I curled up at the foot of the wall and pressed my ear to the icy stone and listened to her tell tale after tale of the old gods to keep me company. Evvie’s favorite had always been our goddess of birth, of life. Skalki could entice seedlings to unfurl from barren earth simply by striding across desolate wastelands scorched by the sun. I sniffled, wiping my tears on the sleeve of my dirty dress as Evvie spoke of Skalki defying her brother Hazus and braving Nine Hells. She went in and saved her mortal lover, dragging him back to the world, breathing life into his lungs once more. And afterward she’d stolen him away, hiding them both where no one, not even another god, could find them.
And one day, the door opened, sunlight flooded in, and I was set free.
My freedom, I discovered, wasn’t for very long.
Every single time my father left the estate that year, my mother dragged me sobbing and begging not to be cast into the tithe prison …Please, please, please…I promise I won’t hurt anyone…I promise to be good… My mother never heeded my tears and wails. She shoved me into the deep well of pitch-black nothingness to protect my sisters from someone so strange and alarming she couldn’t even begin to understand what I was or how to deal with me.
And every single time, Evvie returned to keep my terror of the dark at bay.
Slowly, so slowly, the past loosened its grip, and the present rushed back in.
And now, here I was, once more within a nightmarish crypt.
I wanted to spin around and run back the way I’d come. Throw myself into daylight and never venture down here again.It was too much. The absence of light too cruel. My fragile sanity threatened to snap like a twig.
And then something unexpected burst through me.
Strength, warm as sunshine, strong as iron.
Courage infused my very being, rising deep inside, swift as a meteor’s blaze. It lasted only for a moment. But long enough for me to grab hold of those thrumming strands of might and take my first step forward before it bled away.
Just one footstep, one after the other.
Just one more.
I inched my way forward until my foot kicked the flashlight. I scooped it up, releasing a shaky breath of relief as I switched it on and a thin beam pushed back the dark.
The staircase spiraling beneath the earth was so deep down, I obviously traveled well beneath the Keep and its dungeon. The flashlight trembled in my sweat-damp hand. Yellow light flickered over the iron-braced walls and ground frosted in dust. If the battery died, darkness would fall over me like a shroud.
I have more.
Other batteries.
A spare flashlight, remember.
A passageway stretched before me, long and straight. As my flashlight swept over a gap carved within a wall, I realized why Jett had said there is ‘anentrance’ to the tunnel. I poked light into the other passageway that connected with this one. Obviously, there was a second entryway somewhere inside the Keep. Where it was no longer mattered because I’d already found the path to freedom.
Before me lay the way off the estate.
I forced my legs to move. One step. Then another.
On…
And on…
And on I walked.
Stale air infused my lungs. My feet scuffed through the thick layer of dust that billowed like dirty fog as I edged onward, unable to burst into a faster pace, my terror of the dark too great. It was like traveling on the road, headlights spearing through the night but only showing so far, a blur of asphalt, of painted lines.
I’m okay…I’m okay…
My fingers bunched into my shawl, but I couldn’t stop trembling in fear.
I’m not alone…I’m not alone…
A truth the Uzrek shared down in the catacombs when I’d tripped into a panic attack after Graysen had left me to fight the deadly warriors trying to claim me.
The ancient monster hadn’t specified it.
