“You think?” Vivienne shuffled backward, her sheathed sword pressing against his chest. “Thank Isvana, we weren’t moving any faster. We’d be dead right now.”
Marius nodded, his heart racing. Thank the gods for his bodyguard’s quick thinking.
After taking a few deep breaths, he carefully inched forward. Resting his hand on Vivienne’s hip, he leaned over her shoulder and looked down.
The crystals and mushrooms tapered off, as did the walkway. All that remained was a black pit. That was… problematic.
Marius pulled the map out of his pocket and stepped back, holding it up to one of the crystals above his head.
“I don’t get it,” he muttered, tracing the path they’d just taken with his finger. “There should be something connecting us with the rest of the mountain.”
There was no sign of a gaping hole on the map. It seemed like a glaring omission.
Vivienne chewed on her lip, studying the map with him. “Maybe there was something, once. But now...”
“It’s gone.” Marius rubbed his forehead, the parchment dangling from his fingertips. “Damn. What are we going to do?”
They needed to get the dagger.
After studying the map for several minutes, Vivienne turned to him.
“I have a theory.” She gestured to the dagger sheathed on his thigh. “Can I borrow that?”
If anyone else had asked that question, Marius would’ve said no. He usually hated parting with his weapons. And yet, he didn’t hesitate to pull the dagger from its sheath and hand it to her.
Vivienne gripped the blade and strode to the closest cluster of fungi. She skillfully dug the dagger beneath several mushrooms, gathering them in her palm as they broke away from the wall.
Once she’d collected half a dozen, she returned his dagger and carefully walked back to the ledge. She spun one of the mushrooms in her palm, the glowing fungus casting her hand in a green hue.
“The darkness is thick,” she murmured. “Unnatural. But if I look closely, I think I can make something out on the other side.”
“You think?”
She didn’t sound confident, which only increased his unease.
“Well, I’m not sure.” She held up the glowing mushroom. “That’s what this is for.”
Before Marius could ask more questions, the vampire drew back her arm, adjusted her stance, and threw the glowing fungus. It sailed through the air, a neon streak slicing through the darkness. It seemed to travel for an eternity before it fell into the pit and disappeared.
Marius groaned, but Vivienne was seemingly undeterred as she adjusted her footing and threw the next mushroom. It flew through the air, following a slightly different path from the first.
This one tumbled out of sight as well.
Two more suffered similar fates, each traveling a different route.
The second-to-last projectile was bigger than the others.
Vivienne frowned, turning it over in her hand before launching it in the air.
Long seconds passed, and it seemed as though this one would meet the same fate as the others before asmackechoed through the mountain. The fungus broke into glowing pieces, falling into the pit.
“There it is.” Glee filled Vivienne’s voice as she caught his eye and smiled. “The other side.”
Her smile was stunningly beautiful, and for a moment, he just stared at it. He could spend an eternity waiting for her to grace him with one, and he wouldn’t regret a single moment of it.
“Impressive.” He never would’ve thought of doing that. “Now what?”
She turned, handing him the final glowingsphere.
