I realize I’m holding my breath and let it out slowly and quietly. The light gets lower and lower, but luckily, I can still make out Venna stopping short ahead of me.
My heart drums loud in my ears in the strangely silent space.
Venna swivels around and signs: “Something ahead.”
My skin prickles, and I strain my eyes trying to see the space ahead of us. But the gloom around us is almost complete; the blue glow has dimmed, and even Venna and Skaia are just shadowy forms ahead of me in the darkness.
“Skaia will still be able to see,” Anassa reassures me.“Kryptos warriors train for this—their wolves often have keener night vision than that of the other packs, and they learn to operate as the eyes and ears for their riders.”
All well and good for them. But what about the rest of us?
We all wait in silence, motionless, for Venna and Skaia to move ahead. Venna finally signs back to me, motions exaggerated so I can make them out, “Up and to the left is clear.”
I relay the message back to Noemi. Venna and Skaia start moving ahead, and Anassa and I follow. Anassa does her best to share her superior vision with me as well, though we’re unpracticed at the skill.
Soon, though, the space is too dark even for her. We come to a stop, and I wait for Venna to notice that we’ve halted since I can’t shout ahead.
What if she doesn’t realize? What if she leaves us here, and we’re stranded forever in this darkness?
I know that it’s not logical, that Venna would never abandon us. But still,my chest tightens in that familiar place where my panic lives. Like a giant hand grabbing onto the top of my lungs and squeezing. I struggle to keep my breathing quiet and even.
The space around us is so black. Endlessly black. So much like that nightmare realm where Killian torments me. At the thought, I can almostseehis face, swimming up at me out of the darkness.
His mouth in a confident leer. His eyes, that eerie blue, staring at me…
“Slow down,” Anassa thinks to me, opening herself up until the rhythm of her own breath washes into me. Steady, even. I try to match it. My panic subsides, just a little.
Then from up ahead, around Venna, I start to see a faint blue glow.
What on earth… ?
Venna’s face becomes visible, and I see her look of intense concentration. She’s doing this, then. Somehow.
She sends the light behind herself and forward to provide some illumination to Skaia.
It’s not much, but it’s enough. We start up again.
The path she lights for us is winding, and multiple times I only see massive rock formations when they’re already right next to me. Like huge ships sailing right up to us in the gloom. One wrong step and one of us will crash into the rock.
Some of the obstacles are sheer and shiny, like walls of black gemstones. Others are studded with spikes as sharp as a direwolf fang and five times as long.
In the strange light, it looks like the spikes are reaching for us. I shudder and pause until the sensation passes, not trusting myself to move silently until I regain my focus.
Throughout, Venna’s steps are sure and even. I focus on her slow progress, the careful way she places her feet, and mimic.
Twice, Venna pauses and says in sign language: “Get down.”
The first time, the direwolves just have to duck down to avoid disturbing a fragile-looking series of stalactites above us. It’s uncomfortable, watching them hang their heads low, but we get through it unscathed.
Then a minute or so later, Venna gives the signal again, along with another word I don’t catch. I strain to remember the sign she’s making and then remember when I see what’s ahead: a tunnel.
Fuck.
I carefully signal back behind me, making sure Noemi and Stark and their wolves are prepared.
Anassa gets right up to it before realizing she’s not low enough to the ground. My body is tight as a bow as I watch her carefully move backward again so that she can get into position.
She crouches so low the fur on her belly brushes the ground as she moves. I let her go first so that she can move at her own speed in there.
