“I have no idea.”
My skin felt as if I’d been doused with icewater, a feeling that should have been pleasant after the unendingheat of Hell. However, there was nothing pleasant about any ofthis. I’d distinctly heard the bolt of a lock sliding into placethe minute the door we’d stepped through had closed behind us. Thelanavours were still back there, somewhere, but they would not bemaking it in here, and I knew instinctively we would not be exitingthat door.
Finally giving into the urge, I lookedbehind me to confirm there was nothing but a solid wall of rockwith a single door in the middle of it. Hawk grabbed the handle andjerked on it. The door didn’t budge. Releasing the handle, he gaveme a look that clearly stated he believed we were screwed. I wasafraid he might be right.
From in front of me, something clicked andthe tinkling sound of high-pitched music filled the air. Every hairon my body stood on end. I was so electrified with panic that thehair on my head would have been standing up too, if it hadn’t beenso dampened down with sweat.
“Shit,” Hawk breathed.
My head swiveled back to the carousel in themiddle of the boulder-lined room. The intricately carved creatureson the carousel had begun to rise and fall as it started to spinbefore us. Some of those creatures looked more like horses thanothers, but even the horse looking ones had two heads or two tails.Others had six legs, some of them only had two, and more than a fewof the “horses” had snouts instead of muzzles or fangs and clawsinstead of hooves.
I’d never imagined anything like thesecreatures before, yet the carousel looked like any other I’d seenover the years with its intricate designs etched into the wood atthe top and bottom of it and golden poles holding the creatures inplace. The colorful, twinkling lights in the ceiling reflected inthe glass floor in a nearly blinding display that caused me to rubat my eyes.
I’d been on a carousel once, when I wasfive. My babysitter had taken me to the mall to meet with some ofher friends. She’d put me on one of the wooden horses and stoodnearby to talk with them while she watched me. I’d laughed as I’dgone in circles, rising up and down on the horses while I wentrepeatedly around on it.
She’d continued to give the man running theride money to let me stay on, because I hadn’t wanted to get off.By the time I was done, she’d spent more money on me than she’dmade babysitting me for the day. When I’d gone home raving abouthow much fun I’d had and chattering about the pretty horses, mymother fired the girl. I’d cried myself to sleep for a week after,and I never again told my mother about something I enjoyed.
The carousel of my childhood had beenmagical. This one was anything but.
“Where do we go?” Hawk asked, his eyesriveted on the spectacle before us.
“As far from this thing as we can,” Imuttered and edged toward the side.
It was only when I saw more walls beyond thecarousel and no door other than the locked one we’d come throughthat I realized there was no other way out of this room. My handsran over the thick, unrelenting black rocks as I circled around thespinning carousel while eerie, tinkling music continued toplay.
I tried to ignore the carousel as I searchedfor some chink in the walls, some weakness that would get us awayfrom the creepy music and endlessly rising and falling creatures,but it was impossible to shut it out completely. My hands scrabbledat the rock while I struggled to remain calm and not startscreaming my head off.
This was Hell, anything could happen,anything. There could be a freaking carousel in the middle ofnowhere even. Those things on the carousel could come to life atany moment.
Deep breaths. Deep breaths.
“I hate this place,” Hawk said.
“So do I,” I murmured.
Having made a complete circle of the room, Istopped in front of the door again. I rested one hand against thedoor and the other on the cool black rocks. Hawk stood beside me asI pulled life from the rocks and focused it into my palm againstthe door. Sparks danced over the smooth rock door, illuminating itsgray surface, but they did nothing to warm or bend it in anyway.Nothing to get the thick metal bolt to slide free of its lock.
“I can’t get it to move,” I whispered anddropped my forehead against the door.
Hawk took hold of my arm, drawing myattention to him. “Look.” I followed where he was pointing to thecarousel. “Wait ‘til it comes around again.”
I watched the flashing lights as thecarousel spun around again. My breath caught and I bit my lower lipas a door came into view in the center of the carousel. “I have afeeling that’s our way out of here,” Hawk said.
“And into where?” I inquired as the doorturned out of sight.
“That’s the million-dollar question.”
I glanced around the rocky room again. Wecould stay here and wait for Kobal to come for me, as I knew hewould, or we could take our chances with that doorway. The room wasunnerving, but it wasn’t hostile.
Yet.
Already I detected a change in the music asit became increasingly louder and screechy. Were the creaturesrising and falling faster or was I imagining it?
Then, one of the creature’s heads turnedtoward us. I couldn’t stop myself from jumping and sucking in abreath as my heel connected with the door. I hadnotimagined that.
“Bullshit,” Hawk grated from beside me.“This is bullshit.”
“I don’t think we’re going to be allowed tostand here for much longer, and I don’t want to find out what’sgoing to happen if those things somehow manage to pull themselvesfree from there and come at us.”
