Catacombs (The Sekhmet Bounty Series Book 2) (9 page)

“Then let’s get you some evidence,” she said. “People should know.”

I nodded. “My thoughts exactly. And if they think anyone is moving against them, they’re perfectly capable of eliminating threats. They have eyes and ears everywhere. Right now, I feel pretty safe, since I have two friends on the council, plus Olivia. That would make killing me pretty high profile.”

She crossed her arms. “But if you die on a mission…”

“It’s just an unfortunate accident.”

“Which is why you didn’t want to tell me.”

“I have to be careful who I share this stuff with. They have eyes everywhere. The council is cunning and I have no doubt they are watching me.”

“Then why tell me now?”

“This is the anteroom for the labyrinth. The same magic that was used to make the maze should apply out here. I don’t think they can penetrate it. As I said, we are between worlds in here. This room is the last layer of protection to keep what’s in there”—I pointed at the stone wall—“from escaping. So long as the labyrinth’s spell isn’t broken, anything trapped inside would instantly die the moment it stepped into this room.”

She glanced back to the wall where I pointed. “If you’re sure about the door, let’s do this. Any idea how we’re going to get Shezmu to talk to us?”

“A couple.” I winked at her. I wanted to kill him so bad I could taste it, but what if I couldn’t? What if he was, in fact, a god and I had to just walk away? Well, then I’d have to use other methods based on what I knew about him, like he was a drinker who loved to celebrate his victories with more than a couple beverages, and I just happened to have a hallucinogenic plant in my backpack.

I pulled out the dead man’s hand and reopened the door, flashing Frost a grin before I stepped through. “There’s no going back from here.”

The new tunnel wasn’t significantly different from the one we’d come from. It was about the same size and still made of stone, but instead of the rough natural stone of the catacombs, these walls were polished and smooth to the touch. It was lit, though there was no obvious source of light. A massive statue stood sentry on the left side of the doorway. “Stay out of its line of sight,” I told Frost.

The statue was a griffin, with thick legs, a wingspan that was at least ten feet wide, a vicious hooked beak, and talons as big as my forearm.

“Which way do we go?”

“Let’s hope the opposite way of that.” I rolled my shoulders and prepared to connect to the goddess again, and the crumbling sound of stone filled the tunnel. Shit. I looked up and the damn statue had turned its head toward us.

It wasn’t just a statue. It was a gargoyle. Perfect. The massive stone griffin broke free from its perch and stepped into the tunnel. The space was too small for it to spread or use its wings, but that didn’t make it any less dangerous. The walls trembled with each heavy step. “Now would be a good time to run,” I said, turning to Frost. We took off down the hallway, and though the human was much slower than me, I didn’t leave her behind.

The stone cracked and jutted up before us as the griffin picked up speed. Its massive weight made the floor shift and break, which slowed Frost down even more. It was going to catch us at this rate. Frost pitched forward, her helmet smashed into the wall, and she crumbled to the ground, unmoving. Blood trickled out from beneath the helmet. Shit. I grabbed hold of her small waist and hefted her up with one arm, careful not to let her skin touch mine. Bracing her against my hip, I continued to run as fast as I could on the uneven surface, while carrying dead weight. When we made it far enough ahead that the ground was smooth again, I rested Frost on the ground.

I could hear the beast headed our way. I’d never outrun it, not with her. And I didn’t want to know that the stone monster was at my back. I had to stop it. I just needed something to fight it with. Knives and guns were useless against rock. I removed my backpack so I could move easier and dropped it next to Frost, who was still out cold. I walked back down the hallway toward the gargoyle, scanning for anything I could use as a weapon.

The monster was slow and oversized for the area, which bought me some time to think. There were plenty of shards of rock all around. However, even if I could lift one, what were the odds that it would do anything other than break apart against the beast? I shook my head, climbing over the uneven ground. All it would do was slow me down, and right now my only advantage was that I was faster and more agile than the griffin.

When it was within fifteen feet of me, the vibrating ground felt like I was in a major earthquake. Bracing one hand against the wall to steady myself, I waited for the moment to strike. Its yellow eyes burned as it gave a mighty roar and galloped my way. Just when I was almost in its reach, I ran directly at it, tucking in my head. I rolled between its legs and came out on my feet on the other side.

Just to make sure the gargoyle chased me instead of trampling Frost, I grabbed its stone tail with both hands and pulled with all of my strength in the other direction. It slid back a few inches as I yanked, giving my own war cry. My muscles strained, and I put my boot against its ass and gave the tail a mighty pull. It snapped off, crumbling in my hand as I fell backward onto the now gravel floor. The griffin roared.

I scrambled back to my feet, positive I had its attention now. I sprinted toward the door. If we were going to survive this, I really only had one hope. Without a rocket launcher, dynamite, or possibly a pickax, I couldn’t physically best the gargoyle. I could, however, outsmart it. The lever on the door to the anteroom was easier to find from this side. All I had to do was get the thing to come through, then make it back inside before I was locked out.

The griffin had gotten turned around and was racing toward me like I was lunch. “Come and get me, you pebble,” I shouted, standing just on the other side of the doorway.

The gargoyle picked up momentum as it stormed down the tunnel, with roar after roar. Just as it reached me, I hit the lever and dove through the small opening. It smashed against the door frame as it tried to take the corner without slowing, but it never hesitated to come through—then again, gargoyles probably didn’t think much beyond
kill
. It flew into the room, finally able to stretch out its wings, nearly decapitating me with them. It took out the front four pillars before exploding, raining down bits of rock all over the room.

There was a groan unlike anything I had ever heard. The ceiling cracked, and there was a single moment of silence before the sky began to fall. I dove back into the tunnel as the chamber collapsed on the remains of the gargoyle. The stone door rolled shut.

With my back pressed to the wall opposite the door, I coughed and choked on the dust. It looked like we were going to have to find a new way out of this maze, unless we wanted to dig our way out. I made my way back to Frost. “Hey, Elsa.” I nudged her with my boot, smiling at my own joke. “You slept through the fight. Get up.”

Frost groaned, pressed a hand to the lump on her head, and then studied the blood on her palm. “What happened?

“Your clumsy human legs betrayed you,” I said. “Oh, and that’s two that you owe me now.”

She gave me a confused look.

“You fell. Good thing you had a helmet. Could have been much worse. You should consider wearing one all the time. Maybe a pretty pink bike helmet.”

She pushed herself up to sitting and closed her eyes with a moan. “It’s not a helmet. It’s a headlamp.” She flattened her hand on the floor, steadying herself. “I need a moment. I think I’m going to be sick.”

That was fine. I had to figure out which way we were going now that the gargoyle was out of the equation. I tried to take a deep breath and relax my mind, but there was too much energy bubbling up inside of me from the fight. I’d bested the gargoyle by myself. It was as exhilarating as catching my first bounty had been. I loved to win.

Okay, focus.

I drew in a deep breath through my nose, but there was no tingling. There was nothing. In fact, I had never felt so disconnected. Damn it. I shook out my arms and stretched my neck. Cleared my mind. Nope, not a damn thing.

“I don’t have a sense of which way to go, but let’s stay the course rather than going back. Worse comes to worst, we’ll just turn around.”

Frost slowly stood up. “I feel like I was trampled by a herd of horses.”

I grabbed my backpack and we trudged ahead. I hung back, letting Frost set the pace, since she was the one with a possible concussion. Had I been able to touch her, I could have helped speed her healing, but the necromancer thing really was a pain in the ass. She still seemed a little wobbly, and the already-black-and-blue knot on her head looked painful next to the trickle of dried blood.

Walking in silence, I focused on the road ahead. Any manner of creature could be waiting around the corner. Between Frost and me, we’d be able to handle most things, so long as it wasn’t another gargoyle. There’d definitely be a Minotaur somewhere in here. If we were lucky, we’d miss it. And, of course, there was still Shezmu to contend with. I didn’t know if he was confined to one area, or if he roamed the hallways. If the latter, it wasn’t going to be easy to find him.

“If your mom is doing this, maybe that’s why the council sent you. Rather than them dealing with your mother, they could send you and it would not only distract you from trying to take them down, it would also expose your weaknesses. After all, she is family.”

My mother didn’t tend to ruffle important feathers. Really what she did was nearly hide our people from the rest of the world, to the point that a lot of the Abyss wasn’t even sure if we still existed until I rejoined the rest of civilization. But I guessed Frost’s suggestion was possible. At this point, anything was. Thinking about it was driving me insane.

“If that is the case, what’s your plan to deal with her? I mean, she is your mom, so obviously we aren’t going to kill her. Are you going to talk to her? Listen to her side of things?”

“We will do what we have to do to stop her. Whatever that may be,” I said without hesitation, and I meant it. I loved my family, but my mother had gone too far too many times. If she was here, it couldn’t be ignored. She would have to be dealt with—all the more reason to keep Frost with me. “Just because she’s related doesn’t give her a pass to kill people. Then again, even if they sent me here to distract me with my family, that wouldn’t explain why she was drawing humans to Shezmu. I just can’t see her doing that. It wouldn’t be worth the effort.”

Frost’s silence was heavy.

“Damn it, just speak.”

She sighed. “You may not have always liked her, you may not have always agreed with her, but she’s still your mother, and mothers just want what’s best for their daughters.”

My eyebrows squished together. What the hell was she talking about? She knew this from experience, did she? I managed to hold my temper, realizing I was frustrated with the situation, not with Frost in particular. It was nice she was trying to defend my mother. “And hell is still hot. We’ll worry about it when the time comes. Right now, I just want to focus so we aren’t caught off guard.”

“I’d take any mother, even a bad one, over never knowing mine.” I shot her a look and she held up her gloved hands. “Okay, okay, I’m done.”

We came to a wide spot, where another tunnel veered off to the left or we had the option to continue straight ahead. I looked from one to the other without a strong feeling. Again I tried connecting, but I still couldn’t. The goddess wasn’t there for me as she had been when I was a child, which was bad for us,
really
bad. I had no choice but to follow my instincts. “Let’s take the passage.”

Frost marked the wall before we went inside.

“I forgot to tell you, we can’t come out the way we came in.”

“Why not?”

“Remember your idea about destroying the entrance? The gargoyle did it for you.”

“Shit,” Frost said under her breath.

My thoughts exactly.

This new path once again changed. We came to the top of a staircase that descended further than I could see. “Are you still dizzy?”

Frost shrugged. “Not that bad.”

Lie. She had stayed close to the wall, putting out a hand to steady herself about once every twenty seconds or so, since we left. “Stay behind me in case you fall.”

She shook her head. “If I’m behind you and I fall, my face could touch your skin. It’s better just to let me fall.”

That was ridiculous. She could plummet to her death if she so much as missed a step, but she also had a point. I pulled my rope out of my backpack and handed her an end. “Tie it around your waist and I’ll do the same. That way if you fall, I can still catch you without touching you.”

She did it without arguing and we started down the stairs, carefully. After about fifty steps, Frost stopped short. She squatted and pressed her hand on the next step. It gave way and fell into darkness. “It was a different color than the others,” she said as she straightened back up and took a larger step to avoid the hole.

The staircase twisted and turned, spiraling its way to who knew what. Frost did a decent job spotting traps along the way. The end was finally in sight. At the base there were three doors. My instincts said to take the door on the left immediately. I stared at the old wooden door over the top of Frost’s head trying to understand why, and a terribly loud grinding noise filled the stairwell. I looked around. “What’s that—”

Frost vanished and the rope around my waist jerked me forward. I grabbed at the walls, trying to stop the forward momentum, but there was nothing to hold on to. My nails scraped futilely as I tumbled into the giant hole where three stairs had been moments earlier.

Arms flailing, I barely managed to catch the opposite ledge. Frost’s weight pulled me down like an anchor, almost making me lose my grip. “You okay?” I asked between clenched teeth, trying to pull us back up with just the strength of my arms.

“Yeah.” Her voice sounded small and far away. “I missed that one. It wasn’t discolored like the others.”

The muscles in my arms strained and protested, but I managed to heave myself up. I swung a leg over the edge. As I lay on my stomach on the cold, firm floor, my biceps trembled and twitched as I caught my breath. A couple seconds later, I braced myself and began to pull the rope holding Frost.

The grinding sound returned, once again filling the stairwell. I looked down. The damn stairs were starting to close again. Not good. Not good at all.