We neared a bolted door at the end, the metal matte under my flashlight’s strokes. Rust crawled over the surface, mottling it in specks of brown and orange, and a tangy and musky odor whirled up my nostrils.
As Rowan yanked the bolt, it screeched, but in the end, the iron rod retracted. Shrieking hinges accompanied him easing the door open, revealing a residential building’s basement. Dimness doused the emptiness inside, harboring the spider web clinging to the doorpost’s corner.
Kali shuddered at the sight of it.
I gestured for her to walk in front of me. “It’s just a spider.”
“Maybe if it had two legs, it would be different.” She bent low to pass the doorway. “But it has eight.Eight.Nobody needs that many feet. It’s disturbing.”
Together with Rowan, we pushed the door closed.
“Thanks,” he grunted. We climbed a concrete stairway rising to another metal door, this one untarnished, and Rowan added, “This building is ten-stories high. Climb straight to the top, anddon’t linger on any floor, no matter what you hear. I can’t vouch for the residents here, but if it helps, you can be sure they’re all black-banded.” He whipped the door open without a hitch, the hinges well-oiled.
Yellow light scorched my retinas. Fluorescent lamps illuminated the first floor and the three rotten wooden doors protecting the inhabitants.
“I’ll stand guard here,” Rowan said. “We don’t want strangers accidentally wandering into the basement and finding the catacombs. In the worst-case scenario, we would herd them back, but who knows what they could sniff out.”
I kept my voice low so as not to attract unnecessary attention. “We won’t take too long.”
“If you don’t return in half an hour, I’ll come to check on you.”
I dipped my chin in acknowledgment, and he closed the door, sealing Kali and I in an unfamiliar dwelling infested with residents with questionable intentions.
Slinking up the staircase, we left a trail of identical landings: three mismatched doors, three dirtier-than-tires welcome mats, and two round and loudly buzzing lamps that flickered if you looked at them. The combination warped your vision, creating an illusion of a never-ending climb to nowhere.
Yet the sunken-in-the-middle stairs ended, and I quickly scanned the space behind us. Finding it vacant, I pushed a brown door open and ushered Kali onto the building’s roof.
“What—” Her mouth dropped open.
Quietly shutting the exit point closed, I came to a stand beside her. “Do you like it?”
Her black leather jacket flapped in the spring wind, failing to ward off the chill slithering underneath our clothes. “It’s been… I don’t know how many years since I saw Ilasall like this.”
An ocean of gray rectangles spread as far as you could see, all the way to the fifty-foot-high wall encircling the city. The electrical wiring on top drowned in the night’s gloom, but the sudden drop in temperature hadn’t diminished its power.
Kali’s throat bobbed. “Is this what you wanted to show me?”
“It was the best I could do,” I explained, bringing us to the roof’s edge, but not close enough for any patrols roaming the streets to notice us. “You once said that when you and Alora were children, you found your way to the top of Ilasall’s wall and loved the view of the forests surrounding the city. I can’t give you the same”—I rubbed the back of my neck—“but I thought you might like this.”
For a full minute, she gazed at the systematically built city, blocks upon blocks of similar structures, streets crossing streets. The array of working streetlamps accentuated the lack of life—the curfew had driven everyone inside. The little mice the city dwellers were, they had to hurry to their lairs or fall into the snares soldiers had laid out.
Ilasall’s tactics were obvious: entrap the sheep, and they’d meekly bleat at most, but wouldn’t seek an escape.
“I… I have no words.” Enveloping my waist, her hips flush with mine, she nuzzled her nose against mine. “Thank you.”
“One day, I’ll make Ilasall fall on its knees for you, I promise you that.” I brushed my lips along the plumpness of hers.
I could drown in how she softened.
Months ago, we’d started off by making deals, but somewhere along the way, I’d ceased so much as considering them. Now, I simply wanted her to have anything she yearned for.
Nipping on her bottom lip, I drew it into my mouth, swallowing her whimper and tangling her tongue with mine, sucking on the tip and?—
Thud.
The door handle rebounded off the concrete wall as Rowan burst in.
Kali leaped away, instantly taking a defensive position beside me. Adrenaline writhed inside me, waking up from its slumber, as I shuffled to cover her with my body.
