"Do you think this is safe to drink?" Nova asked, staring at the glowing water. Her lips were dry and her throat burned.
Rex tilted his head, eyeing the molten-gold shimmer. "I'll drink first. If I pass out, you can heal me."
"Rex—"
Too late.
He cupped his hands, scooped up a pool of gold-lit water, and drank before she could finish.
He exhaled, shoulders loosening like someone had finally cut a wire.
"Huh," he said. "That's… not horrible."
He took another drink, "It tastes like warm sunlight and poor decisions. I'm either perfectly fine, or this is how legends start."
That was all Nova needed.
She sank down until her mouth met the surface and drank straight from the pool, swallowing greedily, desperately. Gods, she was thirsty. No cupped hands. No hesitation. Zero fucks given.
Rex watched her, jaw slack.
"Nova. That is—wow." He paused. "Okay. That's one way to do it."
She ignored him and drank again, her hair floating around her like pale silver threads in molten light.
Rex stared another beat. Then said, "Fuck it," and leaned down to drink the exact same way she did, because at this point his standards had evaporated somewhere back on the volcano.
They reemerged together, breathless, water dripping from their chins, both equally dehydrated and beyond caring.
Nova wiped her mouth with the back of her hand. "We're feral."
Rex nodded solemnly. "Completely."
He climbed out of the pool and reached for his thermal-weave armor. Only then did Nova realize she was still in nothing but her undergarments. Heat rushed to her face.
Rex felt her flush and spike of awareness. Her emotions brushed against him with unnerving clarity, sharper than before.
"We both passed and I woke up with both of our training suits off. But I would have taken them off us regardless. We would have overheated."
Nova was too drained to think. No point. She climbed out of the pool, behind him, her thick hair dripping around her.
Rex watched her, unable to look away. She stole his breath, and she had no idea. When she looked up at him, he grabbed her thermal-weave training suit and tossed it at her, as if that had been the reason he was staring.
She caught it and slid into it, only to realize it hung looser than when they'd left Redmoon. Rex's did too.
"Gods…" Rex muttered, eyes flicking between their suddenly bedraggled forms.
"What? We look great," Nova said dryly.
That caught him off guard. He laughed and gave her a playful shove.
"Where to next?" he asked.
Nova stepped forward, eyes flashing silver, and spoke in Draken-Vorah. Symbols along the cavern wall pulsed awake, flaring to brilliant white. Stone split apart, revealing a small chamber bathed in light from above.
They moved forward. Rex tipped his head back and caught sight of a distant point of daylight, impossibly far overhead, at least a thousand feet above.
"That's… a climb," he murmured.
Then he felt it. Heat blooming deep in his core, mirrored instantly by hers through the matebond. That strange, unmistakable sensation he knew too well, the one that came when a memory was trying to force its way to the surface.
Nova reached back and pulled an arrow from her quiver, which appeared to have restocked itself.
"Get ready to hold onto me," she said, then hesitated. "I think."
She wasn't certain what was coming, and neither was he. But Rex felt the same tug in his bones, the same low thrumming that warned him something long forgotten was about to rise and make itself known.
He stepped in behind her, hands ready to grab her waist.
"Whatever happens, I've got you."
She released.
The arrow shot upward, a streak of gold slicing through the dim cavern air. It soared the entire thousand-foot shaft and struck the rim at the top with a metallic echo.
The moment it hit, Draken-Vorah runes ignited along the arrow's length.
A thick, gold rope unfurled from the arrow's tail.
Rex blinked. "That is… aggressively helpful."
Nova and Rex grabbed the rope and it immediately yanked them upward with vicious, unstoppable force.
They shot through the tunnel in a blur of motion, alpha speed multiplied by ancient magic. The wind tore past and Rex wrapped one arm around Nova's waist, holding her steady as they rocketed.
They burst out of the opening and rolled onto volcanic stone beneath a bright sky. Nova blinked at the sun—dazzling, warm, a shock after so much darkness. As they stood, Rex turned to look behind them.
A dozen more shafts peppered the volcano's slope like vents or tunnels leading into the mountain's heart.
And above them—looming high, dark, massive— was the volcano they had been traveling toward all along.
A winding trail carved into cooled lava spiraled around the peak, steep and narrow, but navigable.
Nova took a breath, feeling the sun warm her face.
Rex looked up at the blazing sky, relief flickering across his features. "Sun's out. No vampires." He turned to her. "Are you able to run?"
She nodded.
Rex stepped back, still catching his breath from the ascent. "Ready when you are."
She didn't hesitate, taking off at alpha speed. Rex sprinted after her, matching her pace as they shot up the volcanic trail.
After at least an hour of running at full alpha speed, the trail finally leveled out.
They'd reached the top ridge and the temperature was colder. It was windy and snow covered black volcanic stone.
Nova drew an arrow, aimed at the snow-capped peak above them, and released.
The arrow hit the summit with a resonant crack—and a shimmering rope unfurled behind it.
She didn't say anything. Rex and her instincts were always in sync and he knew.
They grabbed the rope and launched upward, pulled in a blur of speed until they vaulted onto the edge of the highest crest.
Rex stepped forward, looked down, and froze. A vast crater stretched out before them—miles across—its interior carved like a colossal bowl of black obsidian.
At its center was a lake. Dark. Silent.
Ice spider-webbing across its surface as if freezing in real time.
Nova turned to him, eyes sparkling.
"Do you trust me?" she asked, grinning.
"Yes," he answered without any hesitation.
She grabbed his hand and sprinted straight off the rim. Rex didn't even have time to swear.
They plummeted.
Nova wrapped herself around him mid-air—arms locking around his shoulders, legs around his waist. A massive silver parachute burst into existence above them, transparent and glowing. It caught instantly, slowing their fall with a rippling pulse of magic.
Rex's body lit gold.
He sucked in a breath as energy spilled from him, funneling into Nova like water forced through a narrowing stream.
The sensation was unlike anything he had ever felt.
"That's new," he said.
Nova blinked at him, equally stunned.
They drifted down the last stretch and touched ground gently at the crater floor.
Before them stretched the lake—shimmering, freezing, alive.
Ice forming in spirals across the surface, as if the lake itself recognized their arrival.
"I wonder…" Nova murmured, thinking aloud without meaning to.
Rex didn't need the words. The moment the thought sparked in her mind, he felt the calculation behind it through the bond—precise, tactical, reckless in a way that made perfect sense for her.
She nocked an arrow, drew back, and fired high into the air. The arc was perfect—graceful at first, then predatory—before the arrow angled sharply downward, cutting through two miles of open space to spear the dead center of the lake. The impact was so exact it sent a ripple of ice fracturing outward in a perfect circle.
For a long breath, nothing.
FWUMP.
A rope of shimmering gold blasted up from the impact point, slicing through the air toward them at impossible speed, snapping taut like it had been yanked by the mountain itself.
Instinct took over.
They both grabbed it.
The world jerked violently—
And they were pulled.
Dragged off the snowy shore and hurtled across the frozen surface with terrifying momentum. The rope dragged them faster and faster, ice blurring beneath them, wind slicing at their faces—
Then the lake swallowed them whole.
They plunged through the water with a force that punched the air from their lungs. It was instantly freezing—so cold it burned—but Rex's body glowed gold again, brighter this time, the light rippling across his skin like molten armor.
Nova blinked underwater, stunned.
She didn't need to shield him.
His body was protecting itself without any effort from her.
She curled her fingers tighter around the rope, using just enough silver to keep her organs from freezing solid. She knew she couldn't waste more. Not here. Not now. She'd need everything she had if this trial turned deadly.
Then something else unexpected happened. Gold magic surrounded her without her doing anything. It was definitely coming from Rex. She let go of her silver magic, letting his protect her.
They sank fast.
Too fast.
The rope dragged them deeper, water pressure squeezing their ribs, their ears popping painfully.
The cold grew vicious.
The silence became unnatural.
The rope kept pulling, dragging them toward the lakebed.
Nova's heartbeat thudded in her ears and Rex tightened his grip on her waist. They were well over one hundred feet under and still being pulled towards the bottom.
The water around them glowed gold, but the light spread sluggishly, strained. They were descending too fast for it to bloom properly, the depth smothering it.
The deeper they went, the heavier everything felt. Her limbs. Her breath. The fear coiling tight in her chest.
Finally the bottom appeared, faint and shadowed.