Page 17 of Monster's Melody

Mikaela sighed.“Fine.One more tunnel, but that’s all.”

“I vote we try a tunnel to the right,” I said.

“But I have a system,” Vorzak said.“I’ve been keeping careful track and working through the tunnels in a very systematic way.That way I don’t end up repeating my efforts.If you just go traipsing off without a system, you’ll never explore all the tunnels.”

“Not my goal,” I said as I started down the tunnel just right of the center branch.I’ll admit I chose that branch just to annoy Vorzak since it was between a branch he hadn’t yet explored and one he was only halfway through.

I heard him grumbling behind me as he hurried to follow.

“Jasmine, wait up!”

I glanced back just in time to see Mikaela scoot past Vorzak.She had her back plastered to the wall and slid along it as fast as she could, not taking her eyes off his snakes.As soon as she was past him, she darted to my side.

“You owe me,” she muttered as she tried to walk beside me while also keeping an eye on the gorgon stalking at our backs.

“You could have stayed with Elliot.”

“What kind of best friend would I be if I abandoned you in your time of need?”

I snickered.“Come on.”I grabbed her hand and took off at a faster pace.

Over the next twenty minutes, I led the group through the most random tunnel exploration I possibly could.I took a branch to the right, then a branch to the left, then one straight ahead.

“Jasmine, you’re not getting us lost again, are you?”Mikaela finally demanded.

“Again?”Vorzak rumbled behind us, making Mikaela jump because he’d once again managed to get closer than she liked.

I ignored them both as I turned another corner, then stumbled to a halt.

Holy shit.

“I can’t believe it,” Mikaela exclaimed.“You actually found the wine cellar!”

Directly in front of us was a giant wooden door with raised carvings of wine leaves surrounding the Blackthorn crest, leaving no doubt as to who owned the cellar we’d finally found.

Mikaela and I spent a bit of time examining the door carefully, looking for any evidence of security spells.

“I can’t believe it’s not protected by at least one spell,” I finally said when we failed to find evidence of any security at all.

“Think about it,” Vorzak said.“Anyone who didn’t know the path to the wine cellar is bound to get lost.It’s literally taken me years to eliminate half the tunnels in this place.That you found it at all is only because of your chaotic search methods.”

“Hey!”I exclaimed.“It worked, didn’t it?”

“It was a million to one chance, literally,” Vorzak said.“I’m guessing this wine cellar has been here since long before the Academy was built and I’m also guessing in all the years the Academy’s been around, no student has ever discovered it.”

“Well, I’m going in,” I announced.“We haven’t come all this way to leave empty-handed.”With that, I pulled open the door.

CHAPTER3

Mikaela,Kasi and I were miserable the next morning as we dressed for our first class of the semester, which happened to be Dragon Riding 101.

“I can’t believe this class is at six in the morning,” Kasi groaned as she crawled her way out of the shadows beneath her bed.“Shadow swatted me when I told her it was time for breakfast and Jahrdran just rolled over and went back to sleep.He didn’t even kiss me goodbye.”

“Elliot didn’t even stir when I got up,” Mikaela said from where she lay on Kasi’s bed.She’d been lying there for the last five minutes, having only made it from her room to ours before proclaiming she needed to lie down again.

I could relate, seeing as I’d done the same thing after staggering to the bathroom.

“I blame Jasmine,” Mikaela muttered into the bedsheets.