Page 71 of Immortal Origins (Chronicles of the Immortal Trials #1)

She stepped over bodies that had been taken down by weapons and claws, limbs littering spaces.

She did her best not to look. She forced herself to ignore the fallen warriors and keep pressing forward no matter what.

She almost vomited when she came across three dismembered bodies and told herself to keep moving.

There had to be an exit.

Left.

Right.

Left.

She reached another dead end when she stopped again to catch her breath.

She took a moment to calm her nerves, breathing deeply as she tried to assess her options.

She didn’t stand there long before a chill ran up her spine.

Something shifted in the air.

Pressing her body against the blocked passage, she peered into the darkness and listened.

Scurrying. Lots of it.

It was impossible to tell how far or how many of whatever was coming towards her was.

She closed her eyes and forced them shut, as they wanted to flutter open with fear.

Careful to calm her breathing, she dipped her focus past her feet and into the dirt, the walls, the ceiling until echoes of the hallway illuminated back to her in her mind.

She pushed it further and the images of dozens of centipedes as big as her were scurrying towards her.

With black pincers on their faces big enough to tear her limbs from her body, and legs moving so fast they would be on her in minutes.

With little time to think, she looked at the wall behind her and the hall, the way she’d come—her only way out—and the centipedes that filled it. She had no choice but to dig.

Placing her hands on the blocked passage, she pushed her focus into the wall from where her fingertips touched it.

Ten feet. That’s how much space she had between the hall she was currently in, and the one on the other side of the wall.

The centipedes were close enough now that they could see her and their chitters carried towards her in a way that reminded her too much of the Alkijin and her blood boiled.

They crawled on top of each other, black beady eyes shining as drool fell from their pinchers that opened and closed with hunger and excitement.

Pulling her fist back, she slammed it against the wall and a large hole burst from the wall.

Not big enough.

She slammed her other fist against the wall and another hole blasted into the space.

Still not big enough.

A few centipedes led the charge, so close she could now see the red sheen on their hard, black bodies and she wondered if that was truly the color of their armor or if they were already covered in blood.

She punched another hole.

Six more feet to go.

A centipede reached her and clamped its jaws around her ankle as she bit down on a scream. Sweat dripped from her temple as she flung a hand at it and the creature burst into bright purple flames as it screamed an inhuman sound and fell to the ground .

She punched another one.

Four feet.

Another lunged for her abdomen but she side-stepped it and its pincers sank into the wall instead. She placed a hand in its underbelly and blasted her fire through the spaces between its armor.

Heart pounding, she punched another hole.

One more.

She turned to look behind her and immediately wished she hadn’t. The swarm was practically on top of her and just as their collective chittering reached an all-time peak, as multiple pincers and jaws opened to attack her, she punched through the wall one more time and the rest of it broke away.

She threw her body through the hole and twirled around blasting the space behind her with flames that shot from the ground all the way to the ceiling in a barrier.

The giant insects screamed and withered as their bodies touched it, her purple flames too hot to cross, but she could see them past the flickering of the flames, angrily glaring at her.

Her ankle throbbed and she quickly assessed the injury.

No major damage, and no major bleeding. It hurt, but when she pushed herself to her feet, she was grateful she could still use it.

She tore a piece from the hem of her dress and wrapped it around the wound as a makeshift bandage. Thankfully, she could still walk.

The hall she landed in looked no different than the others but destroyed the little map in her mind she had been able to make. She had no idea where in the maze she was now, and hoped that she wouldn’t backtrack by making the wrong decision.

All she could think about through the adrenaline was escaping.

As far as she knew, the entire tunnel system was connected and if these were attached to the ones in the palace, she’d just have to find the one that led her out. She just had to keep moving and stay unnoticed until she could find the tunnel that would lead her to safety.

She had one advantage the other Trial Champions didn’t.

She knew the tunnels existed.

Which meant she was the only one who knew there could be a way out.

The rest of the fighters would be expecting to face each other and whatever horrors lay deep in waiting, they wouldn’t expect to try and find an out. If she could manage to find it while the rest were distracted fighting one another, she could survive.

She could survive.

With no way of knowing where to go, she picked the tunnel to her right and ran down the hall as quietly, and quickly, as she could. Every nerve in her body running on high alert as she listened carefully for anything, or anyone else that might attack.

The firelights stretched and gave her little lighting to see where she was going but she let a small amount of her focus slip to her feet and at least fifteen feet in front of her so her mind could see what her eyes couldn’t.

Her eyes had adjusted but even so, she could only see maybe five or six feet in front of her, darkness swallowing the rest of her path until it was basically right in front of her.

Never before had she been more grateful that her training with Adym had taken place at night.

Sometimes under a full moon with plenty of light to see, but too often being under the cover of a new or waxing moon that gave her little help.

All those nights he insisted that she keep training, using more of her senses than just her sight.

Learning how to rely on her smell, touch, and hearing just as much as what she could see.

Now, with her magick to help her as well, she didn’t need her eyes.

She’d battled the Alkijin and won.

She’d faced a dragon and lived to tell about it.

She would survive this.

She walked as swiftly as she could down the halls, avoiding any that carried fresh screams to her, only choosing the ones that held silence.

Left.

Left.

Right.

Left.

Right.

Right.

Ambrose pulled the dagger out, holding it ready and at her side in case anything were to jump out and surprise her. She wouldn’t be caught off guard again.

She hoped Rowland had bled out from where she’d left him, but a larger part of her doubted that was enough to take him down. If he was alive, he’d be hunting her. She had no doubt about that.

Her mind raced, wondering what other foul creatures the gods had waiting for them.

The next left she took led her to a stone archway that opened into a larger chamber with entrances to six other tunnels scattered around the sides. Similar to the chamber they’d been dropped in, she didn’t like the hum that danced across her nerves.

Glancing around, she didn’t see any signs of life. Just six more entrances to tunnels.

All she had to do was pick one before something else found her.

Which one was the right one though?

She closed her eyes and listened. Metal clashing against metal carried faintly from the hall she’d come from. The chamber in front of her however, was as quiet as death.

Any of them would do.

She stepped in quietly and put her back against the wall as she dragged her feet towards the nearest tunnel, eyes darting over the space for any sign of movement, she pulled her sword from her side and replaced the dagger at her thigh.

She prayed that it wouldn’t be another dead end, forcing her to waste precious time.

Or worse, lead her to something far more deadly.

When she reached the halfway point to the archway, footsteps sounded from the tunnel directly opposite to her, though she couldn’t make out what it was in the shadows that hugged the hallway.

Throwing caution to the wind she ran for the tunnel entrance in an attempt to reach it before whatever was walking towards her found her.

Just as she was about to step through the new archway, laughter echoing from the other tunnel stopped her in her tracks.

She knew that laugh.

‘Don’t trust anyone, even if you’re familiar.’

Turning to face the mage that had joined her in the chamber, her heart fluttered and sank.

Danthan .