Slamming the door shut behind him, Horous turned to me with a dangerous glint in his eyes. “There’s only one path from here. You feel it—the pull. You know why we’re here. The gate is waking for you.”
I began to panic, the image of those skeletons fused into the walls burning itself into my mind. I crept as far away from Horous as possible. “You can’t kill me like this.”
He regarded me with disdain. “I’m not going to kill you. I’m going to help you.”
“I don’t believe you.”
“Believe what you wish,human. Today you will walk through theGate, or you will hang on the walls like the rest of them.”
“What?” I stammered. “Why would you want me to walk through the Gate? What’s on the other side?”
His tone shifted. “You feel them, don’t you? Themarkedclawing at your mind. They’ll tear you apart from within if you don’t help them.”
The voices were getting stronger; I couldn’t deny it. I couldn’t hum them away anymore.
“Don’t you want to help them, Tilly?”
His attention flicked to the door as though he’d heard something. The distraction lasted long enough for me to bolt toward the exit. He bellowed like a wounded animal and pursued me, but his guards were to the right, so I turned left and ran toward the cliff as fast as I could. I would jump and take my chances in the ocean if I had to.
He emerged behind me, but fear drove me faster thanI’dever moved. I sprinted across the uneven ground, the wind whipping my hair into my eyes. I ran toward the only open space I could see: the rise of the cliff where the monoliths stood.
Irealizedtoo late that I had skirted the edge of the cliff, leaving myself without an escape route. Seeing my predicament, Horous grinned coldly. No matter which way I tried to run, he blockedme with unnatural speed. There was no getting past him, and I refused to feel his grip on me again.
To my right, two towering stones stood upright, and a third lay across their tops, forming a vast stone doorway.
“Would you hurl me off the cliff?” I shouted. “Is that your intention?”
“That doesn't have to be your fate. There’s one other choice.”
Aghast, I stared down at the churning sea battering the sheer cliff wall. I knew I wouldn’t survive the fall; the thought of drowning or being crushed against the rocks offered no escape at all.
“That is your fate... unless,” He looked at me with soulless green eyes. “You choose theGate.”
“I will jump,” I said, edging away slowly. “I would rather die in the sea than become a sculpture on a wall.”
I pressed him further, my mind searching for a weakness. “What are your intentions with theGate?”
Horous stepped aside just enough for the doorway to loom behind him, its shadow stretching toward me. “TheGateopens for themarked," he said, eyeing me like a beast about to devour its prey. “And you, Tilly… you’re the only one it answers to now.”
I shivered at the excitement in his words. I looked bleakly from the raging ocean below back to Horous, who stood like a gargoyle between me and freedom. This was twisted. If I chose not to jump, I’d be dragged to the stones and used. What would become of me? My ribcage would be hung like a trophy in the abbey for the futuremarkedto see.
As if reading my thoughts, he grinned and approached me until I was pinned between him and the cliff. My body shivered from the cold, but that was the least of my problems.
“I’d rather die than go through thegate!” I backed precariously toward the edge, trying to distance myself fromhim.
The memory of the waves dragging me under—of the burning saltwater filling my lungs—made myentirebody shudder.
The voices inside me surged, fighting for dominance. Among them, the beautiful voice rose above the others.
"Your mind can be free of the brothers and everything that’s happened. Don’t you want to be free?"
The words hit me like a blow. More voices surged,clamouringfor attention.
"Open the way."
"Don’t fight."
"Fight."
