Phoenix Academy - Lucy Auburn Page 0,19

the rune expands and dissolves. A blast of magic follows in its wake. I feel it in my chest, expanding my power all at once. Blue flames pour out of me, and a bright blue path unravels in front of us, carving a hole through the hedges, rose bushes, and wrought iron gate.

"Run," I tell the guys, pushing my feet into the grass. "As fast as we can."

We do. I feel them behind me, pushing and jostling. The blue path is glowing power at my feet. But with every lunging step, every time my feet meet the ground, it dissipates a little. There's only so much power left in me—it'll drain soon enough.

"Faster!"

"We're trying!"

"Let's shift."

The twins shift into their panther forms between one step and the next. On four paws they're capable of far more speed than David and I. Racing ahead of us, their sleek black bodies undulate, shoulders bunching and tensing.

David doesn't shift, but he does catch up with me, his feet running alongside mine. Blue flames lick at his side, but he doesn't flinch away from them—my phoenix fire won't hurt him just like it can't hurt me. Together we pump our arms and force our legs to take us as fast as possible through the endless darkness of Hell, towards an unknown destination.

I can feel the flames on either side of us grow shorter and colder.

Can hear the distant roars of evilness itself catching our scent like the predators they are.

Demons, demons, everywhere.

"We won't make it," David says, sounding panicked. "Ari—keep going. I'll stay back and protect you."

"No."

Reaching out, I grab his hand with a confidence I don't feel. The last of my magic is within me, a tiny little spark. Barely enough to light a flame.

I let it pour from my palm and spark David's flame.

His eyes glow an unnatural burning blue as the feral magic wakens his inner beast. Snarling, his muscles rippling, he picks up the pace and races ahead of me on the path—his hand on mine dragging me behind him.

In the distance, I see our final destination.

It's the lake from before, or maybe a different one, glowing bright blue and still. A copse of trees shelters it from the darkness of Hell that surrounds us. Seeing it makes my heart soar—even as I wonder what kind of escape it could possibly offer. A lake looks nothing like a door.

A sudden cold washes over me as the blue flames on either side of us extinguish themselves.

Beneath us, the last few hundred feet stretch out towards the shore of the lake. I feel my heart catch in my throat. A demonic tentacle reaches out towards Reggie, and he slashes through it with his claws. Behind David and I, something rattles.

He pulls me ahead of him.

Two hundred feet.

One hundred feet.

Almost there.

I scream as something grabs onto my ankle and rips me out of David's grip. Falling to the ground, I twist around to face my attacker: a thing nearly twenty feet tall, with undulating skin, triple-jointed arms, and a circular mouth full of teeth.

Its head stretches down towards me, fangs gnashing as I try to escape its grip. Panic claws at me. I throw my hands out, and no fire leaps from my fingertips, because I've spent it all.

Beside me, there's a roar. A great grey wolf leaps onto the thing's arm and tears through it with a single rip of its jaws. David shakes the demonic hand from his mouth, then runs to me, blood and ichor on his face.

I don't need any prodding. Leaping to my feet, I ignore the new pain in my ankle and run the last stretch of ground towards the lake, Reggie and Xavier falling in around me, each of us coated in blood and goo of some sort.

As my feet touch the ground near the lake, thin blue-green stalks of grass wave around the edges of my shoes. A kind of peace hangs in the air, which is heavy and smells like jasmine. I can still hear the demons, but only distantly.

Turning to face the darkness, I watch as the thing that tried to grab me throws its fists forward only to be stopped by an invisible wall. Its magic rises up at the edge of the grass, circling the entire copse of trees, the lake, even the trailing ivy that grows up towards the treetops. It protects and envelops us.

I take a few more steps further into the peaceful grove. Stalks of grass wave and bend