Page 39 of Fated In Forever
Or part of the ritual that Brendan was even now rehearsing, his lips moving silently, eyes reflecting the red light glowing off the walls. We filled the hallway with our nervous silence, waiting for him to give the order to proceed.
For the moment this bond would be severed between Malachi and me.
The bond I was just now realizing existed.
Beneath my hand, the stones shifted, as if the mountain was coming alive, and that clock began to tick faster, Brendan’s lips moving, moving, as he recited his spell, dark eyes now closed against the red, pulsing light, bathing the corridor in a sickly glow. My throat closed up, bile turning my mouth sour.
Stop, Vicious, you’ll make yourself sick.
You don’t get to tell me what to do.I snapped into his mind.You lost that right when you decided to keep things from me.
I was furious at the world. At this hideous place. At Ravok and magic and fate. At everything that had conspired to bring us here and rip us apart, as if we did not matter. We werenotjust cogs in a bigger machine.
We were people.
With hopes and feelings and fragile souls that could only take so much. And I…I’d already taken so much, I wasn’t sure I could handle another loss like this. As a matter of fact, I knew I couldn’t.
I wasdonelosing things in my life I cared about.
Finished.
Finally, Brendan’s eyes snapped open. “I’m ready.” Hisgaze dipped to me and filled with pity. “This won’t take long, only a few moments.”
“Space is tight,” Finn and the others stepped back, giving us space to pass. “You and Malachi go in first.”
I nodded and looked to Malachi, a monstrous silhouette at the edge of the torchlight, his eyes like burning coals in the dark. He moved first and I followed.
We passed under the archway and stepped into the heart of the mountain, the others filed in behind us, crowding carefully into the room, not touching anything, as Blake had instructed.
The round room was untouched by the explosion, those runes carved into the rock with ancient precision glowing, pulsing like veins of living fire. The smooth, silvery surface was perfectly still, like a mirror, undisturbed by a single ripple.
But hanging above that reflective surface?—
The portal.
Or what remained of it.
The doorway was dormant, but not dead. The shadows surrounding the still opening were unmoving, no trace of the red lightning, only that incessant, roar. Yet…that was where that feeling came from, like a million eyes were watching.
Surrounding us—chokingus—was the corrupted energy of the leaking ley line. Magic poured out in glittering waves, pressing into our chests, filling my aching lungs with so much magic, my head swam from lack of oxygen. I staggered against Malachi, gagging on the poisoned air.
Finn swore behind us. “The ley line is too unstable. Get her out of there, before she?—”
Malachi raised one clawed hand and swept it through the air.
The choking magic vanished like mist before wind. Glamour rolled through the room, thick and cold, sheathing the ancient stone walls in layers of quiet, veiled strength. The runes dimmed, then winked out. The weight on my chest lifted.
I looked up at him, heart pounding. “How did you?—?”
At my feet, the pool rippled, as if something was moving beneath the surface.
Somethingbig.
But then the portal groaned with a metallic grind, like an engine firing up after being idle for too long, those dark shadows swirling to life. A full body shiver shook me as the portal began to spin, setting my teeth on edge.
“Is this part of your ritual, Brendan? Because if it’s not, we all need to materialize out of here. Right the fuck now.” Rohr sounded so calm, his voice so even, for a moment my fear eased, then returned tenfold when the portal fully roared its wrath, spinning faster and faster, the wind strong enough to tug my braid free. The runes glowed bright as stars and beneath the smooth plane of the pool, something moved again.
Nikolai, who had been observer thus far, not an active participant, finally spoke. “I agree with the king. This is not right. Either perform the ritual, Brendan, or we leave and try something else.”
