VenatIO (Book I Of The IO Series)

XL

DAY TEN

1140 HOURS

LOCATION- EARTH, BERMUDA TRIANGLE

-

"I don't feel poisoned," I replied instantly, looking at my body and then looked at Eli. "How do you know the water is poisoned?"

He turned around and pointed at the sign on the wall. It was in Latin again and I didn't even attempt to read it, "The cure for the Neptunian is within," he said.

I nodded. I didn't feel fear at knowing that maybe I would die. That maybe something would happen to me. But it was clear the rest of them were worried.

"It's either this or the Gaylord binding Alex made me take," I replied, trying to use humour to calm the situation. It did not work. Ty met my gaze, and something travelled from him to me.

"Come on, we need to get the chalice," Ty said. I looked to my watch and with horror saw the timer no longer held the hour.

"Twenty minutes," I whispered to them. "We have to go."

The corridor in front of us longer was dark as we walked past, each other lantern placed on the wall illuminated. My gaze dragged along each of us. Eli was battered, a new cut had appeared on his forearm. Jaz was limping in front of me. Her skin was dirty, all of our skin was filthy. Ty was beside her, leading the way. He looked awful too but unlike the others I could feel him. He felt awful.

But none of us compared even slightly to Michael. Michael looked dead.

Eli was behind me, guarding my back like I was going to fall any second. I turned around to raise a brow at him, when I noticed the corridor behind us was disappearing. Every step Ty took, an area of the corridor behind us disappeared. I turned my face calmly toward the front, not wanting to freak out anyone further.

"The walls," Jaz said with disgust. My eyes moved towards it and I saw what she was talking about. The walls were made of skulls, stacked on top of one other. It was vile.

"Ignore it, Jaz," I said, "ignore it, we've come this far, nothing can stop us."

She looked back to me and nodded. Her eyes however spoke a different story, I guess it would take us all time to heal from the experience.

"Be quiet," a sound said from the distance. I froze and stopped walking. Eli immediately held onto my arm.

"You okay," he asked.

"No, not that," I said and then put a finger to my lips motioning him to be quiet. And then I heard another voice in the distance. He heard it this time too.

"Burke," Jaz said, well accustomed to him. I nodded. They were there. We had to get it before them,

"Guys, come on," I said quickly sprinting into a run, "we have to get there before them."

They followed me. The corridor illuminated as we ran, lights flashing on and in the distance, I could make out the faint outline of a door. I ran to it and heaved open the door.

I stepped in. My mind quickly absorbed every detail I could see, ignoring the outline of the other team. The first thing I saw was the glass box. Within the glass box sat with all its glory the object we had come this far for.

The chalice of Neptune.

It was stunning. The stem was made of two entwined glass strings that illuminated in the darkness. The strings spread out at the bottom like the roots of a great oak. And at the top, it uniformly twisted into smaller sections holding a metal womb. It was stamped with Neptune's sign.