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Now I was, though, I regretted it. Something dark and gelatinous crawled down my spine as I reached out with my power, trying to get a read on what we were facing. I felt Zeke and Noah pass over the threshold behind us, making Liam huff in frustration.
“Great, now we’re all in this.”
“Always were, little brother,” Zeke answered, clapping him on the back reassuringly.
I raised my hand, reluctant to move forward without seeing further ahead, and sent our light floating down the tunnel. Shadows crept close behind us as the light moved away, exposing a sharp bend up ahead that stopped its progress. Nothing seemed out of place or any different than every other dark passageway we had travelled through in this seemingly never-ending system, but every instinct I had was screaming danger at me, and I felt the others press in closer to me as their senses told them the same.
Then a shape moved in the blackness.
I gasped in horror as something darker than night slithered up to the edge of the light, giving us only a glimpse of it as it hovered in the shadows. My skin went cold as I felt its gaze rake over me, though there was no evidence of it having eyes at all in the utter darkness that surrounded it. As we stood, frozen and watching, a tendril of deeper blackness stretched upwards toward the orb of power, and in the next pounding beat of my heart the world turned black.
Even in my panic, it took me only seconds to summon my magic and create another orb of light, shoving it desperately out before us. It was brighter than the last, making me blink to adjust my vision, but as I refocused on the passage in front of us, terror flooded through me. The orb had skidded to a halt roughly ten feet ahead, staying close to the ground, and beyond its light the black shape paused. Much closer now, it had taken advantage of the moments of darkness and halved the distance between us, now silently squirming and writhing as the light held it back from us once again.
“What the fuck is that thing?” Liam asked in a low, horrified voice.
The scent of rotting death invaded my nostrils as I held up a palm and fed the light my power, making sure it couldn’t be extinguished again so easily.
“Oh gods,” I breathed, realisation hitting me like a bloody sledgehammer.
Noah turned towards me, wrapping a hand around my nape, the contact helping me to hold off the impending fright. I dragged in a shuddering breath, never taking my eyes from the darkness.
“It’s the thing from my dream. The creature that killed you all. It’s real.”
My voice broke on the last word, my power stuttering a little and making the light flicker. Gasping, I forced myself to refocus, knowing that the light was the only barrier between us and that thing. Malevolence dripped from the creature as it pressed against my power, unbidden flashes of my dream vision invading my mind and only worsening my fear.
I felt a large body press close behind me, warm hands wrapping around my waist and steadying me as his voice sounded low in my ear.
“Breathe, baby girl,” Zeke crooned. “Can you make more orbs? Brighten this place up and force the fucker away.”
A breathy laugh escaped me as I realised how obvious his suggestion was, inwardly cursing myself for losing my head in my panic. Nodding, I released my hold on my main orb and quickly conjured two more, one in each hand, and threw them high in the air. Two more followed as the creature managed to extinguish the first orb, but as I threw the new lights forward, a slick hiss sounded as it began to back away.
Hope blossoming, I peppered the air with small orbs, brightening the passage until the creature was forced back around the corner. Marching forward, I pressed my advantage, not hearing the calls of warning from my mates in my desperation to defeat the inky monster that I knew would haunt my nightmares.
My eyes searched the darkness ahead of me as I rounded the bend, forcing my lights up and out as my pulse thumped frantically.
“Stay behind me,” I ordered as I felt the guys approach. “Don’t block the light.”
After a few long seconds of searching, I felt my brow crease into a frown. “C… Can you see it?”
“Not anymore,” Liam responded to my stammered question. “The scent has faded too.”
Noah’s fingers brushed over my back, but I refused to look away from the shadows or lower my hands.
“Is it over?”
I shook my head slowly. “No, no way was it that easy.”
“Agreed,” Liam replied, stepping up to my other side.
I scowled at him, finally shifting my gaze away from the tunnel ahead. “Get back, I don’t want you in the way of my magic.”
“Not going to happen, Cordelia,” he replied, meeting my gaze in steady challenge. “I’m not leaving you open to attack.”
I huffed and stepped forwards. “You can be right behind me, but if you block the light then you’re the one open to attack.”
He growled at me, reaching out to grab my elbow as he moved closer to tug me back. Opening my mouth to snap at him, my words became a gasp as the ground beneath our feet shuddered.
In my periphery I saw Noah and Zeke stumble back as the passage began to shake, sending a tremble through my feet and into my bones as Liam tried to steady me. A loud rumble sounded in the next moment, followed by a chorus of deafening cracks, and his fingers were ripped from my arm as the path beneath us suddenly fell away.
