Mated To My Mate's Worst Enemy (ARIA) novel Chapter 257

Chapter 257

Chapter 257

ARIA

The transition from the second trial dumped us into the third chamber with none of the gentle orientation the previous sections had provided. One moment we were standing on solid ground, the next we were floating, our bodies drifting in random directions as gravity simply ceased to exist.

I flailed instinctively, trying to find purchase on something, anything, but there was nothing solid nearby. Just air—or what passed for air in this impossible space—and the growing certainty that I was going to drift into something deadly if I didn’t figure out how to control my movement.

“Don’t panic,” Ivory’s voice came from somewhere to my left, though “left” was a meaningless direction when there was no up or down. “Stay still. Let yourself stabilize. We need to assess before we act.”

I forced myself to stop moving, to let my body’s momentum carry me wherever it was going to carry me while I tried to understand where we were. My eyes adjusted slowly to the light— more of that bioluminescent glow, but purple this time instead of green or blue.

The chamber was spherical. Perfectly spherical. Like being inside a giant ball, with walls curving away in all directions. I could see the ceiling above me-except it wasn’t really above because there was no gravity to make “above” meaningful. And I could see what should have been the floor below, except it was identical to every other section of wall, just another curve of the sphere.

And covering every surface of this sphere: obstacles designed to kill us.

Spikes protruded from one section of wall, each one easily six feet long and wickedly sharp, their points gleaming with what might have been metal or might have been crystallized poison. They were positioned close enough together that falling into them would mean being impaled multiple times simultaneously.

Another section of wall was covered in flowing lava. Actual lava, somehow contained against the curved surface despite the lack of gravity that should have made it impossible. The heat was intense even from where I was floating in the center of the chamber, making the air shimmer and my skin prickle with the beginning of burns.

A third section held poison dart launchers. I could see their mechanisms embedded in the wall, their barrels pointing in multiple directions, clearly primed to fire. The darts themselves

1/3

were visible in loading chambers-numurus un rem,

with projectiles if they all fired simultaneously.

And covering the remaining sections: plants.

Not normal plants. These were Ivory’s creations, or things very similar to what she’d designed in her laboratory. Carnivorous. Aggressive. Their vines already moving in slow patterns that suggested they were searching for prey, their flower-like mouths opening and closing in rhythm that looked almost like breathing. I could see the toxin glands, could identify the crushing vines versus the injection vines, could catalog their capabilities because I’d watched Ivory create similar specimens back in Shadowmere.

And in the exact center of one wall section, protected by a clear barrier that looked like glass but was probably magically reinforced: the third crystal fragment.

This one was shaped like a star. Six points radiating from a central core, each point glowing with violet light that pulsed in time with something I couldn’t identify. It was beautiful in the way deadly things often were-compelling and attractive despite the obvious danger.

Between us and the crystal, coiled around the barrier like a protective serpent: a creature.

Winged. Serpentine. Easily forty feet long from nose to tail tip. Its body was covered in scales that shimmered with all the colors we’d seen on the enhanced animals—unnatural hues that shifted between shades that shouldn’t exist, that made my eyes hurt if I looked at them directly.

Its wings were folded against its body but I could see their span would be massive when extended. Twenty feet at least. Maybe more. Designed for flight in spaces with gravity, but probably functional here in zero-g through some magical adaptation.

And it appeared to be sleeping. Or waiting. Its eyes were closed, its breathing slow and regular, its body completely still except for the gentle rise and fall of its chest.

“Air chamber trial,” Ivory said, her voice strange in the zero-gravity environment. Sound didn’t carry quite right without gravity to anchor it, made everything feel both closer and more distant simultaneously. “We need to navigate to the crystal without triggering the obstacles or waking that thing. And we need to do it while the air supply is being depleted.”

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