Jace Irons: The Shard of Chaos

Chapter Twenty-Two: Another Reunion?

Within seconds, we were back on the side of the mountain, on the same bronze platform we'd taken down. I looked out over the desert below us, and the sun was just beginning to come up over the horizon. Today was the day that camp would be attacked. I clutched the power core in my newly-upgraded metal hand and grinned.

I turned around to look at my group of friends, and to my surprise, they all looked at me.

"What's up?" I asked.

They all glanced at each other. Then David spoke up. "Well...what do we do now?" he asked me. Reyna and Phillip looked at me as well, as if waiting for orders.

"Well, shit." I managed to say. I looked at the power core in my hand and held it up for them to see. It glowed gently in the early morning sunlight. "This is mission accomplished, I guess." No one said anything, just silent nodding. Reyna put two of her fingers in the corners of her mouth and whistled loudly. I looked up to see Scipio come whooshing down out of the sky, landing neatly next to Reyna. He looked happy to see that she was okay. He was a good pegasus. I smiled.

Reyna looked up at me. "How will you get home?" she asked.

I looked at her, dumbfounded for a second, then swore quietly under my breath. That was something I never even considered. How were we going to get home?

"Well, I'm sure David and I could–" I began.

Just then, the metal disc my friends were standing on began to rumble once again. We all knew what that meant, but the only problem was that we were still standing on it.

As the disc rumbled, David quickly sprung off of it, landing on the volcano surface in a flash. Phillip and Reyna took a little longer. As I was moving off the pad, Reyna gave Phillip a hard push forward, sending him stumbling forward to safety. Just then, the platform dropped again. I lunged forward just as the platform plummeted again. At that split second, Reyna jumped towards the edge of the platform with all her might as it gave way below her. I threw my metal hand out and I managed to grab her hand right before she fell hundreds of feet back into the volcano.

I was on my stomach at the edge of the new giant hole in the mountain, with Reyna's hand firmly in mine. We locked eyes for a split second. Now I had seen Reyna give me a lot of looks, and this one was new. I had seen her scared before, and I expected her to look terrified after almost falling to her death, but she was looking right into my eyes like she was entirely at peace, like dangling over the edge of a huge chasm was where she wanted to be. I confused the hell out of me. We only locked eyes for a second before I began to pull her up. Phillip and David had come around the edge of the hole and grabbed my shoulders to help pull Reyna up. We pulled her up over the edge and onto her feet.

"Are you okay?" I asked.

She looked down. "I'm fine," she said under her breath.

"Well what the hell was that about?" asked Phillip.

"No idea," I said.

"Are we sure we wanna stick around and find out?" said David.

Just then, the mountain began rumbling again. "Too late," I muttered.

We all took a big step back. Shooting up out of the hole was the metal platform again, and on it was the most majestic pegasus I had ever seen. What impressed me even more, is that it was entirely mechanical. It was solid bronze, controlled by a dazzlingly intricate complex of gears and wires. Its eyes glowed with an orange flame. A note was folded around the reins on its back. I unfolded it and it read: Heard you needed a ride. Not a scratch, kid. I chuckled and put the note in my pocket. Looks like David and I had a ride home now.