“You were supposed to bemypartner.” Darius, accusatory. “You were supposed to do this withme.”
A sob escaped me, the pitiful sound echoing throughout the dark chamber. I reached out in desperation—and found Dante. Our hands clamped around one another, grabbing on and holding tight.
And the voices ceased. They simply died away as if they’d never been there from the start.
We both dragged in a few steadying breaths, clinging to each other, terrified that if we let go, it would start again.
“Are we—” I started.
“Are you okay?” he asked.
“Yes. Are you?”
He nodded. I couldn’t see it, but I felt him moving with the motion.
An electric hum filled the room and an enormous blue light zapped into existence. We cringed away, holding up our armsto shield our eyes. It was only a spotlight, and it was centered on a set of floating rings in the center of the now illuminated chamber.
I blinked at them, lips parted in surprise. Dante did the same.
We’d made it. We’d passed the second Trial.
With one last glance at one another, we scrambled to the rings, desperate to be released. We shoved our arms inside the bands, centering them just below the first brand we’d received, and waited.
But this time, the burning felt less like pain and more like victory.
Chapter Ten
“Today, we mourn for those who have failed in their endeavors, those for whom the Trials have proved too much to bear. We ache at their loss but they died in service to the Geist and, in that, we shall find comfort.”
-High Priestess Gulla During a Memorial Ceremony Honoring Those Fallen in the Trials; 1,954 Age of Sanctum
The burning had faded, the brand long gone cold, but Dante still stood with his arm hovering within the ring, eyes fixed on the darkness behind me. His jaw was clenched so tight, I thought it might shatter his teeth.
“Dante,” I said quietly. I pulled my arm from the ring and took a step toward him. “Whatever you heard in there, it wasn’t real.”
He blinked.
“I know.” He tugged his arm free and dropped it to his side. His bright green eyes had darkened somehow, become haunted with the weight of whatever trauma he’d been forced to relive in the darkness. “But—”
“I know.”
He met my gaze and, for just a moment, I saw a vulnerability behind his eyes so raw and uncharacteristic, it sent a shiver up my spine. For a heartbeat, Dante was no brutal warrior trained from the age he could walk to take part in these gods-given atrocities. He was just a twenty-one-year-old man with the same insecurities and fears as any other young adult. Then he blinked and recovered his composure. He cleared his throat and shook his head as if doing so could rid him of the ordeal we’d just gone through.
“We should go.” He nodded toward the door that had opened behind us.
We walked toward it together, a silent shuffle back to our traversing tubes. Then we stepped inside and sped away back to where we’d started.
The sunlight filtering in was dim, coming from so far down the tunnel, but it was like a supernova after the chamber of utter darkness we’d just departed. I was certain now, after having completed the Trial, that we’d been placed in a simple room. All that fear, all that doubt and horror, from a single empty room. I shuddered and eagerly followed Dante away from the tubes, heading back out to Sanctuary—to my family.
They waited in the same place I’d left them. My mother had her back to the tunnel, speaking with my brother. Warren stood in front of her, arms crossed and nodding at something she was saying. Maurice was nearby, seated on a stone bench, an ever-present frown etched firmly into his face.
“I’ll wait by the eastern stairs,” Dante muttered and strode away before I could respond.
I wanted more time with them than I would have with him waiting for me nearby, but I also knew I couldn’t return to the First Ring without him. So, as much as it pained me, I would have to make our celebrations short.
“Here she comes,” Warren called out with a smile as I approached. He dropped his arms to his side as my mother whirled around to face me. “So, are you done with all this?”
I came to a stop in front of them, unable to help the way the corner of my lip twitched up in a smile. I shook my head and lifted the hem of my sleeve to show the second bar branded onto my arm.
