He gripped it in a reverse hold. “Stay close.”
The time rune burned into the far wall, its purple lines glistening. I approached it and pressed my palm against the hot surface. It was oily, and it warped like stretched skin.
I slipped my fingers under the threads and heat rushed to my face. This felt wrong. They writhed, slick as fish guts. I searched for the loop to break it, but the strands curled like worms, slipping away from my grasp.
Then they moved.
A hiss split the air as the purple cords slithered higher, winding around my wrist. Their touch was clammy and horribly alive. I jerked back, but the threads tightened, digging in like hooks.
He grabbed my arm. “What’s happening?”
“I don’t know. Cut it off me!”
Kairos lunged as the rune dragged me closer.
I thrashed, trying to brace myself, but my boots skidded on the wet rocks. The rune widened, tugging with impossible strength.
The wall rippled.
It yanked me forward and I fell through the stone, plummetingdown. Through the wall and deep into a void that swallowed my scream.
45
THE MAZE
My feet slammed into the ground, the impact rattling my teeth.
I pushed myself upright. I was outside, next to a towering wall under a colorless sky. Storm clouds churned like ink in water and lightning flashed, revealing silhouettes in the distance.
The earth trembled with another crash.
Behind me, Kairos staggered to his feet.
“You okay?” he grunted.
“Yeah. What happened?”
“You collapsed. I caught you, and now we’re here.” He lifted his hand, frowning at the landscape. “Did the rune portal us somewhere?”
“No. We’re inside the rune.”
“Inside it?”
The wrongness of this place crawled over my skin. The air tasted stale, like breathing in a crypt that had been sealed for centuries. No sound except our voices echoing off stone.
I swallowed, approaching the wall. “What do you know about time runes? Is this normal?”
“I’ve never heard of anybody getting sucked inside a rune. This is…very strange. I wish I knew more, but the subject is banned for a reason.”
I turned back to the wall. “This is like that wall that separates the slums from the merchant quarter in Skalgard.”
“Huh. Itis.”
“Every rune has a point where all the magic converges.” I traced the wall, forcing my voice to steady. “If we find it and break it, this place should collapse.”
“And if we can’t?”
We die here. Trapped forever in this colorless void.
