“Hush, Phoenix, it’s all right, I’m here,” he murmured into her hair.
YOU CANNOT TAKE THAT WHICH BELONGS TO THE TEMPLE. SHE IS OURS NOW—
At that exact second, Hypnos’s song gave out. The siren song built into a crescendo, but it was ruined by the sound of water threatening to crash down over their heads.
“Now!” yelled Hypnos.
He grabbed Enrique’s hand, and the three of them ran to the bridge. The water arced over their heads, threatening to drown them. Dozens of pale, skeletal hands stretched out, spindly fingerscutting through his bandages, catching on his sleeves. The bridge of bone loomed larger. Water swirled around Enrique’s ankles and he slipped. For a moment, the world seemed to slow. He could feel every passing second as if it were a needle trailing along his skin.
As he fell, he pushed Hypnos and Zofia onto the bridge. Water closed up around his waist. A skeletal leg folded around his hip, the movement a corruption of intimacy.
He blinked wildly as water sprayed in his face. The emerald glow of the lake haloed Hypnos’s and Zofia’s bodies, gilding them like saints. If they were his last sight, he would have been happy—
Zofia flung something into the water. Fire caught on one of the skeletal heads, and the thing roared. The mind Forged creatures scuttled back, their hold on him loosening. The water slammed over their heads, but instead of sweeping them into the lake, it flowed over a hidden Forged obstruction. Enrique stared up at the glassy tube encircling the bridge of bone. Brackish water flowed around them, and the only sound came from the ugly thud of skeletal bodies crashing into one another. The moment Enrique clambered onto the bridge, Zofia and Hypnos grabbed his hands, and together they ran to the sudden glowing light on the far end of the wall.
27
LAILA
Laila could not feel anything.
Not even horror.
She remembered running across the bridge of bone, toward the illuminated far wall… but now that lightness had vanished. And with it, her feeling of sensations. She could not feel the hard, wet pebbles that should have been biting into her legs. The blankness had stolen through her the moment they’d crossed the bridge of bone. Her vision kept flickering to black. Her lungs should have ached. Her nose should have filled with the stale scent of the lake. Séverin turned and spat out water, gasping for air.
Moments later, Hypnos, Enrique, and Zofia fell onto the shore alongside them. Laila could hear them coughing and spitting. She could hear Séverin speaking in hushed, worried tones.
But it was as if she were listening to them from under water.
She should have been ecstatic. She should have been weeping that they had made it to the other side. But the blankness that snuckthrough her was a subtle devourer. It sipped on her joy, nibbled on her panic, and left her with nothing but a crust of herself.
Laila told herself this was normal. She had felt this before, and sensation always came back. But another part of her hissed and whispered:It is taking longer and longer to feel human isn’t it, little broken doll?
Laila forced her attention away, turning instead to the others. When she focused on them, their voices seemed louder. Clearer. Moments passed, and their faces and expressions gained clarity. But beyond them, the cave was a blur of shadows and emptiness.
Hypnos rolled over onto his side, heaving. Enrique lay on his back, his chest moving up and down. Beside him, Zofia drew herself up, clutching her knees to her chest and shaking.
“Enrique?” said Séverin, shaking him. “Are you hurt? What’s happened? Say something, please, I beg you.”
Enrique opened his mouth, whispering something.
“What’s wrong with him?” asked Hypnos, his voice prickling. “Is he all right?”
“I—” rasped Enrique. He raised his hand, brushing something at his temples. “Told—you—so.”
And then he flung the beeswax at Séverin’s forehead. Séverin looked unfazed.
“Do you feel better now?”
Enrique snuck a glance at Zofia and then Hypnos. “A little.”
“Do you wish to get off the ground? Or is the weight of sanctimony too great?”
Enrique grinned. He held out his hand, Séverin took it and hoisted the both of them to their feet.
More than anything, Laila wanted to smile. But her face felt frozen.
“Laila?” asked Zofia, looking up at her. “Are you injured?”
