“A bird of some sorts attacked me, and I got lost. Then there was an eel,” I tell her. “Never mind, Ryker is here, and he will lead us out. We got this.”
“Are you okay?” she asks.
“When we get out of here, yes,” I reply, wanting to leave this realm right now. Ryker whines and claws at the ice, and when I look his way, he nods towards the path ahead. “Walk right ahead, Pops.”
I see her following under my feet as we head off the castle and through two more passageways and across a diamond-shaped ice block. I think Ryker is keeping us clear of enemies, which I’m thankful for. I hear Sebastian before I see him in a chamber under the ice.
“Ryker, get your hairy ass back here!” Seb shouts.
“He had a detour!” I reply, seeing Poppy getting to the room Sebastian is in, a room full of bars.
“Thank fuck you’re here,” Seb replies. “The next part doesn’t look easy.”
“What next part—” I cut off when I walk to the edge of the block and the fog fades away, revealing a smaller part of the maze. This one isn’t icy at all; it’s full of thick spaces and dead ends of bushy green maze and magic shields blocking our two layers. Right in the middle is a big glowing purple portal, the magic crackling all around it.
“Ready?” I ask them all.
“Yes,” Sebastian and Poppy reply, and I take a deep breath. We all step out together onto the maze, and then it suddenly lights on fire behind us, and a massive flaming ball drops out of the sky into the space behind Poppy and Seb. They both stumble back, and the ball starts to roll right towards them, the thing big enough to not only set them on fire but squash them like bugs.
“Run!” I scream, heading down the path to see the next part. “Ryker, go ahead, find the next part!”
He growls and runs faster than me as I get to the first fork in the path, seeing the left way is a dead end. “Go right!”
They both turn right, and the ball bounces once before spinning and following right after them. That’s some fucked up magic right there. Ryker howls to the right for the next part, and I go faster, finding the next part they need to go straight ahead. This goes on for a while, tiring us all out, but I look up to see we are getting closer to the portal in the middle.
“Go right!” I shout to them at the last turning, relief filling me. We are going to make it. All of us. Seconds before Poppy and Seb are meant to turn right, Poppy goes left, and I scream, “NO!”
Poppy runs and runs, and I turn, chasing after her over the burnt ledge. “Dae, get back!” I ignore Seb’s shout and run to where Poppy is cornered in, the ball of flames coming right towards her from the end of the path.
With everything I have, I slam my hands down on the magical shield again and again, begging anyone or anything to help me.
“Please! No!”
Poppy looks up at me and shakes her head, her eyes seeming almost at peace with everything.
“I love you, my adopted sister. You will make a good queen if you only saw yourself how everyone else does.”
“Don’t you fucking dare say goodbye to me!” I scream at her, slamming my hands on the shelf again and again, feeling the maze bushes under my knees burning through my leggings and skin. “You should be on the throne, not me! You cannot die!”
She smiles and shakes her head, but I see the pure fear in her eyes. “Get Laelia back, and tell my parents I love them.”
“Fuck no!” I scream, and then a voice I haven’t heard in a while fills my ears, and the world seems to go slow. The ball of fire barely moves, and Poppy is frozen still as blue light fills the space around me.
“I admire true sisterhood, a friendship born in sacrifice and love. I admire love over everything else, as it is my true calling. I am your goddess, and I watch over you, dear Daesyn,” the female voice whispers so softly.
“You told me the meanings of the strange words Finn said,” I whisper back. “Who are you?”
“Many call me Aphrodite, and you have my blessing. This, however, is a gift in the name of love,” she breathes out as I come to terms with the fact I’ve been speaking to a goddess and I have her blessing. “I will be back, Daesyn Heartlocke. Very soon, in fact...”
The shield instantly disappears, and I reach down, grabbing Poppy’s shoulders and pulling her out just as the fireball slams into the space where she was. The shield snaps back into place, and we both run off the fire, straight to Ryker and Seb, who look shocked. Without pausing, we all jump into the portal, wanting to get the hell out of this place, and reappear in my room, crashing onto the floor.
I lift my head, my body aching from head to toe, my shoulder killing me, to see Poppy staring at me. To see Ryker’s wolf and Sebastian staring too. “You glowed pink, and then you pulled me out like the gods’ magic shield was nothing, in a world with no magic. How did you do that?”
“I’ve never seen anything like it,” Sebastian breathes out. “I felt like I couldn’t stop looking at you.”
Then I realise. The goddess was in my body, possessing me, and she could do that because I can’t die. The cursed rune protected me from even a goddess as powerful as she is.
“Let’s just say the gods helped,” I reply, feeling more of my blood trickling down my arm. “But I could use a healer.”
“I owe you my life once again,” Poppy says, helping me stand up. She brushes her wet hair from her eyes. “I meant what I said. There is only one winner of this test.”
“So did I,” I reply, arching an eyebrow. “I knew from the second I saw you, there was something special, and I think this was what you were born for. You were named after a queen.”
“What are you two talking about?” Sebastian asks me, rubbing the back of his neck. “Actually, never mind. I’m going to find that Seelie fae Toth and get him to heal you.”
Ryker rubs his head against my hip, and I rest against the counter just as Finn appears in the room.
He nods once at each of us before locking eyes with me. “The final ten have come through the portal. Congratulations.”
The academy is getting much smaller, and I suspect deadlier. Fingers crossed one of us wins this test. Anyone that isn’t me.
Chapter 14
“The room smells of dog,” Mossy states as I walk back into the bedroom after my shower, which does not smell of dog one tiny bit, but this is Mossy’s way of saying he doesn’t like Ryker staying overnight in his hellhound form. Ryker didn’t transform back, which was odd for him, but I was thankful for the company nonetheless and the fact no Seelie king was in my peaceful dreams. I rub my sore shoulder, noting that it feels even better than it did a few hours ago.
“It usually smells of monkey and peanut butter. I’m not sure which is worse,” I reply, tugging on my leather jacket. Picking up my coffee, I drink the rest of it. Mossy jumps on my other shoulder, hooking his tail around the back of my neck. “My coffee is always getting out smelled by you.”
Mossy sticks his tongue out at me, and I chuckle as I walk out to find an overlord demon waiting in the middle of the room, a big blue portal glowing behind him.
“Didn’t know you could make blue portals,” I say by way of greeting. “Pretty cool though.”