‘No,’ Kinlear said. ‘Use my blood.’
She didn’t listen. The pain was quick, and red soon ran from her skin like a river, dripping down the stones. Before it slowed, she turned and pressed her hand to the enormous door. She could feel its power, like the heartbeat of a great, slumbering beast.
She gasped as the door drank her blood hungrily. That overpowering feeling swam through her, begging her not to release her hand. To stay here and bleed herself dry, if only so the door could taste her for eternity.
But then Six let out a croak, and Ezer ripped her hand away.
The symbols suddenly flared to life, filling with dark tendrils of shadow that curled from the cave walls, as if they had indeed been hiding before. As if called by magic, they filled every symbol upon the door, undulating like snakes, until suddenly …
A great rumble, as enormous locks on the other side slid open. Dust rained down from the cave ceiling and, with a great groan … the door clicked open.
There was only darkness beyond.
Awhooshof frigid air swam outwards, kicking up eddies of dust around their ankles.
Kinlear looked at her the way she imagined she always looked at him.
Like she washismystery, too.
‘What is it,’ he said aloud, ‘aboutyou?’
He turned and pried one of the torches away from its clawed sconce. The purple flames flickered even as he held it out to the waiting dark.
It was thick, like it was swirling with real living shadows, the kind that would not be chased away by firelight.
But then Ezer noticed something on the side of the wall.
A groove, shining with dark liquid.
Something strange crawled up and down her spine, a feeling that was not quite right. She’d seen those grooves before.
She pried another torch off the wall, and leaned just over the threshold, dipping the purple flames into the groove.
It burst to life, with a tendril of fire that snaked away, down into the darkness until the entire rounded tunnel was lit.
Ezer’s heart felt like it stopped, and she sucked in a breath.
It was her labyrinth.
39
It couldn’t be right.
But there was the frost forming in strange whorls upon the rounded walls. There was the groove and the fire and the ice-coated cobwebs that hung in the furthest edges. The feel of the wind was the same. The cold was ancient and alive.
It was her labyrinth, indeed.
But this one was five times the size. Enormous tunnels stretched high over her head, large enough for any size army to pass through.
Large enough for a raphon.
Ezer backed away, shaking her head. ‘It can’t be.’
‘Can’t be what?’ Kinlear asked.
‘I’ve dreamt of this,’ she whispered, as her breath formed before her in a white cloud. There was no use hiding it now.
Kinlear gave her a strange look, and for a moment she thought he might say something. But then he coughed again, and he had to reach for his second vial.
