Page 88 of Creatures of Chaos

I sigh. He’s a jerk, but he’s not wrong. I try to pull out of Talon’s arms, but he holds me tighter.

“Ignore the snake shifter. You won’t be good to anyone if you can’t stop shivering.”

I should really step back, but Talon’s embrace is actually starting to warm me up, so I can’t make myself move. I’m notjust cold, I’m exhausted as well. Giving up, I press my ear to his chest and close my eyes. His heartbeat drums steadily beneath my cheek.

Suddenly, heat starts to pour into me from Talon’s hands on my back. I gasp, and pulling back slightly, I tilt my face up to look at him. “What are you doing?”

“Making sure I get you back to your princeling with all your fingers and toes intact,” he says, and I go rigid.

Becks would freak if he saw me in Talon’s arms like this, but then I remember this trial isn’t being broadcasted and relax. This isn’t anything. It’s just Talon trying to help me warm up. It’s nothing Becks needs to know about.

But even so, a speck of guilt lodges in my chest.

I don’t know what kind of magic Talon is using to warm me up. I’ve heard of fire-welding shifters being able to create and transfer heat into another creature, but never a vampire. I’m too spent to pick it over though. All I care is that whatever he’s doing, it feels amazing.

It takes less than a minute for me to stop shivering, and when he releases me I can finally feel all my fingers and toes again.

“Thanks,” I say, and force myself to look into his eyes. There’s some emotion simmering below the surface of his gaze, but I can’t put my finger on what it is.

“I found something else,” Titus announces, cutting off anything Talon was about to say.

“Me too,” I call, remembering the Chaos emblem I forgot to tell them about when I stumbled into Talon.

We all meet in the middle of the room. Titus holds up a Chaos coin, exactly like the ones we looked for in the first trial with the emblem stamped into it. I tell them about the Chaos symbol on the wall and the door I found, and Kiaro lets us know he came across two more pedestals with mirrors, so four in total. All themirrors are attached to a base but can be twisted and angled in different directions. That has to mean something.

“Where did you find the coin?” Talon asks, and Titus answers that it was lying on the ground. We split up, Titus and Talon looking for more coins, and Kiaro and I trying to figure out where they go.

I come across a pedestal and take my time inspecting it. The mirror up top has an ornate gilded frame. There are crystals and flowers etched into the wood, and it swivels and turns just like Kiaro reported. Next, I drop down to inspect the pedestal it sits on, which is a long thin column also painted gold with the mirror perched on top and a wider base. It’s when I get to the bottom that I notice the coin shaped indent.

“I think I found where the coin goes,” I call out, and Titus shows up first.

“I found another coin,” he says, and then Talon and Kiaro appear.

“I found two as well,” Talon says, but then he jerks back and swipes at something only he can see on his shoulder.

Unease grows in my gut, but I do my best to ignore it.

“Someone give me a coin,” I say, and Titus drops one into my palm. Bending down, I place it in the indent, and it fits perfectly. The moment the coin settles in its slot, a laser shoots down from the ceiling, hitting the top corner of the mirror and bouncing off in the opposite direction.

“Each pedestal needs a coin,” I say, and Talon and Titus take off to place them.

Soon, there are four different-colored laser beams shooting toward the mirrors and bouncing off in different directions, but now what?

“Did you guys see this?” Titus asks as he looks at one of the mirrors, and we all move closer to see what he’s talking about.

Very faintly in the mirror’s reflection is a light purple design, the color matching the laser reflecting off of it. Three interconnected swirls.

“Isn’t that one of the symbols on the Chaos emblem?” I ask, and Kiaro jets off to another mirror.

“There’s another symbol here. A starburst.”

“That matches the emblem. Let’s see if the other two match as well.”

Sure enough, the last two mirrors have a zigzag and two interconnected circles.

“Quick, point them at the Chaos emblem on the wall,” I say, getting an idea.

I have to go to the wall and direct their angles because they can’t see the emblem through the heavy fog, but eventually we manage to get three out of the four lasers hitting their respective symbol.

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