us from its bowels.” He shivers, glancing around him.
“Well, I’m not going to wait for it to kill me,” I announce. “Let’s find a fucking way out of here, or I’ll really become a Ghost.”
Auston peaks over the cliff and quickly pulls himself back. “I don’t like the look of that cliff. One wrong move, and you’re lava food.”
“Then we have to find another way,” I say, heading towards the wall of fires. “I wonder if I can still go through stuff even though I can’t become invisible?”
“Don’t be a hero,” Hadley calls, storming over to me. “I can’t lose you.”
Smiling at her, I kiss her cheek and hold her hands loosely. “And risk never kissing you again? Never!”
She grins back at me and takes a step back. Taking a deep breath, I head towards the fires, feeling their heat on my skin. I reach inside myself and find the magic that allows me to pass through walls, and call upon it. I feel the telltale tingling of my skin, ensuring it’s still there, and rush through the flames. The fires heat my skin but don’t cause damage as I open my eyes on the other side.
My shoe slips off the edge of the rock, and I shout, twisting my body in the air as I begin to plummet. Luckily for me, my fingers manage to grasp onto the ledge. Chest heaving, I haul myself back up and rest my back against the ground, catching my breath.
“Karston?” Hadley calls. “You okay over there?”
“Yes,” I shout back. “Just give me a minute.”
Gazing above me, reality begins to hit me hard—this is going to be damn near impossible. We’ve not even been here a day yet, and already, it seems like the entire world is against us. Not that I thought retrieving Hadley’s essence would be easy, but I thought between my brothers and me, we’d figure it out like we always have.
Endless darkness seems to creep lower the longer I stare, and unease settles in my belly. Something is coming; we need to move now.
Heaving myself to my feet, I brush the dust from my shirt and pants and prepare to enter the fires again. Ignoring the icky feeling of pushing through them while still corporeal, I hurry to the other side.
“What’s over there?” Auston asks, storming towards me.
“Nothing,” I admit with a shrug. “The only way out of here is to fly up the mountain or scale our way down.”
Auston crosses his arms over his chest. “I’m not scaling fucking anything.”
“But Brax is the only one with wings,” Preston adds. “He can’t possibly fly us all.”
“I have wings too now, you know,” Hadley interjects, a bit annoyed. “I could fly you.”
Auston raises his eyebrows at her. “No offense, baby girl, but you never really mastered flight during any of our training sessions.”
Preston laughs. “Yeah. You’re almost as clumsy in the air as I am on the ground.”
“Am not!” she shouts with a laugh of her own, throwing the nearest pebble at Preston.
“I’m willing to try,” Brax says with a flap of his wings. “Who wants to take a ride first?”
I raise my hand, stepping forward. “I’ll go.”
Brax inclines his head at me and opens his arms. I walk into his embrace, wrapping my hands around his neck while he secures his around my torso. His wings begin to beat, working extra hard to lift my weight as well as his. With a grunt we finally lift off and rise slowly into the air.
“I don’t like this,” Brax whispers against the strain. “Look up.”
Lifting my head, I see what he means. The endless darkness seems to be closing in on us, as if it’s moving down as we’re moving up.
“Brax,” I warn as dozens of red, glowing eyes appear in the shadows. “Brax! Get down! Now!”
But it’s too late.
Hundreds of red creatures descend from above, about half our size but fast like a hummingbird. They swarm us, mouths filled with sharp teeth, claws for fingers, and attack.
Dozens of them descend on each of us, each little mouth tearing at our skin, their claws shredding anything they touch.
Brax cries out as at least ten of them latch onto his wings and shred them into bits. Blood mists the air as we begin to fall, the creatures relentless. Several claw and bite at my back as I call on my dagger and attempt to fight them off, but Brax’s grip on me only tightens as we fall.
We land with a thud amongst the