Chapter 25: Close Quarters and Burning Secrets
The cave was not supposed to collapse.
"Just admit it!" Mei Xiao snapped, brushing dust from her robe. "You stepped on the wrong glyph."
"I don't step on traps," Murong Jing He said calmly, even as he used his sword to clear rubble from the narrow tunnel. "Traps fear me."
"Oh right, of course. They must have trembled so hard they collapsed the ceiling."
Their bickering echoed through the dark, narrow space.
Mei Xiao hugged herself against the cold. The air in the hidden corridor was tight and stale—barely enough room for one person, and definitely too little for two.
"Don't move so much," Jing He said. "You'll make it worse."
"Well excuse me, your iciness," Mei snapped, her voice muffled as she was practically chest-to-chest with him. "Maybe if you weren't standing so close—"
"I'm not standing close," he replied, voice perfectly level. "You're pressed against me because the tunnel is half your size."
Mei blinked. "That is… unfairly true."
They reached a dead end—a stone door with phoenix feathers etched into it.
"The second fragment," Jing He said. "It's here."
"Wonderful," Mei said, peering at the carvings. "Do we knock? Say the magic word? Sacrifice a goat?"
Jing He ignored her and touched the center feather. Nothing happened.
Mei sighed. "Maybe it needs my touch?"
He stepped aside, though his eyes lingered on her hand as she pressed it to the stone. The sigil on her wrist glowed faintly—then the door shivered.
A click. A groan. And then… the stone opened just enough to let in a sliver of warm, golden light.
Inside was a pedestal.
And on it—burning softly without fuel—was a small crystal orb. It pulsed in time with Mei's heartbeat.
As she stepped inside, the fragment pulsed again—then flared. The room trembled.
A wall of flames erupted behind them, sealing the door shut.
"Well. That's one way to say hello," Mei muttered.
They were trapped. Again.
Jing He exhaled slowly. "I'll find a way out."
Mei leaned against the pedestal, crossing her arms. "Of course you will. And I'll just sit here… glowing like a magical battery."
He turned to her then, his voice quieter. "You handled yourself well today."
She blinked. "Was that… a compliment?"
His lips curled—barely.
"Don't let it go to your head."
She smiled, cheeks warming despite the danger. "Too late."
And as the flame walls pulsed around them and the second fragment fused with her soul, neither noticed the way their shadows leaned just a little closer together on the cavern wall.