Page 51

Neith

“I think this is deceiving,” River mutters, echoing my thoughts.

“Oh absolutely,” the Draconian member whose name I don’t know replies, earning a glare from Kylen simply because he’s agreeing with River, which is the most ridiculous thing that I have seen for a while. It’s like Kylen hasn’t left high school let alone fucking college.

“It can’t be this easy,” Raiden adds, as his gaze narrows on our surroundings.

Griff nods, “It’s most likely not, but we’ve got no choice but to go forward. It’s how we get out of here.”

“Griff’s right,” Evander agrees, once again taking a leadership role. “We need to move forward as quickly and safely as possible. There are no places up here for us to take shelter from the creatures if we’re still up here by nightfall.”

Rupert frowns, “It doesn’t look too far away.”

Jamie is the one who replies, “I think that might be an illusion.”

“Agreed,” Ransom says. “If the worst comes to the worst and we end up being exposed when night falls, my magic should have replenished enough by then that I should be able to put the ward around us as we move, I’m exhausted from holding it all night and not getting much sleep, so I have no idea how long I’ll be able to keep it up for.

If it happens any sooner than nightfall though I won’t be able to hold it, I couldn’t do it right now.

Especially, since it’s likely that since we’re exposed, the creatures are going to be attacking relentlessly. ”

“That’s understandable,” Van agrees. “We’ll just hope that we get there before nightfall.

If needs must, then we will have to fight our way through if your magic hasn’t replenished itself yet.

We don’t want you to be using your magic at dangerously low levels.

” He looks around at everyone, “Let’s go. ”

“Who do you think you are telling my team and me what to do?” Kylen suddenly says.

Van raises his eyebrow, “Do you have another idea or plan?”

Kylen scowls and stays silent, and I frown. As they begin to go back and forth, I lean closer to Doc, and saying as quietly as I can, I ask, “Is it me, or is he slightly more unhinged than usual?”

Doc nods, “I did think that, especially after what he did last night, he can’t have thought that would have ended any differently, but to be honest, it could just be because of the pain he’s in from the mark on his cheek.

There have been many stories where people have gone insane because of a ghost mark. ”

My eyes widen, “Really?”

Doc nods as we hang out at the back of the group while everyone starts walking. I’m keeping one eye and ear on our surroundings, but I’m also incredibly curious about ghost marks and what exactly Ribit did to him. It seems that it’s more complicated than I originally thought it was.

Keeping his voice low, although Kylen is still bitching loudly so there’s no chance that he will hear us anyway, Doc explains, “Yeah. There has been extensive research into it and how to treat it effectively, but because it’s from beyond the veil, nothing works.

We’ve even had necromancers, reapers, and other creatures who deal with the spirit realm, see if they can help in any way, but ghost marks are resistant to everything that we have come up with so far, and we’ve been trying for centuries now. ”

“Holy crap that’s pretty insane,” I mutter.

“Yeah, it is, and whatever ghost put that on him must have been a pretty powerful witch or warlock when they were alive,” he adds. “I haven’t seen one that bad for a long time.”

“Well damn,” I reply.

We fall silent as we carry on walking, and I become increasingly uncomfortable with how exposed we are. Looking on the positive side though, anything that tries to attack us will also be exposed. So I guess there’s that at least.

We’ve been walking for a while, and the portal doesn’t look like it’s getting any closer, as it flashes and crackles in the distance.

“If we were able to fly,” Griff starts, “then we could have flown over there or even carried people over there. We would have been able to see any threats between us and the portal from the air, and it would have been so much quicker.”

“Which is probably why the wings were taken away,” I point out.

River frowns, “I really hope that is the only reason that they were taken away.”

“Agreed. It’s inconvenient to have to get there on foot without knowing the dangers that could be waiting, but it’s only inconvenient as opposed to it being dangerous,” Raiden agrees.

“Good point,” I reply, in agreement.

“I can hear something,” Coen frowns. “I can’t quite make out what it is.”

River lifts his nose in the air, “I can smell something as well, but I can’t put my finger on what it is, my nose isn’t working like it should.”

It turns out that no one’s senses are working quite like they should be because the source of the smell and sound appears a moment later.

“Ah,” Ransom frowns.

“That’s going to be an issue,” River adds, his eyebrows high on his forehead.

My own eyes are wide as I stare at the giant gorge, it’s far too wide to jump across, and the river at the bottom is moving far too quickly for us to wade through, even if we could get down there.

Then I spot it, a rope bridge. One that looks incredibly unsafe and like it would snap under my weight, let alone the weight of all of these very big men. I can’t help but say sarcastically, “Oh, don’t worry, guys, there’s a bridge.”

River smirks, waves his fists like he is holding pom poms, and says, “Yey.”

I burst out laughing.

“I hardly think that this is a laughing matter,” Jamie exclaims, glaring at me.

I roll my eyes, “Why not? There’s no point being miserable about everything.”

“Alright,” Evander says before we can descend into an argument, “well, we aren’t going to be able to fly across.”

“And that bridge doesn’t exactly look strong enough to take even one of us,” Coen adds.

“But I can see the portal, so we have to be able to cross somehow,” Raiden says, his mind working to come up with a solution while the Draconian team seems just to stand there, not trying to help us figure out how to get across.

I get the feeling that Jamie and the one whose name I still don’t know want to help, but they keep looking at Kylen nervously, and Kylen, in return, keeps giving them warning looks.

“It looks like the water is moving far too quickly for us to be able to scale down the cliff and walk across, and then go up the other side,” Doc says thoughtfully.

“It may not be as deep as it looks,” the one whose name I don’t know suggests, and then immediately winces.

“Let’s find out, Fetrick,” Kylen replies, his voice full of malice, as without warning, he shoves Fetrick so hard that he stumbles off the cliff.

Coen must have been expecting the reaction because, without skipping a beat, and while the rest of us are still staring shocked at Kylen’s actions, Coen dives over the side of the cliff after Fetrick.

I don’t even bother to control my reaction as we all rush to the edge to look over, and see if they’ve survived the fall. My eyebrows rise as I see Coen, his sword jammed into the rocky side of the cliff, as he holds onto it with one hand, and Fetrick with the other.

“What the fuck are you playing at!” Rupert explodes at Kylen.

Kylen just smirks and shrugs, like it’s not a big deal.

He really doesn’t care that he nearly killed a teammate, and it would have been death.

The drop is far too far, and despite what was suggested earlier the water is definitely deep, really fucking deep from what I can tell.

I’m pretty sure that if Kylen hadn’t thrown Fetrick off the fucking cliff, Evander would have been able to tell everyone that it’s really deep.

Coen

“A re you hurt?” I ask Fetrick.

“No,” he replies, sounding shaken up, which is more than understandable since his leader just pushed him off a fucking cliff.

“Okay, I’m going to swing you close to the cliffside, just like last time. I won’t let go until you’ve got a good grip and can go up by yourself, okay?”

“Got it,” Fetrick replies.

Fortunately for both of us, he manages to grab hold of the wall on the first try.

I shift my claws and dig them deep into the rock, before I pull out my sword and put it in the harness on my back. As I begin to climb though, his quiet voice stops me.

“Thank you for saving me again,” he says barely above a whisper. Most likely worried that Kylen is going to hear.

His words surprise me, so my only reply is to nod and begin climbing again.

“It’s a ring,” he says, somehow even quieter, and stops climbing as I glance over at him in confusion.

I can hear Rupert and Kylen screaming at each other, and while I’m aware that they need to shut the fuck up before they bring unwanted attention to us, it means that they are less likely to be aware of what is happening down here, especially since I can’t see Jamie, which means he’s most like watching the drama unfold.

“What’s a ring?” I ask, as equally quietly.

It’s silent for a moment, and I contemplate starting to move again.

It’s rare that he ever speaks to me, keeping to himself as much as I do really, when I can get away with it.

Just as I think that he’s not going to reply, even though he’s still hanging there and not climbing any higher, he finally speaks.

“You have a necklace, I have a ring,” he replies.

It instantly clicks, and shock floods through my system. I had absolutely no idea that he was being controlled in the same way that I am. He’s been with Kylen from the first year at the academy. They’ve been together since the second day at the academy. I think they were roommates.

“Fuck,” I reply, remembering at the last minute to keep my voice quiet. We begin climbing. I don’t want anyone to get suspicious. “Why didn’t you ever say anything?”