Chapter 52: Temple Run
Eli’s mind raced.
’So he knew.’
He had feared this possibility, and it had come true. No matter how vigilant he was, it was futile against the Red Moon’s spies, who used whatever the darkness offered to watch their targets.
He just hadn’t expected Colton, the secretary, to be the mastermind behind it all. If it had been anyone else, they could have been dismissed as using Black Rose for other intelligence.
But Colton was no foot soldier scavenging for scraps. He was the Headmistress’s secretary, the man who sat at her building every day, read her letters, and scheduled her meetings.
It meant the Red Moon had been planning this for a long time, and to keep it going, they had to eliminate every threat along the way, including him and Juli.
Eli, realizing the full extent of his mistake, laughed.
"I never took you for someone who blabbers this much, Colton."
Even when cornered, the one who showed weakness first became the loser and the prey. Eli wasn’t acting tough, though. That was simply who he was.
He didn’t really fear death. He feared how his passing would affect the people around him. Death was destined for Eli, and when it came, it would be immediate and insubstantial.
For others, though, it would become a scar that lasted a lifetime. How was that fair? He could laugh off the fact that he didn’t fear for his life, but he couldn’t do the same for Irene’s or Juli’s. Thus, he truly feared for his life.
Colton tilted his head, looking almost pleased that Eli bothered to bite back.
"You misunderstand, Moreau. I do not blabber. I clarify the situation for those still standing inside it."
He let the silence breathe.
"You will find it saves me a great deal of time. It is far easier to take someone who already knows there is no way out."
Colton’s hand rose.
"Take the two of them alive. Kill the knight if she resists."
He stepped back into the shade of the canopy as the ring of hooded men surged forward.
Eli’s mind ran the math in less than a second.
Juli was a Two-Song Knight, stronger than any single one of these hooded men, and probably stronger than three at once. The display of her aura suggested that.
But facing sixteen blades in open ground was suicidal, no matter how skilled Juli was. She also had to protect him, which would greatly hinder her movements.
And then there was Colton, watching from the canopy, unfazed by her aura. A Moonseeker did not stand in reserve for decoration. He was the last resort if Juli managed to overpower these devil worshippers.
He looked from the hooded men to the crack leading into the labyrinth. Open ground would be their grave, but down there, they could at least use the terrain to their advantage.
"Juli, go down the labyrinth!"
Juli didn’t look back. Her aura snapped into her body in one violent pull, and her free hand caught Eli’s collar.
"Hold on, Elise."
She kicked off the earth and threw them both backward toward the labyrinth’s mouth. The blade from one of the hooded men bit the air where they had stood.
They dropped into the dark together.
The fall was shorter than Eli remembered, maybe because of the adrenaline surging in his body and mind.
Juli twisted them midair, taking the impact on her shoulder against the stone wall, then her boots found the floor. Eli’s knees almost gave out under him.
"Get up. We need to keep moving."
She was already pushing him forward into the corridor, her aura curling thinly around them both as a buffer against the dark.
Behind them, a voice barked an order somewhere up in the trees. Footsteps hit the stairs a moment later. Two, then three, then more.
Eli didn’t look back.
He ran the layout back through his head as they sprinted. The corridor opened into the chamber where they had cut down the geckos, and that chamber branched into two paths.
They had taken the straight one last time, the long path that ended at the diary pedestal, while the left was the one Juli’s echo had cut short.
"Go left at the chamber! The one we skipped!"
Juli’s grip on his collar tightened in acknowledgement.
They hit the wider chamber in a few strides, ducked past the low ceiling, and veered hard into the unknown corridor.
The footsteps behind them grew louder, no longer scattered but synchronized. Whatever discipline these devil worshippers had learned during their hibernation, they were using it down here in a terrifying manner.
The corridor narrowed almost without warning. The walls pressed in shoulder-to-shoulder, and the ceiling dropped low enough that Eli had to lower his head.
He was the one in front now, with Juli’s hand still on his collar, steering him through the tighter space.
The footsteps eventually caught up.
Juli let go of him.
"Keep going."
Eli barely had time to turn his head before he heard the wet, decisive sound of a blade finding its target. The clash of steel lasted only two clicks before the gurgle of blood and the thump of something hitting the ground. Then a third sound followed with a stifled scream.
When he looked back, three hooded men were slumped against the narrow stone, and Juli was already wiping her blade on a fourth’s coat as she pushed him forward.
"Move faster, Elise."
They pushed deeper. The narrow stretch ran on far longer than they had expected, twisting twice and dropping in a shallow angle. The air started to turn cold. It carried the smell of damp iron and animal carcasses.
Then, the floor sloped downward sharply, and the ceiling lifted above Eli’s head.
The walls fell away at once.
Eli stumbled out of the corridor onto the lip of a ledge and nearly pitched forward, but Juli grabbed his collar just in time.
What he saw stopped his breath entirely.
