Page 31 of Darkness and Deceit (Obsidian Academy #2)

Twenty-Eight

AUGUSTUS

The cave feels alive.

The damp air presses in from all sides, heavy with the weight of what lies buried. My glow flickers, barely piercing the darkness ahead, while each step I take feels like an intrusion.

Lilith trails closely behind me, her presence steadying in a way that is difficult to describe. I can still feel the warmth of her skin against mine, the soft tickle of her breath against my collarbone, and the lingering sensation of her lips on mine.

And the Balance—it’s been unsteady ever since.

But it’s not just because of the kiss. Not entirely. It’s this place.

There’s something here that dulls my connection, gnawing at the edges of my magic until all that remains is buzzing static. The deeper we venture, the more intense the feeling becomes.

I slow, hand on the cave wall. The stone is slick, oddly warm beneath my fingers like skin stretched over bone, the pulse of something immense throbbing beneath the surface. Lilith stops too, her pupils wide, illuminated by my light.

“Do you feel that?” I whisper.

She nods, swallowing hard. Her jaw is set, but I see the shiver of unease she tries to hide as she glances behind her. Like the dark is waiting for her to turn her back just long enough to catch her off guard and drag her away.

The corridor opens wider and I raise my hand, casting pale light over the surface of the chamber ahead.

Stone arches rise into the darkness and the walls are inlaid with lines of obsidian, smooth and cool to the touch.

The air around us feels electrified, charged, like the moment before a thunderstorm unleashes its fury.

Lilith halts beside me, her hand over her chest as if trying to soothe an invisible ache. Her brow furrows with concern. “They’re getting louder,” she whispers.

At first, I am confused. But then the voices reach me, a haunting chorus that threads its way into my consciousness.

Not full words, but pieces of them. Gasping sobs that falter, fragmented pleas, and the murmur of mourning. I cannot discern where it begins or ends. It envelops us completely.

Lilith presses her hands to her ears, trying to block out the relentless tide of sound. “I think I’ve heard them before,” she says, her voice strained. “When I saw him in the vision. This sound was there too.”

The voices continue to rise in intensity. Anguished wails and pleas that have never known mercy weave together, fused into one relentless, unending cry.

There must be thousands of them.

I glance at Lilith, and her face is ashen, her eyes wide with a stricken look that mirrors the turmoil in the air around us. Tears pool in her eyes as she takes in everything.

I do not know why I do it, it is not a normal reaction for me, but something about seeing Lilith this way compels me to comfort her. I reach for her hand and her grip is fierce, anchoring me. I squeeze back, trying to return the favor.

“Augustus, what is this place?” she asks, loud enough for me to hear.

“I-I… I think this is a burial ground,” I say quietly. “They were sacrificed,” I continue. “To bind him.”

I don’t say his name. I don’t have to.

“I can feel them.” Her eyelids flutter, and it looks as if she’s about to faint. But instead, she buries her face in my shoulder, breathing hard. I freeze for a half second, so unused to the sensation of a hug, before wrapping my arms around her.

“Augustus, there are so many. I can’t—” She breaks off on sob, “—I can’t hold them all in my head. It’s too much.”

I pull back, putting her face between both of my palms. “Focus on me, not them. There is nothing we can do for them right now.”

“I–I can’t. I?—”

Unsure of what else to do, I do the only thing I can think of.

I press my lips to hers. She jolts—just for a heartbeat—and then her lips move against mine.

It is clumsy, unmeasured. But gods, it quiets everything.

My glow begins to brighten, but I ignore it, pouring all of me into her through my mouth.

Her lips part for me, and the taste of her is everything I have not let myself feel until now igniting all at once.

Her hand fumbles up the back of my neck, pulling me closer, the points of her nails pricking my skin as if to anchor herself in this moment, to keep from being swept away.

The voices recede, fading into a dull hush.

We break apart but stay close, foreheads pressed together, both of us panting.

“I’m sorry—” Lilith starts.

“Do not be,” I interject before she can finish. “It helped, did it not?”

“Yes,” she whispers.

She lets out a shaky breath, and leans into me. I cup her cheeks, wanting to memorize every line of her face, every fleck of purple in her eyes, everything.

After a long beat, Lilith finally collects herself. “We should, uh, look around.”

With my glow lighting the way, I navigate toward the veins of obsidian that snake through the cavern walls.

As my hand brushes against the stone, I feel a subtle vibration—not a physical tremor, but a magical pulse.

I trace this invisible current upward along the arch, studying the interwoven sigils etched into the surface, studying how they twist together.

They remind me of Rogue marks… but older.

Cruder . These were carved in pure desperation.

“This is… old magic. Forbidden magic.”

I don’t realize I’ve clenched my fists until my glow flares wildly and then dims again.

Lilith glances at me. “Augustus…”

I can’t stop the words that follow.

“This was a sealing site,” I bite out. “A place where they dragged the Dual— him —and used soul magic to trap him. That is what we are feeling. The recoil . The voices. The horror. It is soaked into the very stone.”

Her breath catches.

I shake my head in disbelief. “To hide something like this—beneath the school, near the students—it is abhorrent.”

A shudder ripples beneath our feet and dust and rock rain down from above. “We should keep going,” Lilith mutters and I follow without hesitation.

The walls ripple as more faces twist violently in the stone, their mouths stretching in grotesque, open-mouthed wails.

Rocky arms claw toward us, fingertips jagged and desperate.

It’s like they’re trying to pull themselves free from their prison, to escape their endless sentence. We keep moving. We have no choice.

The path finally widens again and we step into a massive chamber that appears to be the heart of this cursed cave. As we step inside, the screams abruptly stop. I should be relieved, but instead, my stomach twists violently in response.

Silence like this is not a relief—it is a sign of a predator lying in wait.

Chains hang from the ceiling. Dozens of them. Maybe hundreds. Their metal lengths stretch from above and anchor into the walls, into the stone floor, into the forms of trapped souls.

This is where they did it.

Lilith’s voice breaks the silence. “What on earth...” Her hands are balled into fists, still covered in stone dust. Her gaze shifts rapidly from one chain to another. “This is... this is where he?—”

I nod.

This is where they kept him. This was the cost. A horrific price to pay to keep him contained. And even that wasn’t enough.

The space hums with something ancient and angry.

Lilith spins to face me. “Beneath the academy?” Her voice echoes across the chamber. “What is wrong with them?” She whirls, stalking toward one of the chains. “What the fuck were they thinking?”

She kicks it hard. The chain rattles violently, slashing through the air as if to punctuate her rage. “This was a time bomb!” she shouts. “And they still trained us above it? Let us live here like it was safe?”

Her magic flares, lashes out as she slams her hand into the wall, cracking stone, and shredding her knuckles.

“No wonder the Rogue attacks haven’t stopped,” she mutters. “It’s not just us they’re after. It’s this .”

She’s right.

But before I can speak, she stiffens.

“Shit!” she hisses, and I see the movement up ahead now too. A cluster of Rogues are blocking the tunnel forward, crouched and twitching, their movements jerky and unnatural. Their eyes are wild, their claws scrape the stone.

They look... wrong. Gone. Too far gone to speak or reason with. All instinct. All hunger. All wrong.

They lurch forward and I summon what magic I can muster, throwing up a shield. A dome of pale gold stretches over us, flickering at the edges.

It’s barely holding.

They shriek at the light and slam against it, over and over. Each impact sends a rumble through the barrier, and I feel it cracking, fracturing like glass. My magic is too weak here to hold for long, but I hope it will give us a little bit of time that we so desperately need.

“Fuck, I can’t—” Lilith’s voice trembles. Her hands are raised, coated in a flickering purple shimmer, but nothing emerges. Her wide eyes dart between me and the Rogues as the shield vibrates under their claws.

“Focus,” I say, trying to sound calm even as panic claws up my spine. “They are there. Your Shadows are with you.”

She shakes her head hard. “They’re not coming. I—I can’t?—”

“Yes, you can.” I reach out and grasp her arm. “My life is in your hands,” I say, steady and sure. “I trust you with it.”

She lets out a raw, bitter laugh. “Then you really don’t value your life.”

The shield cracks again—a jagged spiderweb of light spreading from the center outward.

“Maybe,” I say softly, “or maybe I just see you clearer than you see yourself.”

She stares at me, breath catching.

The panic in her eyes mirrors mine.

“Augustus. They’re going to break through.”

“Show them who and what you are.”

The barrier shatters.

She steps in front of me right as a Rogue lunges.

It slams her to the ground with a snarl that echoes through the chamber.

I turn to help, but I don’t get the chance.

Because a pulse erupts from the floor beneath her—pure, blinding violet—that knocks everything off kilter.

The Rogue is flung backward. Light consumes the chamber, forcing me to shield my eyes. When it fades?—

There is a fox standing protectively between Lilith and the Rogues. Its body is massive, its luminous glow like amethyst fire. This is her Predator.

Lilith rises to her feet beside it, bathed in that same violet hue. She’s no longer trembling. No longer doubting. No longer holding back. And I’ve never seen anything more terrifying—or more beautiful.