We cleared the rubble and carefully stepped inside.

  And froze.

  Suspended in the air before us was an oval stone slab. Its edges were jagged — like giant teeth, sharpened to a perfect edge, as if someone had meticulously carved them to bite. The slab swayed gently, held up by an invisible force. At its center yawned a dark hole — an abyss that swallowed light whole.

  “What the hell is that?!” Marcus whispered, his face pale.

  I swallowed the lump in my throat.

  “It’s what was drawn in the scholar’s journal.”

  “You’re telling me this is... an actual portal?”

  His voice trembled.

  I just nodded.

  “I hope you’re not planning to go in there, Kai.”

  “I mean, sure, I like sticking my nose where it doesn’t belong, but not enough to get eaten by some eldritch void.”

  My gaze drifted away from the portal — and caught something behind it.

  A dagger.

  Black crystal shimmered in its hilt, glowing faintly with shadows. The blade had been driven into the wall, and from it, thin tendrils of dark mist pulsed toward the portal, slithering like veins of ink.

  “Marcus, look.”

  I pointed to the stains of decay around the slab’s edges.

  “Looks like that’s where the flesh-eaters came from.”

  But Marcus wasn’t listening.

  He was moving toward the dagger, slowly, mechanically, like something stronger than his will was pulling him forward.

  “I wonder what happens if we pull it out...”

  His voice didn’t sound like his own.

  A chill gripped my spine.

  “Don’t. Marcus, stop!”

  He didn’t.

  His fingers touched the hilt.

  The darkness reacted.

  It surged to life, wrapping around his arms, his shoulders, his neck.

  A low hum rumbled through the chamber — voices whispering in countless tongues. Marcus flinched. Trembled.

  I lunged for him — but something unseen slammed into me, hurling me against a stone pillar.

  The portal roared. The abyss opened.

  And swallowed him whole.

  No sound. No scream.

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  He was just... gone.

  I scrambled up and ran to the portal. But there was nothing left. Just the black void. My heart pounded in my ears, but I couldn’t think, couldn’t make sense of it.

  Then I saw it.

  A stone by the entrance.

  I grabbed it — and threw it as hard as I could at the dagger.

  Darkness exploded.

  The dagger flew from the wall. The portal convulsed.

  And then — it collapsed in on itself.

  The slab hit the ground with a harsh clang, its fanged edge biting into the stone floor.

  Silence.

  I stood there, breathing hard, staring at the dagger.

  Just a weapon now.

  The crystal shattered. The darkness gone.

  But Marcus...

  Marcus was no longer here.

  ***

  I grabbed the dagger without even realizing how. It lay motionless in my hand, no tendrils of darkness curling from it anymore. The crystal embedded in the hilt was shattered. Yet I thought I could still hear it whispering in some incomprehensible tongue — as if spitting a dying curse at its enemy.

  A chilling cold started to creep into my fingers, but I forced myself to pull away. And the whispering stopped.

  I exhaled. It calmed me for a moment — just enough to gather myself.

  “Damn it… Marcus…”

  I clenched the dagger tightly, cast one last look at that cursed slab now sunk into the stone floor, and pulled myself out of the forsaken swamp, hand over hand along the rope. But Marcus’s image wouldn’t leave my mind — his body consumed by shadow, his eyes frozen in terror, his disappearance.

  The moment I reached the end of the rope and let go, the solid ground under my feet felt unreal — too real.

  But I wasn’t given a moment to breathe.

  “What happened?!”

  Kris was the first to speak. Her voice cut like a blade.

  “Where is Marcus?! Speak. Now.”

  I hadn’t even opened my mouth. Her sharp tone jolted me, but not enough to form words.

  The wardens gathered around. Their eyes were filled with worry, confusion. I was gasping, my temples pounding. Kris seemed to realize I wasn’t ready to speak.

  “Get Kai some space. He needs to breathe.”

  She still sounded tense, but less biting.

  They sat me down under a tree and handed me water. I closed my eyes, trying to pull myself together.

  “You alright?”

  I looked up. It was Madeline.

  Her voice was quiet, steady. It grounded me.

  I let out a long breath. “Yeah. Much better.”

  I stood up and began telling the team everything — the portal, the dagger, Marcus being pulled into the darkness. When I finished, silence fell. Heavy, suffocating silence.

  Kris paced back and forth, fists clenched. Her eyes kept darting to the side, like she was calculating something in her head.

  “Madeline heard it…”

  She stopped.

  “She heard that humming you mentioned. Damn it! She warned us something was happening there!”

  Mads shook her head and muttered a curse.

  “We didn’t even have a way to get to you,” Kris added, her voice tinged with frustration and helplessness.

  “So… what now?” Heles asked, her voice trembling slightly. She turned away.

  “How do we save Marcus?”

  Kris kept pacing. Her fists clenched tighter. She was racing to find a solution, fast.

  But rushing blindly back to those ruins, without any idea what to do with that accursed slab — it wasn’t a good idea. And she knew it.

  “Kai, can you move?”

  I nodded.

  “Then pack up. We’re heading back to the city. Now.”

  She lifted her head. Her eyes were burning with determination.

  “I have a lot of questions for the Principal.”

  We gathered our things.

  And left for the city.

  Was it really a portal — or something worse?

  And what the hell was that dagger?