Page 19 of Soul Bound (Cursed Descent (MistHallow Academy) #2)

19

MATILDA

The book burns against my chest where I’ve tucked it under my shirt. Not with heat exactly, but with something older. Something that makes my blood sing and my hands shake. Every step we take deeper into these tunnels feels both wrong and absolutely right.

“Left here,” I say, though I couldn’t explain how I know. The knowledge simply appears in my mind, like remembering something I never actually learned.

“You sure?” Vex asks, his light sphere casting strange shadows ahead of us. “Because the last three lefts have led us in circles.”

“The tunnels are shifting,” Draven observes, marking another symbol on the wall with a chipped off piece of rock. “Look. That’s the third time we’ve passed my original marking.”

“That’s impossible,” Luc growls, but I can hear the uncertainty in his voice.

“No,” I murmur, pressing my palm against the cold stone. “It’s protecting something. Like rings around a centre point. We’re getting closer, but it keeps moving the path. There are patterns, but they’re fluid. Changing.” I close my eyes, trying to focus on the energy flowing through the stone. “It’s like music, but instead of notes, it’s using space.”

Another growl echoes through the tunnels, closer than before. The book’s pulse quickens.

“Whatever we’re looking for,” I say, opening my eyes, “it’s that way.” I point toward a section of a seemingly solid wall.

Vex raises an eyebrow. “Through the wall?”

“The wall isn’t real. Not really. It’s like...” I struggle to find the words. “It’s like everything down here is written in two languages at once. What we see, and what is.”

“And you can read both?” Draven asks.

I shake my head. “Not read exactly. But I can feel which one is true.”

The growl comes again, and this time, I recognise it for what it is – not a threat, but a beacon. A call.

“We need to go through,” I say, stepping toward the wall. “Now, before it moves again.”

“Tilly, wait—” Vex reaches for me, but I’m already moving.

The wall dissolves like mist around me, revealing another chamber beyond. This one is different from the others – perfectly circular, with a domed ceiling covered in those shifting symbols. In the centre stands a pillar of pure light, stretching from floor to ceiling.

The others follow me through just as the wall reforms behind us.

“Well,” Vex says softly, “I think we found what we were looking for.”

“No,” I whisper. “This isn’t what we’re looking for. This is just another lock.”

The chamber trembles, and the symbols on the ceiling move faster, spinning like stars in fast motion.

“Then what’s behind it?” Luc asks.

Before I can answer, the pillar of light flares blindingly bright. When my vision clears, I see that the symbols have stopped moving.

“It’s not what’s behind it,” I say, my voice shaking. “It’s who.”

The first Guardian is awake. And it knows we’re here.

The pillar of light pulses, sending waves of energy through the chamber that make my soul shudder.

“We need to map this,” Vex says, already pulling out his notebook. “If these patterns match what we saw in the ritual?—”

The chamber shudders violently, cutting him off. Cracks appear on the stone floor, spreading outward from the pillar, like lightning bolts.

“The tunnels aren’t just shifting,” Draven says. “They’re breaking down.”

I can feel it through my feet. The whole network of passages is destabilising, and the ancient magick that held everything in place for so long is unravelling.

“It’s fighting the containment,” I say, pressing my hand against the nearest wall. The stone feels fever hot. “All these millennia, it’s been wearing away at the bonds.”

The book suddenly burns so hot I have to pull it out from under my shirt. It falls open in my hands, pages flipping on their own until they settle on a diagram that mirrors the chamber we’re standing in.

“Look,” I breathe, holding it out for the others to see. “The pillar isn’t containing it, it’s conducting it. Using the ley lines to disperse its power through the whole network.”

“Like a pressure valve,” Vex says, studying the diagram. “But if the tunnels are collapsing...”

Another violent tremor rocks the chamber. A chunk of ceiling crashes down barely a foot from where Luc stands.

“We need to leave,” he shouts over the growing rumble. “Now!”

But I can’t move. The book’s energy is flowing into me now, showing me things. Terrible, beautiful things. The truth of what’s buried here. What’s trying to break free.

“Tilly!” Vex’s voice seems to come from very far away. “We have to go!”

“Just... just wait. I can almost see it.”

The pillar of light flares again, brighter than before. In that instant, I see through it, see what it’s been hiding all this time. Not a monster. Not exactly. Something older. Something that was here before the stones, before the magick, before everything.

The ceiling gives way with a deafening crack.

“MOVE!” Vex grabs me around the waist, yanking me backwards just as tons of ancient stone comes crashing down where I’d been standing.

We run. The book clutched to my chest guides us through the shifting maze of tunnels, its energy pulling us toward safety even as everything crumbles around us. Left, right, straight through walls that aren’t really there. We follow its lead without questioning.

Finally, we burst through a hidden doorway out into the forest, the winter chill, hitting us in the face as snow falls down from the leaves above us due to the disturbance in the air. We gasp for breath as the passage seals itself behind us.

Another tremor rumbles underfoot. This one feels different, though. Not destructive but settling. Like something going back to sleep.

For now.

“We can’t tell Big B about this,” Luc says once the shaking stops. “He’ll never let us go back down.”

“We have to tell him,” I argue, looking down at the book in my hands. “Because we’re going to need his help.”

“For what?” Draven asks.

I meet Vex’s eyes, seeing in them the same understanding that’s flooding through me. “Because now we know what the First Guardian really is. And we know it’s going to break free soon.”

“How soon?” Vex asks quietly.

I open the book again, finding the star charts we saw earlier. “When the stars align. When the pattern becomes complete.”