Chapter 31

A/N

I'm sorry this chapter is so long guys. I didn't want to break it up and lose the flow of the suspense. Please let me know if you really hate it being so long, and I'll try to figure out a way to break it up. *hugs*

A  neoclassical building in all it's glory loomed before him. It's stark white stone exterior reflected the moonlight and cast a soft glow over the English countryside. Kyle learned about the style in Magical history, apparently it was a favorite of the magical world. He could see why. The library cut an impressive form in the midnight sky.

The massive stone columns and arches of the entrance where not only there to astound the beholder, but also to intimidate the onlooker. To look on the grandiose architecture of this building would surely make the most confident person feel insignificant and small. He certainly felt it.

The gang stood clustered at the bottom of the three massive stone steps that would grant them access to the intimidating building and took it all in.

He was sure that the thought that once they entered the building, they might not ever get back out, was giving them pause, but what choice did they have? That unfortunately was a reoccurring theme of their young adult lives. Their world was seriously lacking in choices.

Zach walked a few paces forward and turned to look them all in the eyes and said, "Last chance to back out. No judgments here, okay? You don't have to go in; you can wait for us at Stonehenge." He paused to give anyone who wasn't up to the whole dying thing the opportunity to back down.

It was one thing to say yeah sure I'm in when you weren't faced with magic of this magnitude, but now that he could see it and feel it; even he was reluctant, and he had the most to lose by not going through with it.

Kyle gulped once and hefted the duffle's handle in his hand to get a firmer grip before he stepped forward wordlessly to join Zach and when he turned around to face the rest of the crew, he found that they had all done the same.

A tear pricked his eye at the knowledge that he and Trav couldn't ask for better friends.

The padding of their sensible shoes on the stone steps echoed in the still of the night as they ascended to the front door. Gigantic French doors awaited them at the top. And it was hard to determine if there were officially two doors or one gigantic one; but whatever way you chose to look at it, it still left them with the mystery of which 'one' was theirs?

Above the doors etched into the stone was a motto or phrase in what he guessed was Latin. He couldn't say. The language was the specific domain of alchemists and castors, and he was neither. Lauren reached her hand out wordlessly to him for the duffle he carried and he placed it at her feet.

Before they'd left Stonehenge Lauren had cast the telepathy spell which was turning out to be a very useful tool for them. Plus she reminded everyone to make sure they had their spelled pens just in case they were separated. Zach also suggested that they refrain from talking because libraries are notoriously quiet places and being silent might make escaping detection slightly more plausible, and of course everyone was on-board for that.

So when she unzipped the bag she did it slowly, and when she rummaged around inside she did it as quietly as she could. Finally, after what seemed like an interminable time she pulled out an old wooden looking glass and softly whispering a few words to it, she held it up to the etchings. From his vantage point he watched as the words she directed her magical tool at were automatically translated into English.

Lauren spoke to them all in their heads:

Clio thought that Da Vinci's looking glass would be a welcome tool on our expedition.

Kyle smirked and thought:

Cool a magic item that helps translate and read any language in a timeless library oh yeah that rocks!

Over one door it read:

grata sint et receperint

Which translated to: welcome who are welcome

Above the other door read:

et exquistores intellegentiae possunt esse periculosa

Which translated to: Seeking knowledge can be perilous

Let me guess which door is ours, Quinn snorted with derision in their heads.

Should we try the other one, who knows we might get lucky? Brenna asked.

That'll be a first Kelly thought sarcastically.

Besides that one might be alarmed and if we try it, it might give us away. Zach suggested.

Lauren turned the knob of the perilous door and eased it open with a sigh and thought after you fellow unwelcomed guests as she splayed her arm to the side.

The door swung in a wide arc on its frame as the guys peered in cautiously not knowing what to expect.

What they saw surprised even them. On the other side of the door on opposite side of the door frame sat two tall stacks of books that created a long corridor or passageway. Lauren took the first tentative step in to the building and turned with a smile Zach was next and everyone else piled in after.

Before anyone could stop him CJ had gone over to one of the long book shelves and pulled a leather bound volume from the stack. Everyone cringed as he held it up and let it flop open flippantly. Kyle couldn't see what he saw, but he could tell by the look on his face it was perplexing, but when he held it up for all to see they couldn't believe their eyes. The pages were blank. There wasn't even a title on the spine.

Was that it? Could it be as simple as that? If you weren't welcome then you couldn't read the books.

Just as he was pondering the possibilities Marley spoke in his head: Guys look at the end of the passage it stops up ahead and goes off in two directions. Wait let me check.

Just then she bunched the muscles in her thighs and leaped to the ceiling and back down again without ever making a sound.

As Kyle thought WOW I wish I could do that.

Marley ignored his statement and said excitedly in their heads: I knew it. It's a labyrinth. The stacks go on for what seems like forever.

That kind of makes sense. I don't know what I was expecting, but it's a library folks what better place to have a maze filled with thought puzzles. Ray suggested.

Piece of cake Xander thought from what I know about mazes you just need to always stick to a wall as long as it's doesn't have an inner court opening your golden. Does it?

From what I saw there are four entryways that lead to an inner square. Is that what you mean?

Damn it. That's what I mean. Xander furrowed his brow in frustration.

When Lauren started chuckling in their heads they all turned to her with a 'are you crazy look' on their faces, but she just snorted and threw her hand over her mouth to hide the sound.

She pulled something from her pocked and held it up to her eye. It was the eye of Horus and thought.

We already have a map of the maze right here. The eye will lead us straight to Isis' Ankh.

When she started walking confidently down the passageway everyone fell into step behind her, and when it lead to a two way intersection of corridors she immediately veered left, but Zach threw his arm out in front of her, and accidentally getting a little boob action, blushed furiously, before calling WAIT urgently in their heads.

Everyone stopped as the shelf behind them swung in an arc shutting off the way they came. There was no going back now, and that was when things started to feel weird. Kyle could sense the menacing magic all around him. Apparently they'd reached the point of no return.

AS a hourglass wavered into existence above their heads and unceremoniously flipped over above them to just hover there as the grains of sand cascaded down the sides, he thought GREAT I fucking hate time trials.

He was crap at them in games. How was he going to deal with them when his life was on the line? When he heard the collective groan from his friends, he realized he wasn't alone in the sentiment.

Oooohhhh . . . MAN! CJ exclaimed in his head.

Come on guys we better get moving Zach urged.

But when he stepped forward Marley threw her hand out beside his head in the blink of an eye actually faster than any eye could see and caught a spinning metal disk with her hand just before it decapitated him.

With eyes as big as saucer he turned to gesture to the group to stay back.

Ya think? Connor quipped, which earned him a hard look from their impromptu leader.

The floor was a checked black and white pattern like a table cloth and Kyle couldn't help but wonder if the traps were triggered by a person's weight on certain tiles.

To test his theory he grabbed a book off the shelf and threw in flat onto one of the tiles it landed with a thud and sure enough it triggered one of the deadly disks to fly out and soar across the alleyway to the other side where it embedded itself into a book on the other side.

With her hand on her chest Meg smacked him hard in the arm and thought: warn a girl next time before you nearly give her a heart attack.

But everyone got the picture pretty fast without explanation and started un-shelving books to trigger the remaining traps. But not all the books were falling on all the tiles no matter how hard the gang tried.

Finally Kelly growled in their heads: let me and she picked up a stack of books and tossed each one on the remaining tiles with ease. That's when he remembered her affinity to never miss and face palmed. He chuckled when he saw several others do the same.

Marley as the most indestructible faced the gauntlet first. She sped across the floor and when nothing happened Lauren was the next to try because she was just as fast if not indestructible, and she made it through without a hitch as well.

Kyle couldn't help but miss Travis, no doubt if he was here in this moment he would have gone next in stone form to test their theory. The thought of Travis moved his feet and he went next a little more gingerly and a lot slower, but he made it to the other side with all his limbs so yeah that was something to celebrate.

The rest of the gang followed on mass which was fortunate. The hour glass continued to tick away one grain of sand at a time as he wondered why the hell couldn't it just have been a digital clock, how the hell where they going to know how much time had passed, or more importantly how much time they had left?

When they made it to the other side of the corridor it branched off again, and surprise, surprise when Lauren looked through the eye again and directed them to the right the shelf closed behind them, leaving no way out.

Before it could swing fully closed he grabbed a book and threw it on one of the squares to see what would happen thinking: Tick tock much to everyone's annoyance. He shrugged sheepishly when he remembered everyone could read his thoughts.

Much to his delight nothing happened, but when he went to step forward this time it was Ray who stopped him. He thrust out his hand to intercept a bolt of electricity that was coursing toward his heart. One hit with that and it would have stopped beating.

Kyle gulped and mouthed a fervent thank you to his new best friend.

Guys times running out we don't have the luxury of me guiding you across one at a time, so you're just going to have to trust me with that thought he traveled toward the center of the corridor while being struck over and over and once there; he yelled RUN.

When he did everyone took off like a shot going as fast as their powers would allow. Meanwhile Ray redirected every arc of electricity that was meant for each of his friends towards him like a Tesla coil.

Once on the other side Megan smacked Cam on his arm for throwing her and her crutches on his back to get her across faster. It was so loud in the silence that everyone cringed. She promptly thought: sorry babe you know I hate when you do that.

The loving couple was the last to make it across the space and as the stack promptly closed behind them, Kyle worried how many of these challenges could there be and were they even going to have enough time?

Marley hearing his desperation in her head leaped into the air again to check their progress and reported: We're about a little over a quarter of the way there. We can do it she encouraged, as gave his arm a reassuring squeeze.

Kyle looked up to see the hourglass was already more than three quarters empty, but he had to have faith they could make it, however he cautioned everyone: Guys we need to pick up the pace.

And seeing his concern they all nodded in agreement.

This time Zach tapped his foot lightly on the first square tile to test the reaction of the magical space, and Kyle wanted to cry when out from the floor shot spinning whirling bladed dervishes. Each blade didn't even have a hairsbreadth of distance between them. It was an impossible task. Not even Marley could make it through this mine field.

Donnie spoke up in their heads: I think I can assist with this task everyone and promptly transformed into his cat form, a tiny Russian blue house cat. He purred and wound himself in a figure eight around Kelly's legs happily until she picked him up.

Place me on the shelf. I will cross over and see if my presence on the other side signals the end of the task.

She placed him gingerly on the stack closest to her and whispered, "be careful," before roughly scratching his head as Kyle thought Huh, I didn't know cats could smile.

He wound his way around and over the books with agility and speed. Kyle snorted in his head when he thought he's not pussy footing around.

Good one CJ snorted but received a hard look from Kelly for his troubles which made Kyle wonder just how close were those two getting anyway? But he expelled the thought as fast as it had come, because he had an audience in his head, and only an idiot antagonizes Kelly.

The blades spun so fast they made everyone's hair fly away from their forehead, as they whined and whistled menacingly. His crew looked on in rapt fascination as he weaved in, and out of the way of the deadly blades. And when he was nearly there and his friends were starting to visibly relax he went to leap to the next shelf but the book he leapt from suddenly careened to the side as he put the weight of his back paw on it, and he started to slip.

Everyone gasped as the book that preceded him to the floor got sliced and diced like a salad.

Thank God he had the super fast reflexes of a magical being because he was able to thrust his paw out and attach one incredibly long and sharp claw into the wooden shelf above. Gingerly he reached his other paw up and continued on his journey just as Quinn quipped I'm glad I wore the brown pants.

And it wasn't until he lept off the shelf and took his human form before hitting the floor on the other side that everyone let out a collective breath. Kyle let his explode from his lungs; he hadn't even known he was holding it.

As Donnie strutted around the other side they all had to sadly accept that his plan hadn't worked.

The CJ spoke up in their heads sounding tentative: I have an idea but I don't know if you're going to like it?

Kyle looked up at the clock to see that the sand was half gone and started to panic saying: Just tell us CJ we're running out of time.

Okay okay. I can stop time.

Yeah duh . . . but that's only for 30 seconds. It's not enough time, we'll be sliced and diced before we make it half way there Ryan whined.

I can't see how that would work, if you stop time won't you stop us too? Liv asked.

Well that used to be true but Helsing and I have been practicing me stopping it for as long as I can hold my breath and now it's longer and if you touch me when I do it you won't be affected either, but there are some drawbacks. I can't predict how long it will last. I know the solution isn't ideal, but does anyone else have any ideas? He looked at everyone seeming to beseech them to think of something else . . . anything else.

But it was the only plan they could come up with and time was running out.

So while CJ took a Zen moment everyone else got in to position.

When Ryan thought: No offense bud and promptly turned into smoke like the smoke monster on Lost and safely travelled over the blades to the other side, Kyle took a moment to envy him before once again setting his sights on his goal of getting to the other side in one piece.

Kyle watched as CJ took his last big breath in and closed his eye before yelling in his head NOW.

He took off like a shot and weaved through the tight fitting death bringing devices. Now that they were stopped they kind of reminded him of the turn stiles on security gates and that was what he needed to picture in his mind to get through this situation. There was no room for error and definitely no time to panic. At one point he had to move the blades to find the room to get by and after cutting himself painfully he had to grab his shirt and ball it up to move the blade cautiously while he bleed all over it.

Damn these things are sharper than Ginsu knives.

He cut himself several times and he was still only three quarters to the end of the corridor. Sweat was coursing down the side of his face he hurried to get across the deadly gauntlet of blades, but that's when he heard it. CJ started stomping his foot from behind him telling him to hurry up. Kyle spared a look to see it was just Megan, Cameron and him left and they weren't going to make it.

His guts clenched making him wish he'd worn the brown pants too, but he just shut everything else out – all his friends screaming in his head . . .

HURRY

all his worries about Travis and all his doubts and insecurities flooded in, but they didn't belong in his last thoughts. If he was going he was going down thinking about Ariana Grande, Nicki Minaj, and Jessie J's 'Bang Bang' music video, now that was a cinematic master piece.

He ignored the girls groaning in his head and started to hum the tune as he weaved and bobbed through the last of the blades. They roared to life just as he ran free, but not soon enough, his shirt tails and coat flared out behind him in his haste and he lost them to the closest blade.

He collapsed on the other side winded and breathing heavy. He had so much adrenaline coursing through his veins he felt strong enough to run up the side of a wall, but too shaky to even stand. Only a quick look at the hour glass got him to his feet.

The sand seemed to be running faster and faster now and only a quarter of its contents remained. Kyle felt sick as he looked to Marley who read his mind without having to read his mind and leapt once more.

She hit the ground as silently as the first time and a smile spread across her face when she thought: We're nearly there.

They waited with baited breath as CJ made it across and he just had to hand it to him. TO hold your breath, plus concentrate on using a wonky power, and run that gauntlet, he didn't envy him that, but he celebrated like a fiend with the rest of them when he made it across in record time, and as an exhausted and panting CJ stepped forward on wobbly legs the stack swung unceremoniously closed behind him.

This time as soon as the stack swung firmly shut, the entire floor turned to liquid and they were all sucked in. Kyle was a shitty swimmer he'd grown up in the desert with almost zero opportunities to introduce him to the wet stuff, so when he went down he was pretty much done for, never mind the fact that it was a whirling vortex and a mass of confusion with all the bodies he was bumping into. The current was a killer and even when he figured out which way was up he hadn't any strength left to fight his way to the surface.

That's when he saw her. His glorious friend, Megan swam towards him at lightning speed her tail flicking through the water with ease. In the dim glow of the library lights her incandescent tail sparkle. Then it started to spark and take on psychedelic colors.

Wait a minute that can't be right.

Kyle took a moment, he didn't have, to puzzle out his circumstances: his lungs were burning and his throat tasted like he'd swallowed razor blades and then it struck him he was dying, honest to God dying, and there was absolutely nothing he could do about it.

He was going to be unconscious soon his panicked brain started to shut down and his vision dimmed, but not before Megan grabbed his arm and pulled him roughly to the surface. She thrust him up and over the edge of the dry floor while the others who had been saved before him pulled him the rest of the way out of the water. He did a quick head count and realized aside from Cameron and Megan, Ryan and Liv were still missing and a frantic Marley was pacing the small portion of the floor they did have, and trying desperately to get around a very determined Lauren and Zach. As Kyle hacked up a lung he spared a moment to thank his lucky stars he wasn't them. Marley look like she was about three seconds away from ripping their throats out.

When she feinted to the left and then ducked to the right she got by, but not before Zach sacked her like a football player and her screams of frustration nearly drowned out the splash as Cameron brought Liv to the surface. He let her go then, but not before she gave him a look that said this isn't over.

Marley dove for her girlfriend who wasn't breathing, but Brenna pushed her out of the way to start the healing process. She began to chant above Liv unconscious body and suddenly there was a purple glow that radiated from her hands. Kyle expected her to run them over Liv's body or to shock her with them or something like they do with those defibrillators, but no it was far more shocking then that.

Just when you think you've seen it all in this world something comes along and says think again. Brenna thrust her purple hands right into Liv's chest and squeezed both her lungs hard. The water in them shot out like a water cannon going up several feet with the force of the thrust and Liv shot up in a sitting position in shock, like someone had shot her heart full of Adrenalin. Marley had her in her arms and was rocking her crooning to her like a child, but when she kissed her passionately, Brenna joked: Mars let her come up for air.

Marley laughed out loud and hugged Brenna so fiercely that Kyle could hear the air that escaped her lungs from the other side of the stacks.

In the commotion he hadn't seen Megan dive back down, but her and Cameron had been down there an awfully long time. If they didn't get back soon he worried not even Brenna could do anything for Ryan.

But just as he thought that both Cam and Meg came up with an already unconscious Jinni. He had to guess they were shitty swimmers too. Brenna went right to work trying to revive him. She worked for such a long time. They couldn't move him and they couldn't go on without them or they could be trapped in the maze forever. Kyle prayed for Ryan as he sadly watched the last of the sand drifting into the bottom of the glass.

When he finally took his first breath as a saved man Zach threw him over his shoulder, Marley grabbed Liv and ran forward, Cam sped towards the next task with Megan and her crutches in his hands, and everyone else dove for the next section and as the stack swung shut the last grain fell.

This was it. They were either trapped or they had made it.

One step would answer that question.

And he took it.

Wow! what do you think guys?

Did they make it?

Tune in tomorrow to find out.

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