The puzzles dragged on for hours, each one more viciously engineered than the last, and the temple seemed determined to wring every drop of strength out of her. Her head pounded like a war drum. Her magic burned through her veins until her insides felt scorched.
She was exhausted beyond reason, the kind of exhaustion that made her limbs tremble and her breath thin, yet she kept moving because stopping meant dying. Despite all that, the only thing she worried about was Rex—of all people—because he didn't have magic to cushion the blows this place kept delivering.
But she saw him a few times, and he was steady, uninjured, and outrageously calm, to her relief.
She finished the last trial with a brutal surge of power that left her ribs aching. The instant the mechanism recognized her completion, the walls shifted again. Stone rippled under her feet and sucked her through before she could prepare herself, throwing her into a new space so quickly she staggered.
"Finally," she whispered, relief in her voice. She had reached what she recognized—instinctively, undeniably—as the final chamber.
It was immense. Ancient. Breathtaking in a way that pressed against her chest and forced her to pause.
A massive underground lake stretched before her, its surface half-solid with delicate ice patterns that glimmered like constellations trapped beneath glass. Frigid ice was forming on the lake with cold mist hovering above what wasn't frozen.
Crystals jutted from the cave walls and ceiling in a riot of colors—violet, emerald, ruby, sapphire—casting fractured light across the cavern in shimmering halos.
A waterfall thundered from a ledge at least fifty feet up, pouring into the lake like liquid glass, its roar echoing through the chamber. The air tasted like old magic, prickling against her skin.
She lifted her gaze, finding the ceiling carved into a map of constellations—glowing, shifting, alive. The stars moved slowly overhead, an entire night sky trapped beneath the earth, bending to the temple's will.
Nova exhaled through her nose, steadying herself. This was the heart of it. The last piece. She was almost done.
But the moment she gathered her breath, a sharp, tearing pain split through her skull. Heat surged through her chest and abdomen, the same brutal burn from the last trial—only worse. It felt like knives were carving down the center of her insides. She choked on a breath, coughed hard, and blood hit the stone.
Another wave of nausea crashed over her. Her vision pulsed. She doubled forward and threw up—nothing but blood, hot and metallic, splattering across the crystal-lit floor. Red, not silver.
Her head thundered, her stomach twisted, and she wiped her mouth with the back of her hand, steadying herself despite the agony.
She was almost done.
Even if the temple seemed determined to gut her first.
Her wolf whimpered in the back of her mind, a soft, pained sound. Nova forced herself upright, swallowing down another wave of nausea as she answered silently, steadying her wolf even as she barely held herself together.
Nova:It'll be okay. Don't worry, Seraphine. We'll get through this.
Seraphine:I am supposed to be the one telling you that, not the other way around.
Despite the blood on her tongue, Nova huffed a faint laugh.
Nova:I need your eyes and your ears with me. I can't do this alone.
Seraphine:I never left. Now let's get this damn item and then take a nap before we drop dead in here.
Nova laughed again at that, low and breathless.
Nova:Nap then bath. Yes.
Seraphine:And once we finish these blasted tasks, we are going on a run in the woods with Xeon. I deserve that much.
Nova stepped toward the lake, the cavern's cold light shimmering across the surface like a sheet of glass. She crouched and dipped her fingers in, testing it—half hoping it only looked frozen.
It did not.
The water was freezing, an instant bite of ice that shot up her hand and confirmed exactly what she already suspected: this was going to hurt.
The item they sought lay behind the waterfall, hidden in a pocket of stone accessible only once the lake had been activated. At the bottom, somewhere deep beneath the ice and dark, there was a golden dragon she had to touch and a token—she needed to retrieve. The vision had been unclear, but she trusted that she would recognize it the moment she saw it.
She considered shifting into her wolf, but the thought died as quickly as it came. Seraphine could swim, but not that far under water, not with the need to grab something at the bottom. No—this was something Nova had to do herself.
She would use her magic, wrap it around her like armor to hold in warmth and keep her alive, but she'd still need lungs strong enough to survive a long descent in freezing water.
Nova had long since lost the tie holding her hair, and didn't bother tucking it into her training suit knowing full well it'd not stay there. The memory of her vision flickered again—the shape of something monstrous twisting beneath the lake's surface. It had been blurred, indistinct, but enough to make her pulse tighten.
And worse—she had seen Ashbane entering the temple at dusk in that same vision. It was likely near that hour already.
She had no time. No margin. She needed to get this done now, even if she was alone.
Nova took one steadying breath, braced herself against the cold, and dove into the lake. The shock nearly ripped the air from her chest. The moment her body cut through the surface, the entire lake ignited in a brilliant gold, light rushing outward from her like she was the fuse to some ancient mechanism.
Her magic snapped around her instinctively—thin, tight, controlled—just enough to keep her from freezing to death. Any more and she risked draining herself before she reached the bottom. Any less and she'd go into shock. She hovered at the edge of her limit, holding the shield close to her skin like a second, fragile layer of warmth.
She swam hard, driving herself downward.
At least eighty feet, likely closer to one hundred. Something she would have never dared if she hadn't done seventy feet yesterday.
Her eyes adjusted quickly, silver blooming in the darkness. She kicked again, lungs already burning from the cold pressing in on her ribs as if the water wanted to crush her.
Then she saw it.
Her fingers brushed the head of a golden dragon statue half-buried in silt. The instant she touched it, the lake changed—gold bleeding outward in a pulse before shifting violently into sapphire, the color blooming through the water like ink spilled in the dark.
She cursed under her breath, bubbles streaming upward. Blue light spread from the statue, illuminating the cavern floor in ghostly hues.
She spun, scanning everywhere, searching for the coin—token—whatever the hell it was she was supposed to retrieve. Her vision blurred from lack of air. Time was slipping. Her chest tightened painfully.
Then she spotted it.
And her heart dropped.
It was far. Too far.
Her lungs seized, her body tightening in agony. She was out of time. She turned, planted her feet against the stone, and pushed off with everything she had left.
She shot upward, kicking hard. Her muscles burned. Her lungs screamed. Her chest felt like it was splitting in two. The cold gnawed at her bones, tearing through every shred of magic she'd wrapped around herself. Her body was frigid, heart pounding so hard it echoed in her ears.
And the worst part was the realization that she would have to do it again for that damn token.