A shimmering blue glow engulfed the stone archway as another team stepped through, vanishing in a ripple of light. Their turn was coming.

  Otter flexed his fingers, his heart pounding harder than he’d like to admit. He wasn’t afraid—not exactly. But the weight of the unknown pressed against his ribs, a constant reminder that this was more than just another Academy exercise. This was a test. One that could determine his future.

  A robed official standing beside the portal glanced at the roster in his hands. “Team Five—step forward.”

  That was them.

  Otter exchanged glances with his teammates before they moved toward the portal as a unit. Jasper rolled his shoulders, Milo adjusted his belt, and Erin let out a slow, measured breath. Sage stood as composed as ever.

  “Initiating simulation,” the official intoned.

  The air grew thick with static. Otter felt the hairs on his arms rise as arcane energy swirled around them. The runes carved into the archway blazed to life, casting strange shadows across the chamber. The glow intensified. Suddenly, the ground beneath him lurched.

  A cold wave of magic rushed over him like plunging into deep water. The chamber, the portal, the Academy—all of it vanished in an instant.

  And then—

  His feet hit solid ground.

  The damp, musty scent of old stone filled his nose. The air was thick and stale, more stagnant than the chamber they’d just left. It was pitch black. Otter heart hammered in his chest. He half-expected an ambush from Lyle and Torrin’s team. They were the last team to come in. He fumbled a torch from his backpack and lit it. When it flared to life, it cast long shadows across crumbling pillars and moss-covered walls.

  Erin turned in a slow circle, her dagger drawn. “Well. At least they got the setting right. This gives me the creeps.”

  Milo adjusted his glasses, peering down the hallway that stretched ahead of them. “This place looks… ancient.”

  “Probably because it is,” Sage murmured, brushing a hand along the weathered carvings on the nearest wall. Faded inscriptions, almost indecipherable, wove around the stone in intricate patterns. “They weren’t lying when they said the Academy was built on top of ruins.”

  Otter ran his fingers over one of the carvings. The stone was cold beneath his touch, but there was something almost alive about it.

  Jasper exhaled sharply. “Alright, fascinating as this is, we’re not here for a history lesson. Let’s get moving.”

  He wasn’t wrong.

  Otter took a deep breath, adjusting the grip on his father’s knife.

  They had their mission. They had their team.

  And now, they had to survive.

  “Alright,” he said, nodding toward the shadowy corridor ahead. “Let’s find that expedition.”

  Erin took the lead, stepping forward into the ancient corridor, the echoes of their movements bouncing off the stone walls. The place felt utterly abandoned, yet the weight of unseen eyes pressed against his back. Whether it was the magic of the simulation or something else, Otter couldn’t say.

  “We need a direction,” Jasper said, glancing down three branching paths ahead. “Unless you want to wander aimlessly.”

  “No,” Otter said, scanning their surroundings. “We look for signs of passage. If the expedition came this way, they had to leave something behind.”

  Sage nodded. “Agreed. Let's split the search. We don’t move forward until we have a lead.”

  With that, they spread out, each taking a section of the chamber.

  Milo knelt near one of the walls, running his fingers over the thick layer of dust on the ground. “No footprints here,” he murmured.

  Erin crouched near the leftmost passage, eyes narrowed. “Something’s off here…” She reached into her pouch and pulled out a small, powdered substance, sprinkling it into the air.

  The dust settled unnaturally against an invisible surface.

  “A tripwire,” she said, nodding in satisfaction. “Looks like someone—or something—set up defenses.”

  Otter, meanwhile, turned his attention to the middle corridor. He walked a few steps inside, scanning the walls for any disturbances. Then, faintly, he spotted something—scratches, unevenly spaced, barely noticeable. He reached out and ran his fingers across them.

  “These marks…” he muttered. “Like someone dragged something heavy.”

  Sage stepped beside him. “Or someone,” she said grimly. “Could be someone’s blade making those marks.”

  Jasper eyed the tripwire Erin had uncovered, arms crossed. “If the expedition set this, that means they didn’t want to be followed.”

  “Or they set it to keep something from coming after them,” Sage countered.

  Otter ran a hand through his hair. “So, either they didn’t want to be pursued, or they were protecting their escape.” He gestured to the left path. “If this was meant to keep people out, maybe that’s exactly where they went.”

  Erin frowned. “Or something else chased them into the middle tunnel.” She pointed at the drag marks Otter had found. “This could mean someone was injured. Maybe they were carrying a wounded teammate.”

  Milo adjusted his glasses. “Or… it could mean someone was dragged off by an enemy.”

  The group fell silent at that.

  Jasper exhaled. “Great. So, to summarize: one tunnel is rigged with traps, meaning someone deliberately set up defenses. The other has drag marks, which could mean someone was injured or abducted.” He looked at the third path, which was dark, empty, and undisturbed. “And the right one looks like it hasn’t been touched at all.”

  Otter followed his gaze. It was tempting to take the safest-looking option, but they weren’t here for safety. They had an objective.

  “So,” Jasper said, crossing his arms. “We thinking left or middle?”

  Sage leaned against her staff. “If they did set those traps, we have no way of knowing whether it was to keep pursuers out or to keep something else in. Either way, we’d be moving blindly through them.”

  “I can try to disable them,” Erin offered.

  “But how many are there?” Milo asked. “If they barricaded themselves, they wouldn’t stop at just one.”

  Jasper rubbed his jaw. “And the middle?”

  The story has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

  Sage exhaled. “The marks suggest movement. If something hunted them, we might be walking into whatever got them. But if they escaped that way, it means they had a destination in mind.”

  Otter considered both sides. He was inclined to go with the middle tunnel—movement meant direction, meant something to follow.

  Either way seemed just as likely. He glanced down at his wrisplay, wishing Luck’s Whisper would give him a nudge, but there was nothing. “We go middle,” he said.

  Jasper raised a brow. “That confidence or wishful thinking?”

  Otter shrugged. “Honestly, it’s just a guess.”

  Sage studied him for a moment, then nodded. “Right then. If no one has objections, middle it is.”

  With that, they adjusted their formation and stepped into the passageway, deeper into the ruins.

  The air grew colder, and the walls narrowed around them. The stone archways were cracked, thick roots breaking through the structure as if nature itself was trying to reclaim the underground labyrinth.

  Otter gazed at the crumbling walls as they walked. Something about this place felt… old in a way that didn’t just mean years. It felt ancient, buried beneath layers of forgotten history.

  Erin paused, tilting her head. “Do you hear that?”

  Everyone stopped.

  At first, there was nothing. Just silence.

  Then, a faint drip… drip… drip…

  Jasper nodded. “Underground stream, maybe?”

  Erin frowned. “Maybe. But…” She pointed down the path ahead. “I swear I hear something else. Like a faint rustling.”

  Milo swallowed. “Please tell me it’s not rats.”

  “Big rats,” Jasper corrected.

  Milo groaned. “Even better.”

  “Could be what made those scratches,” Otter said.

  “Let’s keep moving,” Sage said.

  They pressed on.

  They all carried torches now, and the flickering light cast oddly twisting shadows across the walls, floor, and ceiling. Otter felt like a Kaosborn might jump out at them any time from anywhere. Erin called a stop a few minutes later when the tunnel came to an abrupt halt at the edge of a deep chasm, stretching at least twenty feet across. The remnants of a collapsed stone bridge jutted out from either side, its supports crumbling and unreliable.

  Jasper peered over the edge, kicking a loose rock into the darkness below. It took several seconds before they heard the faint plunk of it hitting water. He exhaled sharply. “Well. That’s a problem.”

  “What are the odds they managed to get a wounded team-mate across this?” Otter wondered.

  Sage shook her head. “Not good.”

  “That doesn’t eliminate the possibility that something else, something that could climb or fly, carried a captive across,” Erin pointed out.

  “True,” admitted Otter. “But I don’t see any way for us to cross. Remember, time is a factor here.”

  “So we double back. Take the trapped tunnel,” suggested Jasper.

  “Sorry, guys,” Otter said. “Didn’t mean to waste our time.”

  Milo patted him on the arm as they turned around and went back the way they came.

  Erin didn’t try to disable the trap. Simply knowing the tripwire was there was enough to avoid setting it off. Besides, if someone came after them, it might slow them down.

  They stepped carefully over the thin wire and into the tunnel beyond. The stone beneath their feet was uneven, with loose debris and jagged edges threatening to trip anyone who wasn’t paying attention. Otter’s heart raced a little faster with every step, his senses on edge, his mind attuned to the slightest shift in the environment.

  The passage stretched out before them, but the ground didn’t make things easy. Erin’s sharp eyes caught the faint outlines of pressure plates set into the floor—hidden traps, perhaps just waiting for an unwitting step. “Watch your footing,” she muttered, her voice low.

  They moved cautiously, their eyes sweeping the passage for any further dangers. The tunnel stretched ahead, winding deeper into the underground complex.

  Then, as they rounded a bend, Erin suddenly stopped short. “Blood.”

  Everyone tensed.

  Otter stepped forward and saw what she meant. A dark stain marred the stone floor, smeared as if something—or someone—had been dragged. The trail led further down the tunnel, disappearing into the shadows.

  “That’s fresh,” Sage murmured, her brow furrowing.

  Milo swallowed. “How fresh?”

  Sage knelt, examining the stain closely. “Hard to say exactly, but not ancient. It hasn’t dried completely, which means whatever happened here wasn’t that long ago.”

  Otter followed the drag marks with his eyes. The sight made his stomach churn. “That means someone from the expedition could still be alive.”

  “Or,” Jasper countered, “whoever did this is still down here.”

  Silence settled over them.

  Erin rose to her feet. “We should move.”

  Otter nodded. “Agreed. But carefully.”

  With renewed caution, they followed the trail of blood deeper into the passage. The air grew colder, the walls narrowing slightly. Every sound felt amplified—their breaths, their steps, the distant drip of water from somewhere unseen.

  Midway through the tunnel, Erin suddenly held up a hand. “Wait.”

  She pointed to the wall ahead. Embedded deep in the stone were several rusted bolts, their tips still gleaming faintly with what might have once been poison. Opposite them, on the ground, lay the shattered remnants of a dart trap—broken wooden mechanisms and a snapped tripwire.

  “Someone triggered this,” Erin murmured. “And not that long ago.”

  Otter crouched beside the ruined trap, running his fingers over the splintered wood. The dust hadn't fully settled around the broken pieces. He exchanged a glance with the others. “Whoever passed through here might still be ahead of us.”

  Jasper exhaled sharply, flexing his grip on his weapon. “Then we keep moving.”

  They pressed on, navigating the uneven terrain. Scorch marks marred the walls at irregular intervals, blackened streaks suggesting that others before them had triggered fire-based traps. Some had faded with time, but others looked more recent.

  Then Milo stiffened.

  “Hold on,” he said, raising a hand. His fingers twitched slightly as he whispered a quick incantation, his eyes scanning the passage ahead. A faint shimmer pulsed in the air just beyond the next bend—an almost imperceptible ripple in the dim torchlight.

  “What is it?” Otter asked, his pulse quickening.

  “There’s an active magical trap up ahead,” he confirmed.

  Otter's stomach clenched. A physical trap was one thing, but magic? That was harder to predict—harder to counter.

  “What kind?” Erin asked, her voice barely above a whisper.

  Milo narrowed his eyes, focusing on the shimmering distortion. “I… don’t know. It’s not something I recognize.”

  Jasper’s gaze flicked to the walls, to the debris scattered across the floor. “If it’s magical, could it be something triggered by movement? Or could it be triggered by something we touch?”

  Erin crouched down, examining the ground where the pressure plates had previously been. “Either is possible. But whoever’s ahead of us got through somehow. The blood trail continues forward.”

  Otter stepped forward, his hand on his knife, ready to react at a moment’s notice. “Maybe there’s a way to deactivate it.”

  Cautiously, they all began searching but came up with nothing.

  “Wait. What’s that?” Erin pointed down the hallway toward what looked to Otter like a smudge on the wall.

  He squinted, but couldn’t make out any details.

  “I think it’s a rune,” said Milo, adjusting his glasses. “I bet that deactivates the trap.”

  “Can you reach it with your spectral hand?”

  Milo shook his head. “It's out of range.”

  Suddenly, Jasper bent over, picked up a loose rock from the floor and tossed it down the hall. As soon as it crossed some invisible barrier, a burst of arcane energy crackled through the air, striking the rock mid-flight. It disintegrated instantly, raining tiny pebbles down on the ground.

  Everyone stood there dumbfounded for a moment before Jasper took a step forward.

  Milo grabbed his arm. “Don’t.”

  “What? I just tripped it. We can go now.”

  Milo shook his head. “I don't think it’s a one-shot trap.” He glanced around until he found another rock and tossed it forward. And it got blasted to smithereens, too.

  Jasper’s face fell. “Oh.”

  Sage frowned, deep in thought. “I have an idea. I can cast Minor Resistance on myself and try to get through. Once I’m on the other side, I can disable it.”

  Jasper scoffed. “Or you cast it on me, and I go.”

  Everyone turned to him.

  Jasper rolled his shoulders. “I’ve got more Life Force than any of you. If anyone’s getting through, it’s me.”

  Sage hesitated. “Even with a resistance boost, that thing could still hit hard.”

  Jasper smirked. “Good thing I can take a hit.”

  Everyone exchanged glances. Otter shrugged.

  “Go for it,” Erin said.

  Sage exhaled, then reached out, resting a hand on his arm. A faint, golden light pulsed from her fingertips. “Minor Resistance won’t block everything, but it’ll help. Be careful.”

  Jasper stepped forward, bracing himself. “I’ll be fine,” he said.

  Otter shifted uneasily. The trap still crackled faintly ahead, like a storm barely contained. There was a very real possibility this thing would zap Jasper right out of the simulation.

  Then—

  Something rustled near Otter’s feet.

  A rat, fur matted and eyes gleaming, scurried over Milo’s boot. He yelped, and jumped forward crashing into Otter, who like a string of falling dominoes, tumbled into Jasper.

  Jasper lurched forward across the threshold, then threw himself backward, landing on top of Otter just as a surge of energy exploded from the trap, blasting the space above them. The magic scorched the air, leaving behind a trail of blackened stone.

  Otter groaned. He felt his wrisplay buzz.

  Luck’s Whisper: Active

  Jasper let out a sharp breath. “You’ve got to be kidding me.”

  Otter turned his head to the side and noticed something. Near the floor, half-hidden beneath an uneven stone slab was a tiny circular indentation.

  A button.

  “Hang on,” Otter said. Ignoring Jasper’s grumbled curses, he reached out and pressed it.

  With a low rumble, a portion of the wall beside them slid upward, revealing a narrow passage. A stale, cool breeze drifted out.

  Otter picked himself up and turned to the others. “Shortcut?”

  Erin peered into the gap, then grinned. “Looks like.”

  Jasper huffed as he got back to his feet. “Lucky,” he muttered.

  Otter smirked. “Yeah, I get that a lot.”

  One by one, they slipped through the opening, leaving the magical trap behind.