The lifeboat sped towards the castle, settling over the portion that Jace and Megan would be scouting. The place was so massive that they needed almost all of their scouts in order to even come close to searching the whole place.
Jace and Megan leapt our of the boat, landing in a paved courtyard near a grand entrance.
The cleanly cut bricks almost looked like they were made of gold in the swiftly setting sun's light.

Jace measured the distance between the sun and the horizon with his eyes. "We don't have a lot of time. We'd better hurry."

They sprinted into the gargantuan structure and down the vast halls.

The castle seemed to be abandoned, but it was as clean as if maids had just come through.
Their footfalls echoed through the cavernous rooms.

They reached a massive garden enclosed by a glass roof. Exotic plants covered every inch of the room. Vines scaled the brick walls and paved paths cut through the lush vegetation. Flowers of every size and color bloomed among leaves of every shade of green. Huge fruit trees reached towards the glass dome, plump fruit hanging heavily from their branches.

The pair took a few hesitant steps forward, ready for anything to jump out of the plants.
When nothing happened, Jace grew more confident and went over to examine the braided bark of a low-hanging fruit tree. His gaze moved from the bark to the fruit.

Megan stayed alert, constantly scanning the trees. "Jace, I think we should move on."

He stared at the fruit. "Sure, but let me grab a quick snack. I'm starving."

"No..." before she could stop him, Jace plucked a piece of fruit. The food withered in his hand and something rumbled overhead.

Megan stared at the vibrating glass ceiling.
Something moved above it. "Crap." That's all Megan got out before a large pale blue creature crashed through the glass.

It had a long, serpentine body, huge feathered wings, and needle teeth. Feathers circled its neck like a mane and pale icy blue eyes eyes the two scouts. It leveled trees and coiled around itself, splintering trunks and crushing plants as it settled into the garden. It released a deafening, screeching roar. Part of its muscular body whipped out at Jace.

Megan tackled him out of the way. "I told you not to touch anything."

"This isn't my fault." He argued.

"Whatever," Megan stood, "just get up."

They managed to stand, but as soon as they had, the tail lashed out, knocking them across the room. Thankfully, they landed in a flower bed.

Jace tried to stand, but winced and toppled over, clutching his chest and favoring his right leg.

Megan looked from Jace to the beast, then, grabbing Jace's rope, charged forward. She coiled the rope around the beast's neck and yanked its chin into the ground. She muzzled it as it tried to roar.

Angry now, the beast surged, contorting it's body and sending Megan sprawling across the pavement.
<>
Jace managed to sit up and watched helplessly as Megan went flying. He forced himself to crawl over to where she lay motionless. He touched her shoulder.

Suddenly, she moved. Rising to her hands and knees, shadows surrounded her right hand while her left hand seemed to glow. Slowly, she stood, her hair, now loose of its ponytail, moved slightly as if it were underwater. Her left eye was glowing bright white and her right eye was completely black.

Jace called her name, but she didn't respond.
She turned on the creature, blasting it with balls of shadow and beams of light.

Eventually, seared and smoking, the creature collapsed into a lifeless heap.

Jace's jaw dropped.

Megan didn't return to normal. She stood there engulfed in both shadows and light.

He called her name, worry edging into his voice.

She turned to face him and saw the concern etched across his face.

Her eyes faded back to normal and she collapsed into Jace's arms.

A/N
I know, it's been like a week and I'm SO sorry about that. I was getting into one of my other stories and really wanted to finish it.
Anyway, thanks for being patient and bearing with me. Sorry again.
Thanks for getting me to over 100 reads. 😁It doesn't seem like a lot, but I really appreciate it.
-Cheshire