Reckoning (8 page)

I squelched the desire to cry at Riley’s words. Maybe I was having a harder time holding it together because I wasn’t feeling well. If he knew… He wouldn’t be talking about trust much less our future. I took a breath.
No
. I wouldn’t give in to the fear of what might happen between Riley and me. I would take it one day at a time and concentrate on what I had to do. Love always won in the end. At least according to all the classic human fairy tales. Then again, in those tales, the heroine never had to kill the hero.

The guilt cut me into ribbons. Having him carry me made me remember the day he’d saved my life. Even though we were enemies at the time, he’d given me mouth-to-mouth resuscitation. I mentally closed the door on the memories and slid a deadbolt across it. “I need to walk. Being carried hurts,” I said, hoping he’d think I referred to my leg. My heart beat hard with the urge to come clean to Riley. I needed to put space between us before I blurted out my secret and we all died.

Though he didn’t appear to believe me, Riley stopped and released me.

I knew I was in trouble with my leg.

When Riley moved on ahead, Stone said, “It’s bad, isn’t it?”

Putting my hands on the side of Stone’s face, I smiled at him. He was like a brother to me. We’d been through so much together. I could trust him with what was most precious to me. “Will you take care of Maisy if I don’t make it?”

“You know you don’t even have to ask. She’s important to me too.”

“Thanks.”

“But if you die, I’ll follow you into the afterlife and kick your ass for leaving me.”

I laughed, then sobered. “I know this isn’t the time you want to hear this, but seriously, if I don’t survive, make a home for my sister and the rest of the mixed-bloods. Meet a great girl and be happy. Will you do that for me?”

“Juliet?”

“What?”

“Shut up with the morbid stuff.”

I sighed. “When Mallen was here, what did you and Riley talk about?”

I didn’t like how he avoided looking at me after I asked him about the conversation. Stone and I didn’t keep secrets from each other. I wondered what Riley said to make him want to hide it from me.

We crossed into a wider area and moved along the trail slowly toward a faint light emanating from a corridor. Riley motioned for us to stop. “One step at a time through here. There’s more room but the ground is less stable. We’ll all have to walk.”

I hopped on one foot and held on to the rock wall to keep my balance.

“Take up the rear,” Riley ordered Stone. “We’ll keep the girls between us.” He led the way forward. One second, the light from the corridor in front of us was a cheerful rose color and the next, fire blasted from the opening, turning the area red as if an angry dragon breathed out.

Flames filled the air, and I threw my hands up to protect my face. I was thrown backward, taken down by the force of Riley’s body covering mine. He tucked my face into his shoulder, covering my head with his hands. My lips pressed against his bare skin. Crackling noises popped in the air.

Riley raised his head. His breath rasped and his hands shook as he cradled me. “Did you get hit?”

“No.”

His shoulders sagged with relief. He rolled away and got to his feet, reaching his hand back to help me stand.

“I thought the Void was constructed of stone. There’s wood in there?” Emma asked.

I shook my head, not wanting to tell her what I’d been taught as a child. The fire- breathing corridor was the beginning. The crackling sounds were the bones of those who’d tried to cross and failed. We’d reached the Terrors.

The flames from the opening elevated the temperature around us in seconds. I wiped the sweat from my brow with the sleeve of my shirt. With the heat this intense from a distance, there was no way we’d be able to survive getting any closer.

“Your leg is bleeding,” Emma said quietly.

“The fall must have done it.” Stone tore the hem from his shirt and when he stooped, Riley pushed him aside. He took the fire-rock, inspected the spot, and frowned up at me. “It’s oozing.” I flinched when he removed the strips of his bloodied T-shirt and replaced them with the hem of Stone’s shirt. He tied each strip tightly around my leg.

“When we find a way out, tell Henry about my wound. He can bring the right supplies.” A wave of dizziness hit me, and I tried to fight it off, hating that I couldn’t keep pushing my body. I tried to focus, but my vision blurred and everyone’s face doubled. When their voices garbled like they were speaking underwater, I lowered myself to the ground, afraid if I didn’t I would pass out. “I need to rest.”

Stone grabbed the fire-rock. “It’s not safe this close to that opening, Juliet. We need to push forward to get past it.”

“No.” Riley rose slowly, taking a defensive stance. “We can take a break. Go find water.”

To my surprise, Stone walked away without arguing. Emma went with him.

“Being in the Void is weighing on him. He’s not usually this antagonistic,” I said.

“Sure he is. It’s hard to have the character of a leader in a servant’s role.” Riley chose a spot beside me and leaned the back of his head against the rock.

“You don’t like him any more than he likes you.”

Riley sighed. “No, I don’t. He acts before he thinks, and that makes him dangerous.”

“What did you tell him when Mallen was here? He wouldn’t share it with me.”

“You need to trust he has a good reason.”

Whatever
. Sometimes Riley’s-protecting-Juliet attitude grated on me. I closed my eyes, planning to rest them for a second. I don’t know how long I slept before Stone gently patted the side of my face to wake me. Groggy, I leaned up, my head about to explode.

“There’s water in a corridor ahead,” he said. “A large pool of it. Since we don’t have a container to bring the water to you, you’ll have to come with us.”

Emma helped steady me when I wobbled. The distance to the water wasn’t far, but by the time we reached it, I was exhausted. It took every ounce of strength I had to cup my hands into the water and bring it up to my lips. As the cold liquid slid down my throat, I shivered. I liked the warmth of the fire corridor better.

Emma pressed her hand against my forehead. “She’s burning up. Maybe we should stay here tonight and try again in the morning.”

“No. Waiting isn’t a good idea,” Riley said. “Let’s move out.”

“I’m going to go out on a limb here and say we skip the fire corridor,” Stone said and I laughed in spite of how bad I felt. Minutes later, tired of me struggling to walk, Stone picked me up. I was too tired to fight against it. I leaned my head against the comfort of his chest. When I found my sister and the other children and we were all safe, my next plan was to sleep for an entire day. At least.

At a small opening beside where the flames erupted, Stone broke apart from the others and said, “Let’s go this way.” He ignored Riley telling him to stop and skirted a large boulder to enter a damp, narrow passageway. The temperature immediately dropped at least thirty degrees.

“It’s weird that it’s cold in here with this space being on the other side of that fire,” Emma said as she followed us in.

“Get out of here, now!” Riley shouted as he ran in behind us.

“Why? Because I chose the path and his majesty didn’t?” Stone asked.

With a loud noise, the boulder we’d passed on the way in shuddered. Riley ran toward it, but it rolled into the entrance, effectively sealing us in. Without any light, I couldn’t see a thing.

“Like being in a tomb,” Emma whispered.

Riley rubbed the fire-rock and when the flame ignited, I looked around. The ceiling was a lot lower than the other area of the Void, making me feel claustrophobic. The walls shimmered, and I didn’t have to be a rocket scientist to know it was bad.

I heard Stone swallow. “I think I screwed up,” he whispered.

“Put me down.” I limped back to the rock trapping us and pushed on it, hoping it would magically roll open. I pounded my fists against the rock and clawed at it to no avail. I turned slowly, and the breath whooshed from my body. The stories I’d been told as a child became a reality.

We hadn’t bypassed Terrors; we’d entered it. The fire was a decoy to steer Supernatural and human prisoners right into its belly. When I saw the first oversized insect, I shrank back.

Emma swatted at it and shrieked, “What is that thing?”

Riley caught the two-inch long insect, pinching it between his thumb and index finger, frowning as he studied it. “It’s a Fuse. They have glue-like feet used to hold on to prey. The Fuse burrow under skin like leeches, but they don’t drink blood. They multiply in a matter of hours, constricting their prey until the host can’t expand his lungs enough to take a breath. The person dies from asphyxiation.”

Emma whimpered. “How do we fight them?”

“With the fire-rock. Hold the heated edge to a Fuse and it’ll drop off. If one lands on you, don’t try to pull it off. You won’t be able to and if it breaks, the head will burrow beneath your skin,” Riley said. He held the insect against the flame until it wilted.

“We’ll get burned when we touch the fire-rock to our skin,” Emma said.

“Yes, we will.” Riley lifted the light up.

“What are we up against?” I asked. Even if he hadn’t ever experienced this area before, as royalty, Riley had inside knowledge of the workings of the Void. The leaders were the ones who’d created it.

Riley plucked a Fuse off his chest and stuck it in the flame. “The Terrors contain four areas. This first one has Fuse and Wallows. Those insects can bore holes through bones with their beaks.”

“And the second area?” Emma bordered on the verge of hysteria, and I didn’t blame her.

“It has trails that break from the slightest weight.”

“After that?” Emma chewed on her thumbnail.

Riley turned slowly, aiming the light of the fire-rock at each of the walls. “The third area is where people give up. It causes them to hallucinate until the person plunges over one of the ledges to stop the madness. My father called it the Suicides.”

The Suicides. How comforting
. I pressed a shaky hand to my forehead, hoping I wouldn’t reach the point where I’d take my life.

“What’s in the fourth area?” Stone asked in a subdued tone.

“The Void will never let us make it that far.” Riley lowered the fire-rock. “It houses the Night of Grief.”

“Then what’s the use? We might as well jump to our deaths now,” Emma said. She plopped down onto the ground and wrapped her arm around her legs.

“I’m still going to try,” I said, more to hear my voice than to actually give myself courage. I wasn’t stupid. I knew between my injury and the Terrors, the odds were against me. But I couldn’t give up and wait to die. I had to at least try to get out for the sake of my sister and the rest of the children.

A small pressure hit the back of my neck.

RILEY

“Don’t touch it.” I pushed her hand down and held the flame from the fire-rock to the back of her neck. The Fuse dropped off, and I crunched it under my shoe.

“They’re everywhere.” Emma jumped up when a few landed on her. The gray insect with the bright red stripe in the center of its back was easy to spot against the color of her shirt. She shuddered and flung her arms around Stone. “Get them off me.” She raised her hand up, her fingers closed into a fist, and swatted at a Wallow.

I tried to warn her not to hit at it, but I was too late. The insect fastened on to her hand and with its long, powerful beak began drilling through the back of it. She cried out in pain and tried to fling it off to no avail.

Stone pinched its body and it flew away, leaving Emma with an ugly hole the size of a nickel in her hand.

“It’s not too deep,” he said, pressing her hand against her dress, trying to speak gently and calmly so she wouldn’t freak out.

“The end of the ledge is that way.” I indicated the area to our right. “Stay to the left.”

I started forward, but stopped. Across the center of the path, a huge web blocked the way. I blinked when I realized it wasn’t a thick spider web but a curtain of Fuse. We would have to walk right through them to continue. I held on to the wall and searched along the ground for objects we could use to knock them out of the way. Sensing us, the insects stirred and their bodies swelled with aggression, lighting up the red stripe on their backs. The bugs didn’t really bother me, but I knew the girls would hate the idea of getting closer to them.

“We need a bigger fire to get through there,” Stone said, slapping at the back of his neck. He jerked his head around as a bug zipped past us. “I have an idea.” He stripped off his shirt and held one sleeve against the fire-rock. The minute it flamed up, he held the burning garment at the bottom of the web. In seconds, the flame took off, flashing upward, incinerating the insects. A few of them flew off, back into the darkness behind us.

I coughed and waved my hand to clear the air.

After the smoke was gone, we could see the trail again, but as I watched, the ground shook and dropped, leaving a gaping hole too wide for us to cross.