Chapter Twenty-Two: Julian…

“Are they sure about this?” Brady asked, leaning against Julian’s doorframe and blowing a cluster of loose black curls out of her amber eyes.

“Even if they aren’t, we don’t have a choice,” the Vampire replied, bending to tighten the laces on his left boot. “Sypher’s time is running out.”

She’d come to collect him when he stole away upstairs to breathe, trying to centre himself in a world that just kept taking…

“I’m just saying, the things we’ve read about suggest this is a move that needs planning,” she grumbled. “Going down there blind, with those things running about, is idiocy.” Her voice dragged him out of the beginnings of another panic attack, like the antidote to a poison.

“If we had time to plan, we would,” Julian insisted, straightening up and grabbing his axe from where it leaned against the end of his bed. For good measure, he down the contents of the goblet a steward had brought him, ignoring the bitter taste of blood that wasn’t quite fresh.

“I know, I just…” Her forehead puckered, dark brows lacing together. “We faced that creature in the Dragon Isles without a plan. We smashed the monolith in Bratus without a plan. Both times, somebody died.”

“Elda and Sypher came back.”

“Yani didn’t.”

For a moment, the roaring of blood in Julian’s ears was too loud to catch whatever she said next, the image of his husband lying dead flashing before his eyes.

But he pushed past it with his breathing exercises, forcing the memory aside by dragging up an image of Yani’s beautiful, smiling face instead. And then said “Yani wasn’t vital to the plans of a Spirit.”

“Neither is Sypher, apparently.”

“We’re doing this to save Ember, and to stop Malakai from getting hold of another power source. We don’t have time to wait.” Julian passed her without meeting her gaze, stepping out into the corridor to head for the King’s study.

“I know why we’re doing it,” Brady muttered, falling into step beside him. “I don’t like how we’re doing it.”

Julian said nothing, leading her the rest of the way in silence. He was surprised to find Aetheria, Gira’s Spirit, standing in the hallway. She inclined her head in greeting, the vines of her hair cascading over her shoulder.

“Please stay behind me. My glamour will begin its work the moment you pass me and join the others.” Her voice was soft, lilting and willowy, completely at odds with the muscled giant she was bound to.

The Vampire looked past her to find Elda crouched in front of the door, picking the lock, a web of ice disabling any wards while her tools worked on the mechanism. Gira stood behind her, Edward to his left, Clover to his right. Sypher was at the other side of the corridor, waiting at what appeared to be the other edge of the glamour boundary.

“Where’s Bennigan?” Brady asked.

"Distracting the King," Sypher replied absently, his eyes on the corridor.

"Will he be joining us?"

"No," Elda answered. "We need him to keep my father away from the study for as long as possible. The last thing we want is for him to come back before we're done, seal us in and throw Benny in a cell."

"She's right," Julian nodded.

The lock clicked and the door swung inwards on silent hinges, revealing a study panelled in dark wood and laden with pristine oak shelves filled with books. Elda went straight to the shelving without hesitating, pulling out the spines of seemingly random books.

"I can't reach the last one," she frowned, jumping and missing the leather-bound tome by an inch. Sypher lifted her at the waist, but when he went to put her down he faltered. Elda's boots touched the floor and one of the shelves swung back to reveal a dark tunnel.

But Julian and Elda were staring at Sypher, who was looking down at his hand with an expression so blank it made Julian feel sick.

The Soul Forge flexed his knuckles slowly. "I can't feel my fingers.”

"Then we should hurry," Gira decided. "Can you still hold a sword?" Sypher dipped his head once and brushed past them all, heading into the darkness first.

The look Elda shot Julian broke his heart, but she squared her shoulders and followed him into the passage. It was a staircase, sparsely lit with sconces at irregular intervals. Brady made sure to pull the door shut behind them just enough that a glance into the room would show nothing amiss, and the group began their descent.

"Why are these things always underground?" the bear Shifter muttered.

"Because if they were easily accessible, everybody would want a piece of them," Julian answered. "Speaking of easy access, how do we intend to get through the ward stones without dragonfire?"

"Desperation," Sypher answered bluntly. "We should be quiet from here. We don't know how close the creatures guarding the monolith will be."

Julian watched him settle into his role as a soldier, drawing his sword from its sheath with no sign that his numb fingers bothered him. The others followed him to the base of the winding staircase, stepping out into the biggest cavern the Vampire had ever seem.

It seemed impossible that such a vast empty space sat beneath the city, and Julian swallowed at the pressing claustrophobia of thousands of tonnes of rock above his head.

The base of the cavern was flat and bare, no sign of any creature or monolith. Elda’s head swivelled, finding a crevice across the cavern, almost completely hidden in the gloom. The only light in the enormous cave came from odd blue veins running through the rock.

“It’s that way,” the princess stated. “Through the gap.”

Julian swallowed and followed them, feeling Brady grip the back of his jacket. The scent of her fear was sharp and sweet in his nostrils, leading him to grab her hand and guide her along.

“Will we fit through there?” Edward asked warily.

“Only one way to find out,” Sypher replied, and disappeared into the narrow passage, tucking his wings tightly against his body. “It gets narrower further in, but should be wide enough for you to squeeze through, Gira. If you fit, so will everyone else.

The wolf Shifter swallowed and entered the passage behind the Soul Forge, Julian following behind him with Brady’s hand in his and Elda’s in hers. Clover and Edward brought up the rear. The rock pressed in on either side, narrowing enough to make every heart beat flutter in fear.

Except for Sypher’s. Julian could hear its calm, steady thump as the Soul Forge squeezed past a jutting stone. Gira had to be pushed from behind to get by it, but eventually he popped out of its grip to allow the others passage.

The ceiling started to get lower, forcing the group into a crouch, then to their knees, then their stomachs. Still, Sypher’s pulse was normal, his breaths even.

Brady gasped when her hip wedged against the wall, but Elda pushed her free and continued to follow her through the hellish tunnels of endless rock and darkness.

Gira got stuck again, his broad shoulders trapped between the low ceiling and a rise in the uneven floor. His pulse spiralled out of control as he heaved and strained against the stone, sweat beading on his skin.

Behind him, the others began to panic quietly in the dark. Julian’s pushing did nothing to move Gira, and the passage was too small for Elda, Brady, Edward or Clover to join in.

“Sypher?” Gira panted, but there was no answer. Julian’s stomach dropped into his boots, all six of them freezing in the absolute darkness. “He’s not there. He kept going.”

“Calm down,” Julian pleaded. “The last thing we should do here is panic.”

A noise up ahead made them pause. “Is that him?” Brady asked quietly. Another sound - something heavy dragging across the rock.

“What if he’s turned?” Clover hissed. And that was all it took for their control to falter.

Gira scrambled and kicked against the stone, catching Julian in the chin hard enough to bounce his head off the wall. Brady started to hyperventilate and push backwards too fast, trapping her and Elda inside the passage, Clover tangled in their legs and Edward stuck behind him.

Heartbeats, pounding in time with the throbbing pain in Julian’s head, drowned out any other sound. He groaned, blinking to clear the stars bursting in front of his eyes. There was blood in his mouth, but he’d had worse injuries.

“Everyone be quiet,” he snapped. “Stay still, and breathe. Panicking down here will kill us.”

“We could be stuck down here with an undead demon!” Clover argued, drawing a whimper from Elda.

“He wasn’t on the edge of death,” Edward retorted. “It makes no sense. He probably went ahead to turn around so he could help pull Gira through the gap.”

Despite his rational words, another sound made Julian doubt them. Why wasn’t Sypher speaking to them? If he was coming back to help them, he’d speak. Spirits, if he’d turned down there in the caves, he’d tear them apart while they were helpl-

“Ye of little faith,” Sypher muttered, and in the gloom Julian’s Vampire sight could just make out a shock of white hair and a raised eyebrow in the gap between Gira’s right side and the wall.

A soft sob came from Elda, but the group was immediately calmer. A flash of steel broke the gloom when Sypher’s dagger struck stone, chipping away at the rock trapping Gira’s chest. His movements were careful, the process painstakingly slow, but eventually he chipped away enough rock for Gira to try moving again.

Sypher wrapped his hands around the Shifter’s wrists and pulled, freeing him inch by inch. Julian was able to shimmy past the narrowest part with the others in tow. The passage widened out after a few more minutes, allowing them to crouch in a small group.

“I hate it here,” Gira grumbled into the dark.

“Why didn’t you wait with us?” Clover demanded.

“Why didn’t you speak?” Brady added.

Sypher sighed. “I moved forwards to find enough room to turn around so I could use my hands to help Gira. I had my dagger between my teeth and figured making noise that wasn’t words would have you all believing I turned.”

“Are you okay?” Edward questioned.

“We should keep moving,” was Sypher’s reply. “I’m blind down here. Can you still sense the Monolith, El?”

“We’re still heading towards it,” she confirmed.

It took an hour for them to navigate the tight tunnels and caves, but eventually another cavern opened up in front of them. This one was big enough to fit the entirety of Eden inside, lined with more glowing blue rocks.

They emerged at the top of a slope leading downwards towards a twisting, turning maze of stone. The whole cavern floor was covered with roughly hewn stone corridors branching in every direction and winding around each other, the monolith glowing faintlt on the far side.

“A maze?” Brady asked.

“A labyrinth,” Sypher corrected. “Countless dead ends. Only one correct path.”

“This must be the place filled with traps that we read about,” Clover mused. “How do we know which way is the right one?”

“We guess,” the half-demon replied.

“Do we have time for guessing?” Clover pressed, looking pointedly at the expanding white rings in Sypher’s eyes, turned silver by the blue glow.

“We don’t have a choice. Stay together, keep your weapons close.” And then his sword was in his hand and he was striding towards the entrance to the labyrinth.

Julian wondered how far the numbness had spread through his body in the hours it had taken them to reach this place. How much further would it spread before they made it to the monolith? Would he be able to leave the underground nightmare before the necromancy sapped his life? Would he be trapped here, eternally undead?

The Vampire shuddered and followed his friend into the unknown.