Archive of Our Own ^beta

  “I’m surrounded by idiots.” Vio muttered, holding their head in a hand. 

  “But at least we’re hot.” Shadow grinned. 

  “I guess I forgot the lava.” Vio sighed, sitting down. 

  “I was meaning our appearances.” Shadow pouted. 

  “Sweaty?” They raised an eyebrow. 

  “No,” Shadow shook his head, “super cool.” 

  “I’m pretty certain sitting in the middle of a volcano doesn’t make us cool. If anything, we’re boiling.” Vio stretched out their legs. 

  “Ugh.” Shadow groaned and fell on his back to the floor, the chains that were keeping him from using any of his magic or even standing up rattling. “When’s Red getting here?” 

  Vio cackled, stressed and frustrated. “We didn’t tell them!” They slapped a sweaty wet arm to their forehead. “They don’t know where we are. We’re trapped. Ha!” they dissolved into mad laughs till they screamed in frustration. 

  Shadow watched them before patting them on the back. “There there. At least we aren’t mortal.” 

  Vio looked down at Shadow from where they had sat up into a kneeling position from when they had screamed. “Oh.” They breathed, remembering. “Right. We aren’t mortal.” They huffed a frustrated growl as they joltingly got to their feet. “And I’m an earth spirit.” With a snap of their fingers, the chains on Shadow fell off and the platform they were on rose to the lip of the volcano, waiting for them to step off onto safe and cooler ground than the inside of the volcano surrounded by lava. 

  “The others are not to know of this.” Vio warned as they left. 

  Shadow nodded. “Yeah, that’d be bad. If they knew, then they wouldn’t let us out of their sights anymore, and we can’t have that.” 

  Vio grinned softly, with a sharp gleam in their eye. “No. We can’t.”