Maybe my sanity had finally crumbled under the threat of my fate.
Claws scraped at stone. Then, a hard nudge rocked me.
It was real.
The wetness on my cheeks—real too.
My voice cracked. “Sage?”
Sage feverishly licked my neck like the puppy he once was, his whiskers tickling my skin. I’d stopped crying a while back, but I could feel more welling up inside. I didn’t know how long I’d lain on the dusty floor of the escape tunnel. How he’d even found me.
The wraith-wolf sprang into excited movement. He danced on the spot and let out a volley of barks that ricocheted down the passageway.
He wanted me to move. To rise. To follow.
But I was made of nothingness.
I had no will, no desire to do anything but lie here.
Down here, buried in stone without moonlight and sunshine, I’d succumb to stone sickness. Perhaps it would be a blessing to fall into hibernation rather than face the Witches Ball.
Sage stilled, ears flicking forward. His eerie silver eyes narrowed, wrinkles creasing along his snout as he bared his teeth. A low, angry growl rumbled from his barrel chest.
He wanted me on my feet. To keep fighting.
He refused to let me suffocate beneath the waves of hopelessness.
My breath whirled a tiny cloud of dust from the floor when I gasped, “I can’t…”
Sage padded forward, his eyes hooding further as he glared and huffed.
I raised a heavy hand to stroke across the cool fur of his cheek, the otherworldliness feathering and scattering between my fingers. Home. Comfort. Safety. That’s what he felt like. Sage’s presence seeped into the cracks and crevices, the deep fissures that had broken me. Not enough to reforge me completely, but enough to get me to my feet.
“Alright, puppy. Okay…”
He wagged his tail and loosened an eager bark.
Exhaustion pulled at my limbs as I pushed myself up to sit on my knees. I rubbed the heel of my palm over my sore, puffy eyes, and a bone-deep shiver rattled through me. Even readjusting my shawl around my shoulders, opening the messenger bag, and digging out the spare flashlight felt like an enormous task. Icy roughness abraded my skin when I braced a hand against the escape-tunnel wall to help myself stand.
I took a step forward back the way I’d come. The light sweeping ahead jittered in my shaky grip. But I could breathe a little easier with my free hand resting on the withers of my friend stalking beside me. Together, Sage and I pushed through oppressive darkness.
On and on we walked.
Time stretched endlessly.
Dust stirred under my lifeless pace as I followed the passageway and dragged myself up the hewn staircase, climbing up, up,up. But when I reached the entrance to the escape tunnel hidden within the library, the wall was solid.
I’d been locked in.
A jolt of terror slammed against my ribs.
Yet…
I glanced down at Sage and frowned. “How did you get in here?”
Sage, of course, couldn’t answer me. He didn’t seem worried either. He just stared up at me, tongue lolling and tail wagging in bright, excited sweeps.
The wall was indeed solid when I brushed my free hand over its jagged surface. How were we going to get out?
