“All right then.” I turn to my sister. “I love you. I’ll see you later.”
Bram frowns. “No trying to lose on purpose. I’ll know and it’ll hurt my feelings and then we’ll have to do the second trial all over again.”
I reach up and press my palm to his cheek. His skin is rough with stubble and cool from the wind whipping up from the sea. “I wouldn’t dream of it.”
Lydia leans in and gives him a kiss on his other cheek. “I’ll see you soon, my love.” And then, without fear or hesitation, she steps into the cave.
And so, I do what I’ve done my whole life and follow my sister.
The noises from outside go silent. The only sound is my ragged breathing and a rhythmicdrip, drip, dripfrom the water running down the walls.
I clench my jaw and brace myself for a pain that doesn’t come. I feel entirely normal. Maybe the legends were just that—stories parents tell children to keep them from wandering off into dangerous places. I nearly laugh at Bram’s stupidity. He got it all wrong.
“Lydia?” I call into the darkness. I’ll find her, and once we’ve located Ferrinus we can sit for an hour or two, enough time to satisfy Bram, and then emerge together, looking wan, with some fabricated story of torture.
My voice echoes from the back of the cave.Lydia, Lydia, Lydia.
“Do you feel fine? I feel fine,” I call. Still no answer.Fine, fine, fine.
With my hands out in front of me, I step a few feet farther into the cave.
There’s a glint on the ground a few paces back.
“Lydia?”
I walk deeper into the cave, still feeling nothing except the strange, hollow silence.
The toe of my silk slipper connects with something solid on the soft earth floor.
I bend and push my hands around in the dirt blindly. The heavy fur cuffs of my cloak get in the way, so I pull them up in frustration and try again.
Sharp pain cuts into my palm and I yelp and yank my arm back.
I bend once more and feel around gingerly. My fingers close on a rough hilt. I rise and bring it as close to my eyes as I am able.
I lick the blood away from my palm and laugh with relief. In my hand, I hold a rough-hewn dagger with an ornately jeweled handle. I tripped directly over Ferrinus.The Redcaps must have stood at the mouth of the cave and tossed it in, just as Rhion suspected.
“Lydia, where are you? I found it!”
My heart rate picks up. This cave isn’t large. She should be able to hear me. “Lydia?” I call, properly worried now. “I’ll let you win if you want, just tell me you’re all right.”
I take a few more steps, then smack directly into a wall. Not one of jagged stone but something smooth, like glass.
I whip my head around and see nothing but darkness. I can’t have walked more than twenty feet into the cave, but the ray of light from the entrance has disappeared completely. Like I’ve been sealed inside.
“Lydia?” I call, so panicked it’s making me dizzy. My heart pounds in my ears; my limbs go ice cold.
Something deep within melurches.
My head spins. My vision goes white.
I might be screaming, but everything has gone deadly silent, as if a thread has been snipped and I’m excised from my body completely.
Am I dead?It was a painless but stupid way to die.
My heart longs for Emmett, then breaks that he’ll have to mourn me twice.
And where is Lydia? Did she die just before I did? Is that why she wasn’t answering me?
