Page 80 of The Song of Sunrise
“Excuse me, what?” Selene asks.
“Team Terraguard. You know, the TT stands for each of the—”
“Six layers of Hel, Akemi, this is too much, even for you,” Selene criticizes, but her lips are turned up.
“GO TT!” Gryphon yells.
Len slams his book down on the desk and starts walking our way.
“Shit, sorry, got excited,” Gryphon says.
A furry beige blur runs past us to Len. Miki starts meowing loudly and rolling on the floor at his master’s feet. Len stops to check on his beloved cat.
I swear I see a glint of mischief in Miki’s eyes. “Come on, follow me!”
We walk down to the lowest level of the library. Both Selene and Gryphon stay silent until I reach the tapestry and pull it aside.
“No fucking way.” Gryphon shoves Selene aside. “A secret passageway! Akemi, you are my favorite teammate.”
“Hey,” Selene says. “You told meIwas your favorite.”
“That was before the secret passageway.”
I guide them through the caves, taking them a different way to the large dome area where Atlys and I have been training. I avoid the pathway to the springs. Not because it feels like too special of a place to share. I just… want to keep a place separate from everyone else. Yes, that’s it. I want to have a place to recover from particularly tough days that’s private. Well, a place only one other person knows about.
Selene runs her hands along the glowing vines. “Incredible.”
“I wish Lacerta was here to see this,” Gryphon murmurs, his voice softer than usual. The way his words linger in the air make his longing for her apparent. Lacerta, one of the twins thatGryphon argues with every lunch and swears he doesn’t have a crush on.
“Your special someone?” I tease, and he pales. “Don’t worry, I won’t say anything to her.”
The ground rumbles beneath our feet, a deep tremor that seems to rise from the very bones of the mountain.
Without warning, Lord Cadex bursts through the stone wall like a battering ram, his massive frame shattering the rock with brute force. Shards scatter across the cavern floor as he emerges, broad shoulders heaving, black tunic clinging to his carved muscles. His white-blonde curls fall forward over his brow, stark against the nearly shaved sides of his head, his eyes scanning the room with battle-hardened intensity.
A heartbeat later, General Damaris slips through the stone with feline grace, as if the rock had simply bent to let them pass. They land light on their feet, lean and fluid, their long, flowing blonde hair catching the faint light like a silk banner. There’s an effortless elegance to them as they straighten and survey the space with cool precision. Danger wrapped in androgynous beauty.
Then the wall splits open one final time.
Lord Atlys strides forward, impossibly tall and imposing, as if the mountain itself had bowed to let him through. His pale white-blonde hair is swept back from his face, and his silver eyes flash beneath the glow of torchlight. Black tattoos coil over his bulging muscles, moving like shadows across his skin with each deliberate step.
“I win,” Lord Cadex says, sticking his meaty hand out to Damaris. “That’ll be one favor.”
“Earthwalking with the grace of a fire monkey under water is nothing to be proud of,” Damaris says.
Selene chuckles.
Both Cadex and Gryphon glare at her. Twins separated at birth, I swear it.
Damaris looks pleased.
Atlys steps forward. “Hello, champions. I assume you know why you are here?”
“The second task is going to be in teams?” Gryphon guesses.
“Correct, and while we do not know the specifics of the task, we are going to prepare you for a few different scenarios. We will plan to meet here each night this week.”
“Let’s start over here,” Damaris says, leading us to the center of the opening where three wooden ladders lean against a giant boulder. Another boulder sits at the other side of the cavern, both clearly too large to be a natural formation and likely hewn by Atlys himself.
