“Their armor is incredibly strong,” I whispered and then swallowed hard as the memories of Takumi surfaced. “My claws can’t tear through it. And they have some strange ability to suppress their scents.”
“That part has to be magic,” Rathik said. “I can’t see any scientific way for them to accomplish that.”
I shrugged. “I’m not much of a scientist. Frances might know, but that’s not my strong suit.”
“The door to this dungeon is solid metal, infused with iron, silver, and sea prism stones,” Ainsley whispered.
The door was basically impenetrable for a creature. The silver would burn Antoine and me, the sea prism stones would weaken Ainsley and Rathik, and the iron would burn any fae creatures.
This must have been where they kept students or teachers who got out of control.
“So, we just wait?” Ainsley asked.
The human guarding us approached. He had been making a slow circuit around the room and we rushed to speak while he was on the opposite side.
As he grew closer, we grew silent and still.
I tracked him with my eyes as well as I could in the dark.
He carried a weapon of some kind.
Was it a normal gun? Or did they have special bullets? How much did they know about us and our weaknesses?
There were too many unknowns!
Once he was on the other side of the room, Rathik moved closer to me, resting his chin on my shoulder to whisper in my ear. “We can’t attack them without knowing what type of weapons they have. The only way to find out is to get attacked, but how can we do that without dying?”
“That is a stupid plan,” I growled at him. “No one is getting attacked just so we can figure out what type of gun they have. We just need to bide our time and see what happens. If they try to take one of us, then we attack as one.”
“Fine,” Antoine said.
“Yeah,” Ainsley said. “I don’t want to get shot, but I won’t let anyone die because I was too cowardly to fight back.”
“Spread the word,” I whispered. “Let’s get all of the other students on the same page.”
“On it,” Ainsley and Antoine said at the same time.
I started to move, too, but Rathik stopped me. “Tsukiko, I don’t know what I did to upset you, but I’m sorry. I don’t want you to be mad at me. I know you’ve had a lot going on and your life isn’t easy in general.”
“I’m not mad at you,” I whispered immediately. “You didn’t do anything wrong. It’s just...we aren’t meant to be together. My fear of you won’t decrease, no matter what we try. We tried for weeks and nothing helped. I wish there was another way, but there isn’t. You and I just have to accept that we—”
Rathik interrupted me with a kiss that had my blood boiling with energy. He pulled back and whispered, “We will figure something out. I’m not giving up on us.”
“There is no us,” I said and sighed. “Why are you so stubborn? We’ve never even been on a date or anything. There are lots of other females out there who would love to date you. Give them a chance. You shouldn’t need to change for someone to be happy. Even if I did like you that much, which I have never said, there’s nothing for us to pursue.”
Before he could respond, I scurried away from him and towards the nearby other students to fill them in on the plan.
I liked Rathik a lot, more than I should, but I wasn’t going to let him know that. He deserved to be happy and trying to date me would not make him happy. It would just end with us both being miserable.
I would do whatever I could to keep him from being miserable.
Including making myself miserable.
Chapter 32
FRANCES
From what we could tell based on our group, they had split the students up by power type. Or something along those lines.
We still had no idea what their motive was or what they were doing to any of the other students.
I just knew that Loralie and Tsukiko were alive and that was really all that mattered at the moment.
Dante moved closer and closer to me as time passed and he held my hand fully now.
I wanted the stupid gag out of my mouth or the blindfold off, but I didn’t dare try to do either of those things. I couldn’t risk Dante getting injured protecting me for doing something so simple and stupid to piss off the humans.
The humans weren’t talking, which bothered me immensely.
What were they planning to do with us?
They were keeping us in small groups, which meant there were likely many humans here. That thought alone was incredibly unreassuring.
I wanted to speak to Dante, to say something, but the damn gag wouldn’t loosen.
“The next time the human moves across the room, I’ll take out your gag, okay?” Dante whispered in my ear. The heat from his hair grew stronger and I swallowed my fear down.
He wouldn’t hurt me.
I gave him a brief nod.
After a few minutes, he pulled the gag out of my mouth.
I rolled my jaw around and licked my dry lips. “Thank you,” I whispered.
He pressed his forehead to mine and I instinctively jerked away. He whispered, “I promise, my flames will not hurt you. Ever.”
“How do you know?” I asked.
“Because I control who it burns,” he whispered. “It is the very first thing that Phoenix children are taught.”
“I’m sorry I can’t be less scared. I try to be fearless, but I’m not like Loralie or Tsukiko. Fire is instinctively terrifying for me. No matter how much I try to get over it, I just can’t. When I feel the heat from the flames I want to run away as far as I can. I try so hard to be close to you, but—”
He rested his head atop mine and said, “It’s okay. The fact that you try at all is enough for me. I swear, by every dark god in existence, that my flames will never ever burn you.”
“I’ll try,” I whispered.
His lips pressed to my cheek. “That’s enough for me.”
Heat bloomed upon my cheeks, and I turned away from him.
What was I doing? I couldn’t be with him!
This was hopeless. This was insane.
I was insane.
He removed my blindfold and I smiled up at him.
“What are we going to do?” he asked softly.
“We’re going to wait for Loralie to contact us and tell us what the situation is. Then, we will figure out a plan,” I whispered back.
“No whispering!” one of the humans yelled.
Stupid humans. It was definitely time to take this world back. To cull the human race and let monsters take back over. Once and for all.
Chapter 33
LORALIE
The trees’ shadows moved closer to us, slowly, as the hours passed.
In just another two hours’ time, I could roll over and use the shadows to travel.
The potion was slowly wearing off, which made me excited.
Up until they started coming around, making the students drink more of the potion.
“I can’t drink it,” I whispered to Bogden. “If I do, I won’t be able to shadow travel.”