Her eyes focus on me. “Nothing sounds really, really good.”
“Yeah?”
She nods, eyes twinkling as she looks at my bag. “Do you have a lantern in there?”
“I have a few candles?”
“Then I knowjustthe place.”
* * *
The tall building wedged almost flush against the wall leaves only a frail pathway—so tight there’s no room for us to walk side by side. Having left her shoes at the lair in her rush to leave, Gael’s feet are bare like mine, the hem of her cloak so filthy and wet it looks more black than blue.
The path leads to a curved, cobbled bridge that arches over a deep drainway cradling a stream of gently moving water that spears through the city’s guts and burrows beneath the wall. A bridge I expect Gael to lead me over, leaving me stunned when, instead, she sits on the edge of the drainway and leaps off, landing knee-deep in a splash of water.
She turns, flashing me a big smile. “Coming?”
I slip my bag off my shoulder and toss it to her before crouching on the edge, heart racing as I leap.
My feet skate across the slick of algae, whipping out from under me, and I squeal, falling on my ass with a sloppy splash to the tune of Gael’s laughter.
Brow raised, water dripping off my face, I look up at her laughing so hard she’s folded forward, hands stamped on her knees for support.
“Am I sitting in pee?”
“Best not think about it,” she giggles, wiping the tears from her cheeks before reaching her hand down to help me up. “Sorry, I should’ve warned you.”
“It’s fine,” I say, glad to see her happy again, even if it is at my expense.
I brush off some green muck while she digs through my knapsack and pulls out two candles—handing one to me.
“We don’t reallyneedthese, but I’m not a huge fan of the dark. Do you have matchsticks in here?”
I take the bag off her and fish around, emptying one into my hand from a small jar, then striking its head on the stone and lighting both candles. She waggles her brows and leads me beneath the bridge, toward the mouth of the drain that flows under the wall, a collection of blazing lanterns hanging at its entrance.
“We’re going throughthere?” I ask, slime surging between my toes as I trace her steps, remembering Rhordyn’s pinched warning.
Don’t climb the wall that borders the city. It’s dangerous.
To be fair, he said nothing about not goingunderit …
“Sure are. We’re going somewhere I used to go when I was young and needed space.” The words echo as we move past the entrance, stooped over, feet sludging through the thickening muck.
The air is dense and stagnant, the curved stone edges pressing in on us from all angles as we creep through the drain, our blazing candles highlighting a myriad of cobwebs woven across the top. Something slithers against my foot, and I shiver, tamping the urge to scream, certain that things are crawling across my arms and head.
The hairs on the back of my neck lift.
Looking over my shoulder, I see nothing but the drain’s hollow throat that lengthens with every sludgy step we take.
The air begins to thin until I no longer feel like I’m packing my lungs full of mold spores.
Gael slows to a stop, blowing out her candle. “Shit,” she mutters, and I peer past her to the metal grate that blocks the exit. To thepadlockhanging off it, glazed in firelight from the various lanterns bolted to the curved wall.
“Shit,” I parrot, and Gael sighs, jiggles the lock, tugs it. She even gives it a little kick.
“This is stupid. It wasn’t locked the last time I came here …”
“Let me have a go.”
