“This is barbaric,” Milo spat.
Naschadidn't scold her grandson for the outburst. In fact, she appeared to agree with him.
“You've defiled this most holy ceremony,Cosmo,” she said then, her tone lower than I'd ever heard it, thick with warning.
The patriarch of House Viper’s eyes flashed at her challenge. He raised his chin, bristling.
“The gods cannot be kept waiting,Nascha,” he intoned. “Perhaps if you'd come quicker to your own summons, such a tragedy might have been avoided. But I arrived first and dealt with the issue. I don’t imagine any of the Culled will refuse to do their part now.”
No. They wouldn’t.
And I watched as they walked through the swirling abyss, one after another, none of them even daring a look back at the friends and family they left behind, the ones pushed back to the walls of the Deck, kept away from them in their final moments byCosmo’svicious brutality.
The boy whose brother had been murdered to force him into service of the gods looked back only once, at his mother now weeping in another woman’s arms, and at his brother’s lifeless body bleeding into the stones of the home he would never see again. Then he stepped through the darkness and was no more.
I watched as a grieving mother lost two sons. I watched as Myrine closed her eyes and said nothing, did nothing, but stand at her father’s side. I watched Milo seethe with anger I hadn’t known the bubbly young scholar to be capable of.
When they were gone, when it was over, Milo stepped towardCosmo, fury in his gaze. But his grandmother stopped him with a hand on his arm and a nearly imperceptible shake ofher ancient head. I felt my strength wavering then and I could do no more than fall to my knees on the hard cobblestone before flickering back into existence.
I screamed when the magic ripped me back to the tunnel but, when I hit the dark stones of the Underground again and bent forward, weeping, it wasn’t for the pain.
“What is it?”Zyaasked at once, already rushing forward to help me up. “What happened?”
“I—I didn’t see—” I tried. “They—”
“I knew it!” another familiar voice shouted from behind us.
We turned to see a small group of shadows making their way toward us in the dark. Four of them to be exact. I sighed when I recognized the shapes, the voice.
“I knew you couldn’t stop this madness,” Darius called out again.
“Darius, please,” I started, too exhausted to argue, too emotionally drained to have it out with him yet again. “You don’t understand—”
“No,youdon’t understand! Why can’t you accept this, Adrian? Why can’t you deal with being here? Why do you insist upon doing this to yourself? You’re tearing yourself apart trying to get back to a place you can’t possibly reach.”
“Darius.”
“I can’t do this anymore, Adrian! I can’t be worried about you all the time, wondering if you’re down here in the dark alone, desperate and throwing yourself into that barrier again and again. I can’t—”
A loud boom interrupted him. The whole tunnel shook, pebbles raining down from the ceiling, cracks spider-webbing across the walls and floors.
Zyacried out, raising her arms above her head to shield herself from the falling debris, and dove to the shaking ground. I remained on my feet but hissed in pain as a large boulderslammed into my right shoulder. Then, without warning, the ceiling fell upon us. I heard Roxy scream, listened to a crunching sound I hoped desperately were the rocks, and watched asZyascrambled away from the worst of it on bloody hands and knees.
It was done in moments, the dust clearing already as we choked against it, waving our hands in front of our faces in an effort to breathe. I wiped a hand on my forehead but it came away covered in dirt and grime.
“Zya?” I called out, my voice weak in the settling dust.
“Here,” she called back from a dark corner nearby. “I’m here. I’m okay.”
I nodded, unable to respond as I began to choke again on the dust.
“Adrian!” someone was screaming frantically.
I raised my gaze, trying to peer through the haze, but couldn’t see anything beyond the pile of rubble betweenZyaand I and the rest of them.
“Adrian, it’s Darius! He’s—help! We need help!”
I launched into action, scrambling over the rocks to get to the other side. I heardZyafollowing a moment later, stumbling and cursing in the dark. On the other side, Kane and Roxy were already on their knees, digging through the stones, pulling them up and away from one area in the center. Hugh was holding a clearly broken leg nearby, hissing in pain as he inspected the damage. Darius was…where was Darius?
