Page 30 of Traveler (Soulbound #1)

Vin

My sneakers ski d on cobblestones as I sprint toward the commotion. Students freeze, their laughter dying mid-breath. Ahead, Jared crouches near the fountain, his hands fisted in Alex's shirt. Alex's earth magic ripples beneath their feet, fracturing the ground in jagged seams.

"They took her!" Jared's voice cracks, raw and unfamiliar. "Black SUVs, they dragged her—"

Saul materializes beside me, flames licking up his forearms. "Who?"

"Vernon!" Alex snarls, slamming a fist into the earth. A fissure splits the courtyard, swallowing a bench. "Her and Carion—they're gone."

My lungs lock. Aly. Gone. The world sharpens—the too-bright sun, the scent of singed grass from Saul's rage, the distant chime of the academy bell tower. This isn't happening.

Elliott materializes beside me, his ice-blue gaze scanning the scene. "Barrett is looking at campus surveillance. Vivianne's interrogating witnesses. Move."

Barrett's office looks like a hurricane has hit it. Laptops glow on every surface, security feeds flashing across screens. Vivianne leans over Barrett's shoulder, her dagger tapping a rhythm on his desk. "The SUVs exited through the east gate. No plates, tinted windows."

Xander hovers near the door, his hands trembling. Kale stands behind him, fingers knotted in Xander's hoodie like an anchor. "The kin-bond," Kale urges. "Try again."

Xander closes his eyes, his breath hitching. A faint gold thread sparks in the air—Aly's signature, frayed but alive. "She's… underground. Somewhere with dampening stones. I can't—"

"The old alchemy labs," Barrett cuts in. "Basement levels were retrofitted with steel walls during the war."

Jared slams a fist into the wall, cracking plaster. "Why the hell would they take her there ?"

"Because it's the one place we can't blast our way into," Vivianne says coldly. "And they know it."

Elliott pulls up blueprints, his glasses reflecting schematics of the labyrinthine tunnels beneath the academy. "Three access points: the greenhouse hatch, the library archive, and the storm drain. They'll have guards."

Saul's flames flare. "I am going to melt someone's face off in about ten minutes if we don't find her."

Barrett shoots him a look. "We need precision, not pyrotechnics. Aly's in there."

The front doors of the old alchemy lab loom ahead, their once-grand carvings choked by ivy and time. Barrett doesn't hesitate—he slams his palm against the rusted metal, ice crawling from his fingertips to devour the hinges. The lock snaps with a brittle crack , and the doors groan inward, exhaling a breath of stale air laced with the sharp tang of decaying potions.

Xander shoves past me, his fingers brushing the doorframe. "She's close. The bond's… pulling ."

Barrett's flashlight pierces the gloom, revealing a cavernous foyer choked with cobwebs and toppled bookshelves. Moonlight filters through grime-caked windows, painting the dust motes silver. "Stay sharp," he mutters. "They'll have traps."

I step inside, my sneakers silent on cracked marble. The air tastes like ash and ammonia, nothing like the sterile halls of the modern academy. Ahead, a staircase spirals downward, its banister splintered. Xander lunges toward it, but Barrett catches his arm.

"Wait." Barrett kneels, brushing frost over the first step. The ice hisses, then sizzles—a glowing rune flares to life beneath it. "Pressure trigger. Step here, and the whole place collapses."

Xander pales. "So, we don't step."

Barrett smirks, conjuring an ice bridge that arcs over the stairwell. "After you."

We move like ghosts through the lab's carcass. Barrett's ice neutralizes every trap—disarming flame runes, freezing tripwires—while Xander's bond tugs us deeper. The corridors narrow, walls scarred with blast marks and faded glyphs.

A muffled voice echoes ahead.

"—keep her in the containment circle. Boss said no marks."

Barrett freezes, holding up a fist. Two guards , he mouths, nodding toward a half-open door.

Xander's breath hitches. "Aly's… behind them. Hurting."

I don't think. I move .

The first guard whirls, taser crackling, but my kick sends it clattering into shadows. The second lunges—Barrett's ice encases his legs mid-stride.

"Where?" I growl, pinning the first guard's throat to the wall.

"V-vault! Down the hall!"

Barrett ices their mouths shut. "Noise draws more. Let's go."

The vault door is steel, its surface etched with containment sigils. Xander presses both hands to it, gold threads of the kin-bond seeping through the cracks. "She's here. Here ."

Barrett studies the sigils. "Suppression wards. My ice won't break this."

I crack my knuckles. "Then we burn it."

"Wait." Xander's voice trembles. "I think I can…" He closes his eyes, and the gold threads flare, melting the sigils like candle wax.

The door creaks open.