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And the sooner I’m distracted, the better.

“This is so unfair,” Ann muttered, and I grabbed her arm, half-dragging her back over to the edge of The Dark with me. How could she not understand the simple plan that was her idea in the first place?

“Ready?” Beric asked, joining us after he’d secured the coach.

“How did you know I was hungry?” I asked.

“I work closely with a lot of people.” He shrugged. “The solution, more often than not, is food.”

“Oh.” I stared at the black mass before us so my expression wouldn’t give away my embarrassment. “Okay, first I close my eyes. And how will I know I’m inside?”

“You’ll know,” he said, which was infuriatingly unhelpful.

Even so, I closed my eyes and stepped forward.

And immediately felt as if I couldn’t catch my breath.

The air was oppressive. I was glad Beric had warned me, or I might have panicked. Now I just stood there, trying to fill my lungs even as they protested the heavy air.

I felt Beric’s hand warm against my back, comforting me. “Deep breaths,” he instructed.

Lightning lit the sky a nearly blinding white, and for that brief flash I saw my surroundings—decayed remains of plant life, bones scattered across the ground. The only thing that stood were stone buildings, but even then, only the ruins. It was a wasteland. No color, no life. The Dark had consumed all of that long ago. And yet I felt random tingles across my skin, like the itch of dried sweat, or ants racing over me.

“Don’t panic,” Beric said, and I stilled myself.

Anise had found me in the light of the strike and was clinging to my hand. She was genuinely trembling. I almost felt bad for her.

“This is hell. It has to be,” she panted, brushing at her arms and neck against the awful tingles. “We shouldn’t be here.”

“It’s dark,” I said, forcing carelessness. “There’s lightning, without even thunder. The sensation of bugs without actual bugs. Surely hell has less mundane tricks than these.”

My words hid my feelings for her sake. It was incredibly unsettling to experience these things, however mundane, when a few feet behind me there had been a clear morning. Unsettling … in the way the king unsettled me. As if anything could happen, at any moment, and perhaps those things wouldn’t be quite so mundane. Like a nightmare come to life.

Still, there was no sense in allowing my imagination to run wild, as it so often did. Not when Beric had assured us that we wouldn’t run into danger here, that the sounds and feelings were in our heads. Perhaps my mind was making it scarier than it ought to have been. “Just as my eyes adjust to the darkness, the lightning blinds me again.”

“Visibility is better during battle, I assure you,” Beric replied. “The more frequent the strikes, the closer we are to a demon. We’re avoiding that today.”

As usual, Beric’s response was not quite as specific as I’d hoped—I’d prefer a solution rather than a fact. I took a breath. Even speaking too much in this place was taxing, I needed so much effort to breathe. “So, what you’re saying is that I’m never going to be able to see anything.”

“Maybe not today,” he said. “But that’s why you have me.”

As reassuring as it was frustrating. What good was I to anyone, what was I doing here, if I couldn’t even see? But I had to make use of today, and if adapting to finding my way in the dark and random light was all I could do … well, it was something.

“Your lungs seemed to have adjusted,” said Beric. “Shall we move farther in?”

“Absolutely not—” Anise nearly shouted, before my hand found her mouth—though I was sure I’d slapped her in the face from the force of it.

“No yelling, remember?” I said.

Finally, my eyes had adjusted enough to see Beric’s frustrated expression. “If that continues, I’ll kill her myself.”

I scowled at him. My annoyance, at least, seemed to distract my mind from my unnerving surroundings. “She’s fine. We’re fine. Shall we?” I dragged Anise forward with me.

“If you want to get that proposal before they throw us out of here,” I whispered, “we need to get through this.”

“It’s insane that he has us out here without the king to protect us,” Anise snapped, as much as she could in a whisper.

“We protect the king.” I promptly bit my lip. A few days here, and I was already revealing all the king’s secrets. “Anyway, I’ve seen nothing to fear as of yet—”