Silence within.
I try the handle, expecting it to be locked.
But it isn’t.
The door clicks open just a crack. I pause, completely motionless except for the pounding of my heart.
There’s no light coming from within the doorway, not even without my shadows. I move to step inside, but Soren squeezes my hand and doesn’t follow.
He pulls backward, and I understand his meaning. Slowly, softly we creep a few feet back, the door still hanging open.
“I don’t like this,” he murmurs so quietly I can barely hear him. “Why would they leave the door open?”
“Maybe someone was just careless,” I whisper, but I can’t ignore the shiver that goes down my spine. “Did anyone know you were coming?”
“No,” says Soren. “A friend of Marcella’s told me. I can’t imagine she’d send me directly into a trap.”
“What do you want to do?” I ask. I know exactly what we should do: turn around and go back to the palace and come back with two dozen armed guards to turn this place over.
But there are so many exits, it’s possible that they would escape with the girls before we ever set foot inside. And if they’re in there—just feet away from us—and I turn around and leave them?
“I’m willing to take a look if you are.”
I nod, then tell him, “Alright,” because he can’t see in the damn dark.
It’s honestly quite brave of him to let me guide him while he’s totally blind. Brave, and also incredibly foolish.
I lead us back to the threshold and pull the door open a bit further, keeping us behind it initially in case someone comes running.
But they don’t. It’s only silence behind that door. Silence, darkness, and hopefully two shadow-born girls who don’t fear it.
Soren nudges me and drops my hand for a moment, pulling out the vial of elixir. I take it from him and open it without giving it back.
He reaches for me and gives my hand an angry squeeze when he finds it empty.
I pull his head to me and whisper impossibly softly into his ear. “You can’t see.”
What good will the elixir do if he can’t see where the enemies are?
Of course, he can sense where the enemies are, but he thinks I don’t know that. I smile in the darkness, grateful he can’t see my satisfaction.
Elixir in one hand, Soren’s hand in the other, I lead him around the doorway and into a narrow hall.
It looks as if this area is used for storage or maybe disposal. There are a handful of crates and empty barrels lining the walls, but there’s nothing else in the room except a doorway that looks to lead deeper into the building.
It’s too narrow in here for us to be side to side, so I stand in front of Soren. I back up to him until I feel him against me. I breathe deeply, willing the part of my mind that wants to focus on the sensation of his body against mine to shut the fuck up.
I need him to stay close to me, or he’ll knock something over in the room and give us away. I move forward, and he follows, our bodies moving in sync with each other. My pulse pounds in my ears, and I can’t tell if it’s from the situation we’re in or the way he feels. The heat of his body on my back. The warm breeze of his breath on my neck, brushing the wisps of my hair aside.
We make it to the door, and I reach to try it. He doesn’t stop me, which makes me feel that it’s unlikely that there’s anyone on the other side.
This door is locked.
What a relief.
Carefully, with agonizing slowness to avoid making a sound, I retrieve my rake from the coin purse in my pocket and a pin from my hair, and I pick the lock.
Soren’s face registers surprise, but he says nothing.
