The Final Downfall [Inter-Universal Protectors Series: Book 2]

“What do you mean the tunnel ends?”

“I mean what I said,” Hathor told Ray who had stayed with Zoe while she went on ahead. “The tunnel ends with a giant stone wall.”

“Did you check for a secret handle or something?”

She had.

Hathor spent the last twenty minutes poking and prodding the stone wall, searching or a secret handle, hole, lever, anything. But there was nothing. There wasn’t even a message and no symbols were found anywhere. They had no way to escape the tunnel now that the only way in and out was blocked.

Zoe stumbled as she took a step forward, leaning against the wall for support. “Six eyes are better than two, right?” she breathed.

“Zo, you’re in no shape to–”

“If we don’t find a way out of this tunnel and the item that’s hidden there then none of us will be in any shape to do anything,” she hissed to her girlfriend.

Reluctantly, Hathor nodded. She helped Zoe stumble to the blocked end of the tunnel, Ray at their side. The three women prodded the area around the blocked end of the tunnel, even going back a few metres to be sure nothing was missed.

All that was found was the smooth stone. Hathor thought it felt polished. Perhaps the tunnel had been dug out at some point . . .

She ran her hands across the stone, stopping when she felt something. “Guys.” Hathor spun. “Guys! I’ve got something here.”

Ray felt for the strange lump, the only imperfection on the stone. “Good find!”

She pushed it.

The three held their breaths . . .

Nothing happened.

“Well, shit,” Ray said.

“Wait.” Zoe spun, looking around the room frantically. “Do you hear that?”

Now that it was pointed out, Hathor was able to make out a creaking sound. It was quiet. She couldn’t figure out where it was coming from. Unless . . .

“Gods, damn it, mum!” Hathor threw her hands in the air in frustration. “Sometimes I don’t like you.”

“What?” Zoe asked.

Before she could answer, the floor beneath them vanished. The three women screamed as they fell into the black void below.

Hathor grunted as she pushed herself upright. Falling unconscious twice in one day. Not her record but not something she enjoyed happening. Zoe was on her side, groaning, winded from the fall. Ray, laying on her back, gave the pair a thumbs up. Hathor flipped to her feet and begun searching the chamber they had fallen into.

The room was quite different from the tunnel. The black walls were polished and covered in golden symbols. Hathor recognised a few words. It looked like the Old Language. Well, a variation of it. Possibly an older variation . . .

Some of the recognisable words stuck out to her. They told of how the item they were after was in this room. Possibly even steps away. It made sense. Her mother had a talent for hiding things in plain sight.

“Find anything, princess?” Zoe called, having finally overcome her head injury.

“The items are definitely here,” Hathor said. She glanced toward Ray. “Any chance you can read this writing?” The Dreama laughed and shook her head. “You could have just said no.” Hathor already knew Zoe couldn’t read the language . . . She tugged her hair in thought, trying to make sense of the few words she could read. “Okay, it says the item is here. I don’t know which or exactly where.”

“In other words,” Ray started, “we’ve gone from searching a planet to a room. It’s something.”

Zoe huffed. “Let’s get a move on. And watch out for traps.”

The thought of more traps made Hathor cringe. She didn’t want to deal with any more collapsing tunnels, trapdoor floors, and potential deaths. Never mind that she was immortal. It was still painful.

“The item could be anywhere,” Zoe muttered as she searched. “We have to check everywhere. The walls, the floor, any kind of secret compart–”

“Found it.”

Hathor spun, dashing toward Ray who had, indeed, found a secret compartment in the wall. In the compartment, which was only a few centimetres tall, was a small velvet pouch. It looked entirely defenseless. That fact that it was defenseless made her nervous. “It can’t be that easy.”

“Seconded,” Zoe said.

“Take it or leave it?” Ray asked.

“Take it.”

The Dreama shrugged and took the pouch, placing it in her pocket which was then zipped up so it wouldn’t be lost.

That movement set off what must have been every trap in the room.

The chamber shook. The three fell to the ground. Before they could recover, arrows were shot from the ceiling. Ray scrambled back, one of the arrows landing between her legs. She flinched at how close it was to piercing her. Ignoring the woman’s swearing, Hathor summoned a shield to cover them. The arrows bounced off them harmlessly. They hit the floor and sparked. The floor itself ignited.

“Gods damn you, Topanga!” Ray screamed to the ceiling. “I will murder you when we get out of this overkill.”

“If we get out of this overkill,” Zoe muttered.

“First, we need to get out of here.” Hathor remained focused on the shield as the flames grew higher. “Anyone got anything we can use against fire?”

Ray reached into her other pocket, pulling out an almost clear blue crystal. It looked like a drop of water. She held it in her fist, silver-painted lips pulling into a smile. “I have an idea.” She turned to Hathor. “I need a hole.”

Confused, Hathor did as was asked. Ray threw the crystal into the fire. It skidding to a stop across the room and exploded. A shower of rain smothered a path through the flames. Keeping the shield up to protect them from the heat, the three ran to the other side of the chamber. Now, they were standing beneath the trap door.

Zoe looked up. “So, unless you have a plan to get that thing open–”

“Not a problem,” Ray said, reaching into her pocket for two more crystals – one red and shaped like a flame, the other round and brown.

The brown crystal was thrown at the ceiling. Stones from the ‘floor’ above fell around them, Hathor’s shied the only thing stopping the three from being crushed. She struggled with the strain, feeling her power flicker under the pressure.

Ray dropped the red crystal to the floor. “We need to shield ourselves from that,” she said casually. “Preferably in the next three seconds.”

Hathor didn’t have enough time to question the decision. She strengthened the shield around them as much as possible, having no idea what was about to happen–

Bang!

The crystal exploded with enough force that, even with the shield, the three women didn’t entirely avoid injury. They were thrusted through the hole in the ceiling, the force of the blast making the shield around them act like a battering ram, breaking straight through the tunnel they had been trapped in.

They were thrown through stone, the shield before them the only thing stopping the three from being crushed. Flames chased them through the newly created pathway, coming closer and closer with each passing second.

The broke through the mountain, being tossed into the sky. The three women looked on in awe at the explosion of flame, dust, and stone which followed them.

The explosion dispersed. The shield shattered. For some reason, Hathor looked down. She cursed. They were very high up. Falling from this high would definitely result in immediate death upon impact with the ground. Hathor’s panic vanished. She had wings. All she had to do was fly to the others and lower them to the ground. Simple.

She went to spread her wings, only to bark in pain as black dots danced in her vision. The explosion had broken her wings! She had no way to get to them now.

Ray and Zoe noticed her pain. They glanced at each other, sharing a nod. A shield made of their combined power wrapped around the three. While it did nothing to stop the rate of their fall, it made the impact on the ground survivable. They fell to the grass with no more injuries than they’d left the mountain with.

Ray rolled onto her back, bursting into laughter. “That was fucking awesome!” the Dreama exclaimed, thrusting her fists into the sky.

“Let’s never do that again,” Zoe smiled, crawling to Hathor. She poked her girlfriend’s broken wings, seeing just how much damage was done and decided they would heal quickly.

Zoe and Ray helped Hathor to her feet, the three using each other as support. Ray used her power to open a portal back to Lyriumia.

“Time to go home,” Hathor sighed happily.