chapter Fifty-Six
BETTINA
“JACKSON!” I yelled and dove for him as his eyes rolled and he dropped the sword.
He jumped back and looked down at his hand. I cringed and braced myself for a gruesome, bloody mess, but it looked exactly the same as always. I grabbed his wrist and lifted his hand up. Nothing. No marks, no burns, no discoloration.
“What just happened?” I looked up at him, but he just stared and shook his head. “Well…try again.”
He frowned then nodded. This time he went for it slowly, lowering his hand down to the hilt. The tip of his finger touched the sword and smoke billowed. He yelped and yanked his hand back, then shook it out.
“I don’t understand. This is your quest. This was your job, your responsibility given to you by the Archangel himself.” I shook my head and glared at the weapon. “Why wouldn’t you be able to touch it?”
“Maybe because Henry stole it?” he whispered. He didn’t look sad or angry—he just looked confused. “Maybe I don’t deserve the honor. Maybe Michael himself has to come get it?”
I narrowed my eyes. “Did Michael tell you what to do after you found it?”
“No, but I think we both assumed I wouldn’t.” He sighed.
We stared at the glowing white sword for a long, long time. Neither of us spoke. I knew we were both trying to figure this out and coming up with nothing.
“Bettina…”
I frowned at the weird tone in his voice and looked over. “Yeah?”
“Those angelic runes were in your magic, inside of you.” He pointed toward the sword. “You were the one to remove the case around it. Maybe you should try to take it?”
“What?” I blinked. “No. I can’t. It’s yours.”
“It’s not mine. That’s why I can’t touch it.”
I shook my head and backed away. “No. No, no, I can’t—”
“Yes—”
<
br /> “No, Jackson—”
“Yes.” He reached out and cupped my jaw with his good hand, then brushed his thumb over my cheek. He tipped my head back and met my stare. “This is why you’re here, Bettina. Those angelic runes were for this. One of us has to be able to get it out of here, and it’s clearly not me.”
“I don’t know, Jackson…”
He grinned and dropped his hand. “Then try and prove me wrong, Moonshine.” He stepped back and gestured toward the pedestal.
My heart fluttered. I couldn’t believe this was happening. I didn’t want to touch it. I didn’t want to be bestowed that kind of honor disguised as responsibility. I wasn’t anyone special. I was just a regular old girl. But it was hard to deny his logic. I did have angelic runes inside me, and they were the key to the final step in getting the sword.
I sighed. This is silly. Just touch it and he’ll see.
Jackson looked at me with a smile and sharp, twinkling eyes.
I licked my lips and walked over. The sword glowed, and it was the single most beautiful thing I’d ever seen. I couldn’t even put a finger on the color because I didn’t think the English language had a word for it. I couldn’t believe I was looking at an Angel’s sword. An Archangel’s sword.
I took a deep breath then reached down and wrapped my hand around the hilt. I gasped and lifted the sword up off the pedestal. Warmth slid up my arm. I glanced down and found my pink magic coiling around my arm. Bright white light erupted from within the sword and shined up into my face. Sharp, burning hot pain shot through my arm. It scorched a path over my skin and grew stronger. I cried out and dropped the sword, and it crashed onto the pedestal.
But the pain grew stronger and stronger until I was gasping and stumbling back. My legs gave out from under me and I dropped. Jackson swooped in and caught me before my knees hit the ground, but it didn’t matter. I felt nothing but the branding heat in my arm. Something pricked my skin and pierced through me. I screamed.
The Coven - Academy Magic Complete Series Page 79
