"It better not blow up this time." Nathan eyed Britt's project from the porch of the research facility.

"It's not going to." Britt moved her pen slowly over the wood, carefully drawing a line of runes along the handle. Her last attempt had crumbled to ash halfway through her writing, making it the third she'd ruined thus far. If it kept going like this, they would have to consider a different object for their flying vehicle.

"That's what you said last time," Nathan complained. "And the time before that… and the time before that…"

"This time is different," Britt said unconcernedly.

Nathan crossed his arms. "How so?"

Britt didn't look up from her work. "This time I'm telling the truth."

Nathan shot her an unimpressed look before turning to Emma. "I'm beginning to think Britt is a masochist."

"It'll be fine," Emma said from her corner of the porch. "She's blown herself up so many times, I'm beginning to wonder if she's indestructible."

"Right?" Andrea turned to Britt. "I thought that healing spell of yours was only supposed to regrow fingers. How are you doing all this?"

"A mage never reveals her secrets," Britt called back. "Now stop talking, I'm trying to concentrate."

Emma shrugged, turning her focus back to cataloging their supplies. There was a lot more in that closet than she expected. Currently, she was organizing the cloth items and preparing to split them up between the four of them. They had several towels, sheets and washcloths, as well as a few sets of clothes.

A sharp pop came from Britt's direction and Nathan backed up a step.

"It's fine!" Britt called. "Just missed a stroke. Easy fix."

"Besides," Andrea said, leaning against the railing. "The wards will protect us if that thing blows."

They'd only discovered the wards when Britt's first attempt exploded in all of their faces, burning away the majority of the moss layer on the ground. Andrea, who had been on the porch reading a book from the library, had been completely unharmed while the rest of them only survived thanks to Emma's healing spells. After that, the three of them stayed on the porch unless Britt needed them to bring her something.

Emma finished splitting the cloth items and handed Nathan and Andrea their piles. "Don't forget to wash them. You're not getting new ones just because you forgot laundry day."

"Yes, mother," Nathan said sarcastically, accepting his pile and placing them in his Inventory.

"Thanks, Emma," Andrea said. "Are we almost done separating out the supplies?"

"We've got two more categories: dishes and books," Emma said. "We'll need to discuss more for the last one. I have a feeling we can all find something useful in that library." The facility was stripped clean of books, food and furniture; they'd even taken the bookshelves. They left the building itself intact, partially because of the wards protecting it.

"Why not just have Britt take them all?" Nathan suggested. "She can read them faster than us with that skill of hers."

"Because that would mean if we get separated, only Britt will have them," Emma said. "I'm trying to be strategic and give everyone the books they can best use."

"Just as long as I don't have to carry the journals," Nathan said with a shudder. "I don't want dead people's diaries in my Inventory."

"What do you think an autobiography is?" Andrea asked.

"Not hand-written," Nathan said pointedly.

Emma shrugged. "Noted."

The journals would probably stay in Emma's Inventory anyway unless anyone objected. She was curious about the rest of the project, and no one else seemed keen on reading them. The only exception was the set of journals they found in the supply closet. Several of the researchers, not just Chesha, had kept their research-related journals in the lab—which made sense, given the secrecy of the project. Britt already insisted on keeping them with her, but Emma wanted to read some of them first. After that, they would probably split them up between the four of them. Emma wanted to know what exactly happened in the experiment before she allowed Britt to play with Chesha's research.

"Almost there… aaand done!" Britt lifted her pen, admiring her handiwork. "You all might want to take a step back, I'm about to do the explosive part."

"You said it wasn't going to explode," Nathan reminded her.

"It's not," Britt said. "…I think. Better safe than sorry."

"We're already behind the wards," Emma said. "You're good to go."

Britt returned her pen to her Inventory and shot Emma a thumbs up. "Here goes nothing!"

She closed her eyes, holding her hand over the fresh runes. Emma couldn't see anything happening, but the hair on the back of her neck stood up. A sudden gust of wind blew around the inside of the cave, tossing Emma's hair into her face. Britt kept her eyes closed, her mouth moving soundlessly as she mumbled something under her breath.

The breeze shifted, rushing toward Britt. Emma almost tried to intervene, but Britt didn't look worried. She held the broom above her head as the wind spun around her, throwing her hair into complete disarray. Then it rushed toward the runes, nearly pulling her off her feet.

In an instant, the cave returned to normal. Emma held her breath, unwilling to break the woman's concentration.

Britt examined the runes, running her finger over the wooden surface. A grin spread across her face. "It worked! The runes are stable!"

Nathan let out a whoop, throwing his hands in the air. "I knew you could do it!"

You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.

Britt didn't even tease him, too ecstatic over her victory to care about the egregiously false statement. She scrambled onto the broom, leaning over the handle. "Come on… come on…" She hovered in the air for a moment before the broom started to rise.

"I'm the Queen of runes!" Britt exclaimed triumphantly.

Emma cleaned up the last of the supplies from the porch. "Hey, Queen of runes! Got room for one more on that stick?"

Britt grinned mischievously. "You'll have to catch me first!" She zipped across the cavern, passing so close that Emma's hair moved with the wind of her passage.

Emma played along with the game of chase, running after Britt while Nathan and Andrea laughed from the porch. She could almost keep up, but every time she got close, Britt would push her broom harder. The speed was impressive, albeit limited to the horizontal direction. Britt rose with each pass, but the increase was slow. With all of them riding it, it would take at least a few minutes to get to the top of the cavern.

Nathan and Andrea joined in on the fun, darting around to try to corner Britt. She used her new height advantage to move out of reach.

"What a shame, none of you have wings," Britt teased, smugly propping her elbows on the narrow wood. From the way the position forced her to twist her body, it couldn't have been comfortable.

"I may not have wings, but I bet I can fly!" Emma crouched low to the ground before pushing off with her legs, putting all of the force that she could into the jump.

This was a terrible idea. Her jump took her even higher than Britt, sending her hurtling toward the wall in an uncontrolled tumble. She flailed her arms, trying to control her movement.

Britt brought her broom close to Emma so she could grab hold of the broom handle, stopping her just before they both slammed into the rock. Their collective momentum nearly smashed them against the wall anyway, but Britt managed to stop them in time, the bristles of her broom barely scraping the rough stone.

"Are you crazy?!" Britt demanded, looking down at Emma hanging off her broom handle like a monkey. Despite the worry in her voice, she couldn't stop laughing. "If you were gonna play leapfrog, why wait for the broom to be finished. I bet you could have parkoured your way out of here."

Emma swung her weight, pulling herself onto the broom with the ease of a practiced gymnast. She was beginning to really appreciate the boost in physical abilities that her stats gave her.

She turned around on the broom to grin smugly at Britt. "Caught you."

Britt stuck her tongue out, still smiling as she brought them back to the ground.

Emma dismounted, dipping a performer's bow.

"You're nuts," Nathan said.

Emma shrugged. "I could've healed myself. Now, how about we get out of this hole?"

A high-pitched screech reverberated around the cavern, instantly extinguishing the pleasant atmosphere. Emma peered through the opening. A giant bird circled above them, it's massive wings casting a shadow over the hole as it passed. Emma hoped it was closer to the hole than it appeared, because even if it was circling low to the ground, the thing looked to be almost twice the size of a bald eagle.

"So… how are we getting past the monsters?" Nathan asked. "Unless we made a wrong turn, the way back to the city doesn't have wards."

"That doesn't make sense," Andrea said. "We had no trouble getting to the city when we first came here. There has to be a path."

"We've been here a couple of months," Britt said. "Spells break down. Runes get trampled. They may have just stopped working since then."

Emma sighed. It was just one thing after another.

"Maybe we could try flying?" Nathan suggested.

"That was the whole plan…" Britt said. "That's why I've been blowing myself up nonstop for three days. Try to keep up."

"Not just out of the hole," Nathan said. "All the way back to the city."

Andrea pointed to the hole. "Did you forget about Mr. Vulture up there?"

"Can't we just outrun him?" Nathan said. "You saw how fast Britt was zipping around on her broom. That's gotta be enough to get to the city before any of the monsters catch us."

"That was when it was just me," Britt said. "The more weight you add, the slower it'll go. We'll be caught before we make it ten feet out of the opening."

"Okay, so walking is out. Flying is out," Emma said. "Any other ideas?"

"We could stay here another day or two," Andrea suggested, shooting an uncomfortable look at the facility. "It's not very comfortable now that we know about the… anyway, they might have sent people to search for us."

"Yeah, right," Nathan snorted. "They're probably glad we're gone. We haven't exactly been model guests."

"Still," Andrea insisted. "We have food, water, beds. This might be a good place to hunker down until we can come up with a better plan."

Britt looked uncertain. "Andrea does have a point…" she said slowly, not fully agreeing with said point. "Maybe we should lie low a little. There might be an answer in one of Chesha's journals."

A low rumble reverberated through the rock as the whole cavern started to shake. Emma threw her hands out to her sides, trying to steady herself as the ground bucked beneath them.

"An earthquake?" Nathan shouted, stumbling around in his attempt to stay on his feet. "Now?!"

"The facility!" Andrea shouted.

They all turned to look at the building—or rather, where the building should have been. It completely vanished, along with all of the tunnels that used to line the walls.

"I've got a bad feeling about this!" Andrea yelled.

"You think?!" Nathan shouted back, swearing as he lost his footing.

Andrea tried to help him to his feet, but she overcorrected, sending them both back to the ground.

Britt jumped back on her broom, hovering several feet in the air. "Everyone hop on!"

Emma grabbed the handle and swung onto it, settling behind Britt. Andrea took the spot in front of her and Nathan ended up hanging off the wood since there was no spot for him to sit.

"You couldn't have made this ride with a bigger broom?!" he shouted, adjusting his hold on the handle.

Andrea kept a firm grip on his arms, leaning over for a more secure hold.

"I wasn't exactly spoiled for choice!" Britt snapped. "The next time you get ahold of a carpet, I'll try to make something more comfortable."

She pulled them upwards, heading for the hole in the ceiling, but with four people weighing it down, the broom rose even more slowly than before. At least being off the ground meant that they weren't being tossed around by the earthquake.

Britt cursed, pushing the broom to go faster. It sped up only a fraction, but it was enough to make Emma look up to see what had spurred her on.

The hole was closing.

"Can't this thing go any faster?!" Nathan shouted, trying to pull his legs up so he wouldn't dangle so badly.

"I'm going as fast as I can!" Britt snapped. "The thing wasn't designed for four people."

"Why not?!" Nathan snapped back. "There are four of us, aren't there?!"

"I've been using runes for less than six months, excuse me for not being an expert at it yet! I thought we had more time to get through the hole!"

Nathan lost his grip, dangling dangerously by one hand.

"Swing upwards so I can grab your legs!" Emma shouted.

Nathan managed to grab the broom with his other hand, swinging his lower body up so Emma could catch his ankles. She pulled them over the handle, giving him a place to lock them together. The action pushed her onto the uncomfortable bristles, but it was better than nothing. Nathan hung off the wood like a sloth, hugging it like a life raft.

"We're not gonna make it!" Andrea said.

The hole was less than half the size it had been when they first fell into it. They were going too slow.

"What if you put more juice in the runes?" Nathan said. "Make them a bit more powerful?"

"That's not how it works!" Britt snapped. "If you overload the runes, they're going to explode."

"And if you don't do something, we're going to be buried alive!" Nathan shot back.

Britt swore, gripping the wood tighter. "This is gonna get dicey!"

Emma activated every healing spell she had, bracing herself for pain. Britt closed her eyes, and the roaring wind joined the thundering rumble in the cave. It whipped Emma's hair into her face, forcing her eyes closed. They shot upward at breakneck speed. Emma felt herself sliding off the back of the broom and she grabbed onto Nathan's legs, trying not to fall off. She gritted her teeth, forcing her eyes open as she looked up.

The hole was gone.

"Stop!" Emma shouted, but she was too late.

They slammed into the ceiling with a loud crack that vibrated through Emma's bones. Pain erupted on her head where it slammed into the stone above and a piece of wood from the splintered broom stabbed into Emma's arm, her flesh healing painfully around it.

And then Emma was falling, gravity dragging her at an alarming rate to the unforgiving stone below.

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