Page 30 of The First Trial
They shared a glance with one another and then with the other members of their group. Words were exchanged in a lyrical language I couldn’t understand until they came to some sort of consensus, then Evander stalked toward me with a frown darkening his eyes. My heart sank, the coming rejection stinging more than I would ever admit. I thought we’d had a bonding moment back before we found ourselves down here, but apparently that meant nothing in the face of hardship.
Well, at least it was better to find out now that he wasn’t worth shit. Time to move on.
He raised a hand and patted the top of my head, the condescending action shooting fire through my veins. Howdarehe?
I swatted him away, giving him a little taste of that fire and sent sparks dancing along his skin. Except… nothing happened. I tried again, latching onto his hand as he was pulling away, butthe result was the same. My magic swelled beneath the surface, but something was blocking it.
What. The. Fuck?
He jumped away, wiping his hand on the leather coating his legs like he would catch some sort of contagion from my skin, then met my scowl with one of his own. I huffed, hiding the fear shooting icicles through my veins, and spun on my heels. My unbound hair whipped behind me with the momentum, and I hoped it smacked him in the face. I could just find someone else whowouldappreciate me and what I could bring to the table before completely dismissing me like I was an incapable child. Little did they know I was anything but, and I hoped it bit them in the ass.
So what if my magic was glitching? It was just nerves.
Right?
The Fae tittered behind me, clearly making fun of me, or maybe him, but I ignored them. It was when I heard the booming laughter nearby that I turned to look. A heavily muscled man stood close by with skin so dark he practically blended into the shadows. The only reason I was able to see him was that his yellow, serpentine eyes glowed like a beacon in the darkness. The hissing sound he made with his laughter itched at something in the back of my mind, and I wondered if this man was a reptilian Shifter of some kind.
But I wasn’t able to dwell much on my awe of his species even existing, let alone in the same space as me, breathing the same air, because he was making crude gestures at me that very clearly poked fun at my size. I was short, I could admit that, barely scraping past five feet tall, but it had never hindered me before, and it certainly wouldn’t now. I turned a thunderous look on him, which only made him laugh harder.
He really thought my height was that pathetic, huh? Well, I’d show him. I’d damn well show them all. All he could do wasturn into an animal, and perhaps he even could tap into those animalistic traits in his humanoid form, but I still held more power in my pinkie finger than he did in the entirety of his tiny brain. I wondered if it rattled around in his skull, knocked about by the shaking his laughter caused. I could see the brain damage happening right before my eyes.
Jerk.
I scanned the room for the umpteenth time, searching for any Witches or Warlocks I could team up with, but I couldn’t seem to find any. Oh well, I would just have to go it alone and hope for the best.
I sent up a quick prayer to Hecate, asking for her assistance getting out of this maze of rock alive. A warm sensation filled me, prickling at my skin to let me know that she had heard me and was on my side. I quietly thanked her, then again when I felt her urge me toward one of the offshoot tunnels I’d catalogued nearby.
I hid behind a stalagmite large enough to cover me as I climbed inside, ignoring the derogatory chuckles and undoubtedly snide remarks from those I was leaving in my dust. They hadn’t gotten far enough to even find one of the offshoots yet, so they could kiss my ass.
I was suddenly very glad for all the times I’d scaled the dorm buildings over the years, the practice coming in useful now as the tunnel’s entrance was quite a significant height from the ground. I knew that as soon as I entered, however, there was an almost vertical decline that, worst-case scenario, I could use my Earth magic to create some steps to make it easier to walk down. If my magic wasn’t still on the fritz. I could even remove those steps to make it harder for anyone who tried to follow me, but I dismissed the idea as soon as I had it. I wasn’t a cruel person, and I didn’t want to condemn those people to death, bully or not.
Just as I was about to reach the top, a gust of wind suddenly swept over me and pushed my hair into my face, further mussing the already tangled strands even further. I huffed in annoyance, but it got stuck in my throat when I tilted my head up to see where the sudden airflow had come from, and my eyes connected with a vivid green. They were glowing so brightly that they looked like tinted headlights in the darkness of the cave.
The eyes belonged to a man almost as stacked as the Shifters, with his muscles on full display thanks to his bare chest. But it wasn’t the mouthwatering abs and pectorals that drew my attention, nor was it the simple piece of fabric he wore like a loincloth that didn’t do much to cover the thick outline of a long, girthy cock, sizable even when soft, that strained against the flimsy material. I took all of it in within the blink of an eye before I focused on what really grabbed my attention. The source of the wind was the giant, white-feathered wings protruding from his back that beat with an immense amount of strength to keep him aloft, and my breath stalled in my lungs at the stunning sight.
He was a gods-damnedAngel.
His eyes shifted from mine to the gap in the wall just above my head, and understanding dawned in those bright green depths. He whistled once, and a flurry of feathers sounded as an entire host of Angels flew up to meet him. He said something in a deep, baritone voice that normally would have sent delicious shivers down my spine if it weren't for the underlying arrogance coating his indecipherable words, but the other Angels didn’t seem to notice. They listened raptly and then followed him obediently as he charged into the tunnel, the sounds of their beating wings echoing loudly back into the cavern.
Well, shit. If that was the tunnel that led to the predator, they’d just thrown my stealth plan right out the fucking window. Hecate seemed to agree, because the guiding warmth she hadsent me disappeared with the feathery bastards, and I was suddenly very cold.
Grumbling under my breath, I began the journey back down. I would need to find a different way out now that my gut was screaming at me that they’d just drawn the predator right to us.
I jumped the last foot or so, landing in a slight crouch to find myself surrounded by the snickering Fae and Shifters. I pulled up short when I noted another race thrown in the mix, one with varying shapes and sizes of horns protruding from their heads. A few even had bat-like wings rustling behind them, and all in a wide range of colours.
Daemons.
Well, that rounded out the list of so-called mythological beings. Now, we just needed a unicorn and a dragon to put the cherry on top.
I noted with no small amount of relief that the Daemons weren’t making fun of me. They eyed me up, their gazes bouncing between me and the offshoot tunnel I’d just abandoned with a curious glint in their eyes that seemed to generally contrast with the colour of their skin, which were varying shades of the rainbow, and beautiful in their own right. My gaze landed on an especially stunning, scarlet-coloured woman with small black horns and curves in all the right places. Her pouty crimson lips pulled back in a sultry smile when she caught me looking, and I wondered if she was some sort of sex Daemon.
It didn’t really work on me, though, since I wasn’t sexually attracted to women. She caught on quickly, her smile losing its sexual lure, though it was impossible to lose its sensuality as well – it was very clearly just a part of her – and she beckoned me over with a friendly wave.
Excited to have finally found a potential ally, although still a little concerned that I had yet to see any other Humans in thecavernous chamber, I pushed through the still snickering crowd and practically bounced over to her, extending my hand to greet her with my grin firmly back in place.
‘Hi! I’m Juniper.’
She tilted her head to the side as she listened to the words coming out of my mouth, which would have been utterly unfamiliar to her, and I facepalmed at making the same mistake twice. It was easily fixable, though, and I patted my chest. ‘Juniper.’
