doesn’t use it because she fears it,” Mossy tells me from his spot on the couch.
“And mine is out of control most of the time. We are an interesting bunch, huh?” I reply.
“I heard the angel fucker talking with the prince. This is the last test for a few months,” he tells me, and I try not to smile at his nickname. “You can finally learn to control half of your powers.”
“And continually hide the other half of me,” I reply. “Story of my life. Be good, Mossy.”
“Always,” he replies, but I don’t believe him for a second. That monkey is nothing but a troublemaker, and I love him. I press the lift button, and the lift slides down, the doors opening up. I go inside, and there is a new glowing black button on the wall above the normal floors. I press it and place my hand on the handle of my whip that is clipped to my hip, watching as the doors shut. The lift starts going up slowly, then it rapidly speeds up until I’m left groping the sides of the walls for anything to grab. The lift goes so fast, and I try not to scream as I cling to the wall, dizziness and nausea filling my throat. Suddenly the lift comes to a halt, slamming my body up off the floor and back down in one smooth movement.
“Ouch,” I mutter, climbing to my feet and watching as the doors swing open and make that stupid bing noise. Outside the doors is a forest full of thick trees and a dusty old pathway covered in roots and leaves in the middle. Magic is thick in the air as I step out of the lift. I turn around, but the lift is gone, leaving nothing but forest for as far as I can see, which isn’t too far in the dark. Birds tweet and make the leaves scuffle as they move around, and my eyes strain to see what might be hidden in the trees as I walk down the path, presuming I have to follow it.
Oddly, I don’t think I’m far from the city of the reapers or even that we have left the city at all, I think this is a shadow illusion. I’ve heard that the reapers torture their own, the ones who dare try to escape or kill. This place is made up of a serious amount of magic, usually by at least fifty reapers combined, and I have no clue how to get out of it without giving up all my secrets. That’s what this world is meant for. It’s a way of finding out who you are when everything is wrong and if you will fight when the world has gone to shit.
I run my fingers across the trees as I pass them, keeping myself as alert for danger as I can, but there really isn’t anything but a nice forest at the moment. The pathway gets narrower with every few steps until I get to an archway of vines with no end in sight. I peer down into it, feeling the magic is stronger down here than behind me.
“I hate magic sometimes,” I mutter as I lower myself to my knees and start crawling through the vines archway. The vines catch and snag in my hair as I crawl, teasing me to stop. The vines turn and change into sharp thorns as I crawl further. The thorns cut into my arms and hips, and I bite through the pain as I see a light at the end. One thorn slowly cuts across my neck as I get to the end and pull myself out into a clearing. Right in the middle of the clearing are seven mirrors in a line. The mirrors are framed with black metal, and each one has a different animal above it. Everything from a hawk to a wolf and even a dragon. Before I can get close to them, a low growling noise makes all the hairs on my neck stick up. I flick the whip out of the clip, letting the leather slap onto the ground as I turn around. In the thick bushes and trees are at least seven pairs of glowing gold eyes. Very slowly one of them steps out of the bushes, and I get a good look at the horrific creature.
It looks like a polar bear in some ways, but some of its fur is black, and big chunks are