At the same time Jay, Kayla, Tayla, and Ethan begun their race against the Terpolites, Hathor found herself falling through the dark sky of an unknown world.

Releasing her situation, she shrieked and grabbed a nearby vine, fingerless gloves the only things stopping her palms from burning. She grunted as she stopped, dangling from the long vine, unable to see the ground below. Hathor breathed a sigh of relief at not hitting the ground. From experience, and by ‘experience’ she meant ‘training’, she knew how much it hurt to go splat on the ground immortality or no. That was something she wasn’t eager to go through again.

Another shriek from above made her look up. Seeing what was coming, Hathor jumped to another vine moments before Zoe landed on top of her. “Watch it!” she yelled at her girlfriend, regaining her grip.

“Sorry!” Zoe called, sliding down the vine to beside her. “Wasn’t expecting there to be no ground.” She gave Hathor a confused look. “Why ae you worried? You have wings.”

Hathor felt her face flash. She’d forgotten. “Yeah, well, I felt like using my hands this time,” she told Zoe with a forced smile. “Make it a challenge.”

“Liar.”

“Ladies, please.” Ray dropped down beside them, making both jump. “Save the flirting for another time. We have a mission.”

Zoe muttered, “You could at least say where we’re going.”

Ray used her legs to build momentum, swinging back and forth before leaping to another vine. Another. Another. Until only her snow-white hair could be seen among the greenery. With a reluctant sigh, Hathor followed. Zoe was close behind.

With each swing, the three slowly lowered themselves to the ground. At least, that was what Hathor hoped. There seemed to be no ground, just an endless chasm. Another reason not to fall. She’d done enough jumping from cliffs for a lifetime and, while she could fly, Hathor was not fond of heights. Though her mother pushed her in training, especially when it came to flight of cliff jumping, that was always taken into account.

The thought of her mother almost made Hathor miss the next vine.

She’d been keeping an eye out for her mother since the last time they say Ray, at the place where both Amneris and Colt vanished. Hathor was the one to check the bottom of the drop with Zoe. They’d found nothing. No trace. No bodies. Not even a drop of blood. There was no sign whatsoever of where they could have gone.

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Hearing her name, Hathor forced herself to a stop. She’d overshot Ray.

The Dreama woman was sliding down her vine to the ground below.

Ground, Hathor thought, not hiding her relief. She started sliding down her own vine, unable to stop the thrill coursing through her body at the speed of decent. Hathor managed to slow enough to land on her feet without breaking anything, though her thighs jolted on impact. Not a bad landing but far from her best. She rubbed her hands together, attempting to get some feeling back from the numbness that overtook from sliding too far too fast.

Ray and Zoe were standing in front of a large cave carved into the side of a cliff. Parts of it look natural. The rest of it . . .

Zoe was giving Ray an annoyed look. “It’s a hole in the wall,” she grumbled as Hathor joined them. “What’re you expecting to find in a hole in the wall.”

Ray rolled her eyes. “I thought Amns got smart people to join her Court. Oh, wait.” She gave Zoe a sly look. “Aren’t you supposed to be one of the smart ones since you always make stuff?” She snickered. “I heard about the dragon.”

Zoe looked like she was about to burst.

Hathor took the opportunity and jumped in before some real damage was done. “Is the item in the cave?”

Ray sighed. “Technically, it’s on the other side of the cave.”

“But?”

“The only way you can get to the other side is to go through the cave. You can’t go up and around.” She placed her hands on her hips. “You have to go through the traps.”

“Traps? Are there a lot of those?”

A nod.

Hathor tugged at her auburn-gold hair, glancing toward her girlfriend. “At least we’re used to traps.”

Zoe blanched at the word traps. Clearly she was remembering something she didn’t want to. Hathor kissed her cheek. “I’m fine,” Zoe smiled. “Promise.”

“You better be!” Hathor laughed. “We might need our tech whiz to find and disarm the traps!”

“If you two are done being all lovey dovey,” Ray called, waving them over from where she was standing in the entrance of the cave, “we should get going.”

Moving closer to the stone, Hathor noticed carvings around the entrance. They were difficult to see but once she saw one, she realised the covered the entirety of the arch-like entrance. She brushed her fingers over some of the symbols. They looked so familiar! Hathor knew she’d seen them somewhere before but couldn’t remember where.

It took a few minutes to decide to would enter first.

Ray, being the only mortal of the group, insisted that one of the other two go first.

Knowing Zoe was far from thrilled about having to go somewhere filled with traps, Hathor, reluctantly, agreed to go first. She stepped into the cave, Ray and Zoe a few paces behind her.

There was a snapping sound, followed by creaking. Hathor froze, looking up to the shaking ceiling, Zoe and Ray doing the same. The former let out a string of colourful swear words to express her surprise.

The three ran.

The entrance of the cave collapsed on top of them.