Crystal Wing Academy- The Complete Series by Marty Mayberry

Author:Marty Mayberry [Mayberry, Marty]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Hummingbird Press
Published: 2020-04-24T04:00:00+00:00

Chapter 24

My belly cramped. Someone had flitted us here—wherever here was—for a purpose. I knew why…

“Jenny?” I whispered, then called her name louder.

No reply.

Scrambling to my feet, I bolted toward where I’d last heard her cry, praying I’d find her alive. That I wouldn’t trip over her lying dead on the ground, like I had Drea.

I swiped my hair off my face, finding my skin clammy.

Jenny screamed again, farther down the hall, as if she’d moved. Or had been moved. I ran faster, my sneakers slamming on the packed soil. Though I’d only gone about one hundred steps, my heart had turned into a sledgehammer beneath my ribcage, eager to batter its way through.

I drew my blade and, pulling in threads of gray and indigo blue, the only strands available, I filled my moonstone with power.

She whimpered. “No. Stop. Help!”

“Jenny?” I yelled. “Where are you?”

Each time I passed a torch, my eyes struggled to adjust to the dense gloom beyond. Things…scurried around me. Bugs or mice or something even more horrifying.

“Fleur! Help. It’s…” Scraping, dragging shuffles rebounded through the tunnel. “It’s got me. A plant or a vine or…” Her shriek made goosebumps swell across my skin. “Fleur!”

A gust of wind shot down the hall, hitting my back with enough force to send me tripping forward. My arms pinwheeled as I fought to keep balance.

The torches blew out.

Coarse smoke billowed around me, choking my lungs. My footsteps slowed. Shivering, I peered around. Darkness engulfed the world around me.

I drew power from my moonstone to create my finger glow light and held it up as I inched forward.

“Jenny?” I called, my words swallowed by my fear. “Please. Tell me where you are.”

Wind caught my hair, smacking it against my face, blinding me. I yanked it back and secured it with an elastic then took a few steps farther down the hall. Trepidation slithered up my spine, the spindly footsteps of roaches.

A dragging sound was punctuated by yelps and a long wail of agony.

My skin crawled.

“Please,” Jenny cried. “Fleur…It’s…taking me!”

Caution be damned. Tracking the echo of her voice, I raced forward, the walls creeping closer while I scurried through the tunnel.

Scratches from too close by made me shudder and come to a standstill. Dread clamped down on my heart like the jaws of a beast.

Don’t look.

Tipping my head back, I peered overhead while lifting my light.

Nightlace encrusted the arched stone ceiling, a writhing mass of serpent vines eager to kill. Unless someone lurked unseen, the plants had been warded to hunt us. Were Ashton and Eben involved?

Thick bands caked with leaves must’ve sensed me, because a cluster spiked down, its sharp tip plunging toward my throat.

Yelping, I ducked and, covering my head with my arms, rushed forward. “Jenny. Tell me where you are!”

“Help me…” A snap was followed by gurgling, like she was being sucked down into an endless pit of mud.

Not again. Sarah’s face… Her bulging tongue. The horror that would burn for eternity in her eyes.

Brighter!

Light burst from my finger, revealing Jenny being dragged by her feet about twenty feet ahead of me.

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