442 White lights

Kai could only look at the large rock that separated them from Alex, Abi and Alicia. He felt the ground tremble beneath his feet and he could see the walls start to crumble around them. He quickly ordered his men to continue down the tunnel towards the exit. He and his men dragged the other vampires out along with the dying witch queen.

As they headed out, the walls cracked and the entire structure started to shake. Falling debris, large and small, started to bombard them and they knew they needed to get out as soon as possible. The moment they were out of the tunnel, the ancient structure crumbled behind them, covering them with dust.

The vampires could only watch in horror. Riev and Raven's expressions were the same; filled with worry and dread. Their worry wasn't for Alex nor Abigail. Alexander was strong enough to survive that and they knew that he would do everything to save Abigail... but the witch princess – who would save her?

"F*ck!" Riev cursed, and all he could do was kneel on the snow as he held the dying witch queen.

…

Inside the cavern, Alicia found herself trapped under a small mountain of loose rubble. When she jumped back to grab the necklace, a large amount of debris had fallen from the ceiling and one large rock had blocked her exit. However, Alicia still tried to make her way out, thinking that she could use all of her remaining energy to cast a spell to move the large rock but she was so weak that her spells weren't activating anymore.

She was knocked to the ground by the falling fragments and that was how she became trapped. She tightly closed her fist over the necklace, protecting it with what strength she had left. Unfortunately, when she looked up, the remaining hybrids who had avoided the falling debris, were now coming after her.

Alicia gritted her teeth. Was she going to die here?

She tried to claw her way out of the mountain of rubble when another strong shake occurred. Larger pieces of debris began to fall and thankfully, the hybrids were buried by the falling rocks.

But Alicia just could not catch a break because the same thing was about to happen to her. A large piece of the wall had broken away and was slowly falling over her.

She could only clench her fists. Her legs were stuck and she didn't have the strength to move anymore. She tried to cast a spell but she knew it was useless. There was no way it would work judging from the last time she had tried. But what else could she do? Just give up? No, she had to try and stay alive. She still needed to give the necklace to Abigail.

The next few seconds felt like hours and Alicia braced herself for the impact. However, the seconds kept ticking by with no sign of the wall crushing her. Did her spell work?! No, that was impossible!

Her eyes flew open and the moment she opened her eyes, what came into her view was a masked man kneeling next to her, holding the wall up with his bare hand.

Alicia looked up at him. His red eyes were blazing. He reached out to her using his other hand and grabbed Alicia's arm, pulling her towards him to free her.

The man didn't speak as Alicia just held onto him. "I knew it. It is you, Ezekiel!" she said to him, but the man still didn't speak.

He held Alicia's waist and then pushed the large wall up and the masked man leapt away with Alicia in his arms. The next second, the huge debris hit the ground, making the dust swirl around them. Alicia barely had time to look around as the masked man leapt towards the huge hole in the ceiling where the sky could be seen. He leapt like a bullet, avoiding the falling debris with ease and Alicia could only clutch the necklace in her hand, making sure it didn't fall from her hands again.

In what seemed like no time at all, they finally leapt out to the outside world. In that instant, Alicia pulled the masked man's mask off as fast as she could. She knew that the moment they landed, this man would disappear so she took the only opportunity she would probably have to uncover this man's identity, to confirm once and for all whether this man really was Ezekiel.

She had felt it back then when she had fought against this man. He had held back a lot when they clashed. When he held his sword against her throat, he could have easily finished her off but he didn't. He obviously just let her slip away from him when the woman in black was distracted.

The man tried to move his face, and the mask, away from her reach but it was too late. He could have stopped her but he would have had to drop her to do that.

His mask was pulled off and his face came into view as they finally landed on the snow. It was already dark but the moon was out. The northern lights were shining with the rare and breathtaking white lights in the sky.

Alicia breathed out with great relief. "I knew it was you, Ezekiel," she uttered and Zeke's lips could only twitch as he put her down on the snow.