“She was trying to burn away his mortality, but his parents snatched him from the fire and he didn’t become immortal. She was angry and told them that he had been worthy of immortality but their fear had kept him from it.”
“So you think we have to go into the fire?” I asked incredulously.
“We’re worthy, we’re brave, so we have to believe that no harm will come to us and pass through,” Io said confidently.
“We can’t go back the way we came,” Ahyana pointed out. “It seems like we only have one option.”
Zalira nodded. “I suppose if we burn, Io has salves.”
“I do,” Io confirmed.
Suri pointed at the fire and then drew her hand toward herself.
She was right. The flame wall was creeping toward us.
Soon we wouldn’t have a choice. With every moment that passed, the heat became more intense. “We either go through it or we let it burn us slowly,” I said. “Together?”
“Together,” Ahyana said.
We all took each other’s hands.
“Go!” I yelled.
Chapter Thirty-Eight
Running into a wall of fire went against every instinct I possessed.
Be brave,I told myself.
When we reached the flames, they immediately engulfed us, the heat unbearable and excruciating. I heard my sisters calling out in pain, but we pressed forward.
And I ran into the far wall, beyond the fire.
I turned to look at my adelphia and none of them had been burned. We had felt the fire, but it hadn’t harmed us.
“Are we immortal now?” Ahyana asked with a short laugh.
The fire suddenly disappeared and the bioluminescence turned on. The room filled with a high-pitched, otherworldly laughter.
“What is that?” I asked.
“If I had to guess, I would say the goddess of mischief,” Zalira said. “She’s an Alodian goddess. Our father used to tell us stories about her. She enjoys illusions and tricks.”
Ahyana shook her head. “That didn’t feel like an illusion.”
The fact that none of us had burned meant that it hadn’t been an actual fire.
“If this was her test, then we should expect everything past this point to be real,” Io said. “I don’t think there will be any other illusions.”
“Is there a goddess of cute baby animals and rainbows?” I asked.
“If there was, she’d probably send both to attack us,” Zalira responded.
A door suddenly appeared in the wall where we all stood. It opened. We walked through it into another short hallway that led to yet another door.
The sign on this one said:
Vigilance
