𝚁𝚘𝚕𝚕 𝚃𝚑𝚎 𝙳𝚒𝚌𝚎: 𝚀𝚞𝚎𝚜𝚝 𝙵𝚘𝚛 𝚃𝚑𝚎 𝙴𝚟𝚎𝚛𝚛𝚘𝚌𝚔

🅕🅔🅔🅛🅘🅝🅖 🅢🅜🅐🅛🅛...🅐🅖🅐🅘🅝

21. FEELING SMALL...AGAIN

『 Jini's POV 』

Ni-ki led us into a massive hall—empty and eerily silent. Honestly, we were like dolls in a giant’s auditorium.

Nobody dared to move.

Because let’s be real: in movies, places like this usually have traps.

"Too bad none of us have powers that stop arrows from randomly shooting out of walls," Sunoo muttered, breaking the silence.

Oh good. I wasn't the only one thinking that.

"Yuna? You got a spell for this?" Jungwon asked.

"Oh, now I’m useful?" Yuna mumbled behind me. "Yeah, yeah, I’m checking the book."

I frowned. Behind me? Wasn't she in the front with Ni-ki and Huening Kai literally five seconds ago?

"I think I found one," she said after a few moments. She muttered a few words from the spellbook—still blank to everyone but her.

"Nothing happened," she admitted. "But I’m pretty sure this hall has the same magic that shut off our invisibility and silencing spells in Enya’s volcano."

"Okay, Ni-ki," Huening Kai spoke up, "if this stone is anything like the last one, you’re the only one who can touch it."

"Yeah, yeah, I know," Ni-ki shrugged. "It’s literally right there." He pointed to the glowing stone at the center of the room. "You guys just stand guard in case something goes wrong."

"What about the Guardian? Drayce?" Kyujin asked. "He might be hiding or something—"

But Ni-ki was already walking toward the stone.

"Ni-ki, be careful," Huening Kai warned. "Drayce is just as powerful as a human as he is a dragon. If he shows up, you’ve got no chance."

"Got it," Ni-ki replied. And then, without another word, he transformed into a dragon.

Holy shit.

It didn’t matter how many times we saw him transform—every single time, it was insane. One second, he was one of us. The next? Massive.

"I'm never getting used to that," Sullyoon whispered.

I nodded. "Same."

"I’m standing with you guys," Yuna muttered, moving next to me. "The lovebirds are intolerable."

I turned and—yep. Sunghoon and Edlynne were blushing and whispering to each other. It was sickeningly cute.

"Can’t really blame them," Sullyoon teased. "They literally became official mid-walk."

"Wait, WHAT?!" I whisper-yelled. I wasn't that stupid—I knew better than to scream and draw attention.

"Yep," Yuna confirmed. "And my single self had to give relationship advice to Edlynne. I told her to just be honest about her feelings."

"Damn," I muttered. "I knew Sunghoon liked her, but I didn’t think Edlynne liked him back."

"How’d you even know?" Sullyoon asked.

"I saw him looking at her with the most lovestruck face ever when we trained," I said. "They’re literally the definition of love at first sight."

"Well, I’ll be damned," Yuna smirked. "I thought it only happened after they started talking more."