Chapter 17

Chapter

Seventeen

Lana

D estin was in front of me, his movements sure and deliberate. How was he doing this? Every time a stone crumbled behind us, my heart skipped a beat, the abyss waiting below like it wanted to swallow us whole.

He glanced back, his eyes locking with mine for a brief moment. "This place—it works on energy."

I gripped his hand. "That means nothing to me!"

Somehow as we dashed over nothingness, he chuckled. "It means stop fighting it. Let it pull you."

"I'll let you pull me. How about that." I tried to match his movements, but every step felt like it would be the one that broke me. I was supposed to answer the riddles, not let Destin—not of the Shadow Pack—solve this for me. I had failed. I hadn't known the answers to the last two riddles. Destin had helped with the first, and now here I was, clinging to him and bypassing the rest.

If I didn't do this on my own, would it even count? The idea that we might get through this only for the test to reject us clawed at me. What if this was all for nothing? What if I was just dragging us both into—what? Back to the real world? Without the book?

Panic gripped me. I tried to shove the thoughts down, but they clung to me like the smell of bad fish.

A boom echoed through the canyon, and the sides of the canyon shook. Destin's hand dropped mine to reach up and grip my arm like a vice. "Move!"

We leaped together, my feet barely finding purchase on the next stone before the last vanished into the void. I pushed myself forward, matching Destin step for step. Faster. We had to go faster.

I tugged on his arm, and we jumped to the next stone in sync, landing hard. Pain jolted through me, but I swallowed the lump in my throat and forced my legs to move. The stones blurred beneath us until finally, the end was in sight. A platform larger than the rest, shimmering with that same ancient energy. Relief surged through me.

We leaped together, landing on solid ground at last. The platform pulsed beneath our feet, steady and alive. I collapsed to my knees, my breath ragged, but Destin stayed standing, his gaze sweeping the space around us.

Tears pricked my eyes, and I dropped my head, trying to hide it.

Destin dropped to his knees. "Are you hurt?"

Our conversation from the night before landed heavily in my mind. Destin could feel this. He could sense all of it. That realization made the tears come faster, and I hated myself for it. "I'm fine."

"Obviously."

"Shut the hell up, Destin."

He cupped my jaw and tipped my face to his. "No. What's wrong?"

"I—" It took me a moment to collect myself. "I didn't do it. I didn't complete the challenge."

He frowned. "We're standing here. Safe." He motioned behind us, and I turned. The cavern was gone, replaced again by the smooth, calm forest.

"I realize that. But I didn't answer the questions. This was supposed to be a test."

Destin opened his mouth but didn't get a chance to answer. A wolf emerged from the shadows, its fur rippling like liquid night. It was huge, silent, its glowing eyes fixed on us with an unsettling calm.

Destin stepped in front of me without hesitation, his body tensing like a spring ready to snap. The wolf didn't growl, didn't make a single aggressive move. It simply stood watching us. Was this part of the test?

The wolf's eyes seared into me, and then it turned, padding away from us, its movements impossibly smooth. It didn't look back, but I knew. It wanted us to follow.

Destin hesitated for a moment before falling into step, and I followed close behind, my pulse racing. The landscape shifted as we moved, the oppressive darkness unraveling around us.

What had been dense forest opened into something far greater. Mountains stretched into the distance, their peaks gleaming like silver under a sky that shimmered with stars. Rivers wove through the landscape, carving out paths that seemed to lead to nowhere and everywhere at once.

It was breathtaking. Impossible. And I couldn't shake the feeling that we had stepped into something ancient, something sacred.

The wolf led us to the edge of a cliff, pausing as if waiting for us to understand something. Destin stood next to me, silent but not still. Every part of him was poised, aware. It hit me then. What I'd noticed the night before as I'd lay with my arms threaded under his.

He belonged here. In the real world, our world, Destin stood out. He was strange. Wild. But here? He seemed to belong.

Destin turned his head slightly, probably sensing something in my thoughts, and for a brief moment, our gazes locked. The connection between us flickered. This time not from the wine.

The wolf gave a low huff, drawing our attention back to it. Without another word, it leaped from the cliff, disappearing into the mist below.

Destin stilled, then blew out a slow breath. "Could you see that before?"

I tracked ahead of where he pointed. "Holy shit." In front of us, through the trees, was Destin's cabin.