Page 8 of Shattered Darkness

Cole sighs heavily, “Fine. You know I hate it when you guys use logic against me.”

“I know,” I smile, “we stick together and don’t separate no matter what.”

“Oh, I’m going to be stuck to you like glue,” Cole states, stepping closer as if to prove his point, “or Velcro? Is Velcro stickier?”

“Alright, you nervous Nelly, we get it.” Erin smiles and takes his hand.

“Ready?” I ask them.

They both nod, and we start to move forward slowly. I have to admit that it’s kind of nice to have them with me; they certainly provide a sense of comedic relief, at least.

We stick close to the wall, not that it will make any difference if someone does come along because we’re in a freaking tunnel, there’s nowhere to hide at all, so if someone comes and they’re hostile, which at this point, I just assume they are, then we’re going to have to fight and hope that we’re strong enough to do so.

With this in mind, I pause, making the others stop with me. They both look at me curiously, and I explain quietly, “I just want to make sure that our magic is working properly since we can’t get through to the guys.”

“Shit,” Cole says and starts to summon his magic.

“You need to do a tiny show of magic; we don’t want to bring any attention to ourselves,” I warn him.

He nods as he pulls back some of his magic, and then both Erin and he start to thread small spells. Since my fire is the easiest for me to call, although it's not necessarily the easiest to control, that’s the one that I call, my fingertips spark, and a small flame appears on the tip of one before I snuff it out, satisfied that even though I can’t get hold of my men, my magic is still working like it should, which means if we do run into trouble, between the three of us, we should definitely be able to handle it. It’s then that I realise that Ghost and Knot aren’t with us, and they were soaring above the shelves in the library, so I can only assume that the Goddess didn’t pull them in with us. If they were here, I could’ve sent them ahead and looked through their eyes like before, and we could’ve stayed out of the danger zone completely.

“We’re good,” Erin says.

“Let’s go then,” I add.

We walk only a few steps further when I hear footsteps heading in our direction; I share panicked looks with Erin and Cole as we press our backs tightly against the wall; quicker than I thought she was able to, I feel Erin’s magic spark and wash over me, and when I glance over at her, she nods, confirming that she’s put a shield over us, and just in time too as, we see two robed figures with their hoods up approaching us, from the direction that we just came from and heading toward the chanting. They walk straight past us, they don’t even acknowledge our existence, and I thank our lucky stars that Erin is so good at what she does and also had the benefit of some training at least, before the school went to shit.

We all start to follow, trusting that Erin’s shield is going to hold and not reveal us to whoever is down here. As we move through the tunnel, the chanting gets louder until we round the corner and come to a massive cavern filled with more of the robed figures. As they stop chanting, they all remove their hoods. We stay at the entrance to the cavern, which is raised slightly and gives us a good view over the fifty or so people in the room, who are all facing the front.

“It’s the Order,” Cole whispers.

“Don’t worry, it’s soundproofed,” Erin adds, her voice still quiet.

“Why are their faces all blurry?” I ask, frowning as I look over them, and all I can see is a blur. It’s creating a really creepy effect, being surrounded by a sea of faceless members of the Order.

“I guess because we’re not supposed to know their identities yet, or maybe the Goddess doesn’t know them?” Cole replies thoughtfully.

“They would have to have some insanely powerful magic to be able to block the Goddess,” I say, scrunching my nose with distaste.

“Or, some seriously powerful connections, like God-level connections.” Erin points out.

“Well, shit,” I reply, and then add, “I think we’re going to have to get closer if we want to be able to hear what’s being said.”

“Try not to touch anyone,” Erin states, “as far as I’m aware, we can’t be seen or heard, but they could still walk into us, and then they’ll know that we’re here. If I expand the shield so it’s not shaped to us and is instead like a bubble around, then there will be even more chance for someone to walk into it.”

“You know your gift is amazing,” I tell her honestly, “you kick ass.”

“Thanks,” she grins proudly.

“Alright, how about we stick to the wall and see if we can overhear some conversations?” I suggest.

“Good, idea,” Cole replies.

Very slowly and being cautious of anyone that gets close to us, we move from the entrance down into the large chamber and then start to follow the wall until we get to a group of people. Even though we all know that we can’t be heard here, none of us are willing to try and test it, so instead, we stay silent and listen.

“Magistrate Godfrey,” a woman states, getting a portly man's attention. I may not be able to see his face or anything really about him, but I can tell that there is something inherently wrong and evil with this man; I dislike him a disproportionate amount since I don’t actually know the man, “What are you planning to do about those new Centres that have just appeared at Blood Moon academy?”

“We can’t allow them to gain any knowledge or power,” another person states.

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