Page 5 of Soul Bound (Cursed Descent (MistHallow Academy) #2)
5
MATILDA
I try to shake off the lingering effects of our intense encounter on the altar as we cautiously make our way down the newly revealed passageway. My body still tingles with pleasure, and something darker I can’t quite name. The cut on my neck has stopped bleeding, but I can feel it throbbing in time with my quickened pulse.
“Everyone okay?” Vex asks, his voice low as he leads the way.
“Define okay,” I mutter.
We descend deeper into the earth. The air grows colder, and I suppress a shiver.
The passage twists and turns, leading us through a maze. Just as I’m starting to wonder if we’re going in circles or if we are going to face down a Minotaur, we emerge into another large chamber.
“This is it!” I say excitedly, rushing forward. “The same chamber we were in the other day!” I swiftly remove the backpack and pull out the pen and paper. I get to work on the runes, able to read them as I did last time. That’s the difference between these and the ones earlier. I couldn’t read them. I wasn’t meant to. I sketch quickly but carefully, mindful still of Blackthorn’s words about inaccurate translations.
I work swiftly, my hand moving across the paper as I copy down the intricate runes. The guys fan out around me, keeping watch for any threats. The chamber is eerily silent except for the scratch of my pen.
A clicking noise draws my attention as I finish and look up. “Uhm, guys. We have visitors.”
“Oh, fuck, no,” Draven snaps. “You fuckers are under my command, no one else gets to fuck with the dead while I’m here.” He crouches and places his hand on the ground, and mutters words that are so arcane and chilling, I shiver as I clip my backpack straps in place over my chest to keep it attached to me at all costs.
The army of skeletons that decided to crash our party is closing in around us.
“Draven… you got this?” I call out as I’m very much on purpose, separated from Vex, who is standing the closest to me. A wall of bony soldiers circles around me. “Dray? A little help here!”
“Working on it,” he grits out. “Some fucker more powerful than me has control over them.”
Eyes wide, I croak, “What?” Someone more powerful than our resident Master Necromancer? That chills me to my soul.
The skeleton warriors close in around me, their bony fingers reaching out. I back away, my heart pounding.
“Dray!” I call out desperately.
Vex is already knocking them down as quickly as he can, sending bolts of energy that rip through their bones. They shatter on impact, but more keep coming.
“There’s too many!” Luc shouts, ripping the head off one skeleton, only for two more to take its place.
Draven is still crouched on the ground, sweat beading on his brow as he struggles to wrest control of the undead army. “Almost... got it...” he grits out.
“Tilly!” Vex grunts as one skeleton has him in a headlock. “Remember combat training?”
“Err, yeah?”
“Start, eurgh, combatting,” he chokes out as the skeleton tries to rip his head off, sending Vex’s magick zooming off in all directions.
“Combatting. Right. Got it,” I mutter and plant my feet. What did we do again? I’ve only had one class. Fuck. How long have I been at MistHallow now? Not long enough, apparently. Talk about shit hitting the fan?—
“Tilly!” Vex croaks. “Kiggggggg…”
“Huh?” I scrunch up my nose at his unintelligible words.
“Kigggh!”
“Oh, kick !” I say, getting. “Oh, shit, right!” As the skeletons get too close, I breathe and hope that the natural instinct the professor talked about wasn’t a fluke.
“Smash their skulls off!” Luc cries. “They’re pretty easy, but there’s too many of them…”
He goes down under a pile of bones and I focus on the nearest skelly.
I steel myself and lash out with a kick, aiming for the skeleton’s groin area. To my surprise, my foot connects solidly, and it doubles over, offering me the chance to get my foot high enough to knock its skull off. It goes flying off its bony neck, and the rest of the skeleton crumples to the ground.
“Yes!” I cry out, feeling a surge of confidence. I spin and kick another skeleton, shattering its ribcage.
Vex has finally freed himself from the chokehold and is blasting skeletons left and right, a thoroughly pissed-off warlock. Luc bursts up from the pile that had overwhelmed him, hellfire blazing around his fists as he punches through bone after bone.
But more keep coming. For every one we take down, two more seem to take its place. We’re getting overwhelmed.
“Draven!” I shout. “Get control over these lunatics, will you!”
“I’m trying, for fuck’s sake,” he yells back. He’s still crouched on the ground, eyes closed in concentration. Just as I think we’re about to be overrun, his eyes snap open, glowing with a devilish black light that creeps me the fuck out.
“ENOUGH!” he roars, his voice echoing with so much power I feel myself drop to my knees. I don’t even know how that happened. Am I dead? No, of course not. Wait? No. Am I? Fuck… am I?
The skeletons freeze in place. Slowly, they turn to face Draven. He rises to his feet, the black lightning under his skin sparking with rage. “Get your fucking bony arses back. I am your master now.”
The skeletons stand motionless for a long moment, as if unsure which master to obey. Then, with a clatter of bones, they begin to retreat, forming orderly lines behind Draven.
I let out a shaky breath, my heart still pounding. “Holy shitballs.”
Vex helps me to my feet, his eyes never leaving the army of undead now under Draven’s control. “You okay?”
I nod, taking stock of myself. A few bruises, maybe, but nothing serious. “Yeah. You?”
He gives me a tight smile. “I’ll live. Nice kicks, by the way.”
“Thanks,” I say, feeling a small surge of pride.
Luc brushes bone dust off his clothes, looking thoroughly annoyed. “ Un Holy shitballs, if you don’t mind, and as much as fun as that was, what the fuck do we do now?”
“Now,” Draven says, his voice still resonating with power, “we find out who was controlling these skeletons and why.”
He turns to the undead army, now standing at attention behind him. “Who summoned you? Who was your master before me?”
The skeletons remain silent, their empty eye sockets staring blankly ahead.
“They can’t speak, genius,” Luc mutters.
Draven shoots him a withering glare. “I know that. But they can still communicate with me.” He focuses back on the skeletons. “Show me. Lead us to the one who controls you.”
For a moment, nothing happens. Then, with a collective rattle of bones, the skeletons move. They form two lines, creating a path leading deeper into the chamber.
“Well, that’s not ominous at all,” I mutter.
Vex places a hand on my lower back, guiding me forward. “Stay close. We don’t know what we’re walking into.”
We follow the path of skeletons, tension thick in the air. The chamber seems to stretch on endlessly, shadows dancing at the edges of our vision. Finally, we reach what appears to be a dead end - a smooth stone wall with no visible markings or openings.
“Great,” Luc says. “A wall. Real helpful, bone brigade.”
But Draven steps forward, running his hands over the stone surface. His eyes narrow in concentration. “There’s something here.” He presses his palm flat against the wall, and it opens up immediately. A vortex whips through it, sweeping us up into the new tunnel where we are thrust upward, and we land as one in a groaning pile on the snowy ground of MistHallow near the South Tower.
“How rude,” I snap, getting to my feet. “They kicked us out.”
“Yeah, your skills are severely lacking, brother,” Luc grunts, getting to his knees before he hauls himself to his feet. “I am so fucking over this.”
“Makes two of us,” Vex sighs.
“That was not a lack of skill. They sent us here for a reason.”
“Again? What is out here that they wanted us to see?” I complain.
“That,” Draven says, pointing up to a window in the South Tower.
A black-robed figure looks down at us briefly before stepping back.
“That’s Night’s office,” Vex murmurs.
I frown and look at Draven. “But that makes no sense. How is he more powerful than you?”
“He isn’t,” Draven grits out, more pissed off than I’ve ever seen him. “But he is going to tell me who the fuck is lending him their power.”