Whatever Eira and Inalia were up to, it seemed to be taking a while. I decided to leave Taeral and the rest of our crew with them and the library archives. I’d had enough of the tiny, almost-impossible-to-read texts, inked on musty, yellowed pages. I needed to move around a little. Maybe there was some anxiousness involved, too.

After all, we were on a tight schedule, and it wasn’t just Inalia’s time that was running out. I only hoped that Phoenix would come back to me with the right information about the In-Between’s oldest twenty-planet solar system. There were thousands that we’d observed so far, and there were bound to be more, farther out into the unobservable universe.

Meanwhile, I had a flicker of time to pass, and I chose to spend it in the tunnel maze. The passages stemming from the original library seemed to go deeper up north, so I followed one at random. I figured it would lead somewhere. Brownie points if it took me to the surface—it would’ve made an excellent escape route if the Hermessi came around. That was bound to happen soon, anyway.

I admired the sleek black walls of the narrow tunnel. Whether it was natural or Cerixian-made, it didn’t really matter. It looked beautiful, and the stolen light cables gave the stone a curious ultramarine sheen. As if black wasn’t really black in this place.

“Where are you off to?” Raphael’s voice startled me.

I sucked in a breath, then turned around and glowered at him. “Sneaking up like that might get you killed someday.”

He chuckled, his hands behind his back. He looked like a little boy caught doing something naughty. “I thought you’d hear me with your vampire senses.”

“My mind was somewhere else.”

“That might get you killed someday.”

“Ha. Funny,” I said, and continued my walk through the tunnel.

Not at all invited, Raphael joined me. “Where are you off to?”

“Nowhere in particular. Just going for a walk.”

“Are you okay?” he asked. He seemed genuinely concerned.

I nodded briefly. “Yeah. My eyes sting. An eidetic memory can do that to someone after thousands of pages read.”

“Eidetic memory?”

“I thought you knew what that was,” I mumbled.

He shook his head. “I might’ve not paid attention in class.”

“What class? You’re a year old. An overdeveloped toddler, basically.”

Raphael came in front of me and stopped, forcing me to come to a sudden halt, as well. I nearly bumped into his chest. His natural scent flooded my senses, making me lose my thoughts for a moment. I’d gone from sassy to derp-mode in less than a second. I’d begun calling it the Raphael Effect. It only happened with him.

“You’ve got a sharp tongue, Amelia. But it might get you in trouble at some point,” Raphael said, his voice low and gruff. The green and blue in his eyes darkened, like a stormy ocean and a midnight sky had set their sights on me. Their intensity sent electrical ripples down my spine, causing the fine hairs on the back of my neck to stand up to attention.

“Trouble? As in?”

I couldn’t yield. Raphael could be imposing and intimidating, and he sure loved to yank my chain, but this felt like one of the moments where I had to raise my chin up high and show him that, when all the fun and games were over, I could still kick asses and take names, if pushed to it.

“Ah, there she is,” he muttered, slightly amused.

“What are you talking about?”

“The lioness I knew you kept hidden somewhere inside you,” Raphael replied, wearing a broad grin. “Just don’t scratch me, kitty. I’m only playing.”

It dawned on me then that he’d been pushing my buttons on purpose, waiting to see when this side of me would come out. What was the endgame, though? What did he hope to accomplish with such tactics?

“Why are you playing?” I asked.

“Because you seem like a lot of fun to play with.”

That didn’t answer my question, per se, but I wasn’t ready to dig any deeper. His close proximity was throwing all my reflexes for a loop. I actually felt vulnerable, standing so close to him. His lips parted slowly as he looked down at me, and I had no idea what to do next. Were we flirting? Or was I really just some shiny new toy for this Perfect creature who was still learning to be part of a group?

I moved past him and kept walking. Despite the tension still sizzling between us, Raphael rejoined me, temporarily quiet. Blood rushed through my veins, making my heart pump harder whenever I stole innocent glances at him—I knew he watched me, too, when I wasn’t looking.

“So, eidetic memory,” he said, bringing the subject of our conversation back into focus.

“Photographic memory,” I replied. “I remember everything I read or see, in general. It’s more of a condition, rather than an actual advantage, if I’m honest. There are some things I’d rather forget.”

“Like what?”

“The people whose deaths I’ve witnessed, for starters. Anyway, I consumed a lot of information in the library, back there, so I need a bit of time to process everything,” I said, my voice gradually trailing off. “This is so… beautiful.”

“It’s natural, by the way. In case you were wondering.”

“How did you know?” I asked.

Raphael gave me a sly smile. “Bane told me. Ancient Cerixians might’ve dug these tunnels, but the smoothness and near-perfect roundness is natural.”

“How so?”

“I have no idea. He didn’t go into details. The black stone is probably soft, easy to grind down. He did mention floods in the tunnels, at some point. They might have something to do with this. Plus, the air currents over time can do this, too,” Raphael explained. “Nature is an incredible entity. An artist, in the true sense of the word.”

I sighed deeply. “Speaking of, where are we headed with it?” I asked rhetorically. “They’ll keep hunting us. You know that, right?”

Raphael nodded. “They’ve yet to pull out all the stops, though. I’m willing to bet they’ve got more tricks up their elemental sleeves to catch us. I doubt they’re trying hard enough.”

“Surely. But I do find their behavior encouraging,” I said as we walked through the black tunnels beneath the Lemnos Woods.

“Encouraging, as in they have valid reasons to stop us,” he replied.

It was my turn to nod. “We’re doing something right. That much we know for a fact. Otherwise they wouldn’t even bother with us.”

“Like Taeral said. All we can do is keep pushing from here on out. If the Hermessi consider us a threat, we might as well be one of the big ones,” Raphael said, a devilish twinkle settling in his eyes as he gazed ahead. I had a feeling he was itching to stick it to them—granted, so was I, and the rest of our team.

My stomach contracted. A thought came back to me, a bitter reminder of a reality that was not that far away from us. “They keep taking fae,” I said. “We’re at thousands fallen, now. It’ll be millions in days, maybe a week or two, tops, if we’re lucky; or if we’re successful in coordinating against their cults.”

“Amelia, whatever happens, we’ll do what we can to stop it,” he said.

“Worst-case scenario, we can just evacuate whomever we can and just scram, right?” I replied, a nervous chuckle slipping from my throat. “We can always close the portals to the In-Between and the Supernatural Dimension. Stick to the earthly one. But even that doesn’t guarantee any safety. There are Hermessi in all the known dimensions. Not to mention the ones we’ve yet to hear about.”

“You’ve thought that far along, huh?”

I glanced at Raphael and found him smiling down at me. I offered a shrug in return.

“I have to,” I replied slowly. “No one else will, but I have to consider all options, regardless of how crazy or cold they might be.”

“You’re wrong.”

It was my turn to stop, just so I could stare at him for a moment. “What do you mean?”

Raphael stopped as well, then turned to look at me. “When you say that no one else will think about these worst-case, universal-damage scenarios. You’re wrong. I’ve thought about it, too.”

“Wow. Okay…”

“What? I’m serious. I’ve thought about this. Failure may not be an option to many, but it is to me. It’s how I was designed.”

“So what would you do if our dimensions were beyond saving, then?” I said, surprised by his thinking. I couldn’t help but appreciate the depth of his foresight.

“We’re operating on a few theories here, but hypothetically speaking, I’d consider finding another dimension.”

“If the Hermessi start the Ritual, it’ll affect all the dimensions, all the universes, including the ones we’ve yet to discover.”

He breathed out, glancing at the curved wall for a second. “How sure are we about that? We know next to nothing about the Ritual’s impact. We do know it’s mainly heralded by the In-Between and Supernatural Hermessi, and that their influence spilled into The Shade, but other than that we can’t be sure. So if there’s a way out via a fourth dimension, I’ll take it. But not before giving it my best shot to defeat them here.”

“I gotta say, I’m… I’m at a loss for words.”

“In a good way? Or a bad way?” he asked, widening his eyes.

I shrugged. “I’m not sure. We’ve been taught that sacrifice is honorable.”

“If it’s meant to buy others time to save themselves, yes. If it’s the only way to stop evil, yes. But if it’s futile, if one’s sacrifice would do absolutely nothing for anyone involved, then what would be the point, Amelia? If there’s one thing I’ve learned so far, it’s that life is incredibly precious. And those of us living the longest should be able to appreciate it. So yeah, theoretically speaking, if there’s a fourth dimension to run off to, I’d go. I’d grab as many people as I can, and I’d go.”

“It’s not even a theory at this point. It’s a dream,” I mumbled.

“When the crap hits the fan, I’m sure we’ll all be scrambling to make it come true.” Raphael chuckled. “But frankly, I’d rather focus on what’s here, on what we can still do.”

His brow furrowed as he saw something over my shoulder, farther ahead from where we’d stopped. He resumed the walk, but his pace quickened. I went after him.

“What is it?” I asked.

“There’s a draft,” he said, then stopped in front of a tunnel opening to his right. “This is weird…”

I waited for him to say something else, but he just stared into that dark passage. There were no lighting cables mounted through it—that much I could tell from my angle, inches behind Raphael.

“Go on,” I replied, hoping it would get him to either move so I could get a better look, or tell me what had gotten him so intrigued.

“This one’s different,” Raphael said, then went in. I followed, soon finding myself equally fascinated. This tunnel was raw, with jagged walls and rocks still crumbling beneath our boots. The others had been smoothed close to perfection.

“It’s new, I think.”

We traveled its entire length—about half a mile, more or less—in complete darkness. Our senses allowed us to move safely. My irises were widely expanded, taking in every shape that would’ve eluded the human eye.

There was also a strange light coming in from the other side of the tunnel. A strange pink that pulsated, casting a fuchsia glow across the black stone walls. The closer we got to it, the better we could see.

“Do you think the Brothers know about this one?” I asked, my voice barely audible.

“I’m not sure. I think it depends on where it leads.”

The end of the tunnel opened up before us, and we both froze, rendered speechless by what we could see. “Oh,” I managed, before my breath got stuck in my throat.

There was no other route from here. This was it—a gigantic spherical chamber, about the size of a concert hall. Unlike the tunnel, its walls and ceiling were smooth, fuchsia light playing across the obsidian-like stone. The floor was somewhere below the deep puddle of… liquid pink. It seemed oddly familiar.

A strange gurgle caught my attention. “What the…”

Eggs. Actual eggs, each about twelve feet tall, made of some type of crystal, kept bumping up to the surface of the pink water. They slowly floated toward the water’s edges, getting themselves attached to the wall, somehow. I couldn’t see the binding process from where Raphael and I stood, but they definitely didn’t budge from where they stopped. Others kept popping up, as if expelled by the water, also joining the first batches closer to the walls.

“There are dozens now,” Raphael said, his gaze fixed on one, in particular. “But there might be more underwater.”

I spent the better part of a minute staring at it, too. It was identical to the others, but, for some reason, it had captured our focus. The casing was pure crystal. Multiple colors reflected across its polished surface. Something moved inside.

“What kind of phenomenon is this?” I asked, talking mostly to myself.

My instinct was way ahead of me, stiffening my joints and muscles. None of this felt right. It was incredibly beautiful, but it didn’t seem like something one normally found out in the wild.

“There’s something inside them,” Raphael concluded. He crouched by the edge of the puddle and reached out to the nearest egg. As soon as his fingers touched it, the surface lit up for a split second, and Raphael quickly withdrew his hand, giving me a worried look. “It burns hot.”

What was in those eggs? Where were they coming from? And most importantly, was this typical of Cerixian nature, or were we stepping into something much weirder and potentially catastrophic? I’d seen enough movies to know that eggs in a hidden cave were never really a good thing.