Page 76 of Midnight Reign
We all fall silent, straining our ears. And then I hear it - a faint rushing sound, getting louder by the second.
“Water,” Zaiah says, his eyes wide.
Before we can react, a wall of water comes rushing around the corner, filling the passageway completely.
“Hold your breath!” I yell just before the torrent hits us.
We’re swept off our feet, tumbling helplessly in the powerful current.
The water carries us through twists and turns, the passageway becoming more like a stone waterslide. Suddenly, we’re ejected into the open air.
We fall for a heart-stopping moment before plunging into a large underground lake. I surface, dripping wet and mad as a snake.
“Everyone accounted for?” Corvus calls out, his usually perfect hair plastered to his head.
We all respond, swimming towards the edge of the pool. As we pull ourselves out, I take in our new surroundings. We’re in a vast cavern, the ceiling so high it disappears into darkness. The pool we landed in seems to be fed by an underground river, the water glowing faintly with bioluminescent organisms.
“Well,” Ignatius says, wringing water out of his shirt, “that was refreshing.”
“Look,” Addy says, pointing across the cavern. “I think I see daylight.”
Sure enough, there’s a faint glimmer of natural light coming from a narrow fissure in the far wall.
“That has to be our way out,” I say, hope rising in my chest.
We make our way towards it, our sodden clothes leaving trails of water behind us. As we get closer, we can feel a breeze coming through the crack. It smells of fresh air and freedom.
A familiar shriek echoing through the cavern.
“They’ve found us,” Zaiah grits out.
“Go!” I shout.
We collapse on the grass outside, the sunlight almost painfully bright after so long underground. We’re on the outskirts of the MistHallow campus, the familiar buildings visible in the distance.
As we catch our breath, I look back at the tunnel we emerged from. It begins to close, sealing itself as if it had never existed.
“Fucking hell,” Ignatius says after a moment of stunned silence, “that was fun. Let’s never do it again.”
We all burst into laughter, the relief of escape overwhelming us. We’re alive, we’re together, and we made it out with the knowledge we sought.
“My book,” Addy cries suddenly, pulling it out of the back of her leggings.
“How did you manage to even keep hold of that?” I ask in disbelief.
“It’s soaked!”
“And mine,” Zaiah says, holding up his. “That has fucked us right up. I needed this for the runes.”
Groaning, I flop back to the grass, staring up at the trees. “This is fan-fucking-tastic. About sums up this shitshow of a day.”
“Fuck!” Addy roars. “Fucking fuck!”
32
ADELAIDE
I stareat the ruined books, angry and frustrated. “Shitshow doesn’t even cover this, Zeph. We are fucked up the arse with a goat horn!” All that effort, all those close calls, and now we’ve lost the vital information we need for the ritual. The ink has run, rendering most of the text illegible.
